We needed to live and enjoy every experience. Jett wasn’t used to doing that. He wanted to work to make experiences better for everyone else.
And he did work. A lot. I was aware that he and Bastian had a partnership that allowed him a little more time, but it wasn’t much. The partnership remained unpredictable, risky. Dangerous. But we didn’t shrink from danger. As I constantly reminded him, we barreled full speed ahead even when the signs told us to stop.
I pulled back from him. “I love you, but we’re having burgers today.”
“I’m not.” His mouth turned down. “And I thought you wanted to try being a vegetarian.”
“I tried it for a day and decided it was terrible.”
“Jesus,” he grumbled as he slid his hand in mine and pulled me toward the front doors. “Let’s go get the damn cardiac arrest food then.”
I skipped along with him and beamed when we made it to his massive pickup. He swung open the door and lifted me in. Yup, still got hot all over when he did.
He rounded the hood of the truck and got in on his side. He turned the key in the ignition and then side-eyed me. “Victory.”
“Yes,” I answered with too much humor in my voice.
He growled and leaned past me to grab my seat belt and buckle it. “You’re irritating me on purpose.”
“Probably the same way you irritated me on purpose by not getting the meat in the first place.”
He chuckled and backed out of the driveway. “I intend to get some on the side of the road before we get back home.”
“Ah. Now, there’s my fun-loving man. I see why you purposely left the meat now.”
His smile was wolfish as we drove back to the store.
Unfortunately for both of us, my phone sounded on the way back. A new song. One for my mother. Aretha belted out that there wasn’t a mountain high enough or a river wide enough to keep her from getting to us. And as if my mother knew that was her song, she rang Jett’s phone when I ignored her call.
“Vick’s answering service,” Jett answered as I smacked his arm and glared at him. He was supposed to make me scream in ecstasy on the side of a small-town road. These were goals we needed to accomplish.
Instead, he chatted with my mother, window rolled down, breeze flowing through his dark hair, while he smiled wide with one tanned forearm on the door.
“She’s here. You know she never answers that phone though. She thinks it’ll ruin her fun.” He winked at me. “I know you’re fun, Annabelle. Something’s wrong with your daughter. The sooner you get to this barbecue to straighten her out, the better.”
I rolled my eyes at their ridiculous conversation. The man joked more with my mother than I had ever known he could joke in his whole life. Since my hospital stay and a family Christmas together, we’d all gotten along better.
We had a long way to go still because we were Blakelys. We pushed until we got what we wanted. My mother still wanted a cautious daughter. I still wanted a zero-to-sixty lifestyle. I wanted to live because I still didn’t know how long my clean bill of health would last.
And it was clean. I made sure to do doctor check-ins now. I made sure to follow up with my nutritionist. I wanted to live long and be crazy healthy and crazy happy.
Loving someone did that to you, made you want to be better, live better, and live longer. It made you realize all you had to lose. I’d already been embracing the world and acknowledging its beauty, but with love, the world dazzled even brighter. I didn’t want to miss a single sparkle of it.
Every piece of life was meant to be shared with someone you loved, and I shared it all with Jett. The highs and the extreme lows. He let me wallow on my bad days and protected me fiercely in those moments.
As we pulled into the Stonewoods’ driveway, he hung up and reprimanded me for not answering. I rolled my eyes the whole time. We made quick work of getting ready for the barbecue, and then family started to show up.
As the sun descended over the lake, Jett announced we weren’t going anywhere for fireworks. “I bought some for our lake this year.”
“Shut up,” I squealed. “You did?”
His mouth kicked up. “Told you everyone at the barbecue was going to have fun.”
I barreled into him and gave him a huge hug as everyone laughed at my happiness.
We laid out blankets, and I sighed when we finally sat down on our own. Jett picked me up and set me in his lap. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and I leaned my back into his chest. “I love you for doing this,” I said as I looked up at him.
He nodded once and l scanned our family and friends. “Everyone seems happy.”