Labeled Love (30 page)

In a sad voice, she says, “We won’t ever have sex? I thought you said you can’t wait to be inside me?”

“No, we won’t.” I only pause for a minute. “We will only ever make love.” I give her my low, sexy voice. “Sometimes it will be slow and quiet.” I drag my hand slowly up her bare leg. “Sometimes it’s going to be quick and loud.” I lean over and kiss her hard. She opens up to me as I pull her hair gently before kissing the side of her face. She starts to giggle. “Sometimes I’m going to have to give it to you like all those weird books you read. I’m going to have to go totally alpha male on you.” She rolls her eyes when I lift my eyebrows with a side smile. “But, make no mistake,” I whisper into her ear, pulling her against me, “it will always be love. It will never be sex. I will always make love to you.”

“Make love to me right here under the stars,” she says sweetly.

“I would, baby, but I want you protected.”

“So, are you saying I can get the shot and let you have my body before all those little James’ kiddies get it.”

“Something like that. I don’t know… I think you’d be cute barefoot and pregnant.”

We just stare at each other.

Quietly she says, “I’m ready, Jace.” When she leans her forehead against mine, I breathe in her scent and rub her cool cheeks.

“Yeah, baby. I know we’re ready.”

Her face lights up. “Do you want a big family someday?”

“With you, I want it all,” I tell her.

“Me, too. I want to be a young parent—not too young—but I want to have fun with my kids. My luck I’ll probably have twins out the gate.”

“If they look like you, they’ll be perfect.”

“Since you’re denying me tonight, and you’re making me act responsibly—”

“We’re being responsible,” I cut her off. “Baby, my mom had me at sixteen. I want our children to be the best surprise we could ever have the privilege of receiving.”

“You’re right. I want that, too. Can I just ask for one simple request?”

“What’s that?”

“Under the stars, baby, just like this. The one place where it’s just you and me,” she says. I squeeze her hand. That’s already my plan, but I’m not telling her that. Looking down, I notice her guitar sitting on our blanket. “Are we going to play some music, baby? Looks like you got a new case. Were you tired of all those stickers you had all over it?”

She smiles shyly at me. “Did you forget what today is, Jace?”

“No, I didn’t. I was kinda wondering if my girl did, but I just thought with how distraught you were that you forgot about it.”

She gets up and grabs her guitar case. Soft pretty eyes look at me as she hands me her guitar in its new case. “I would never forget my boy’s birthday. Happy birthday, Jace.” Furrowing my eyebrows, I look up as she stands over me. “It’s not my guitar, baby. This is your birthday present.” She sets it on my lap. I just stare at the black case. “Open it, silly,” she says excitedly. When I open it, the first thing I see is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap with a pink candle lying on top. It makes me smile. She grabs it and says, “We will get to that in a minute.”

The guitar is really nice and probably expensive. “It’s beautiful… but I can’t accept this. You know I love my heart-shaped sandwiches. They’re all I want you to give me on my birthday. They’re always enough for me.”

“I know they are. This is something I wanted to do special for you. I want you to be able to play when we’re not together. Please don’t be proud. Now maybe you can take some of those sweet love letters you write me and turn them into songs.”

“You’re so cute, baby. Come here.” She plops down next to me. “Thank you, pretty girl. I love it. It means so much to me. I really, really love it.” I kiss her lips. “Now can you sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me so I can eat my present?” Shay grabs matches out of her beach bag and lights the pink candle. “Really, baby? Pink? Couldn’t you have given me a boy color to blow out?” She scrunches up her nose.

“I love pink, and that’s the only candle I could find.”

“I’m just teasing you. I love your pink candle,” I say as she puts my peanut butter and jelly heart-shaped birthday sandwich onto the palm of her hand. Bright blue eyes meet pale blue as she sweetly sings “Happy Birthday” to me. I blow out my candle in a blissful haze. I take a big bite and put the rest into her mouth. “Best birthday treat ever,” I tell her. Grabbing her cell phone, she hands it to me. She holds up the pink candle and kisses my cheek as I snap the picture. God, I love this girl.

“Come on, it’s getting late, and my princess needs to go to bed.”

THE SUN IS
hot today as I walk for the last time to the garage. The day has finally arrived. I passed my motorcycle test, and I officially have a license to drive it. As I walk into the shop, Henry throws me the keys. I just stare at them. My mind starts racing with images of Shay’s hair flying in the wind on the back of the bike I worked my ass off to put her on. I feel her hands wrapped tightly around my waist, her chest pressed against my back, and her sweet voice in my ear as she tells me to slow down. Feeling like a million bucks as the single key tangles from the chain, I look up into Henry’s proud eyes.

“Congratulations, son, you worked hard. Take care of it.”

I swallow slowly, feeling the weight of all the hard work and time I put into getting my bike running. “Thank you, Henry. I mean that. I can’t thank you enough.”

“I didn’t give it to you. You earned it,” he says, walking over and slapping me on my back. “I bet your girl is going to be surprised.”

I bite down on my bottom lip, trying to suppress the overwhelming need to smile. “Yeah, she’s definitely going to be surprised.”

“MISS STARK, YOU
and Cole will be partners for this project.”

“Mrs. Peters, can I request a different partner?” I ask, sitting in front of Cole, groaning.

“No, you can’t,” he answers, tugging on my hair that is lying close to his desk. I think he pulls little strands of it as he plays with it; I always feel when he does it, but I don’t say anything because it actually feels good. After his last pissing match with Jace, though, I won’t let him do it anymore. I strain my neck over my shoulder.

“Don’t play with my hair.”

Cole gives me a smug smile, and I want to slap that look off his face. I bet he requested me. If Jules had this class with me, I would make sure we were partners.

“Okay, this project is going to require you to work outside of the classroom, so if you need your partner’s number, exchange it now.”

“You have my number, right, Starkster?”

“Stop calling me that. I’m not five years old.”

“You know, you’re not very nice to me anymore. You used to love hanging out with me. Now you act like I have some kind of contagious disease. I’m sure that has nothing to do with your boyfriend.”

“Jace has nothing to do with our friendship.”

“Oh, you’re wrong about that, Shay. He has plenty to do with how our friendship is now.”

“You need to get over the fact that I’m not the girl that gives you all her attention anymore.”

“We don’t even throw the football anymore. We used to always play together.”

“Cole, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a little girl anymore. Maybe I don’t want to ruin my nails.”

“You don’t give a shit about your nails.”

“Maybe I do now.” I hide my fingernails from his prying eyes. He’s right; I don’t care about my fingernails. He lets out a huff.

“So, my house or yours?” he says.

“Neither. We will have to meet at Starbucks or something.”

“Are you serious, Shay? Does Trailer Boy not trust you?”

“First off, he trusts me, and secondly, he does not live in a trailer.”

“Where does he live?”

The million-dollar question. There’s no way I’m going to let Cole know I have no idea where Jace lives. He will
never
let me live that down. “None of your business.”

The bell rings, freeing me from his curiosity. Gathering my backpack, I grab my phone to put away when I see a text. Ignoring Cole’s loud mouth behind me as he starts talking football with one of the guys, I open the text.

My Boy: I can’t wait for the day that we can be together every waking moment. I want to lie in the sun with you. I want to watch you dig your cute toes thru the sand. I want to watch the sun set with you every night and make passionate love to you under the stars. I can’t wait for that. I promise you, I’m going to give you that someday. I love you. Have a great day baby. Can’t wait to talk to you tonight.

I put my phone into my pocket and let the warm feeling run through me like it always does when Jace speaks to me. I can’t even imagine my life without him. Butterflies tickle my belly whenever I think about Jace. Love is the most powerful feeling anyone could ever experience. I think a lot of people get that feeling, but what I feel is different. It’s not just a simple
I love you
that I feel. It’s soul binding. There is no other way to explain Jace and me. We should have never met. We are from two different worlds, even if we are technically in the same city. Fate is the only logical answer. We were meant to be together.

Cole’s voice gets louder. Maybe because he’s practically in my face when I turn from my desk.

“I don’t get you,” he spits at me. I blow him off.

We walk out of the classroom, making our way to the courtyard. Today is intervention day. That means we only have a few classes, but they are extended to longer periods. I’m starting to not like intervention day since it means more time spent with Cole breathing down my neck. Of course, we have to have every class together. Cole is not a dumb jock. He takes all AP courses, and I’m sure that’s due to the fact that he’s mommy and daddy’s golden boy and has to be perfect. Tutors every week to make sure he gets the grade, and he does—barely, but he does.

He couldn’t just be a football player. He had to be the quarterback. When he was younger, that meant hours of practice. Everyone else was going to the beach first thing in the morning while Cole was running drills at the high school.

Since Beau played football, I was no stranger to the game and would throw the ball with Cole. There was definitely a bond there, and maybe if I had never met Jace, we would’ve dated at some point. Who knows?

“What don’t you get?”

“I don’t get how you have wasted so much time with a guy that will never be able to take care of you.”

“Who says I need a guy to take care of me?”

“You know what I mean, Shay.”

“You need to lay off, Cole. You already caused a problem.”

“Aw, did he give you a hard time with our little texting session?”

“Not cute. Why don’t you worry about your own relationship and stop putting your nose in mine?”

“I don’t have a relationship.”

“Aren’t you dating Devin now?”

His face contorts like he just ate an entire bag of lemons. “ Um, that would be a no. Why would you think I was dating Devin?”

“I heard you got rather cozy with her at her party.”

“If fucking her is getting cozy, then yeah, we got cozy. That was a one-and-done.”

For the record, scratch that previous thought. I would have never dated him. He proves that every time he opens his mouth.