The Lucky Ones

Chapter Eighteen

A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter posted. I wanted to make it as perfect as I possibly could, and I'm pretty happy with the end result now. I have always had a very long story planned out, but I've decided to end this story arc right here. So this chapter is the culmination of the first story arc. In a few days I'll start the sequel to this story. I haven't settled on a title yet though, but I plan on posting it in a few days. So please be on the look out for that. All in all, I think that this will end up being a trilogy. I really want to give out a huge thank you to everyone who has been reviewing this story. The reviews have really encouraged and motivated me. So thank you very much, and I hope that everyone continues to read the sequel!

My dear, it's time to say I thank god for you.
I thank god for you in each and every single way.
And, I know... I know... I know... I know...
It's time to let you know... time to let you know.
Time to let you know... time to sit here and say:
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.

The next day, Carter called his grandparents and found out that no one was using the cabin. They were more than happy to let Carter take Lucy there for the week. So, after Carter and Lucy spent some quality time in bed together, they finally started their road trip to the cabin. About an hour and a half later, Carter pulled up into the driveway of the cabin and turned off the engine. Then he looked over at Lucy. "We're here." He announced with a smile on his face.

Lucy smiled back and then looked at the cabin. It was dark, but the moon was full so she could see the outline of the snow-covered cabin. "It looks wonderful."

"It will look even better tomorrow when the sun is out. I'll get the luggage if you get the groceries." Carter suggested, getting out of the jeep.

"Ok." Lucy replied. They had stopped at a grocery store on their way so that they wouldn't have to leave to get food. This way, they could spend all of their time locked away in the cabin. She took the bags and followed Carter to the door.

Carter opened the door and let Lucy enter first. He watched her with interest as she appeared to be spell bound with the cabin.

Lucy looked around the cabin. From the outside, it looked small. But now that she was inside, it was enormous and very well decorated. But then again, it was a Carter family property so what else did she expect?

"Like it?" Carter asked, drawing her out of her mesmerized state.

"Love it." She replied, remembering that she had food in her hands. "I'm going to go put the food away before it spoils."

He pointed off to her left. "Kitchen's that way. I'll go put the bags in the bedroom."

Lucy walked into the kitchen and was impressed by the fancy refrigerator that they had. She quickly put the food in the refrigerator and then proceeded to put the rest of the food into the empty cabinets. A few minutes later, she found that a pair of arms had wrapped around her waist. She turned to face him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "This place is great."

"I'm glad you think so. I've had some good memories here, and I'm really looking forward to making more good memories here with you." He removed her arms from where they were resting around his neck and grabbed a hold of her hands. Then he brought her hands up to his mouth, gently kissing them.

Lucy closed the already small gap between them and started kissing him. "I never want this feeling to end." She whispered.

"What feeling?" Carter asked in between kisses.

"This feeling of pure happiness that I get by just being around you. I feel so safe and loved, and I never want it to end." Lucy replied.

"I won't. I promise."

Lucy kissed him again. "Hmm, you can't really promise that. What if something happens?"

He stopped kissing her and looked at her. "I love you Lucy. I always will. Even if something did happen, I could never stop loving you."

"I could never stop loving you either." She laid a simple kiss on his lips.

He looked over at the clock on the microwave. "It's getting kinda late. I'm ready for bed. Are you?"

She looked over and saw that it was only 9. "Do you always consider nine 'o' clock as being late?" She asked, jokingly.

"Well not always." Carter grinned. "Just when I have the opportunity to have such a fine woman like yourself sleeping with me."

She giggled at his choice of words. "The opportunity? Well I'm glad you see that it isn't a basic human right."

"I'd never assume it was." He chuckled.

"Good!" Lucy smiled, grabbing a hold of his arm. "So, care to lead me to the bedroom?"

"It would be my pleasure."

The next morning, Carter woke up and found Lucy sleeping in her normal position—snuggled up close to him with her head on his chest. He gently kissed her head and took a long look at her. He always loved it when he woke up before her. It gave him a chance to stare at her while she slept, and he enjoyed that. She usually has the silliest grin on her face while she's sleeping. It makes him wonder what her dreams are like.

Lucy slowly opened her eyes and squinted as they adjusted to the rays of sunlight that were escaping through the drapes. She snuggled up close to Carter, not aware of the fact that he was already awake and watching her.

"Good morning." He whispered into her ear.

She looked up and smiled. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long." He answered truthfully. "I was just watching you sleep."

"Really?" She asked. "Why would you do that?"

"Because you get this really cute grin on your face when you're sleeping. I don't know what you're dreaming about, but I can only guess that it's something good."

She chuckled. "Well my dream last night was very good."

"Wanna share it?" He asked.

"Sure." She replied as she turned to face him. "We were in a beautiful church with all of our family and friends...and they were all smiling at us while we were getting married."

"Hmm, that does sound like a good dream." He wrapped his arm around her. "In a couple of months, we'll make that dream will come true."

"I know." Lucy nodded. "Because you make all of my dreams come true."

He leaned down and kissed her. "I'm hungry. Let's go make breakfast."

"Ok." Lucy agreed. "But let me make the breakfast. I want our food to actually be edible!"

"Ouch!" Carter exclaimed. "That comment hurt."

She tried stifling a laugh. "Sorry, but we both know that you can't cook. So why don't you just make the coffee?"

"Fine." He replied, pretending that he was hurt by her comment.

Later that day, Carter was outside trying to gather up some pre-cut firewood from the shed behind the cabin. He thought that Lucy was inside. That's why he was surprised when he felt a snowball hit the back of his head. He turned around and saw Lucy standing a few feet away from him with an innocent look on her face. "Did you just throw a snowball at me?"

"No. I don't know who did that, but it wasn't me." Lucy lied.

He grinned, knowing that she was lying. "Who else could have done it? We're the only ones here."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Sorry, but I didn't see it."

He nodded. "Ok." He quickly bent down and grabbed a bunch of snow, forming it into a ball and throwing it directly at Lucy.

Lucy felt the snowball hit her arm and put her hands on her waist. "Hey! You know that this means war, right?" Her tone was strict, but also playful.

"Bring it on!" Carter exclaimed. They each grabbed handfuls of snow and started hurling snowballs at each other. He was finding it hard to hit Lucy. She was surprisingly fast and most of his snowballs ended up hitting the ground instead of her.

Lucy threw a huge snowball at him and then ducked behind a tree when he threw one back at her. Going back onto the offensive, she picked up more snow and hurled it directly into his face. "Ha!" she laughed.

"Ok. You're asking for it now! I was being nice to you, but now that's over." Carter replied, gathering up enough snow for a huge snowball. "No more Mr. Nice Guy. It's no holds bar now."

Lucy just stood there listening to him. "Oh quit your talking and start throwing!" She taunted, dodging his latest snowball effort. She bent down and grabbed another fistful of snow, but was surprised when she felt a snowball hit her. She looked up and saw Carter standing in front of her with another snowball.

"Give up yet?" He asked with a grin on his face. He was pretty proud of himself for finally being able to hit her with a snowball. God knows that she had hit him with dozens of snowballs.

"Silly rabbit!" Lucy laughed. "Don't you know by now? I don't give up! I just get even." She knocked the snowball out of his hand and threw another snowball at him. Then she ran off to go behind the shed.

He ran after her. "So your new approach is to run away? That's original!" He called out as he followed where she had gone. But he didn't get a reply. "Lucy! Where are you?" He was starting to get worried that she wasn't answering him as he approached the outside corner of the shed

Lucy appeared from the other side of the corner and pushed him to the ground. Together they fell to the ground and she laughed. "Here I am!"

He laughed as she straddled him.

She showed him the snowball in her hand. "Ready to give up now?" She asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"No, not yet. I still have a secret weapon." He grinned.

"Oh really?" Lucy asked, intrigued by his statement. "Ok. What is this secret weapon you supposedly have?"

"It's very simple, and it goes a little something like this..." He pulled her down for a deep, passionate kiss. As she was relaxing in his grasp, he took the snowball from her hand. Then he moved her so that their positions were flipped and he was the one now pinning her to the ground. Pulling away from the kiss, he smiled.

Lucy looked around and realized that she had been bested. "That sure was sneaky."

"I told you that I'd play dirty to win."

"Yeah, I guess." She sighed. "But why don't we just call it a tie?"

"But I won!" He pouted.

"Actually, I think we both can win." She smiled, pulling him down for another steamy kiss.

After realizing that it was too cold to make-out in the snow, Carter and Lucy soon came back into the cabin to warm up. They were curled up together on the couch under a blanket and were drinking hot chocolate. "Want a marshmallow?" Lucy offered as she put another one in her hot chocolate.

"No thanks. I'm fine." Carter replied.

"Ok. That just means more for me!" she smiled, taking one out of the bag and placing it into her mouth.

"You were pretty hard to catch out there. Did you get into a lot of snowball fights growing up?" Carter asked.

"Well not a whole lot. I was more the sledding type. I actually tried to stay away from snowball fights, but the boys in my neighborhood always thought it was funny to hit me when I wasn't looking." She explained.

"So that's how you became so good at dodging snowballs." He guessed.

"Yep." She nodded. "So what about you?"

"Are you kidding?" He laughed. "It wasn't proper for a Carter to engage in a snowball fight, but I did manage to get into a couple of really good snowball fights."

Lucy looked down and saw that she had eaten almost half of the bag of marshmallows. She quickly put it on the coffee table. "I better stop eating those. The last thing I want is to be a fat bride."

"You're not fat. You're perfect." Carter re-assured her.

"Perfect huh?" She chuckled, looking over at him. "Well I doubt that I'm perfect, but I know that I'm not fat. I will be if I continue to eat everything I see though."

He grinned wickedly. "You know, if you're so worried about your calorie intake, we could always go and do some bedroom exercises."

She couldn't contain her laughter. She couldn't believe that he had said that. "Bedroom exercises?"

"Yeah, you know..."

"Oh I know what they are!" Lucy laughed harder. "I'm just wondering, do you actually sit around and think about different ways to get me into the bedroom or do they just magically pop into your head? Cause every time you seem to approach me in a different way."

He laughed. "No, they just pop into my head. Scary, isn't it?"

"Very." She replied, leaning over and giving him a kiss.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"For being in my life. Not everyone has what we have, and I'm grateful that I have you." She explained.

He kissed her. "I'm grateful too. I thank God every night that you're in my life and we're together. You're right that not everyone has what we have. That's what makes up the lucky ones."

"Yes, we are." She agreed. "A lot of things could have kept us apart, but they didn't."

He knew that was true. "And nothing ever will keep us apart." He promised with a smile.

She kissed him again. "So can we go try some of those bedroom exercises you were talking about?"

"Absolutely!" He grinned. He grabbed a hold of her arm and led her back to the bedroom.

Song Lyric: "Lucky" By: Bif Naked