Tanner huffs, “Yeah, well I’ve got a lollipop stuck in my hair that I can’t get out.”

I whip my head back around and flip his hat off his head. Sure enough he has a red lollipop stuck to his hair. I try to pull on it and he slaps my hand away.

“I told you it’s stuck.”

I giggle, “I can see that.”

Tanner lies back down and puts his hat over his face. I lean my seat back and get comfortable for our two-hour car ride to Myrtle Beach.

Knox is so in love with Savanna. It’s the kind of love that you read about in fairytales. Knox met Savanna back home in New Jersey. They met his sophomore year in college. Savanna was tutoring for statistics and Knox was assigned to her. They went out once for dinner and spent almost every day after that together. Savanna is my favorite out of all the girls who Knox has dated over the years. She wasn’t stuck up like a lot of the girls he dated were. She just fit in with our family. If I ever need to vent about the boys, I knew I could always count on her to listen.

About four months ago Savanna called me in the middle of the night crying. She took a pregnancy test and it came back positive and she was afraid to tell Knox. She thought he was going to hate her. After staying on the phone with her for hours I convinced her that he wouldn’t hate her, that she should know him better than that. She told him the next morning and called me that afternoon to tell me that Knox was actually happy about it.

“You sure you know what you’re doin’?” I ask Knox who is standing on a ladder hanging lights from the roof across the deck, making a million tiny stars in the night sky with the amount of lights he was stringing up. It was going to be breathtaking.

“Yes, hold the ladder, will you?”

Snickering I grab a hold of the ladder and start shaking it. Knox is afraid of heights, if you ask him he’ll deny it, but it’s true. It’s the one chink in his cocky armor and I hold the power right now. I continue giggling like a school girl.

“Knock it off, ass**le.” He seethes.

See I told you.

“Knox, this is absolutely beautiful but Savanna isn’t gonna to care about the lights. Go get a bunch of candles, set them up all over your room, light them and get rose petals. Spread them all over the bed, get down on one knee ask her to marry you.” I shake my head. “It’s really simple.”

Knox climbs down and takes his phone out of his pocket. He sighs as he types a message out on his cell phone. “They’re on their way. Savanna said Dad is trying to pass some jerk who’s drunk and shouldn’t be driving.”

Knox’s parents are driving Savanna down since Knox refuses to let her make the trip herself and he wanted to have everything ready before she got here tonight.

“Well, let’s get this show on the road then.”

He throws his arm around my shoulder and runs his knuckles over my scalp. “That’s what I like to hear.”

I have to admit the house looks damn good. Knox set up everything perfectly. Candles and roses are in every room of the house. He cooked dinner and it’s sitting in the oven keeping warm. He just got out of the shower and Tanner and I are waiting for him to run us over to the hotel for our “special night” as well.

Tanner wraps his arms around me from behind, “Maybe we can make a baby.” He whispers in my ear.

I jab my elbows back hitting him in the sides, “Are you f**king crazy? Our parents would have heart attacks.”

Tanner shrugs, “They’ll deal and then we won’t have to sneak around anymore at least.”

I shake my head as I walk over to the bottom of the stairs, “Knox! Are you ready yet? Tan’s trying to make you an uncle.”

Knox comes down the stairs laughing and shaking his head, “Only Tanner would want to make a shitty situation worse.”

“I heard that.” Tanner yells from the kitchen.

“Let’s go, lover boy.” He yells back.

Knox drops us off at a hotel not far away, we could have walked really. I lean over and kiss him on the cheek, “Good luck. Call us tomorrow. Love you.”

Knox kisses my cheek, “Thanks and love you too.”

“Dude,” Tanner shoves Knox’s shoulder. “Keep your lips off my girl.”

“Get out, jackass.” Knox retorts.

Tanner laughs, “Good luck, man.”

“Thanks.”

Tanner and I check in, we get the key to our room and we take the elevator up to the top floor.

“You know,” Tanner stands directly in front of me and tilts my head up to him, “I wasn’t kidding about the babies. I want them. One day.”

I stand up on my tip-toes, “In the meantime let’s go have some fun. I think Knox pulled out all the stops for us tonight.” I wink at him just as the doors open.

“Did you bring lollipops?” Tanner asks his voice husky.

I look behind me, smiling, “Of course.”

“Damn, baby.” He pants and practically runs to our room.

6

~ Age 21 ~

Tanner

Rhea is laying in the middle of the king size bed naked with only a sheet covering her ass and legs. She’s sound asleep after the intense hour of love making that started the second I pushed the hotel door open.

I take a bottle of water from the fridge that Knox had stocked for us and took a seat out on the balcony. The breeze coming from the ocean is cooling off the hot summer day. The sun set hours ago casting a midnight sky and the moon to reflect brightly on the ocean, it’s eerily quiet. The only sounds are coming from the waves crashing on the shore when normally hearing the ocean sounds plays along with all of the party-goers who consider this town Party Central. The solitude of being here with my girl completely sated in the room behind me affords me the luxury of just being happy, nothing else…no drama, nothing but me and her against the world.

Knox is probably leading a pregnant Savanna up to his room right now asking her to spend the rest of her life with him. Savanna is good for him, settled his wild days. Knox was like a firecracker just waiting to light. He didn’t do things the normal way like picking up a girl from her house, meeting her family then taking her for a nice dinner and maybe dancing. No, Knox did things daringly. He’d pick up a girl later than he should, he’d take her to a friend’s house and get her drunk, if he was lucky he’d get her to his bed and then drop her off in the middle of the night with a promise to call the next day knowing he never would. The girls love him though, draws a crowd where ever he goes. He’s burned a few bridges over the years making it harder on himself then necessary as well as making things awkward for all of us, well, sometimes to our benefit though, when they’d ask why he never called.