This Beautiful Thing (Young Love Series)

by Amanda Heath

  He gives me a shy smile and takes my hand leading me to the other side of the truck where he opens the passenger side door for me. After he helps me in and he shuts the door and walks around the truck. I take the time alone to concentrate on my breathing. God I hope I don’t have an attack in front of him that would be so embarrassing!

  “Are you ready to go?” He asks me with one golden eyebrow raised.

  Shit. I totally spaced out on him. I didn’t even realize that he was in the truck yet. “Umm yeah let’s go.” I smile through my cheeks turning red. “Where are we going?”

  “I was thinking that we could go out to the lake and have a picnic in the back of the truck. I’m pretty sure there won’t be a lot of people out there so there’s less of a chance of us being spotted.” He tells me sheepishly.

  I nod “Yeah that sounds great.” And it really does. I love being outside and the weather isn’t too cold yet. The sky is clear and all the stars and moon are out.

  “Okay good. I was worried you wouldn’t want to be outside or something. I personally love to be outside. When I was a little kid my nanny couldn’t get me to stay inside.” He says conversationally.

  I smile picturing him running from a little old lady. “That is cute. Your poor grandmother.”

  He frowns and looks confused. “My grandmother? Oh you thought I meant my grandmother. No my nanny, as in someone who is paid to take care of me. My parents weren’t around a lot so she raised my brother and me.”

  “Your parents left you alone for long enough that a nanny had to raise you? That sounds awful. I couldn’t imagine my parents leaving any of us for that long. They wouldn’t even let me go to Sarah Lawrence because it was too far away from them.”

  “Dang your whole family is over protective aren’t they? I almost wish mine were. I haven’t even talked to my mom in like six years.”

  “Why?”

  “She ran off with her personal trainer when I was thirteen. Haven’t talked to her since. I didn’t know her all that well so it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

  “Wow. I haven’t talked to my mom in eight years.” He looks at me instead of the road.

  “How is that possible? I have met your mom, she like lives in your house.”

  “No that is Sarah. She gave birth to my brothers and sisters. Mine died when I was ten. She had cancer.”

  “Are you adopted?”

  “Umm no. It’s really complicated and I don’t like to talk about it much.”

  “You can tell me anything you want Teagan, I won’t judge you or your family for it.”

  “Okay then. You asked for it. My dad had an affair with my mom nineteen years ago and I was the result. When she died I had to go live with my dad and his other family. Jaden and everybody didn’t even know I existed.”

  “I honestly was not expecting you to say that. Damn that is crazy.”

  “Yeah and I’m only two weeks younger than Jaden and Caden. My dad and Sarah are good people, I mean they didn’t have to do any of that for me but they did and I never wanted for anything. Sarah is a little hard on me but I think that’s just because she doesn’t know what to do with me.”

  “Yeah well I guess you got to look at it from her point of view, you know? She had to take in this little girl who was the product of an affair her husband had. She wasn’t planning on you. At least she is good enough person to care about you. My dad didn’t even come to my graduation. I woke up one day to this truck outside with a bow. He had it delivered.”

  “That sucks. I’m really sorry they aren’t there for you. At least you have your brother. That’s really sweet that you stayed here to be with him.”

  “How did you know that? Oh wait Jaden, what a gossip.” He smiles at me and grabs my hand. I feel tingles all down my fingers as he laces his with mine. “You weren’t supposed to know that, you were supposed to think I’m a cool brooding misunderstood bad boy.”

  I let a gut busting laugh to that. “You are not were close to a bad boy. Have you met Caden? He is the definition of the word.”

  “Really? And no I haven’t ever met him. I only met your mom because she brought Jaden over to my house when we were younger. He does talk about y’all a lot, you especially.”

  “That’s not embarrassing or anything. I cringe to what he could have said about me.” I give him a lop sided smile. “Anyway Caden has several tattoos and piercings. He also goes through girls like no body’s business.”

  “Don’t you have a tattoo?”

  “Yeah I have four. You only saw one, I also have two on my back and one on my foot.”

  “You don’t know how hot that is. What are they?”

  “I would rather show you. They are kind of hard to explain. ” I slap my hand over my mouth. I have to learn to control what I say around him. “I didn’t mean it like it sounded. “

  “It’s okay Teagan.” He chuckles and brings my hand up to place a kiss on my knuckles. “You can show me and I want take it as a pass. Unless you want it to be.” He grins wide and I see dimples on each side of his mouth. I don’t know how I didn’t see them before. I like the playful look it brings to his face.

  I smile shyly because I really have no idea what to say to that.

  Declan

  Once we make it up to my favorite spot I turn off the truck and get out. I put some blankets in the back seat for us to sit on in the bed of the truck. I love it up here. It’s so peaceful and quiet, unlike the city. You can see every single star out tonight. I don’t know when I got so cheesy. I guess she brings out the romantic side of me. A side I have never met but I’m pretty sure I like it.

  I run around to her side of the truck to help her out. “Your picnic awaits my lady.”

  She giggles at me taking my hand. “Why thank you kind sir.” I get a wink as she skips along ahead of me. And all right I totally checked out her butt. Just like her it is perfect.

  We climb into the bed and sit on the grey fuzzy blanket Marcus dragged out of some closet in our house. “I brought turkey subs, chips, some fruit, and cookies for dessert.”

  “What kind of cookies?” she asks peering into the wicker basket Marcus also pulled out of some hole in our house I had no idea about.

  “Peanut butter. They are my favorite.” I say pulling out our food and placing it in front of us.

  “They are my favorite too!” she gets excited and steals one out of my hand. She sits back down in front of me Indian style. “Sarah bakes these all the time. I don’t know why because I am the only one who likes them.” She shrugs munching on her cookie.

  “Marcus made them. He loves to cook. He actually made the whole meal. He wants to go to culinary school and open his own restaurant one day.” I reveal, unwrapping a turkey sub.

  “That’s really cool. I hope he gets to do that.” She pauses taking another bite. After she has chewed and swallowed she speaks again. “I really want to be a counselor for younger kids. I want to help out in the community the way that my step-mom does.”

  “That’s awesome. What does she do?” I inquire.

  “She runs a lot of charities and such. She has raised a lot of money for under privileged children around the state. She even runs a summer camp for them. They get to go there and learn how to swim and ride horses. Things like that.”

  “Wow. That is really great of her to do. I have wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember. Marcus says it’s because I like to debate.” She laughs at this and I go on. “I just want to help out people who have been wronged and need someone to get them justice.”

  “I don’t know about the debating thing. You seem to agree with whatever I say.” She smiles coyly at me.

  “You haven’t said anything or done anything I disagree with.” I smile back taking a bite out of my sandwich.

  “Good man.” She states as she winks.

  We eat everything and talk for hours. I think we covered every topic known to man. And I still feel like I could talk for hours more. We have so much in common it�
��s not even funny. We like the same music. We both love to read, but I don’t much care for the romances she is into. I like a good mystery. I also like that her family is just as crazy as mine. She doesn’t judge me the way that some people have.

  I got her to lay down with me to watch the stars. She is cuddled to my side and I have been unknowingly running my hands through her hair. It has to be so late and we need to get going, but I don’t want the night to end. “We need to get going Teagan.”

  No response. So I look down at her and she is fast asleep. I chuckle at her and think I must be the most boring person ever because this is the second time she has fallen asleep on me. I don’t want to wake her so I lay there a while longer stroking her hair and before I know it I’m asleep as well.

  Chapter 8

  Teagan

  My alarm is blaring its annoying self but I don’t want to get up. I feel so warm and safe. Weird my bed feels a lot harder then I remember. That’s when I sit up. We fell asleep out at the lake in the bed of his truck. God I’m so lucky that I have my phone programmed to go off during the week.

  I turn to look at Declan. I don’t think I will be able to wake him. He just looks so peaceful. His shirt is all rumpled and his arms look empty like they are missing me in them. I lie down on my stomach next to him and trail my finger down his perfect face. “Declan.” I whisper into his ear.

  He turns over where he faces me and without opening his eyes he requests “Can we go back to sleep?”

  I giggle like a little school girl. “No we can’t go back to sleep. I have class in an hour.”

  He exhales and opens his eyes. They are looking at me so intensely I feel my whole body heat. Yeah it’s that kind of look. “Why don’t we skip class today and hang out?”

  I shake my head no. “I can’t miss class this morning. Caden is in it and he would freak.”

  “Fine.” He says grumpily and sits up rubbing his eyes. “Let’s go then.”

  *****

  When we arrive at my building I sigh because I don’t want to leave him. He held my hand the whole way and I don’t want to let go. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I never thought I would be the kind of girl to be so clingy.

  “I’ll see you later right?” he says hopeful.

  “I would love that but I have a ton of homework I didn’t get to work on this weekend.” And I really do. He took up my every thought and now I’m behind.

  “Okay well then will you at least text me?” he flutters his eyelashes in a flirty way.

  “Yeah I will do that, promise.” He grins and I can’t help but to return it.

  “God you are so beautiful when you do that.” I guess it was the way he said it but I just couldn’t help myself. I let go of his hand and rose up leaning over the console. Cupping my hands on his cheek I lean in and place my lips gently against his. It is innocent at first but then as always I find his tongue in my mouth and things get out of control. My arms go around his neck and it’s like I’m trying to crawl into him, we are that close. He eventually pulls back and places little gentle kisses on my lips.

  I let my arms slip loose and look into his chocolate eyes. “Why is it always so intense when we kiss?”

  He full out laughs at me and I feel my cheeks grow warm. “It’s called attraction Teagan. It’s perfectly natural.”

  I smack him gentle on the arm and lean over to kiss his cheek. “Smartass.” I give him a flirty wink and climb out of the truck to head up to my room to get ready for the day.

  *****

  The second I make into my room I have a squealing Grace hurdling into me. “Oh my god you have to tell me everything!”

  “Whoa there chick.” I giggle at her and try to pry her off of me.

  “Please tell me you got it on?” she looks at me hopefully.

  “No Grace! We just fell asleep talking. We actually didn’t even kiss till we got to the parking lot.” I move away from her to gather my clothes for the day.

  “What? That’s a shame, because I totally want every little detail of that experience!” She twirls around like a little girl and I can’t help but laugh at her.

  That’s when I realize that something seems weird to me. It’s the way she acted last night when I asked her to go out with us Friday. “Grace what is the name of the football player you have a crush on?”

  Her face pales. I knew it. “Umm…” she looks down at the floor before she mumbles. “Your brother.”

  “This is so great! You can totally keep him preoccupied while I date Declan and maybe one day when we are already married and have kids I can tell Jaden.”

  “So you’re not mad at me?” she probes.

  “No Grace I’m not. I personally don’t care what he does and if you like him I’m all for it.” Plus it will be a great example if he finds out about me and Declan.

  “Okay good! Well I’m going to get out of here I want some coffee before class.”

  “Yeah I’ll see you later.”

  Declan

  The second I walk into the house Marcus is running down the stairs. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “I’m sorry I should have called. We fell asleep talking.” I hope he doesn’t get all worked up. Marcus has abandonment issues. Hint the reason I didn’t go off to school.

  “Okay. Good I was worried Jaden had found you and done away with your body.”

  I ruffle his hair before I head up the stairs to get ready for class. “No buddy I’m still alive. Don’t worry I’ll be here for a long time to annoy you.”

  He smacks my hand away. “Oh its ok if he does away with you because you will be dead and he will go to jail and I can have Teagan all to myself.” He grins from ear to ear after seeing my expression.

  “Umm she is like three years older than you bro, give it a rest.” I turn from him and head up the stairs.

  “Yeah but I like me a cougar plus I’m like way better looking than you!” he yells from the bottom of the stairs as I make it to my room.

  I lean back around the corner and flip him the bird. I can hear him laughing as he gets ready for his day. I will never admit out loud but he is better looking than me. He got moms blue eyes and his long hair makes the girls go crazy. His features are softer and make him stand out more. Though I doubt that I have anything to worry about where Teagan is concerned.

  I can’t believe that we slept in the back of my truck last night. I also can’t believe that we didn’t do anything but kiss this morning. We haven’t been able to keep our hands off each other since we met. I think it makes it all the sweeter. Makes me feel better that we can keep our hands off each other, you can’t base a relationship off of just sexual attraction.

  I love how we have so much in common. We like the same music which is crazy because I haven’t dated a girl who likes anything other than pop and R&B. It’s refreshing to say the least. Claire wouldn’t have picked up a book if she had a gun to her head. She thought it made me nerdy but I think it had more to do with the fact that I paid more attention to the book than her. God she was annoying.

  Teagan looked so beautiful last night. Her curly black hair wild and down, she looked like a goddess come to earth to steal my mortality. If she is then it is all hers. I wonder when I became such a pansy. I never used to think this way about a girl. I don’t think I ever took Claire on such a romantic date as I did with Teagan last night. I’m starting to think maybe who I was before I met Teagan was just a façade.

  *****

  I knew it was too much to think Claire would just go away. She is pissed and looking for a fight. That’s how I found myself outside the cafeteria with a five foot eight leggy blonde screaming at me.

  “I can’t believe that you let some whore punch me in the nose. I mean does she not know who I am?” she is screaming so loud I think my ears are bleeding.

  That whore comment just pissed me off and I find myself screaming right back at her. “Who are you calling a whore? That sure is calling the kettle black.”

  She l
ooks shocked for a second, but only a second. “I’m not a whore you asshole! You can’t talk to me like that!” she scoffs.

  “I can talk to you anyway I want to, Claire. You’re not going to call her a whore and think that you’re going to get away with it. And you are a whore. You slept with the entire football team in high school. What you didn’t think I knew you cheated on me? I’m not fucking stupid” I sneer right in her face.

  She goes sheet white after that. I might have over done it. It wasn’t the entire football team, but close enough. “Well your one to talk, don’t think I don’t know about all the girls you’ve fucked since I broke up with you.” And she’s back.

  “What does it matter? I wasn’t dating anybody at the time. It’s a free fucking country!” I’m so tired of her shit. I feel like every ounce of control I had has spilled out of me.

  “Well well Declan Sage seems like your hard won control has lost its reign. I think I want to see more of this out of you, it’s sexy.” She smirks as she trails her finger down my chest.

  I give her a fake smile as I grab her hand and throw it away from me. “Don’t think for one second you’re going to weasel your way back into my life. I want nothing to do with you anymore. You lost your appeal long ago. Hell I shouldn’t have been with you as long as I was. All you are is a slut and a bitch.” I take a slow breath to will my control back in place.

  “I like it when you talk dirty baby. It makes me all hot inside.” She has this fire in her eyes I wish I could scratch out.

  “Claire take your ass and go. And stay away from me; I want nothing to do with you.” I turn away from her and walk towards my next class. Hoping to god my control comes back because I don’t like what just happened. The old Declan would never have done that.

  Chapter 9