Hope is Rising

14. Late Mornings

He lead me to the back of the house where the pool illuminated everything. The breeze flowed through the trees near the house. It was all like a dream.

"You seriously don't have to get me anything," I said as he reached into his pocket.

As I said this, he pulled out a beautiful flower pendant necklace with a sparkling diamond in the center.

I couldn't think of the words to say.

"Dylan, It's...perfect!" I managed to say to him.

I turned around as he put necklace around my neck and picked me up.

"Dylan?" I began to say as he started to run toward the pool.

He was just laughing.

"Dylan, no!" I said I felt the water plunge around us.

"Babe," I said as I came up for a breath, "I'm soaked!" I secretly enjoyed it but I wasn't going to tell him.

"That was the point," he replied smiling at me.

"What was that for?" I said jokingly.

"For this," he said as his lips pressed into mine. I moaned as the kiss deepened. It was a passionate kiss with so many feelings.

Then, we heard voices from above us on the balcony.

"Can you lovebirds please get out of the pool? We're about to start watching a movie," Emma and Madeline yelled.

Apparently we were being spied on.

"Ughh, fine," Dylan said sarcastically as he helped me get out of the pool.

We went inside and dried off. I put on some of the new clothes that I had bought today.

I spent the whole night with Emma, Madeline, and Dylan. We sat on the floor and Emma, Madeline, and I painted our nails, put makeup on each other, and other girly stuff. We had a fun night of laughing. And yes, we forced Dylan watch classic girly movies.

I had previously called my boss Mr. Ralsh and told him that I would be unable to come to work because of my head injury. He graciously allowed me to take the day off tomorrow.

The last thing I remember that night was falling asleep on the couch next to Dylan after it was really late.

"WAKE UPPPP!!!!" was all I heard as I opened my eyes. Apparently, I had fallen asleep on top of Dylan. He began to stir and open his eyes as he heard yelling. As I looked around, I noticed that Emma and Madeline were armed with pillows ready to attack Dylan and me.

"Go away, you two!" Dylan said sleepily. "Some people are actually trying to sleep around here."

But they wouldn't leave that easily. They began to hit us with the pillows.

I shrank into Dylan's side.

Dylan, who had obviously been waken up in the way before, pulled the pillow from beneath his head and started hitting them back.

"It's on!" they yelled as the ran behind a couch.

"Give us five minutes," he told them, "and then we can have a pillow fight."

"Fine," they said as they left the room slowly.

"Sorry, babe," he said as he began to sit up. "Ever since we were kids, Matt and I always won the pillow fights, and they've been trying to get Matt and I back whenever they can."

"That's okay," I said. "It reminds me of the pillow fights my brother and I used to get into when we were kids," I told him.

We went up stairs and he gave me a tour of the second floor. There were so many well furnished rooms. We stopped at his room.

"Do you want something to change into?" he asked me.

"I can just wear what I wore yesterday," I began. Madeline had given me a pair of pajamas to wear last night.

"Emma!" he yelled from across the hall, "Give Steph something of yours to wear!"

She came out of her room holding a red top and a pair of white jean shorts.

"Thanks," I said as Dylan showed me where a bathroom was so I could change.

I changed and fixed my unruly hair and went back to Dylan's room. I was still wearing the necklace he gave me.

"You ready to win this pillow fight?" he asked as I came out of the bathroom.

"Of course," I said smiling.

He handed me so many pillows that I could barely see in front of me.

We went downstairs to find Emma and Madeline waiting for us. It was a full fledged pillow fight. Let's just say we won by a landslide. I mean, who are we kidding? We're professionals.

We finally went into the kitchen and made ourselves sandwiches because it was about noon.

We talked about so many things as we ate.

"Guess what?" Emma asked eagerly.

"What?" we all said.

"We get to go surfing tonight!" she replied.

"And Matt and Kate get to pay for our dinner tonight, since we one that popcorn fight a few days ago," Dylan added.

I had totally forgotten about that. That was only a few days ago? I felt like I had known Dylan for an eternity and I loved every minute of it.

"I still have to pick out a swimsuit to wear," Madeline said.

They finished eating and ran upstairs leaving Dylan and I to do whatever we want until it was time to leave for dinner.

"Want to go outside?" Dylan asked me breaking me from my thoughts.

"Sure, that sounds nice," I said as he opened to door for me.

We talked about too many things to count from the navy dance to tonight.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked me. It was like he read my mind.

"Oh, nothing," I said smiling as I took his hand. "Just about us."

"Oh really?" He said smirking. "What about us?"

"I don't know, just remembering everything we've done together," I began.

"Well, I've got a question for you if you don't mind," he said.

I nodded. "Okay, what?"

"What really happened between you and your ex?" he said seriously.

I figured he should know the full story since he had only heard little pieces of it. I told him literally everything there was to know.

"I'm sorry you had to meet him like you did at the beach," I finished.

"It's okay I just want to protect you from anything he might try tonight," he said. "I'm not going to let you out of my sight."

"Thanks, babe. I'm going to have to talk to him about what he did right before the accident. Maybe you can be there to help me?"

"Of course," he said. "I would do anything for you."

He leaned forward and passionately pressed his lips into mine. I didn't want this moment to end. It was perfect.

Suddenly, his phone rang and interrupted the moment.

He reluctantly broke away and answered.

"Hello?"

A/N: For those of you who have read since the time I started the book, you know that the Wattpad app deleted this chapter, so I had to republish. For the rest of us, disregard that entire sentence hehe :) What do you think of Steph and Dylan? And who is calling Dylan?? Hopefully not more bad news. Rememer to comment and vote for more! :) ~Elizabeth