Loving Violet (Rockers' Legacy Book 4)

Dad started to frown, but Mom whispered something at his side and he sighed in resignation. “It’s beautiful, son. You’ve got great taste in jewelry.”

Thankful that he wasn’t making a stink over the ring, I hugged Dad’s side. “This was one of the best Christmases ever,” I told him happily.

“I agree,” he said with a smile. Kissing the top of my head, he pushed me toward Luca. “Give the boy one more hug, and let’s go. Oscar is waiting for Santa to come tonight.”

Laughing, I did as I was told. As soon as I took one step toward Luca, his strong arms were enfolding me. I felt his lips at my ear, telling me again he loved me. The elevator arrived, and I reluctantly took a step back.

“Call me tomorrow?”

He nodded. “I’ll see you soon.”

--

Days slipped into weeks, and the weeks soon turned into months. It was like I blinked, and then it was May. Luca and Lyric graduated and the summer started, but within no time, Luca was packing to go to Alabama.

Football camp started weeks before classes did, which meant Lyric could go with Luca and spend some time with him before he had to come back and start his own college experience at UCLA. Luca’s parents decided to make a mini vacation out of it and help get their son settled, but no matter how much I begged Dad to let me go with them, he wouldn’t give an inch.

The day before Luca was supposed to leave, he showed up at my house at dawn. He’d told me his plan the night before, so I was already dressed with a bag packed when he pulled into my driveway.

Mom was up, getting ready to leave for work, and she let him in. But as soon as I ran down the stairs, I pushed him out the door, not wanting to chance Dad delaying us or getting all grumpy and saying I couldn’t spend the day with my boyfriend.

“I’ll have her home by curfew,” Luca promised as I pulled him off the porch.

“She can stay out until midnight tonight,” Mom said with a grin as she watched us go. “I’ll let Shane know.”

I paused and ran back to kiss my mom’s cheek. “You’re the best. I love you.”

“I know, and I love you more.” She hugged me then shooed me away. “Now, go. You have plenty of reason to be afraid your father might stop you.”

Luca had my door opened by the time I reached him, and I smacked a kiss on his cheek before climbing into the passenger seat. With a final wave at Mom, he got in the driver’s seat, and we were off.

I refused to think about how sad I was going to be the next day when he left. Instead, I focused on the here and now so I could enjoy our final day together. It would have to last us both until he came home for Thanksgiving. We would have to make do with video chats to see each other, but we would make it work.

Luca took me to breakfast, then we spent the day on the beach. It was just the two of us lying on a blanket on the sand, soaking up the sun and our time together, trying to absorb as much of each other’s love as we could to store it for the long months to come.

After the sun set, we changed and went to get dinner. I didn’t want to be around anyone. Selfishly, I wanted every moment of his attention on me, so we grabbed takeout and ate in the back seat of his SUV with the radio turned down low and the overhead lights on in the front of the vehicle to give us a soft glow to see by.

“I don’t want to take you home,” he said once we’d cleaned up and gotten out to toss our trash.

“We still have a few hours left before I have to be home,” I said with a sad smile. “Let’s make them count.”

We got back into the vehicle, holding each other in the back seat with the windows down so we could hear the ocean waves crashing against the shore. Luca turned off the overhead lights and then wrapped an arm around me.

“I miss you already,” he muttered, and I could hear how choked his voice was. “I knew this was going to be hard, but I never realized…”

“I know. But we’ve got this.” I hugged his waist tighter. “It’s only a few months.”

“Yeah,” he gritted out. For a long while, we were both quiet. There was so much to say, but we didn’t really need to speak the words aloud. So we just sat there holding on to each other and let our hearts do the talking for us.

“Do you think your dad will kill me if I marry you the day you turn eighteen?” Luca surprised me by asking out of the blue.

“I thought we were waiting until I was twenty-one,” I reminded him with a smile.

“I don’t know if I can,” he said, his voice full of longing.

I stroked my index finger down his jaw. “Maybe I’m greedy, but I think we’ll be too busy the day I turn eighteen to want to have to worry about a wedding.”

“Yeah?” He cocked his head, and I knew if I could see his eyes right then, they would be a molten amber. “What will we be doing, baby?”