Southern Sunrise (Southern 4)

I pull up, and I’m shocked to see Ethan there sitting on the porch. He gets up when he sees my car, opening the door as soon as I put it in park. “Hey,” I say right before he leans in and kisses me on the lips.

My hand comes up to hold his cheek. “Hi,” he says, smiling, and I lean forward for another kiss. “Hi.” He steps out of the car and holds his hand out for me. I grab his hand, getting out. He opens the back door, grabbing my bag, and we walk up the steps to the front door.

“Were you waiting long?” I ask, opening the door and feeling the cool air hit me right away. I walk in and go straight to the fridge, grabbing him a water bottle. He sits on the stool after putting my stuff on the couch. “Here.” I hand him the bottle, and he finishes it. “I wish I knew you were coming. I would have given you the garage code.” As soon as I say the words, I want to take it back. Maybe he won’t remember. “It’s 1-7-1-4,” I say, and the look on his face tells me that he remembers. He gets up, coming around the counter toward me. “Ethan,” I say as he picks me up and sets me on the counter.

“That’s the first day I told you I loved you,” he tells me in almost a whisper.

“You remembered.” He puts his hands beside my hips, coming in and rubbing his nose against mine.

“I remember everything when it comes to you,” he says softly. “Every single moment, every single day, every single memory is engraved inside me.” His voice is so low that if I wasn’t this close I would not hear it. He kisses me softly. Then his tongue comes out to lick my lower lip, and my tongue comes out to meet his. He kisses me, and I suddenly hate that I’m wearing a skirt and can’t wrap my legs around him. His hands come up, one holding my neck while the other pushes my hair away from my face, and he holds it in his hand. The sound of us kissing fills the room, and just when I’m about to wrap my legs around him anyway, a knock breaks us up. “Were you expecting anyone?” he asks, his chest rising and falling. His lips wet from my kiss.

“No,” I say. Pushing him away, I hop down, walking to the front door as another knock sounds. I open the door, and I’m shocked that it’s Olivia and Kallie. “Hey,” I say, smiling.

“Sorry to just drop in,” Olivia says, and then she looks behind me, and I know right away that they must see him because they both look at me with their mouth open. They recover pretty quickly, and I see a smirk form on Olivia’s face while Kallie smiles so big. “We didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

“Don’t be silly,” I say, and then I feel him at my back, his hands on my shoulders. “Come in.”

I move aside, and Kallie comes in, getting on her tippy toes to give Ethan a hug. He hugs her around her shoulders and turns to walk into the house with her beside him. “We are going to be five minutes max,” Olivia tells me, and I just shake my head, walking into the house. I come to a stop when I see Kallie sitting on a stool with Ethan getting water out of the fridge for her.

I try not to make it seem like I’m thrown for a loop as Olivia tells me about all the details with the carnival Saturday, and when they leave five minutes later, he looks over at me. “What’s wrong?” he asks, and I avoid his look.

“Nothing,” I say. “It’s nothing.”

“Sunrise,” he says, and I look at him, and I’m annoyed now that even after five years of being apart from him, he still knows me.

“I bought this house for you,” I say finally, and he stands in the kitchen, shocked. “I know it’s stupid, and I had to literally beg your mother to sell it to me, but when I told her that I wanted to make you a home for when you came back, she gave in. I wonder if she did it because she felt sorry for me. Still holding out with the hope that you would come back.” I wipe a tear away. “But now having you here in the kitchen, and it’s just, it was always meant to be yours.”

“It was meant to be ours,” he says now. “My mother was holding on to this house as a wedding present.” It’s my turn now to be shocked. “So, in the end, it was always meant to be ours.” He smiles. “Go get changed, and I’ll start on dinner.”