Always (Bold As Love 4)

“Sweets, guess what that phone call was about?”

“Sweets? What the hell? Jake, I was almost asleep.”

“I like Sweets. And I'm in an extremely good mood. Don't you want to know why?”

“Why?” I finally roll over and look at him.

“I'm going to the Draft!”

“What? You've been drafted? To the NHL?”

“Sweetness, this is it. This is my year. This is it. Oh my god, I've got to tell Drake.”

I sit up in bed. My thoughts churning slowly. “You're going to be drafted?” Jake nods eagerly and I squeal, throwing my arms around him. “You're going to be in the NHL!!!”

Jake laughs and I can't help my full blown grin. I don't even think I can comprehend the excitement growing inside of me.

“How about we don't tell Drake right now? You have to leave for the official draft and see which team picks you, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you know Drake's going to be watching it while it's being televised, so why not surprise him that way? He can watch from here with me?”

“You're going with me, Sweetness. You both are. We'll just tell him that we're going on a trip and surprise him once we arrive at the venue. I can't believe this is happening.”

“Me either. You're going to be amazing, you know that, right? When is it?”

“Two weeks on Friday in New Jersey.”

“Can I go back to sleep now?” I joke.

Jake grabs me in a bear hug and kisses me quickly. “No, you may not. C'mon, Sweetness. I want to celebrate this with you.” He attacks my neck with kisses, causing me to laugh.

“Love, what did you have in mind?”

“Let's go get Drake from Tommy's and go out for the day. It's summer; let's act like it. We can hit up the beach.”

So that's what we do.

The entire time, I'm waiting for the pen to drop. Something bad is coming. I can feel it.

14

Jake

It is while Emily is playing with Drake in the water, splashing water at each other, that I realize what has happened. This is my year. I'm blown away at what my future surely holds. My thoughts get sidetracked as I see Emily making her way to me. God, she's beautiful. Sweetness sits in my lap, sideways, and snakes her arms around me.

“Having fun?” she asks.

“Of course.”

Drake runs up, kicking up sand behind him. “Will y'all come get in the water with me already?”

Emily hops up, takes his hand, and leads him back to the water. She looks back at me with a smile to capture my heart. I'm up and out of my seat in no time. Sneaking up behind Drake, I sweep him up into my arms and carry his wiggling body into the water, tossing him in. The water tries to pull me in, but I make my way back out to Emily. She's backing away from me because she can see that I'm coming for her next.

I get to her before she gets too far away, toss her over my shoulder and throw her into the water just as a wave sweeps us under. The first thing I hear is Drake cackling. Emily splashes water on us both and utters something about how mean I am, causing us to laugh more. She settles down and we wade in the water, enjoying the feel of cool water surrounding us, keeping the heat at bay.

Our bodies look like prunes by the time we exit the ocean and Drake complains about being hungry.