The Lyon's Cub Caitlin (Lyon The Next Generation 1)

“Not as much as I love you.” He grinned against my lips.

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m bigger than you, your tiny body couldn’t possibly hold all the love I have in me for you.” He opened the door and the noise level went up a few decibels.

“I’m not tiny, mom’s tiny; the aunts are tiny, well most of them.”

“Babe, I’m six two, you’re five four, you’re tiny.” I punched his shoulder playfully and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and took me to the counter.

“What will you have baby?”

“Um…” What I want is the whole experience. I want to stand there with my boyfriend and read the whole menu even though I already know which flavor I’m going to get. I want to waste a minute or two just so I could feel his arm around me a little bit longer.

Then I want him to grumble about me not being able to make up my mind, just so we can have a little tiff that he’d feel guilty about and have to make up to me once we get back to the truck. I’ve seen one too many teen movies.

“I’ll have…”

“Henderson is that you?” Just then this behemoth came walking over to us all grins, hand outstretched in that way guys do when they’re about to slap palms together.

“Jorgenson, hey, I didn’t know you were home already.”

“Got back a few days ago, us lesser mortals who go to less prestigious colleges and universities get out a lot earlier.”

“Cut the bull, UW is in the top ten.” He slapped his friend’s hand before pulling him in for a shoulder hug. Boys!

“Yeah, but we’re nowhere near your caliber. How’s it going? I didn’t get to see you the last time you came home for holiday break, but mom told me she saw you. Is this little Caitlin?”

I smiled at the way he looked me up and down and the way that made Todd, pull me into his side all but hiding me behind his much larger frame. The Jorgenson guy looked around the room in the direction of the restrooms. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Just then this stunning brunette came out of the lady’s bathroom and headed in our direction after scanning the room. “Shana this is Todd, the guy I’ve been telling you about.”

“Oh, hi, I’ve heard so much about you.” She held out her hand and my gorge rose.

I don’t know how he knew but he didn’t spend a lot of time holding her hand and he barely even looked at her. “We just got here, did you guys order already?”

“Yeah we have a table over there, why don’t you join us?”

She was all-smiles as she offered, her eyes eating Todd up like she wasn’t here with someone; disgusting. I pinched his side and he didn’t even miss a beat as he turned down her offer.

“No thanks we have some catching up to do, we’ll see you guys another time.”

We said our goodbyes and turned back to the counter as he looked down at me with a grin. “You’re green!” I just gave him a look to let him know I did not appreciate his assessment and ordered my black forest cake frozen yoghurt.

We found a small two-seater off in a corner all the way in the back since most of the larger tables were already taken. More people called out to him and I as we walked by but we didn’t stop, just acknowledged them and kept it moving.

“Caitlin, why did you react that way to her?”

“What way?” I dug into my yoghurt, hiding my face from his view. He doesn’t miss a thing.

“You know you have nothing to worry about right?”

“I’m not worried.”

“Yeah, you are.

I’d already lost interest in my treat and just played around in it with my spoon. How can I get him to understand that I’m not jealous of that Shana person per se, that this feeling I have is more about us and the limitations on us, than on some unknown female?

“Todd, how old is Jorgenson?”

“He’s my age why?”

“That girl isn’t from around here is she? So he probably met her at university, and she came home with him. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“Not really no, why don’t you spell it out for me?”

“He’s your friend; in fact there’s probably a few guys in here that you remember from high school. Look at them. They’re all coupled up and from the looks of things they’ve all gone much further than we have. How long before you start hating the fact that your girlfriend of four years has pretty much destroyed the best part of your teen experience?”

I couldn’t even bring myself to lift my head and look at him. I’d been so happy when we first arrived. Feeling like a grown up for the first time since we started dating. But it had only taken a few seconds to realize that I’m as far from that as a person can get.