Finding Love Again

Chapter 13

I woke in the morning to the smell of bacon, realising I was tangled up in Cody’s arms and legs. I lay there watching him sleep, smiling as he slowly stirred awake. He opened his eyes, looking at me, a smile forming. “Good morning beautiful” he mumbled. I responded with a soft kiss, smiling myself. “What are you smiling about?” He asked me. “You. There was a time I didn’t know if I would ever be able to feel happy again, or even be able to feel at all. You changed all that.” I gave him another sweet kiss, getting out of bed and opening the blinds to take in the view. The ocean was sparkling blue as the sun got warmer for the day. I couldn’t wait to head to the beach, but first I needed some of that bacon I could smell. I pulled on a light sweater over my singlet, still wearing my pj shorts. Cody got up pulling a t-shirt and some basketball shorts on. We headed down to breakfast to find everyone else was already up and enjoying breakfast. 

“Good morning lovebirds” Aunt Mel said, with a cheeky grin on her face. I blushed slightly, oh god please tell me they didn’t hear us. 

“How did you sleep?” Grant asked. “Yeah, great! That bed is amazing and the view in the morning! I’m impressed!” I replied, sitting down to help myself to some breakfast. Cody poured us each a black coffee and sat down as we heard Dan snigger to Ash “sure it was just the comfy bed that made you sleep well”. I just about spat my mouthful of coffee out and Cody stifled a laugh. Jill shot the boys a glare and they knew to be quiet. Omg I’m going to die of embarrassment. I ate slowly, not meeting anyone eyes. 

As I was clearing my breakfast dishes, Aunt Mel approached me, she quietly said “you know they were just teasing, but your reactions gave you away.” Again embarrassed, I excused myself “I’m just going to go get dressed I think.” 

We were heading to the beach today, so I got out my white and navy striped bikini, the top was supportive, with a halter neck and a slight push up. The twist in the material at the front made my boobs look amazing, the bottoms a full bikini bottom, I work hard on my body, I knew I was hot and confident, so I didn’t need a skimpy bikini, just one that complimented me perfectly. I put a light summer dress over the top. Soon after Cody, Ash, Dan, Hayley and myself headed over the road to the beach. The parents said they would join us later. 

We found a spot on the sand, laying out my towel, I took my dress off, looking behind me I could see Cody standing there with Ash and Dan next time him, as I stood in my bikini Cody winked at me, but what made me laugh was beside him where Ash and Dan stood with their mouths hanging open. Cody noticed me look and laugh and turned to them, laughing himself, “you’ll catch flies in those mouths boys!” They snapped back to reality as Cody ran up behind me, catching me by surprise as he tickled my sides then ran off to the water. I quickly followed, after some payback for the surprise attack. We swam and mucked around in the water, all of us having a race swimming out to the buoy and back. Cody won of course, then Dan, Hayley and me and Ash trailing. “Ok I’m going to lie in the sun after that! You wore me out! I’m meant to be fit too!” 

I returned to our towels as Aunt Mel was taking a seat too. 

“Hey!” I said cheerfully. I was determined to move on from any awkwardness of the morning. 

“Hello darling! How are you doing?” 

“Great! What a great beach! Also a great family, I enjoy spending my time with everyone here” I said as we watched the siblings wrestling in the water. 

“They are great. Cody really likes you, I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he does you.” I just smiled at that thought. She continued “I heard about Jill’s antics inviting that trash to your dinner last weekend. She will come around you know. Cody is just her first born, she isn’t ready to let him go to just any girl and she has seen him hurt before. She’s very protective of all her children.” 

“Yeah, I understand. I’ve just given her no reason to be so hostile towards me. However, I’m not going to be driven away. We make each other so happy, I wasn’t sure I could ever be happy again this time a year ago, so I’ll fight for my own happiness.” We sat in silence for a few moments as Jill came down the beach, setting up her beach seat next to Mel. None of us spoke for a bit, Mel however seemed to want to ask more. 

“You look like you want to ask me something Mel? I’m an open book, I have nothing to hide so feel free.” 

“I was told about your past. How you were nearly married, what you’ve dealt with. In the interest of protecting my first nephew...” 

“You want to know if that means I want to get married soon? The answer is no. My past won’t define my future. Sure it taught me a lot, but the things that happen to you in life don’t define you, sometimes you get dealt a shitty hand. It’s the way you respond to those things that make you, I’m extremely resilient. That’s not saying I won’t have my bad days but right now, Cody makes me really happy. Sure I want to see a future with him, but there’s no pressure. We are enjoying each other and getting to everything about each other. If I’ve learnt anything this past year, it’s that you never know what’s around the corner, so just live each day, love hard and soak in the good times. This here today, this is a good time. Just look at them all laughing” 

“You are one remarkable young woman” was all she could say. I looked at her and smiled, then looked to Jill who was listening to every word, she looked at me and smiled warmly, finally genuinely smiling at me. I then turned my attention to the water, Cody was watching the three of us, I could tell he was very curious about what was being talked about. I blew him a kiss, reassuring him that everything was ok. I then lay down to soak up the sun. 

About 20 minutes after I lay down, I suddenly felt the sun disappear as a shadow stood over me, looking up I could see Cody’s wet body standing over me, grinning stupidly. “You’re blocking my sun!” 

“I thought maybe you had fallen asleep. Don’t want you to get too burnt, it’s no fun if your in pain for the rest of the weekend.” He sat beside me. “How thoughtful of you” I looked around and saw that Jill and Mel had gone to the water, I must have dozed off as I didn’t notice them get up. Cody leaned in, “at least, not that sort of pain” he said winking. I shook my head, “so we can have more comments tomorrow morning? My god I nearly died of embarrassment this morning!” “They were just teasing babe, the knew nothing. Just suspected. Plus now they’ve all seen that hot body your hiding under your clothes, no man in their right mind would resist you” I shook my head, rolling my eyes. Cody laughed and changed the topic. “So tonight we are all going to the fair, that ok?” 

“Absolutely! Can’t wait!! I love fairs, the rides and the games!” We both lay down to soak some more in the sun, Cody reached to hold my hand as we lay there enjoying each other’s company.