“I got this,” he says, lifting the tray and balancing it on one hand as he picks up his Dr. Pepper with the other. “Love you, bro. Have a good night at work,” he calls over his shoulder as he makes his way down the hall. “And hey. Look at the bright side. If you and Little Wheeler get married someday, maybe Tori will save me a dance at the wedding.”

34. Maddie

Chapter 34

Maddie

Four Weeks Later

Days turn into weeks. Weeks roll into a month. Before I know it, I’m lounging in Dempsey’s arms, watching the annual Hampton Fourth of July Fireworks from my front lawn.

We spent all day sunbathing and playing in the pool. Dempsey bought fancy steak burgers from the butcher shop downtown, and I whipped up a fruit salad and a double batch of my mom’s homemade mac and cheese so he can take leftovers home to Fielding. It was a low-key day, and I loved every damn minute of it.

Rhett tried to convince me to come up to the cabin for the weekend, but listening to him and Tori fuck each other’s brains out while trying to hold my temper around Jake didn’t sound like my idea of a good time.

Dem told me it was Jake who outed us to Fielding. Something about that really grinds my gears. Yes, Fielding would have found out eventually… but what the fuck? Wasn’t that Dempsey’s news to tell?

The only decent thing Jake’s done lately is close Clinton’s and The Oak for the weekend. Last year, they were dead on the Fourth of July weekend because so many people go on vacation around this time. That means I’ve had Dem to myself for the last two days.

I sit up a little straighter, craning my neck to watch some of the lower displays as they explode in the sky. Even when we were younger, we could only see about half the fireworks they shot off at the park near our neighborhood. Now that the trees have had another decade to grow, I would put visibility around 30 percent at best.

It doesn’t matter. We aren’t paying attention to the fireworks anyway.

His hands are everywhere. His mouth keeps finding new spots to kiss and lick. I can barely lean back against him without wanting to straddle him right here on my front lawn and put on a different kind of show for the neighbors. The way this man has learned my body over the last month out-blasts every firework in the goddamn sky.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Dempsey whispers in my ear as he traces along the outline of my tank top. I look back, and he smiles down at me, his fingers dipping in and out of my shirt, mindlessly caressing my cleavage.