Forever Love (8 page)

An unfamiliar feeling comes over me as I watch her with her hand on his muscled arm. I've only ever had this feeling once before, in the coffeeshop with that slutty waitress. I don’t like it, makes me feel all insecure which is a foreign feeling to me since I don’t usually give two shits. I'm about ready to rip her arm out the socket when Noah extracts himself from her grasp, stepping away from her.

"I never said I'd call you Brandy."

She pouts, which I'm sure she thinks looks sexy when in reality she looks like a fish. She looks over at me, squinting her eyes.

"This the whore that was at your house the other day?"

My blood boils.

"Oh hell no. You did not just call me a whore."

"Liv calm down. Brandy you're out of fucking line."

"Fuck your little whore, Noah. You'll soon come running."

Noah barks out a laugh, his face looking furious.

"Are you kidding me? You sucked my dick once in the parking lot and then begged to do it again for weeks before I was willing to chuck you a bone the other day. Don’t ever fucking call her a whore again, nobody likes a bitter bitch Brandy."

I have to bite my cheek to hold in my laughter at how affronted she looks. Though him just announcing their full history saves me having to pluck up the courage to ask later. She flounces off. Must be because it’s a small town cause in Atlanta she wouldn’t stand a chance with an attitude like that. I'd be lying if I said the way Noah just stuck up for me didn’t make me feel all warm inside. He shoots me one of those megawatt smiles that just about leaves me a puddle on the floor.

I tell you one thing, if I was into the whole boyfriend girlfriend thing, I don’t think there would be anyone more perfect than Noah.

Chapter 8

Noah

It's five days since we went back to School, ten days since I met Liv. I thought the fuckery she's doing to my head would have passed but its just getting fucking worse. I've driven her to School and back every day cause I like her next to me too damn much. She kicked up a stink about it at first and I was considering letting her tires down, cause that’s how much she's making me lose it, so that she wouldn’t have a choice. I have to bite my tongue every time she comes down the stairs in her itty bitty skirts that show off her legs and tight ass. I really have to resist the urge to throw her over my shoulder caveman style and carry her upstairs to change. I've had to shoot more than a few warning glances at jerks who try to check her out, they all think I'm just being overprotective because she's my Step Dads daughter. I can just imagine what the masses would be saying if they knew the reason was that even just the thought of someone else looking at what's mine has me itching to put holes in walls.

Liv's still playing hard to get but I think I'm wearing her down. Everything she does just makes me like her even more and it's scaring the fuck outta me. The other day at dinner my mom was telling Liv about her wedding to Phil, I swear I almost choked on my chicken when a picture of me and Liv getting married popped into my head. I mean what the fuck's going on with that shit?

We haven't kissed since the night of the party and it's hard as hell but I realize I've gotta take it slow with her. After our conversation in her bedroom that night I couldn’t get it out my mind what she said about fucking other guys. It near enough kills me to think of her with anyone else, she won't be with anyone else for the rest of her damn life if I have my way. It's weird because I've never even considered getting in a relationship with a girl but as soon as her lips touched mine, I knew she was it. I probably should be running in the opposite direction, what with the shit I'm feeling.

It's Saturday morning and I've never been more grateful for the weekend to come. Every night this week Chase has had friends come over for dinner. I have a theory that they're only here to see Liv since we've never had this shit before.

After my shower, I throw on a pair of jeans and a black Henley, since Liv said she liked it when I wore it earlier on in the week. I know I sound like a sap but ask if I give a fuck. I knock on her bedroom door, knowing she's not up yet but I can't resist. What can I say, the girl looks hot as fuck when she's just woke up, with her hair all mussed up and shit.

"Liv wakey wakey."

I know shes gonna go ape shit when she sees it's only half seven in the morning but I want us out of the house in the next hour so we have a full day to do the stuff I have planned. I haven't brought up the whole girlfriend boyfriend shit she's so freaked out about, though she was right when she said that’s what I want. I didn’t realize until she said it but I want everything with her. No other girl compares, she's the color in a gray world, to me anyway.

The door swings open and she stands there with her hands on her hips looking amazing. There's not many chicks who can wake up looking as gorgeous as her.

"Is there a fire?" Her voice is calm but there's a little bite to it that’s betraying how pissed she is.

"No but we have a full day of stuff to do, so you gotta get up and dressed."

She raises her eyebrow at me, I've come to call it the bitch brow since she only really does it when shes about to bitch, usually at me.

"You know when two people have plans it's usually standard procedure for them both to know. Not banging down the door at the crack of dawn giving orders out."

"I'm letting you know now so get dressed and meet me down stairs in-." I look at my watch. "Twenty minutes." I go to turn away but figure I'll get one last comment in first. "Unless you want some help getting ready." I shoot her a wink which has her rolling her eyes and slamming the door in my face.

I briefly wonder as I go downstairs if my feelings can be trusted, if I'm making the right decision in pursuing her. I don’t think I could stop if I tried but I know that shit's gonna get real soon. There are gonna be obstacles round every corner. I look to the ceiling.

"Dad if your up there, give me a sign that this is the girl for me, that I'm not just fucking things up."

I don’t expect an answer but I still feel the disappointment when there's only silence.

***

She's doing it on purpose, she's gotta be. I mean, the girl is a frickin goddess. She toddles in the kitchen is some short ass shorts that are practically underwear. Listen, I'm a full blooded male, that shit affects me, I just don’t want it affecting anybody else. She's got some T-shirt on that hangs off her one shoulder, Christ even that gets the blood pumping to my dick.

"I'm ready, now why the hell did you get me up at the ass crack of dawn for?"

"It’s a surprise."

"I don’t like surprises."

"You don’t like surprises? Everyone loves surprises."

"Nuh uh not me." She furiously shakes her head from side to side and crosses her arms.

"Well that’s just too damn bad, isnt it?"

She scowls at me. I don’t know if she thinks that shits meant to be scary but the only affect it has is making me horny as hell.

I grab her by the hand, feeling that familiar jolt of electricity that send those bastard butterflies doing flip-de-flips in my stomach. I pull her along to my car and open the door for her. My Dad didn’t get the chance to teach me much about girls but the one thing he did instill in me, always act like a gentleman. I think Liv likes it anyway, judging by the smile she has on her face everytime I do it.

"So what's the point of this?" She says gesturing around her.

"Getting to know each other."

"Ok." She stretches out the word before giving me a suspicious look and sighing. "What do you wanna know?" She sounds completely resigned and I don’t know what the hell for. What the hell does she think I'm gonna ask her? I'm definitely gonna have to think about her reaction later.

"Everything of course but let's start with your favorite color."

She looks back to me, a beautiful smile breaking out across her gorgeous face. Takes my breath away how stunning she is.

"Red."

"See that wasn’t so hard, was it? Mines green."

"Like your eyes." Her voice sounds dreamy.

"Awww you been staring into my eyes Liv?" I shoot her a playful smirk that gets a giggle out of her.

"Ok, ok my turn. What's your favorite movie?"

"Ferris Bueller's Day Off of course."

"Really. I'm surprised, I was sure it would be a Stallone movie." She laughs.

I groan which just makes her laugh even more.

"Listen, don’t tell my Mom but I totally hate that guys movies." She continues to laugh, man her laugh is contagious and I'm soon chuckling along with her. I pull myself together. "You know once, I rented the second Beverly Hills Cop movie and as soon as I told her she demanded I never bring it into her house again. Apparently it had some actress in it that used to be married to him." I feign a sigh "To this day, I've never had chance to watch the second Beverly Hill Cop movie."

"Oh poor you, how did you cope?" Liv clutches her heart and then proceeds to imitate playing the violin. Smartass.

"What's your favorite movie?"

"I don’t know. I guess if I had to pick one, it'd have to be Full Metal Jacket."

Shit, well I didn’t expect that. The shock must show on my face.

"You surprised?" Liv asks with a smug smile on her face.

"Fuck yes. I was expecting some chick flick like the netbook or whatever the fuck that movie's called that chicks seem to dig so much."

"Well, I'm not a normal chick."

"Oh there's no denying that."

The tension shifts in the car as Liv looks through the window, frowning as she recognizes where we are. I pull up to the tatty old gate at the end of the old dirt road and pull the car to a stop. I can't wait to show Liv how different this field looks in the daylight. I know she couldn’t see the white Phlox flowers everywhere the other night. I wanna share everything about this place with Liv, it's my favorite place in the world and in the last ten days she's become my favorite person. As I go to get out, I turn back to her.

"By the way, what's your favorite flower?" I wonder.

She smiles a warm smile.

"Phlox, I know it’s a weird flower to like but I love the smell of them."

Well shit. If that’s not a sign I don’t know what is. I know I'm smiling from ear to ear. I look up at the sky when I get out the car.

"Thanks Dad." I whisper.

Chapter 9

Liv

Its breathtakingly beautiful. The fact that I only just told Noah that these are my favorite flowers, well that just blows my mind. I take a deep breath in, inhaling the the sweet honey like smell. I have no idea how I didn’t smell this the other night when we were here. The small white flowers are everywhere, making a blanket of white against green. I'm sure my smile is a mile wide.

"This is amazing. I can't believe it. How?" I can barely get my words out with how in awe I am.

"Coincidence." He's got that same twinkle in his eye he's had since we got out the car.

"I'm not a believer in coincidences."

"Fate then."

I smile and take in the stunning view in front of me. The man of my dreams, in what I can only describe as a place from my dreams. I take a mental picture of this moment for when its all fucked up. Nothing can be this perfect and if anything, the unbelievable happiness I feel soaring through me is accompanied by fear. Fear that this is something I want to keep with me. So much for making life as simple as possible.

"I don’t understand how I didn’t know this was here the other night."

"It was pretty dark and your eyes were pretty much glued to the sky." He shrugs and claps his hands together. "Now wait here while I go back to the car to get something."

He starts walking back the way we came from.

"You're not gonna leave me here are you? Cause I'm pretty sure I don’t know the way back home." The guy seriously doesn’t think I can get anywhere alone.

He turns back to me and shoots a wide grin my way which makes my tummy somersault.

"I'd never leave you, Liv. Ever."

My heart misses a beat and I can't help thinking his statement is referring to more than him leaving me in this field.

He turns to walk away, he really does have a fine ass on him. I laugh to myself at how quick my thought change.

No more than five minutes later, Noah comes strolling towards me, a picnic basket in one hand and gray and red checked blanket in the other. His green eyes are shining with satisfaction. I'm sure the doofus is quite proud that he managed to keep this part under wraps. He's definitely more than just a pretty face.

He lies the blanket on the ground and sits on it, stretching and crossing his legs. Nobody can be this hot and it's not until he grabs my hand to pull me down to the ground that I realize I've been shamelessly staring at him. I can feel the blush creep up my cheeks. Christ, I didn’t even know I still had it in me to blush about shit. Well they say you should learn something new about yourself everyday, seems that I'm not as unaffected by shit as I originally thought.

I pop open the lid to the picnic basket, peering in as my stomach grumbles in complaint that it still hasn’t had any breakfast. Inside the basket is bottled water and a bunch of containers containing different foods. I pull the top one out that contains strawberries. Yummy.

"Here, let me." Noah says taking the container and pulling the lid of.

He takes a strawberry and holds it toward my mouth, his eyes never leaving mine. I take a bite and his pupils dilate at my action. I feel a surge of pride go through me that I can affect this hunk so much. The juice from the strawberry dribbles down my chin as I duck my head and wipe it on my arm, giggling like some over-excitable schoolgirl. Shit, when did I turn into one of those dimwitted twits I despise so much. Here I am, letting a guy who can have any girl he wants charm me. Nuh uh, get it together, Liv.

I've completely lost a handle of this situation and I don’t like it, not one fucking bit. I'm not sure when Noah was able to get the upper hand but I need to nip this in the bud asap. I do what I do best, play to the best of my abilities. I stick what I'm sure and I damn well hope is a sultry expression on my face as I take a strawberry and bring it to Noah's lush lips, licking my own as I do so. Just as I expect, his eyes stare at my lips as I nudge his mouth open with the fruit. He sucks it into his mouth before taking a chunk out of it with his teeth. Ok, that shit was a bad idea, now I'm even more of a mess.

I take a deep breath and turn away, not willing to meet his eyes. I'm already pretty much a wet mess on the floor, I need to pull myself together. No matter how I feel, I can't be getting into this stuff.

Noah puts his finger under my chin, bringing my face back round to meet his gaze.

"Don’t hide, not from me." His voice is a sexy low rumble.

I clear my throat.

"Okay more questions." I'm pretty sure that came out in one word. I give Noah a weak smile that he can probably see right through. Let's just say, I don’t have a future on Broadway with my acting skills. "What college are you planning on going to?"

Ah that’s much better. That should keep any kinky thoughts away for the time being. Noah visibly tenses though, as he rubs the back of his neck.

"I'm not planning on going to college."

"What are you gonna do then? Football?"

"I'm gonna be a cop." The smile that lights up his face reminds me of a child's when they think Santa's coming. This is obviously his dream.

"Wow." I give him an encouraging smile. "Wait, I've heard your Mom talk about you going to college. And Dickw-, I mean Brady."

He holds a blade of grass between his forefinger and thumb, pulling it apart.

"They kinda don’t know. You're actually the first person I've told."

Does it make me a complete loser if that sends my heart soaring? The answer would be yes.

"Why haven't you told anybody? Are you afraid your Mom's not gonna be happy? Cause I think it's great that you wanna join the police."

"Not at all. My Mom'll be psyched that I'm not leaving to go to college. She thinks I don’t know that she's all nervous about it. Brady, hes so damn excited though, thinking we're going out into the world as brothers. We've been planning this since we were kids, going to college and partying up a storm. I just don’t see the point in wasting four years to get some degree that I'm never gonna use when I can straight off do what I want when I'm done with High School."

I clutch onto Noah's hand, hoping it gives him a little support. I regret bringing it up since it's got him all down but I'm happy he confided in me. He squeezes my hand as its encased in his much larger one and we sit there silently like this for a while. He pushes a lock of hair behind my ear, cupping my face afterwards.

"Why does this feel like a date?" I whisper, though not feeling any panic.

I'm slowly starting to realize that I've been completely hoodwinked. The picnic should have been a clue with those fucking strawberries, not to mention the getting to know eachother shit. I'm not as bothered by it as I should be though, if anything I feel touched that he's gone to all this trouble. Even if he felt the need to do it in the fucking early hours of the morning.

"That’s because it is." Noah's boyish grin near enough makes me melt on the spot.

"So you said we have a full day of plans." I state, hoping whatever else he has planned is in public to quell my raging hormones.

"Shit I almost forgot. I'm in the habit of doing that when your around." Well someone's smooth. He starts packing the containers away and stands up, grabbing my hand and pulling me up with him. After picking up the picnic blanket and shaking it out, he resumes holding my hand and we make our way back to the car. I don’t know what the fuck is going on. I'm soon being bundled into the car while Mr Crazy even tries to belt me in. That’s where I draw the fucking line and I'm soon snatching that shit out of his hand and glaring at him. It only seems to get a chuckle and head shake out of him though. Fucking men, give them an inch and they try to take a mile.

He plants his ass in the drivers seat, shooting me a smirk and a wink that turns my insides to goo. I'm mentally scolding myself for being such a damn prissy bitch. If I wouldn’t look like a total nutcase id slap some sense into myself.

"You know, I still don’t have a clue where we're actually going now."

Ass has the nerve to tap his nose and grin, earning an eye roll from me.

"Aaaah Liv, I don’t think I've ever met someone who rolls their eyes as much as you." He says, obviously tongue in cheek.

"If I didn’t live in a world with so many fuckwits who do fuckwitted crap, I wouldn’t feel the need to roll my eyes so much." I smile sweetly at him.

We cruise right past the 'Your now leaving Franklin' sign and my confusion continues to grow. Noah turns on the radio and Taylor Swift blares through the speakers, earning another eye roll from me.

"What? Don’t like a little Tay-Swizzle?" The jerk wiggles his eyebrows up and down as she sings about knowing some jerkass was trouble or something.

"Nope." I say making a popping sound,

Noahs grin grows as the jerkass starts to sing along. I put my head in my hands, where the hell did this guy come from? I've always been under the impression that guys listen the crap like Rap or that stuff that isn't even music, just vibrations of the speakers.

"Turn that shit off or I swear I'm getting out this car, moving or not. I've already listened to that song too much for one lifetime."

He laughs like a doofus until I'm jabbing my finger on all the buttons on the thing until I'm blessed with silence. Remind me to never go on any long road trips with this guy, he just might end up buried in the desert. I look out the window as I notice we're now on the highway. A pink VW campervan drives alongside us with a sign in the window saying 'Honk if your horny'. Noah laughs and points to it.

"You honk that horn, I'll castrate your ass." I say, raising my eyebrows. That earns me a wink and before I know it hes beeping the damn horn. I'm about ready to slap him up his head before the signs removed and some pot bellied forty year old guy with a red Colonel Sanders mustache winks and lifts his Black Sabbath T shirt, showing off his hairy beer belly.

I laugh my ass off as Noah pales.

"Holy shit, I need to bleach my eyes out."

I hold my sides as he shakes his head as if trying to erase the image from his mind. Well if that’s not shit backfiring, I don’t know what is.

***

We drive past a black and gold sign that says 'The city of Savannah welcomes you' and I can just imagine the muddled look on my face. What the hell are we doing here?

"Noah-"

"Uh uh don’t say a word. All will be revealed soon."

I consider sassing him but decide against it. He navigates the car through the streets as I take in his unbelievable handsomeness. His face is perfectly sculpted, he really is a fine looking man. I realize that I feel completely care free, not a worry in the world. Noah seems to bring that out in me, complete happiness. Its hard to believe I only arrived in Franklin ten days ago. Yeah sure its still a shitty little town without a Starbucks but it definitely feels lighter there. None of the negativity that seemed to cling to me in Atlanta. My relationship with my Dad has vastly improved in just ten days, an easy back and forth has ensued, what with how much of a doofus he can be. Pams a sweetheart even if she makes me a little uneasy sometimes, only due to the fact I'm not used to living with a woman that’s not a crazy bitch. Chase, the little knucklehead, isn't any trouble, though the same can't be said for his annoying ass friends. I'm not even gonna mention Sylvester, Dr Evil's cat. And then there's Noah, ruggedly handsome, ridiculously protective, dreamy Noah. This guy just has me spinning in circles and I'm not even sure if I want it to stop anymore.

I'm much too busy checking out hot stuff next to me, that I don’t even notice that we've come to a stop. I take a quick glance out the window, I don’t know what I was expecting to see but I barely hold in an excitable scream. I look at the green and white goddess logo and just know that I'm grinning from ear to ear. Now some people probably think getting excited over a coffee shops silly but I say that those people are fucktards. You see, I've always lived a couple of blocks away from Starbucks and anyone that says that shit isnt addictive, they don’t have a clue what they're talking about. I've pretty much been living off Soda and that swill Pam claims is coffee for nearly two weeks now and I'm sure the sweats and shakes are gonna be coming soon. Before I even have the chance to work out my own thought process, I'm throwing my arms around Noah's neck. I don’t know what on earth I was thinking doing that, the guy is just a solid chunk of muscle, all hard ridges and manliness. I'm not just a little emotional because I'm finally gonna get my fix, I know I've mumbled and grumbled about the whole coffee situation all week and Noah actually listened to me, he's driven nearly an hour out of town on a Saturday to get me something that I want and need. I don’t think anyone's ever gone to that sort of effort for me before, sad but true.

"Thank you." I give Noah a wide smile before jumping out the car, not even waiting for him to be gentlemanly this time. The first thing I do when entering the building is take a big breath in, inhaling the scent of coffee. I walk over to the large wicker baskets near the counter that are nearly as big as me and start piling boxes of the branded instant coffee and a few packets of coffee beans in  my arms. I'm gonna have to get more online, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. Noah walks in, takes one look at my overpacked arms, shakes his head and goes over to the basket and grabs a few more things. That’s my boy!