Bestfriend or Best Lover

TWENTY FIVE

Arden's POV

The sound of my mother laughing with Mr and Mrs. Campbell had me glancing over my shoulder, but the distraction was much needed to curb my attention and fucking libido away from Belle. But it was really fucking hard to tear my gaze from Belle, who is now walking her way inside the house.

Belle's father told me to call him Ezra shortly after he'd been informed of the relationship between Belle and me, but I still caught myself being formal with him. It would be a hard habit to break.

Looking at Belle's mom giving my mother a glass of sangria, and the two of them started laughing about something else. While, Off to the side on the other end of the patio stood Mr. Campbell and my father.

They had a beer in hand as they hovered over the grill. I could tell my father was giving Belle's dad tips on grilling, and Mr. Campbell nodded enthusiastically as if he'd just been given a secret recipe. I snorted at the sight.

It's been almost a year, it was insane—in a good way—how much things had changed, how the dynamic between our families had evolved because of our relationship. Although Belle's family and mine's always treated each other like each other's extended family (since my parents are long time best friends with hers), things were vastly more comfortable between everyone.

We had Sunday dinners together, all of us, and we did these summer barbecues more frequently now. My parents and Belle's now enjoying their time off work ever since they handover the company to Campbell's eldest son Caleb and our company to me, ofcourse., but it felt just... different and weird and incredible. The position of leading the people, the responsibility, it's too overwhelming.

But, it's something I need to excell at, so I could prove myself to Belle's father that he didn't made a mistake for accepting me as his daughter's boyfriend. I'm going to do my best and make our companies stay on top, I'll work harder and do a great job because I wanted to take care of Belle. And I wanted to asked her to marry me soon.

Belle is "it" for me, she's my only one. I know we will be together forever. She'd be my wife soon enough; we'd have our own home. We'd start a family and have the dog she talked about. We'd have it all, because we had each other. And at the end of the day, that's what's important. Our love for each other. I smile foolishly at myself like a loon.

The cold wind against my shins knock me off my reverie, I glance toward the doorway. There she is, my girl. Belle walking her way back to me, her long dark hair piled high on her head, the smile she gave me making my heart beat faster.

God, I love this girl.

She beam up at me, braced her hands on my knees, and stared up at me. "Hi Handsome." She says. "You okay?"She asks, putting her hand on my cheek. I nodded smiling.

I should control being too affectionate in public with her, I don't wanna show lack of general etiquette skills. When I make out with Belle in front of other people, they would likely feel extremely uncomfortable. And It may elicit a wide range of reactions from people around us. So, I know, I should probably hold off until we are in a more private setting.

Especially since our families were a stone's throw away, but fuck it. I leaned down and cupped her face, brought my lips to hers, and kissed her.

By the time I broke away, I expected my mom or dad to scold me for being so brazen in front of them, but their conversation and laughter told me they hadn't even noticed.