Hello, Sweetheart

B O N U S C H A P T E R

I'm in the car. Keaton's car. Like the first time I was with him. The first time this all started. 

But its real. Not fake this time. Keaton Hayes is mine and I'm his. 

But we're in his car, outside my parents' house in my childhood hometown. The smell of salty water and the squawk of the seagulls remind me of home. Every childhood memory fills through my mind. 

Sitting on the beach, walking to work and smelling the fresh boardwalk fries being made and put in checkered boxes. The smell of ketchup mixture with the fries. The sand in between my toes. 

Keaton puts a hand on my knee, his thumb carefully smoothing over my knee. "You sure you want to do this? Their reaction might not be...good." 

I nod and look out the window. "I'm ready. Even if it goes to complete shit." I smile and look away from the window, looking at him. 

He grins and grabs a bouquet of flowers from the back. "Thought these fit the moment." I laugh at the mysterious blue flowers we haven't decided what the hell their official name was. 

"The mysterious, beautiful blue flowers. Never will know the name." I grab the flowers and smile. 

"Might not know the name, but we'll know the story." He presses a kiss to my forehead and gets out of the car, walking to the passenger side to open my door to allow me to get out. 

I step out of the car, fixing the sundress I had on, getting comfortable with the warm weather. 

I grab his hand, the bouquet of flowers in the opposite. I walk up to the door, gently kicking the hot pink soccer ball into the grass out of our direction. I squeeze his hand and look up at him smiling. 

I knock on the door. Watching the door open and looking at the doorway I used to walk through every day. I look to see the blonde girl standing in the memory filled doorway to see its my sister and pull her into a giant hug when she squeals my name. 

Tears fill my eyes from finally being connected with my sister after our long separation. 

"Lacey, I missed you so much, you don't understand." She pulls me in even tighter, eventually pulling away and raising her eyebrows up and down, knocking her hip into mine. 

"And who's this gorgeous man?" she smiles.

I glare at her and roll my eyes. "This is my boyfriend." I grin at the word. Finally real. "Keaton Hayes." 

He reaches his hand out to shake my sisters. She surprised by his proper gesture and hesitated before shaking his hand carefully, smiling. 

"Where's mom?" I look behind her shoulder once their greeting is finished. 

Almost like on que, a medium heighted lady walks towards the doorway. 

"Lillian who are you talking-" She has a purple shirt on with light blue jeans, she's removing her garden gloves that have the floral print on them and she stops her sentence once she sees me. 

"Honey get in here!" She hollers who I'm guessing is for my dad. She runs towards me and wraps her arms around me in a hug, I look over her shoulder to see dad walking towards us, also instantly hugging me. 

"Oh lacey." He says, placing a hand on the back of my head.

This is what home is. 

Everything is normal. Everything is perfectly fine. This is what I missed. I missed the warm hug of my parents. The refreshing smell of the perfume my mom constantly wore. The same sneakers my dad had on when he mowed the grass that are now dyed green from the fresh cut grass. 

Now this, this is what I missed.