Free Bellissimo Fortuna (Beautiful Fortune) by Leigh Ann Lunsford Page A

it’s the right thing to do. I won’t take her virginity on the damn clichéd prom night. It’s overdone, expected, and I will make her first time as close to perfect as I can.
    Posing for pictures next to her is driving me nuts. With my hand around her waist, all I feel is skin because she has on a damn backless dress. My sister is the worst kind of influence on her. It’s making it challenging to keep my hormones in check. Leaning in close to her, I whisper, “You are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
    “That’s not what you said yesterday when I stripped your gears or some nonsense you were hollering at me about.” Offering to teach her to drive a stick shift has been my downfall. She’s hell on my clutch, doesn’t listen to me about how to shift, and argues with me at every turn. I try to not lose my patience with her, but it’s hard. I keep reminding her she has a driver at her disposal, but I know she needs to learn. I thought it would be best to teach her on a manual, that way she will never be stuck if it’s her only option, but I think there is just too much going on for her. Tomorrow I’ll take her out in my mom’s car, an automatic, and save myself the headache. I have no idea how she actually has a license, I’m sure some money exchanged hands. Bribery is not always the best policy.
    “Sorry, baby. You can strip my gears anytime you want.”
    “Do you mean that?”
    “Nope, tomorrow’s lesson is in my mom’s car. I can’t handle that shit anymore.” She sticks her bottom lip out, and I gently bite it and suck it in my mouth just as the flash goes off. I forgot we had an audience. My mom is beaming, my dad looking the other way, and Callie . . . she is fucking glowing.
    The drive to prom was quick; Dakota and Bianca ditched us for a limo. Dakota is really trying to impress her, but she still isn’t coming around to his way of thinking. She still refuses to acknowledge she has feelings for him, and I can’t discuss much with him because that’s my sister. I just keep telling him to hang in there and then remind him not to hurt her.
    Dancing with her to ‘Fall for You’ by Secondhand Serenade, I make a decision I need to talk to her about. I know I can’t pursue the DEA dream, even if my dad never was implicated in any bust I did, there is always someone in the business, no matter how loyal you think they are, they will turn on you, and any DA would want the big fish and cut the little minnow a deal. Rats. They’re everywhere. Always learning, always collecting evidence, and I can’t be in that predicament when it comes to my father. He will only have one judge in my eyes, and he has to answer to Him, never to me. I know as much as it will kill me to leave her, I have to. I have to explore what else is out there for me, not who else is out there, but I have to know if I can fully leave my dream and this life behind and create a new life for us.
    “I’m going to FSU, for one year. After that you’ll be graduating, and we can figure out where we go, together.”
    The tears shine in her eyes, but I also see pride. “I’m so proud of you. Thank you.” I know she has been worried about me not going because of her, but I’m going for her.
    “I can come home every weekend; it’s only five hours.”
    “No, you won’t. You’re going away to experience something other than this. I’m not going anywhere and I trust you. I trust in us. I’m not going to lie and say it will be easy. I’ll miss you like crazy, but, Bronson, you have to experience it all.” Her eyes dart down, and I know what she is insinuating. She kills me.
    “I have everything I need in my arms. I’m going for the education, the space away from what we have grown up with, and to be a better man for you. I’m not leaving you, or us, ever. Don’t think that, Callie.” By the expression on her face I know I haven’t fully reached her, but the fact she will remain faithful and mine, while she thinks I am