Ever After Awaits (Layla) novel Chapter 141

Chapter 141: Cade POV

There’s something about the sound of her laughter echoing over water that hits harder than it

should.

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It’s been almost half an hour since we turned into a pack of feral teenage boys and chased her into the lake like our only job was to make her laugh so hard that she couldn’t even run straight. Since AJ cannonballed so close to me, I swear I felt my ribs rattle. Since Xavier pretended not to sprint, and still nearly beat me there. Since Hunter pulled off the quietest flank move I’ve ever seen and earned himself a front–row seat to Layla calling him a traitor with more joy than venom.

And now? Now she’s floating on that ridiculous bubblegum–pink lounger like some half–asleep summer goddess, her legs trailing in the water, her mouth still curved with the memory of every splash, every grab, every stolen second of joy.

And heavens know, we needed this.

Because it’s not just the floaties or the sun or the half–burnt sausages we inhaled a while ago—it’s the way she looks when she laughs like that. Uninhibited. Unguarded. Like nothing in the world has claws that are sharp enough to touch her in this moment.

Like we’ve actually done our jobs.

I’m drying off near the fire pit after my last dip in the lake, half in the shade of an umbrella, half watching the slow spin of the rope swing as it catches in the breeze. My skin smells like lake water and sunscreen, and my chest feels loose. Light.

We got her to laugh. Not the polite kind. Not the careful one she gives when she doesn’t want to offend. But the real one. That untamed, throw–her–head–back one that comes out when she forgets she doesn’t have to protect herself all the time.

I saw it when Hunter caught her waist and spun her into the deeper water, and I saw how she held onto him, as if he were gravity, and she was finally ready to let herself float.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t stir something in me. Not jealousy–never that. Just… Something quieter. Something reverent.

Because that laugh? We all felt it.

It shook loose something we hadn’t named yet. Something we’ve all been reaching for in our own ways. I felt it last night, too. In the way her breath had hitched when she whispered my name. In the

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Chapter 141: Cade POV

way her hands had moved over me like she’d been holding back that want for way too long and was only now allowing herself to reach for it.

But today? Today it’s joy. Simple, loud, and bright.

And it’s just as intimate in its own way.

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I watched her earlier as she chased Xavier through the shallows with a wild grin. Watched her splash AJ in the face and narrowly miss a sucker tackle from Hunter. I saw how she looked at me, just before she threw that water bottle at my chest like a grenade, and the smile that tugged at her lips

in that moment…

And I swear it rewired something in my chest.

It’s stupid how good it feels, knowing she feels safe enough to let go like that. With all of us.

We don’t deserve it. Not really. But we’ll keep earning it. Every damn day if we have to.

And if that means more splash wars, more floating docks, more pretending we’re not mere moments away from self–combusting every time she walks toward us in that swimsuit?

So be it.

Because seeing her like this–free, barefoot, water–slicked and sun–kissed–is a hell of a lot more powerful than anything I ever expected when I first met her.

We were all drowning a little this week. But with her laughter echoing off the trees that surround the lake and that damn floatie that’s drifting by with her on it like it’s got nowhere better to be, it’s abundantly clear that joy floats. And right now, we’re drifting right along with her.

“I’m still calling dibs on the next kiss that gets handed out, though.”

She doesn’t say anything right away, but I feel it–the way her body melts just a little more into mine, like silence is its own kind of answer. Then her head rests back on my shoulder, light and deliberate, and I swear something in my chest shifts. Not in a crashing, dramatic way. Just…like a door unlocking.

Quiet as a secret, she says, “I wouldn’t want anyone else to get it.”

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Chapter 141: Cade POV

Well, hell. My breath stutters, and I grin like an idiot against her temple. “That’s the kind of line that’s gonna haunt me in the best of ways, Sunshine.”

She doesn’t pull back. She doesn’t hedge or joke it away. She just sinks deeper into my arms like that

was the truth all along.

“I’m serious,” she adds, her voice soft but steady.

“I know,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to her hair. “That’s why it hit me so damn hard.”

We go quiet again, but it’s the good kind–the kind that hums beneath your skin and makes the rest of the world fade out around you.

Then she speaks again, barely audible above the breeze. “I can’t get last night out of my head.”

That earns her another smile from me, even though she can’t see it. “Yeah? What part?”

She shifts slightly and answers thoughtfully, “The beginning, the middle, the end. How you held me so close, but you didn’t rush. Like you knew how far you could go without making me flinch.”

“I did,” I admit. “Not because I have magical powers or anything. Just because I was paying attention. You mattered more than any moment we could’ve rushed into.”

She doesn’t say anything right away, but her thumb traces circles over the back of my hand where they’re still laced together. Like she’s trying to memorize something she never thought she’d get to

keep.

“And the way you looked at me…” she goes on, “Like I wasn’t something fragile. Like I was….wanted.”

“That’s because you are,” I say, as simple as breathing. “Every second. Of every day.”

A slow breath leaves her, and the way it sounds–like a release, like trust–makes my ribs feel too small for the feeling that fills me.

“You make it easy,” she whispers. “To let myself be seen. To let myself be wanted. It’s never felt easy

before.”

I shift a little, brushing her hair off one shoulder so that I can kiss the spot in the crook of her neck that drives me crazy on a daily basis. “That’s because you’re safe here,” I murmur. “With me, that is. You don’t have to try or guess. You already are everything to me.”

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Chapter 141: Cade POV

She turns slightly, enough for me to see her smile, and it’s small, a little shy, and more powerful than anything I’ve ever seen. Her fingers squeeze mine, and she says, “I love you, you know.”

And even though we’ve said it before, my heart still reacts like it’s the first time.

“Good,” I say with a lazy grin, bumping her nose with mine. “Because I’m still completely gone for

you.”

“Still?” she teases, arching a brow at me.

I nudge her thigh with mine and draw her closer. “Hopelessly.”

She laughs, and it’s warm and unguarded, and I don’t even pretend to have restraint when our mouths meet again. And this time, it’s slow, familiar, everything.

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When we eventually pull apart, the dock’s still rocking beneath us, the lake’s still lapping against our legs, and the world keeps spinning like it knows not to interrupt us.

She leans back into me again, and I press a kiss to her hair, my eyes closed.

Yeah. This is it. Just her. Just us. Always.

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