She was in a mood when she got home and I could tell because she slammed her keys and threw her bag in the middle of the kitchen floor.

"Another rough day?" I asked.

"Worse than Monday. So I get to Chemistry Lab today and we got broken into pairs which will last until the end of the semester." I dished her plate up as she talked. I put her plate down and she pulled me in for a quick kiss in between words. "I get paired with this guy Ayden. We all had to swap seats to sit by our partners and he gets all flirty with me asking if I had a boyfriend."

I stopped eating at the word 'flirty' and I looked up at her swiftly. Mr. Ayden was about to get his a.s.s beaten.

"So I told him that I was engaged, flaunted my gorgeous ring and he finally shut up. The nerve of the guy. I mean, I had known his name for all of three seconds and he's asking personal questions."

"So you're gonna tell me if he continues that stuff right?" I was serious as a heart attack.

"Aww, are you gonna beat up the little flirty guy?" She cooed at me.

"If he's really little I might just push him." I said. I tried to be cool about it but my inner caveman was livid.

"He's about your height but skinny, like a skeleton." She laughed.

"Ok, I don't want to talk about Skeletor over dinner with my girl. I wanna talk about something good."

"Like?" She had put her real food aside and dug into her cheesecake first.

"Like Hawaii or Mexico." I couldn't help but smile.

"I would be happy with the houseboat." She smiled and then blushed at the memories we made there.

"Mom and Dad offered to pay for the honeymoon, you know that right?" I didn't want her to pick the houseboat just because of money.

"No way. I just talked to Sylvia today and she didn't even say anything."

"Oh, I see how it is. You called my mom today and not me? I see the hierarchy coming together now." I acted offended but really it made me so happy to know that she and my mom talked on the phone like they were already family or friends or both.

"I thought it was cute. I got to talk to my mother-in-law-to-be about wedding type things. She's the closest thing I've had to a nice mom since Cindi. Be nice." She pouted out her lip.

"I was just kidding. I love that you think of my mom as yours. You're family now. You're my family." I said plainly as it was the simple truth.

"And you are mine, Owen. I mean it. You're staying tonight right?"

"How could I leave after you just said that?"

"Ok, I'm going to clean up, you go shake a tower." She got up and began collecting plates.

"Shake a tower?" She laughed a little that I asked.

"Yeah, my mom used to say it when I was a kid. Instead of take a shower, she would say shake a tower. That was before they were living in a mansion with chefs and such. She was really nice then. She was normal." She turned to the sink and I felt as if she had revealed a piece of her soul to me. A secret that she told no one else. It was then that I realized I would be her secret keeper for the rest of our lives. Her confidant, the one she whispers to in the dark, her best friend-and I was honored beyond belief.

33. Nellie.

Owen got up to shower while I cleaned up and I had just confessed a memory from my childhood to him and it felt-right, natural.

I finished the dishes and walked into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth. I turned to lean my back against the sink as I scrubbed and thought about the day and the things Sylvia and I had talked about. I wanted a simple wedding but I wanted it at a church. She said that one weekend she and I would take a trip to a town about an hour away that had a beautiful white church that was begging to hold a wedding. Then she insisted on having the reception at the restaurant, no ifs ands or buts.

"What are you doing?" Owen stuck his head out of the shower and looked confused.

I turned around to spit and said, "writing a dissertation."

He shut the curtain and even with the water going I could hear him say 'smarta.s.s woman.'

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I never went into the bathroom while he was in there. But we were planning a wedding, I could brush my teeth while he was in the shower right? I heard the water turn off and leaned back on the sink to see how this would all play out. His towel was right next to me on the counter and there wasn't another one in reach.

Still inside the shower he yelled, "I'm gonna count to five. Either I have a towel in my hands or you and I are going to get a lot more comfortable with each other-fast."

"You wouldn't dare. I could stand here all night and you would still be in the shower."

"One-two-three-four" I let him get all the way to five and before I threw a towel over the top of the curtain.

He stepped out and he wore the rings I bought him for Christmas and I could see a drop of water hanging on to each one. He held the edges of his towel together so tight around his hips that his knuckles had gone white.

"Aren't you the temptress tonight?" He said as he got closer to me.

I lightly ran my finger over one of the rings hooked into his chest and he visibly shuddered.

"Those look good. And all I did was brush my teeth. You're the one who's naked."

"Take a shower Nellie, you're extra dirty tonight." He laughed as he went into the bedroom with his clothes in his hand.

I showered and I thought he would get revenge by being in the bathroom when I finished but I was wrong. I went out, fully dressed and he pushed past me with a smile and brushed his teeth.

I brushed my hair while I sat on the bed when he came back into the bedroom. I was kinda ashamed of tempting him so much, especially after his little speech the other night. Kinda-but not a lot.

He checked his phone and said something about a text message from Maddox about going to a concert with him because their Dad said he was too young to go alone.

I went back to the bathroom and dried my hair. I returned to the bed and Owen was out cold on his side facing me. His arms were crossed right under his chest and a faint smile played at his lips. I leaned sideways against the door jamb and drank him in. His coal black hair, still a little wet, draped over his forehead the tiniest bit. He complained of needing a haircut and now I could see why.

This guy was mine. After years of thinking that I would never find someone who treated me well and actually cherished me, I stood right here watching that very man asleep in my bed. I smiled to myself.

"Who's the creeper now?" He asked as a full-fledged smile broke out over his face.

I let out a long defeated sigh. "Me, I'm the creeper. But I don't care; I could look at you forever."

"Don't stand way over there when you say sweet things like that. Come here."

I climbed into the bed with him and we talked for hours about wedding stuff and he made goofy suggestions to try and make me laugh.

We spent the next day skating. Well, I skated and Owen tried to skate but honestly he looked like the Hulk trying to glide on a Hot Wheels car. So he finally gave up and sat in the middle of the rink while I skated circles around him. The place was closed and we got in with Amber's keys. So after an hour or so of skating I plopped down next to him.

"I love to watch you skate." He moved some stray hairs from my shoulder.

"Feels like flying." I said as I watched the strobe lights above me.

"Why is this place so empty" He asked.

"It's closed during the week when school is in." I answered and lay back on the rink's cool floor.

"So we're alone in this big place?" I knew what he was getting at but played along anyway.

"Yep, that means I can skate all I want to without worrying about knocking anyone over."

"Huh" He said as he lay next to me.

"Huh, what?" I smiled at him knowing exactly what he was thinking about.

"Or we could make out right here in the middle so that every time you have a bout you'd spend the whole time in a full blush." He shrugged like he didn't care one way or the other.

"You'd love that you put that blush there wouldn't you?"

"Yes. Plus, I'm the last person who will ever make you blush like that."

"Sounds good to me." He sealed the pact with his warm, full lips on top of mine. Now the skating rink was my favorite place for more than one reason.

Weeks pa.s.sed and we were both super busy. Between school and learning how to run Cindi's Indie I had little time to myself or with Owen. We stayed together on the nights we didn't have cla.s.s but it never seemed to be enough. February was coming up and we were supposed to go to the cabin but somehow our getaway for two turned into a family vacation and although I loved his family, I needed some alone time. Owen came by the store a few times when he claimed he 'just couldn't take it anymore.' We had dinner with his family at least once a week and I was starting to think of them as my parents too.

One night Falcon asked Owen if he could talk to him outside and Owen agreed. They stayed outside a good while and when they came back Falcon left for the evening saying that he needed to take care of something. I gave Owen a questioning look and he whispered into my ear 'later.'

We got back to my apartment and we both got ready for bed. He lay beside me and told me how Falcon was really falling for a girl at his school and wanted Owen's advice on what to do.

"He couldn't have asked a better person. Smart kid." I said.

"I just told him to go tell her how much he liked her, I didn't know what else to tell him." He shrugged like he really didn't know how to woo a girl.

"You should've told him to ask her for gum and then wait for her to get knocked into him." I giggled.

"Hey, that was all part of my grand scheme. And don't make fun, it worked. I see a ring on your finger, don't I?" He gave me a smug grin.

"Speaking of rings, your mom and I have been talking about the wedding." I knew that he loved the fact that his mom and I were so close.

"And what did my two favorite ladies decide?" He lifted my hand and kissed my fingertips and moved up my arm as I tried to answer him coherently.

"Um-we didn't decide anything. We talked about getting married the last weekend in May." These words came out in more of a breath than a voice because now he had made his way to my shoulder and was approaching my neck.

"Mmmm" He was at the base of my ear now, "I didn't know you two had gotten so serious." He chuckled into that spot below my ear and a wave of heat moved down to my toes.

What was I talking about again?

"I'm being serious here. Is that too soon for you?" I hoped it wasn't but then again I would wait forever for him.

He ran his teeth the length of my earlobe and then said "If everyone wouldn't get so p.i.s.sed I would drag you to the nearest justice of the peace tonight and make you mine. But since my mom would kill me, I will wait as long as you need me to but it will never ever be fast enough."

I couldn't take his breath in my ear any longer. I put my arms around his neck and fisted that raven hair in my fingers and pulled him to me. He chuckled into my mouth as if it was a game and he had just won. A simple kiss turned fervent and before I knew it we were in a compromising position and though I always thought I would wait until my wedding night, I couldn't remember why for the life of me.

"Owen." It was a plea and a beg and a question all at once.

He broke the kiss and pulled back looking me in the eyes. He could see what I wanted but whether he would give it to me, I had no idea.

"Nellie, don't make me tell you 'no'. Tell me to stop. Tell me to go home. Tell me to go to h.e.l.l. Something, please."

"I can't."

"Then I have to tell you 'no'. I don't have your parents' permission. I didn't get their blessing. I asked you to marry me right here in this bed without a ring. I will make sure that at least this part is right. I will make sure you never forget the night you married me."

"Well d.a.m.n Owen, when you say it like that-I won't tempt you anymore. I promise."

"Just you walking around tempts me, angel. But when you actually try to tempt me it's downright painful." He smiled at me.

"Well that answers another question." I said as I turned off the lamp on my side of the bed.

"What question would that be?" He whispered into my ear as we tangled together for the night.

"I will definitely need the white dress."

34. Owen.

When Mom told me that the whole family had decided to spend the weekend in Arkansas with us I groaned out loud even though Nellie had already told me.

"Come on Mom. Really?" I threw myself down on the big chair in the living room.

"Yes Owen, really. You two are getting close to the wedding and being alone in a cabin is way too tempting. You know I talk to Nellie, right?" She flipped the channels on the TV like she wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.

"Yes, I know that. Fine-I'll share." I smiled while I said it but tried to sound like I was aggravated. I could never be angry with my mom for loving Nellie.

I looked at the time and knew that Nellie got off of work soon. Tomorrow was Monday before our Arkansas weekend and we were both excited, even if it meant going with my parents and my brothers. Plus Falcon asked Kate, his new girlfriend, to come along. They weren't much younger than us.

I didn't see Nellie much the next week at all. She had a big project due the week after we returned from Arkansas and it required spending a lot of time with the flirty guy Ayden or Hayden or a.s.shat. The latter is what I called him. They met on Tuesday and Thursday in the mornings at the library and though it irked me because that was our time together I understood that she needed to get her work done so she could enjoy our weekend. The week pa.s.sed slower than usual and by the time we got to Friday night I had allowed my frustration to manifest itself.

I went to Nellie's and packed her stuff up in the Navigator, again Dad didn't want me travelling with her in the Bronco. I got into the driver's side and she was staring at me.

"What?" I said.

"Why are you acting like this? Isn't this what we've been waiting for?" She said.

"Yeah, I'm just glad we're finally getting some time together." I snapped back at her and immediately regretted it.