“At least you left the girls out of it.”

Dylan’s smile drops.

“No.” I shake my head. “What did you do?”

He shrugs and leans back in his chair. “You think the girls were innocent? Babe, it was a glitter cock! Besides, I didn’t do anything. The waiters who put laxatives in their drinks and brought them out did all my work for me.”

“Dylan!”

Heidi laughs louder.

I look over at her.

She shakes her head. “I’m just glad I wasn’t part of it.”

Dylan’s smile is back in place. “Not yet…”

“But I had nothing to do with Operation Glitter Cock!” she shouts.

“But you knew about it, Heids,” he says, sighing as leans forward. “And that’s just as bad.”

Bryce laughs next to her and when she turns to him, eyes narrowed, he simply shrugs and looks over at Dylan. “You need me to do anything, you let me know.”

Heidi smacks his chest.

“So…” Mom says, sitting next to Logan’s dad. “Is someone going to tell me what just happened?”

Dr. Matthews chuckles, shaking his head. “Mayhem, Holly. I really could’ve used you back when they were juniors and Logan came home with wax strips on his genitals.”

Sixty-Two

Riley

Dylan walks into the bedroom wearing his work pants, white tank, and blue flannel shirt—exactly the way he was when I fell in love with him. He stalks toward me slowly, his brow bunched. “What are you doing, baby?” he says, falling on the bed, his fingers linked behind his head.

I turn the laptop to him.

He cringes. “I’ll be in the garage.” He starts to get up but I stop him. He sighs. “Baby, I love you and I can’t wait to marry you but swear if I see that Pinterest board one more time—”

My laugh cuts him off, I shut the laptop and throw it on the end of the bed. Bacon walks in, his head high looking for Dylan. Dylan lifts his head when he hears him and pats his chest twice. “Up bubba,” he murmurs.

Bacon jumps on the bed and settles right on Dylan’s chest, his head resting on his front legs.

I pat his fur and lie down with them, my head on Dylan’s bicep.

“I was thinking,” I mumble.

“Uh oh, this can’t be good.”

I lick his face.

He pushes me away. “Gross.”

Bacon gets up on all fours and looks down at Dylan.

“Lick, Bacon!” I order.

“No!”

Bacon licks him.

Dylan picks him up and moves him between us. “You were thinking?” Dylan asks while we both pat Bacon.

I sigh. “I was just going to say that we’ve spent more of our relationship apart than we have together.”

“You just worked that out now, Hudson?”

I look up at him. “Babe, we’ve never really discussed you re-enlisting so…”

“There’s really nothing to discuss, Ry,” he says. “Not for a while, anyway. My job’s going okay. My family’s here, so are my friends and my fiancée. Until I’m ready to give that up again, I’m staying put.”

“But you might one day?”

He stares blankly at me. He won’t promise me a thing.

I drop my gaze. “Well, now that we’re getting married that means we can live on base, right? At least when you’re not deployed, it won’t be so bad.”

“You’ve thought about it a bit, huh?”

“I have to, Dylan. If we have kids—”

“Oh, we’re having kids, Hudson.” He smiles wide, showing his perfect teeth. “Lots of them.”

“You know, once we’re officially married, you’ll have to stop calling me Hudson.”

“Nah. You’ll always be Hudson to me,” he says, leaning forward and kissing me once. “Forever the girl next door.”

My phone rings and Sydney’s face appears on the screen. I reject the call and throw my phone across the room.

Dylan quirks an eye brow and without taking his eyes off me, says, “Bacon. Bed.”

Bacon jumps off our bed and moves to his in the kitchen. “What’s going on? You guys fighting?”

“No. She probably wants to talk bridesmaid dresses. The girls can’t agree between lavender, mauve and lilac.”

Another blank stare.

“Purple.”

He nods. “Right.”

From across the room, my phone rings again. He waits until it stops before opening his mouth. Then his phone rings. Sighing, he reaches into his pocket and glances at it quickly. “It’s your mom.”

I roll my eyes. “She probably wants to discuss the venue.”

“You want to take it?”

“Fuck no.”

He chuckles as he throws his phone near mine. “So you’re not enjoying the planning?”

I shake my head, resting my head on his chest. “It’s so strange babe. It’s not like I haven’t thought about my wedding before. Every girl does, right? But it’s been two months and I just don’t think I care about any of it.”

He starts stroking my hair. “You don’t care about getting married?”

“No. It’s the opposite. I just want to marry you, Dylan. I don’t care about the dresses or the venues or the music. I feel like it’s two separate things, you know? A marriage and wedding. The marriage is for us and the wedding is for everyone else.”