"She's so adorable." I say, looking at the picture of Hanna and Liam's baby girl.

The team came back last evening and Riley also came back last night. So, Ethan and I had the whole day to ourselves, but it's not like we did something productive. All we did was switch between the kitchen and the bed. There were a lot of conversations involved, but not so many clothes.

"Liam and Hanna are blessed." I continue as I return Ethan's phone to him. We are currently having breakfast while Riley is fast asleep in her room and Dani is with Mason.

"We all are." He says, locking his phone and placing it on the table.

He turns back to face me and my heart melts when I notice the soft smile on his face. His eyes connect with mine and for a moment, we simply look at each other. I can see the happiness radiating off of his face, and I'm sure he can see the glow on mine.

"You know, I don't think I told you how grateful I'm that you want to be with me." He says with a light smile on his face.

"I think I already know." I tell him as I trail my eyes over his face. "Because I'm equally, if not more, grateful that you still accepted me after I acted so stupidly."

He looks down, and the smile slips off his face for a second, and I fear that I might have said something wrong. But then he looks up and meets my eyes with a determined expression.

"It wasn't stupid. You were scared. It's okay to want to protect yourself." He tells me and I know he means it. He's not saying this only to make me feel better, but because he believes it.

Through these years, I've felt bad for having trust issues. I always felt like I made life harder for myself because I couldn't trust people, as Dani did.

Suddenly feeling overwhelmed, I decided to skip on words and instead lean ahead and kiss the man sitting in front of me, who makes me feel valid.

It wasn't a rough kiss, but a sweet one. I appreciate you, is what I wanted to communicate through that kiss.

Pulling back, I can't keep the smile off of my face. "Thank you."

"Always." He says, squeezing my hand that he's holding.

"Speaking of always, I wanted to ask you something..." He trails off with a nervous look on his face and I feel a little uneasy because I've never seen Ethan nervous before.

"So, you know how Liam and Hanna were planning their wedding, and they wanted to do it after the baby is at least a year old?" He says, looking down at our joined hands.

I nod silently with scrunched brows before he continues, "Well, they decided to move the wedding forward because they don't want to spend another day not married to each other."

A huge smile takes over my face and I feel happy for Hanna and Liam because, with everything they've been through in the last couple of weeks, they deserve to celebrate.

"So, when's the wedding?" I ask, and my happy voice forces Ethan to look up.

"In a month." He tells me, making me smile.

"That's great, Ethan." I say, genuinely feeling happy for Hanna and Liam.

"Yeah, it is." He says, smiling. His thumb absently strokes the back of my hand as his eyes run over my face.

"Can you just say whatever you wanna say?" I say, sighing. "You're kinda freaking me out."

It's very obvious that Ethan wants to say something, but he's nervous.

"That obvious?" He chuckles, but even that sounds strained.

"Very." I say, biting my lip.

"I wanted to ask you if you would do me the honor of being my date to the wedding?"

His words bring a huge smile to my face, and the fact that he was nervous about asking me makes this ten times better.

"You're such a teddy bear." I say, cheekily and lightly pinch his cheeks. He slaps my hand away before a small frown forms on his face.

"I'm not a teddy bear." He groans, making me laugh.

"It's okay. You're in the denial phase right now." I say, continuing to tease him.

"Such a baby." He says, trying to seem pissed, but I can see the small smile playing on his lips. He gets up from the couch, shaking his head, and starts to walk away, but I reach out and grab his hand.

As my hand latches around his wrist, he stops and turns his head around to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I'd love to be your date for the wedding." I tell him with a small smile on my face as I watch a bigger one grow on his.

⤎❁⤏

After an hour of convincing, the guys finally agreed to come to the amusement park with us. It was something Riley, Dani, and I wanted to do for a long time and today felt like the perfect day as everyone was back in the city.

"Why amusement park?" Noah groans as we step out of the cars and head towards the ticket counter. The long line in front of it makes me want to repeat Noah's words.

"Because I haven't been to an amusement park in the longest time." Dani says, smiling at the sight of the huge entrance gate.

We all move forward to join the queue. Ethan, Noah, and Mason walk a few steps ahead of Riley, Dani, and me, giving Riley the perfect opportunity to fire her questions at me.

"So, did he ask you to be his date for the wedding?" Riley asks me, looking practically giddy, causing Dani to chuckle.

"Yes, he did." I roll my eyes at her excitement but couldn't stop the small smile from blossoming on my face.

"Finally, my fool of a brother does something right." She sighs with a relieved smile, making Dani and I laugh. The guys turn their heads around when they hear our laughter, making me bite my lip to suppress the huge grin on my face.

After sharing an amused glance, the three of them turn back around, but just before Ethan turns around, I see his eyes zone in on the lip that I'm still biting.

Smirking slightly, I shake my head before we pick up our speed and stand directly behind the guys in the queue.

"What about you?" I say, turning to Riley. "Who is your date?"

Hearing my questions, Riley thinks for a while before shrugging, "I don't know. I haven't thought of someone yet."

"You really can't think of anyone?" Dani says as if the thought shocks her. In front of us, Noah, Mason, and Ethan are still talking about their game on Friday.

The sun is shining too bright on top of our heads, making me raise a hand and place it on top of my forehead, creating a poor sun shield for my face.

"I don't know... I haven't met someone worth taking to a wedding." She says, shrugging.

"Yet." Dani adds, smirking before leaning forward to hear something Mason is saying to her.

"Yet." Riley repeats her words with raised eyebrows and shakes her head.

"What?" I ask, confused about her reaction.

"It's been a while since we started college and I haven't been on a single date. So, I don't think I'm gonna find anyone soon." She sighs, more dejected than upset.

"Hey. You're gonna find someone." I say, leaning my head against hers. "Who knows? Maybe the next person you stumble into is your one true love." I exaggerate, trying to make her feel better.

Pulling away from me, Riley looks at my face with a funny expression on her face. "One true love? Seriously?"

"God, it's hardly been a month since you got into a relationship. Next thing I know, you'll go on and on about soulmates." She continues, making me laugh.

"Hey, they are a happy new couple." Mason says, turning around to face us, making me realize that they've been listening to the conversation, but didn't want to make Riley feel awkward by intervening earlier.

"Yeah, you gotta let the girl live." Dani says, grinning. With a shake of her head and a goofy smile, Riley raises her hands in surrender before taking a step back.

"This queue is awfully long." Noah says, groaning.

"I agree." I groan along with him before taking a step forward to stand in Ethan's shadow. "Why did we let Dani bully us into this?"

"Because my ideas always end up being fun." She says, flicking her hair over her shoulder for the effect.

"I agree." Ethan says, making me look up at him.

"You don't get to agree. You two plan all this behind our backs." I accuse with narrowed eyes.

"But you end up having fun, don't you?" He says, looking down at me with a smirk. I regret my choice of wearing sneakers because now I look like a minion in front of him.

"Back me up, Noah." I say, looking at Noah, who looks like he's having too much fun hearing us argue.

"Sorry, too much sun for me to do anything." He says, shrugging with a smirk.

His words leave my mouth hanging. "Traitor."

Before anyone else could say anything, the queue moves ahead and the person behind the ticket window motions for us to come ahead, making the guys turn back around to buy the tickets.

Sighing, I start to look around the place, and before I even realize it; I wrap my arms around Ethan's abdomen and lean my head against his back.

It's only when Dani calls my name that I look at her to find her holding her phone in her hands, with the camera positioned at my face.

"Smile." She says before she clicks the picture.

Ethan turns his neck around slightly and looks down at me, making me look up.

He smiles at me slightly, before saying, "You look like a koala bear."

His words make me laugh and his smile grows wider as our eyes connect.

"Got the tickets. Let's go." Noah announces, making us both look away. I detach myself from him as all of us walk inside the amusement park.

I take a second to absorb everything. It's huge and very colorful, to say the least. The sun beating down on us isn't bothering me anymore.

"Where to first?" Dani asks all of us, looking like a kid on a sugar rush.

⤎❁⤏

"You're terrible at this." Ethan laughs when my last ring also doesn't fall into the neck of a bottle.

"This is a skill I can live without." I fold my arms grumpily.

All of us played a few games together when we entered before deciding to go our separate ways when it became frustratingly difficult to find an activity we wanted to do as a group.

"Did anyone tell you this before, Reed?" Ethan says, amused. "You're a sore loser."

My eyes grow wide as my lips part in shock when I hear his words.

"I am not a sore loser." I say, narrowing my eyes.

"Uh-huh. Right." He says mockingly before turning around and paying for five more rings.

"I am not a sore loser." I repeat, with more force this time.

"I agreed, didn't I?" He says, smiling at me cheekily.

I finally realize what he's doing. He's trying to rile me up so that I prove his point, which I did. When I look back up at him with a gaping mouth, he smirks at me, knowing I realized his trick, but that doesn't matter because I played right into his hands.

"Oh, just shut up." I roll my eyes at his victorious smirk, making him laugh before he wraps an arm around my neck and pulls me to him.

Pressing a kiss behind my ear, he asks, "Now, tell me what do you want."

I can't help the shiver that runs down my body because of his words and low voice, even though I know that's not what he meant. Looking up slightly, I see him smirk and I know that was exactly the reaction he expected.

Taking a moment to collect myself, I turn my head slightly towards him. "You know what I want." I say in almost a whisper.

Once I see the dark look in his eyes, I smile with satisfaction before saying, "The biggest teddy bear."

It's a treat to watch his expression change from one of lust to one of betrayal. I chuckle before stepping out of his arm.

Pushing him towards the stall, "Now, go. Be my knight in shining armor and get me the teddy bear."

I watch with my lips parted as he swings the rings towards the bottles and each one of them lands on the neck of a bottle, perfectly.

"Congratulations." The man behind the counter says, smiling politely.

Ethan turns his neck to look at me with a glorious smirk on his face, making me pout a little, but that doesn't last long. As soon as I see the big teddy bear, a smile erupts on my face.

"Here you go." He hands over the teddy bear to Ethan, who grabs it and turns around to face me.

"Here you go." Ethan repeats those words to me, holding the teddy bear out to me.

"Aw, thank you." I grab the fluffy beige-colored bear.

"It's almost as big as you." Ethan muses and I realize he is right, making me chuckle. I watch as Ethan takes out his phone from his jean pocket.

"Pose please." He says, holding the camera in front of me. I smile just as he clicks the button.

"Come here." I say, holding a hand out to him. He grabs my hand and instead pulls me to him. Wrapping an arm around my waist, he holds up the phone in front of us and clicks a picture.

After a few more pictures, we start walking around the amusement park looking for something that might interest us. Instead, we stumble into Noah and Riley, who look like they were arguing before they met us.

"Why did you have to tickle me while I was shooting my shot?" Riley huffs.

"Because you kicked me in the shin when I was shooting mine." Noah says, equally pissed.

"What were you guys doing? Wrestling?" Ethan asks, looking at them with an unimpressed expression on his face.

"This stupid, stupid asshole tickled me and I didn't get to win the turtle that I wanted." Riley tells us with a pout.

"That was an ugly turtle, anyway." Noah shrugs like it's no big deal, which pisses off Riley even more.

"That only ugly one here is you." She says, punching Noah in the arm.

"Damn it, woman! Stop with the violence." Noah grabs Riley's arm as she goes to punch him again.

"Stop acting like kids, you two." Ethan scolds them, making me chuckle under my hand.

"What were you two doing, anyway?" Noah asks before his eyes finally settle on the gigantic teddy bear in Ethan's arms.

"Winning prizes everywhere, unlike you two." I say, cheekily.

Noah starts to say something but stops short when my phone rings. Taking out my phone from my pocket, I look at the caller ID and my mood instantly deflates. I contemplate not receiving it but then sigh, realizing that she'll continue calling if I don't answer it right away.

"I'll be right back." I say to everyone else before walking away from them.

I take a deep breath before answering the call, "Hello."

"Hi, sweetheart." The honey-like voice of a woman pours in from the other side of the phone.

"Hi, mom."

⤎❁⤏

Hey guys! So, how's that for a cliffhanger?

I hope all of you are doing great. I have been super busy, trying to get my messy life together.

Anyone who anticipated Momma Reed's appearance?

I'm still unsure about my update schedule but I promise that everything will become a lot more clear in two weeks. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer them.

Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed the chapter. Follow me on Wattpad and Instagram (spiicychoco) for more.

QOTD: What's your favorite song lyric?

Stay safe, stay grateful!