Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Messages and Muffins

New Years Eve

-NATALIE-

The sound of my phone buzzing lured me awake and I groaned as I rolled over to grab it off my nightstand with all intentions of putting it on silent, but instead I found a new text message waiting for me.

Good morning! Can't wait to finally see u today, I miss your smile xoxo

Instantly a smile came to my face and I felt butterflies fill my stomach.

Every morning for the past week I'd started my day with a text from DJ—but each time my phone buzzed me awake, I was always pleasantly surprised to find his greetings.

After spending so much time looking and searching for that elusive perfect guy "out there", I never failed to marvel at the fact that he'd been right there by my side all along and I couldn't stop replaying DJ's confession of his love for me over and over in my head. It was everything that I'd ever wanted to hear from a guy and so much more.

While DJ had expressed that our close friendship had been the reason why he hadn't wanted to make a move, the fact that we had been friends for so long just made me love him more. I didn't have to go through the mental acrobatics of debating if he was coming from a genuine place—I knew that he was because I knew him and he knew me. I didn't have to go through the process of playing flirting games to try to impress him, I could be comfortable in my own shoes and know that he genuinely, truly liked me.

I was the first person on his mind each morning and he was absolutely the first person on mine.

Thus, after spending the last week grounded besides family activities, I was more than thrilled to get to spend New Years Eve at the Woods', which meant that I'd be spending New Years Eve with DJ and we'd get to kiss when the clock struck midnight to seal our new beginning.

I tapped the call button to dial DJ and I pressed the phone to my ear.

After a couple of short rings, he answered in a sleepy voice, "Hey, Tallie."

My smile widened at the sound of the nickname that had gradually transformed from a joke referring back to our younger years to one of endearment that only he called me, "Hey, I got your message, good morning to you too."

"It isn't too early is it? I thought about it after I sent it, but I couldn't sleep thinking about today. I didn't wake, did I?"

"You did, but it's fine, I was dreaming about you anyway."

"Really?" he asked. "Don't tell me you had a nightmare that's made you change your mind about telling your parents."

I rolled over on my stomach, "No way, I was just dreaming about our New Years kiss."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked. "How was it?"

"There were fireworks," I grinned.

"No kidding?" he teased.

"No kidding," I repeated and coiled my hair around my finger.

"Wow, never would've guessed that one," his voice held a laugh and I could imagine him smiling as my heart skipped.

"But speaking of parents," I switched my phone to my other hand. "I'm planning to finally tell mine at breakfast. I kind of wanted to let the week go by and the one-who-shall-not-be-named drama die off a bit, but I think we've gotten past it. We've done all the talking about rules of dating moving forward and I'm finally not grounded—besides having to get permission when I want to go somewhere. I think it'd be good to tell them now."

"Well, I actually kind of think they already know," he chuckled.

"Seriously?" my eyes widened. "What makes you think that?"