Fighter (Outsider Series)

by Micalea Smeltzer

  Chris sent the girl the scariest death glare I’ve ever seen. “Bitch, he’s taken.”

  The girl’s eyes widened at the obvious threat in Chris’ tone and eyes.

  I giggled when she glanced at Logan.

  Logan held up his hands in surrender. “Single,” he said, she grinned, and began to stand, “but gay.”

  She plopped down in the sand and her friends began to giggle. With a huff, she picked up her stuff, and wandered down the beach to a spot far away from our group. Her friends quickly followed.

  “Now that, that is taken care of-” Bentley started and draped a squirming Chris over his shoulder and took off running for the water.

  “Put me down!” She screamed, beating his back.

  “Not till we’re in the water!” he told her.

  “Bentley!” She cried. “I don’t want to get my hair wet!”

  “When did you turn into such a priss?” he asked before he dumped her in the water and then followed.

  I snorted and shook my head. “Those two are-”

  “A trip?” Caeden supplied.

  “Yeah, that about sums it up.” I proceeded to shimmy out of my shorts and tank top. “You coming?” I asked Logan.

  “Nah, I don’t want to feel like a fifth wheel. I think I’ll go get a snow cone.”

  “You’re welcome to join us,” Caeden said.

  “Thank guys, really,” he said. “But I’m fine. I’ll keep an eye on the stuff.”

  I smiled at Logan before turning to Caeden and saying, “Race, ya?”

  I took off running.

  I heard Caeden’s laugh right behind me.

  I picked up my speed but he caught me around the waist anyway. He swung me around and I giggled in delight.

  “Come on my she-wolf,” he said as carried me into the ocean.

  He set me down in the water and it came to my calves. It was surprisingly cool considering how hot of a day it was. He pulled me into deeper water until it lapped at our necks. I ducked my head under and he followed. I wished in my mad dash I had remembered goggles so that I could open my eyes. Instead I came up out of the water, the salt slightly stinging my eyes, and shook my long wet hair away from my face.

  Caeden came up and swung his head around, water went flying, and his wavy dark brown hair stuck up wildly around his head. He grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

  “Come here,” he breathed. Water dripped slowly down his face.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. His hands rested on my waist.

  For a moment neither one of us said anything, we just soaked in the moment. We so rarely had moments like these. Where we could just be peaceful and surrounded by our love for each other. I soaked it in while I had the chance. I knew that as soon as we returned home it would be back to pack business.

  Caeden leaned in and our noses brushed. “I never thought I’d find someone like you. Someone who completes me, my everything.”

  My fingers tangled in his wet hair. “Me neither.” My words may not have been as eloquent as his, but I meant it.

  I crushed my lips to his, soaking in his warmth as the cold water lapped around us. Eventually though, with his lips tangled with mine, everything else disappeared. I didn’t notice the cold or the hoots and hollers of people around us. Caeden always had that affect on me. When I walked into a crowded room my eyes were always drawn to him and I would soon be drowning in his baby blues. It was incredible to love someone so completely and I hated that so few ever experienced it.

  Because of that, I’d love him even more, for all of those people that would never have the chance to have a love like ours.

  three.

  I looked down at my hands and giggled. “I’m starting to look like a prune.”

  Caeden chuckled and kissed my nose. “A very cute prune.”

  “I’m flattered,” I said sarcastically. I turned my head and noticed a large crowd gathered down the beach. “What do you think is happening there?” I nodded at the group.

  Caeden laughed and I watched the water droplets slowly swirl down his face, to his shoulders, and finally to his chest. Caeden’s chest had to be the most perfect chest ever. It was smooth and tan. His abs were prominent, but didn’t stick out to the point that it was gross. And Lord have mercy on me, that delicious V and happy trail that disappeared into his swim trunks.

  I started to sing, It’s a happy, happy, very happy trail, in my head. I blushed and was thankful that Caeden didn’t seem to notice my ogling. But hey, he is my fiancé, so shouldn’t ogling be allowed?

  “My guess is they’re watching Bryce build his sandcastle. That boy can build a sandcastle like no one’s ever seen before.”

  “Huh?” I said, completely lost.

  He pointed to the crowd.

  “Oh.”

  I swam for the shore and walked over to where Logan sat with his nose stuck in a book. I grabbed up my tote bag and tossed Caeden a towel and grabbed one for myself. After I dried off my arms and legs, I spread the towel out and sat down so that the sun could dry my swimsuit.

  Caeden sat down beside me and ran his fingers through his wet hair. “We’ll dry off and then head over there,” he pointed a thumb over his shoulder to where the crowd was gathered. It seemed to have doubled in size in the last ten minutes.

  “Sounds good to me,” I leaned back and let my hair swish around my shoulders as I soaked in the sun’s rays.

  The heat felt good and I found my eyes growing heavy.

  Caeden shook my shoulder. “Babe, don’t fall asleep.”

  “Sorry!” my body jumped at being jolted awake.

  He chuckled. “Are you dry enough?”

  My bikini was only slightly damp so I nodded and stood up. I wasn’t brave enough to walk over to a large crowd in my bikini, so I pulled my shorts and my top back on.

  Caeden took my hand and lead me towards the crowd. He stood on his tiptoes to see what was happening. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed and my eyes widened. “Sorry babe,” he looked down at me. Shaking his head he said, “I can’t believe the brat did it.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve just gotta see it,” he answered.

  “Excuse me, let us through,” he dragged me through the crowd.

  “Hey bud, we were here first,” someone said and pushed Caeden.

  “And that’s my brother,” Caeden pointed through the remaining crowd. I tried to peer around his body to see what he was pointing at. “Bryce!” he called. “A little help here!”

  I heard Bryce’s voice reply, “Let them through.”

  The crowd parted completely and I gasped. “Bryce! This is incredible!”

  Bryce stepped back, covered in sand, and put his hands on his hips. Grinning he said, “See big brother? I told you I could build a life-size castle.” He paused. “Well maybe not life-size, but you can walk in to it. I even built a couch.”

  “Wow,” Caeden and I both said.

  Bryce smirked. “And I seem to remember you agreeing to tell me how marvelous I am if I succeeded.” Caeden didn’t say anything so Bryce snapped, “I’m waiting.”

  “You’re absolutely marvelous, Bryce. No one can build a sandcastle like you.”

  “Thank you,” Bryce said before turning to the crowd. “Two bucks for a picture with the sandcastle! Five for a picture with the sandcastle and me!”

  Charlotte snorted.

  “What about a picture with the pretty red head?” Some college guy called out, looking Charlotte up and down. She blushed and turned away.

  Bryce growled. “No pictures with my girl.”

  The guy groaned but pulled out his wallet anyway.

  “Are they really going to pay for pictures?” I asked Caeden.

  He chuckled. “He does this every time we come to the beach and everyone always pays for a picture. I think they’re crazy.”

  “Do you think he’ll make us pay?” I eyed the spectacular sandcastle. I had never seen anything like it. He ha
d even decorated the sides in seashells and starfishes.

  “Sophie!” Caeden exclaimed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “What?” I pointed at the castle. “It’s pretty darn cool.”

  “And you have gone to the dark side.”

  I laughed and pinched his side. Caeden started to pull me away.

  “Charlotte, get a picture,” I mouthed.

  She laughed and mouthed back, “I will.”

  “I’m hungry,” Caeden said as he led me away.

  I snorted. “You’re always hungry.” I looked up at him. “And when we’re married, don’t expect me to cook twenty-four hours a day like your mom.”

  He grinned and leaned towards me. His breath tickled my face. “Trust me, babe, when we’re married my stomach will be the last thing on my mind.”

  I blushed and pushed him away. I smiled when I succeeded in sending him two steps away.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” he narrowed his blue eyes, and I knew I was in trouble.

  Suddenly, I was falling to the ground, but instead of landing on my back, Caeden twisted so that I landed on top of him instead.

  I poked his warm chest. “I hate you.”

  “Babe, you couldn’t hate me even if you tried,” he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

  “Want to test that theory?”

  He gulped. “Not really.”

  I laughed and kissed a freckle on his chest. “You’re right though, I could never hate you. Be mad at you? Now that, I can do.”

  He rubbed my back, perfectly content to lie in the sand, instead of going in search of food. I guess he wasn’t as hungry as he let on.

  “I don’t like it when you’re mad at me.”

  I snuggled into his arms, tucking my face into the crook of his neck. “I guess you better stop doing stuff to make me mad at you.”

  He chuckled and the motion caused me to rock up and down. “Good advice,” he kissed my hair.

  “I’m full of good advice, unfortunately no one ever listens.”

  Despite the fact that we were on the beach, he snuggled me even closer to his body. My legs twined with his and my hands rested on his chest.

  “You never did answer my question last night?”

  I sat up so that I could look into his eyes. “What question?”

  “Have you thought of a date yet… to marry me?” He swallowed and his body tensed. I could tell he was nervous, probably afraid that I’d changed my mind and would refuse to marry him, on the grounds that Travis was still alive. Silly, silly, man.

  I sighed and drew random designs on the tanned skin of his chest. He shivered. “When do you want to get married?”

  “You know when I want to get married.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I know, before classes start in the fall. It just seems so fast. We just graduated high school and were both still technically teenagers.”

  “Sophie,” he groaned. “There is no one else out there for me. I can’t wait any longer. I might implode.”

  I giggled. “Fine, you’re right. I don’t really want to wait that much longer either.” I paused, thinking. “Do you think your mom and mine could put a wedding together by July sixth?”

  He sat up and I let out a startled shriek at the sudden movement. He held me away, staring into my eyes.

  “Are you sure? That’s only a few weeks away.”

  I smiled so big that he couldn’t help smiling back. “I’m sure. I guess that means we better call them.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked again.

  “Yes,” I giggled. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

  “But a few minutes ago you just said you thought it was-”

  I covered his mouth with a finger. “I was just messing with you.”

  “You are a cruel, cruel, woman, Sophie Beaumont.”

  I laughed and pulled myself out of his arms. I wiped the sand off my clothes. That was the one downside to sand. It stuck to everything.

  “You brought your phone right?” I asked him.

  He was still lying in the sand and squinted up at me. He brought his hand up to his face to block the sun. “Yeah, it’s back with Logan. Why?”

  I shook my head. “We need to call our parents. I don’t think your mom would like it if we got back from the beach and told her she only had a week to plan a wedding.”

  Caeden snorted. “She isn’t going to like planning a wedding in two weeks either.”

  “Well… it’s all the time she’s got,” I smiled.

  He stood and both of our smiles were huge.

  “July sixth,” he twirled the words around his tongue. “It’s perfect.”

  “I think so too,” I blushed.

  He took my hands and pulled me to him. He kissed me quickly before pulling away and saying, “Phone.”

  We walked back to Logan who took one look at our gooey faces and said, “Ew. I don’t want to know.”

  I giggled. “We set a wedding date.”

  “Oh,” he closed his book. “That wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. So when is it?”

  “July sixth,” we said simultaneously. Caeden pulled me towards him and kissed me again.

  “That soon?” Logan asked. “What’s the rush?” He paled. “Please tell me your not-” He motioned to my stomach.

  I laughed. “No, Logan. No baby.”

  “Thank God,” he said. “The last thing we need is Travis comin’ after your kid. And just for the record, when ya’ll do have kids, I am not changing any diapers.”

  Caeden laughed. “That’ll be Bryce’s job.”

  I punched his arm. “Bryce is never coming near our kids. Lord only knows what he might say to them. And knowing him he’ll probably drop them on their head.”

  Caeden grinned and I was wondering why, when he said, “I think this is the first time someone has brought up the topic of kids and you haven’t freaked out.”

  I blushed.

  Luckily, Caeden gave me a reprieve and dug around in my tote bag for his phone. He pulled it out and put it on speaker as he called his mom.

  “Hey! Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “Everything’s great, mom,” he grinned from ear to ear. “Sophie and I just have something to tell you.”

  “What is it?”

  “We’ve set a date…” He looked at me.

  “For July sixth,” I supplied.

  Her screams could be heard by everyone in a ten-foot radius from us.

  When she finally calmed down she said, “You do realize that’s two weeks from now?”

  “Yes mom,” Caeden shook his head, “we know.”

  “We’re going to hang up and call my mom and then we’ll have her call you, so that ya’ll can start planning.”

  Amy shrieked some more. “You’re going to let me plan it?”

  I giggled. “Yes, Amy! After the graduation party you put together, I know this will be incredible! My only request is for it to be outdoors.”

  “I love you both so much!” She began to cry. “And outside sounds perfect.”

  “I love you, Amy,” I said with all the sincerity in the world.

  “Love you, mom,” Caeden said. “We’ll talk to you later.”

  “Okay, bye. Have fun! Now where’s the tissues,” she muttered.

  I laughed as Caeden hung up the phone. He handed it over to me and I dialed my mom’s cell number. I put it on speaker like Caeden had done.

  “Who’s this?” she answered and I realized she didn’t have Caeden’s number.

  “It’s me, mom.”

  “Oh, did something happen to your phone?”

  “No, this is Caeden’s.”

  “Oh,” she said again.

  “We’re just calling to tell you that we set a date,” I looked at Caeden to finish.

  He cleared his throat. “July sixth.”

  Silence.

  “Mom?” I asked hesitantly.

  Sniffles. “I’m sorry, they’re happy tears, I promise. I can’t believe my ba
by girl is getting married. And in two weeks!”

  “We told Amy you’d call her as soon as we hung up with you, so that ya’ll can start the planning while we’re gone.”

  “That sounds great,” she said. “Your dad’s in the next room, do you want to tell him?”

  “Of course,” I answered.

  “Hang on a second.”

  My dad’s voice came over the line, and Caeden and I went through the same process again.

  “So soon?” Dad asked.

  I laughed. “You knew we were going to get married before the end of August.”

  “But July sixth is only two weeks away.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, we know.”

  “Well baby girl, I’m happy for you. For both of you,” he added. He cleared his throat and I knew that was a sign that my dad was emotional. “I love ya’ll. Here’s your mother,” he passed the phone off before I could reply.

  I shook my head and a small smile played on my lips. My mom came back on. “Hello? Hello? You still there?”

  “Yeah mom, we’re gonna go now. I love you and tell dad that I love him.”

  “Alright, I love you! I’m going to call Amy!” She let out a little yip of excitement and then the line went dead.

  I looked up at Caeden, and said, “I guess we better call Gram.”

  He paled and closed his eyes. “Let me prepare myself.”

  I smacked his arm. “She’s not that bad.”

  He grinned down at me. His white teeth appeared to be even brighter against his tan skin. “Oh, she’s pretty bad alright.”

  Bryce chose that moment to walk up. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Lucinda,” Caeden answered.

  Bryce snorted. “Maybe she wouldn’t be so uptight and spewin’ all this sex talk, if she’d just get laid.”

  My eyes widened and I paled at the thought of Gram… Ew, just ew.

  “Thank you Bryce, for that wonderful image of my Gram that I’ll never ever get out of my head. Even if I could bleach my brain.”

  “What?” Bryce shrugged. “It’s true.”

  “Ugh, can’t you just go back over to your castle.”

  “How quickly you dismiss me,” he put his hand over his heart and pouted. He had a wad of money in his hand and asked, “Can I put this in your bag?”