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“You’re welcome. But there’s one more thing that I got for you.”
He pulled his cellphone out of his shorts pocket, blocked me from seeing what he was doing on the screen, and then looked at me, grinning from ear to ear. “Ready?”
“I hope so.”
The second I heard music start coming from the direction of the patio, I buried my face in Rhys’s chest and squealed, “Oh—my—gosh! You did not!”
“I did halfway.”
Not understanding, I looked up. “What do you mean?”
“I got the speakers on Friday, too, and Jackson installed them while you and I were at my parents’ house earlier.”
“Rhys, all of this is too much.”
“No, it isn’t. I enjoy making you smile.”
While Rhys and I ate the shish kabobs at his patio table, he streamed a music station called “Backroads Radio” through the newly installed speakers. Our dessert was half the watermelon. We wiped it out with spoons and a shared saltshaker, giggling as juice dripped down our chins.
“Come here to me,” Rhys said, patting his lap.
I got up from my chair, stepped over to him, and plopped down on his thighs, facing the lake like he was doing. He wrapped his arms around me, and I rested my head against his.
“I don’t want you to leave tomorrow,” he whispered.
“I don’t want to, either.”
“Are you spending tonight with me?”
I sighed. “As much as I want to, I should spend my last night in town at my momma and daddy’s. I hope you understand.”
He squeezed me tighter. “I do. Would you be willing to go to church with me in the morning?”
I turned my head to look at him. “I would.”
“It’ll feel like old times, too.”
“Rachel told me that you stopped going after I ended us.”
“I did. Although my parents, yours, Jackson, Rachel, and Macie would’ve been there, I couldn’t bring myself to go because I couldn’t imagine sitting on our old pew without you beside me.”
“That’s exactly why I haven’t been since last year. Thankfully, my family has understood and never pressured me. Not even my grandpa. He’s going to love seeing us at his church again.”
“Does he know about you and me?”
“That we’re back together?”
“Yes.”
“My daddy told him.”
“Do you know what he had to say about it?”
I smiled. “That God answered his prayer.”
“He answered mine, too.”
CH 23 -#amazinggrace
