Love At First Swing

Chapter 4

Hunter sat me down on the couch and starred me down before finally letting me in on what was making him so irritated.

"Laken why in the world do you think that their death was your fault?"

"Because it was, they were looking for me. I was the one that fell asleep and forgot to call them and tell them where I was and who I was with. If I had just called them and explained that I was with you the-"

"Lay, you were not the one that was drinking at the wheel that night. And you have to know that God only takes people when it is their time, if it hadn't been in the crash it would have been something else."

"But it was a crash Hunter, a crash they were in because they were driving around in the middle of the night looking for me and I have barely been able to live with the guilt of it everyday since."

"Listen to me Laken this is not your fault, and anyone who says otherwise is going to have to answer to me. The only person at fault here was the man that got drunk and the proceeded to drive to fast in the wrong lane."

Hunter was trying so hard to comfort me and somewhere inside me I knew that he was right but the five month old sting of their death felt brand new in my heart and I was not going to be able to move past it anytime soon. I was thankful though to finally have a shoulder to lean on again, I had missed the comfort that undoubtedly came from Hunter more than anything, second only to my parents. And it was thrilling to finally have at least one of the two back. Being back with Hunter was natural, we fit together like puzzle pieces and though I had been gone for awhile we fit together all the same and it felt good to know that some things would never change. After Hunter had managed to calm me down we sat their snuggled up together in the most comfortable silence I had ever witnessed for myself. If Hunter would ever wake up and realize we were perfect then my world would be as close to complete as it could be since the accident.

"Laken what do you think about moving into the farm house when we get married? This has always been our special place and eventually I'm going to be in charge of the ranch."

"I think that I love this house more than words, and that if I'm going to have to live with you then this is exactly where I want to do it."

"Have to live with me? You make it sound like some sort of punishment."

"Well it isn't like you are dying to marry me. Hell when you told me about it you plain said that you wish you didn't have to."

"Well what sane person wants to get married at 17."

"Point taken."

The way he laughed was contagious. The boy had a hearty laugh, like it was from his stomach and spread all over his body, it made his whole body shake and his smile grow. His laugh made my toes curl and my stomach flip over, it was one of the many things that I loved about him. And I couldn't help but join in on laughing with him.

"Does living here mean that I finally get to repaint this place? And that we can put marble countertops in the kitchen? Because I have been trying to get your grandpa to fix this place up forever now and he never listens to me."

"Well when we get married it will be our place to do whatever we want with. Want to go take a look around, tell me what you think we should do with the rooms."

Hunter got up off the couch and grabbed my hand pulling me up too and then leading me down out of the living room and into the hallway. The first room we came up to was the old nursery.

"This has always been my favorite room in the house, I've always loved how it seemed to be frozen in time. It might even be the only room in this house that I don't want to change."

"Well at the very least it needs new furniture, that bed is probably a hundred years old and definitely not safe for any baby."

"Is there going to be any babies to need new furniture," I said hoping and praying he would say something that would hint to me that he wanted a real marriage with me.

"Well, I've got siblings that are married, we may have nieces or nephews soon," Hunter mumbled after a long pause. A pause I hope is code that wasn't what he really meant.

And with that we walked to the next room and continued laughing about the things we would change and what we would use the room for until we reached our room. Or at least the room we always fell asleep in on our many nights hiding out in this old house.

"This may not be the master bed room but it is definitely ours, or are we not doing that? You know what we can figure that out later," I rattled out hoping it was to fast for him to catch that I assumed we were going to share a bed.

"You're right, this is our room. We may never be a normal married couple but we will always be best friends and this has been our room since we were kids taking naps during the summer barbecues and this will be our room when were taking naps when were ninety."

"Not if I kill you before then, living with you is going to take a lot out of me."

"Oh whatever Laken Marie, you know damn well that I am your favorite person in this world. Can you honestly tell me that you would rather marry someone else?"

And with that I tried to laugh it off, because if I was honest their wasn't another person. If I was honest marring Hunter was a dream come true. And the only thing that was holding me back from being the happiest girl in the world right now was knowing my parent were going to miss it all, and not knowing how he really felt about me.