Forever Lovers by Suellen Smith Read Free Book Online

high school friends knew the
minute Quinn walked in the door, what his purpose was for the
evening. By this time, they also knew he was a Navy Seal. He might
only be popular among the girlfriends of the twins, but the men
certainly respected and admired him.
    Quinn had gotten a short holiday furlough for
this special weekend only because he was going to be near San
Diego. He was on standby and knew that he could be called in for
action at any time, in which case, he was to report immediately to
the base on Coronado. However, tonight, he planned to celebrate not
just the twins twenty-first birthday, but it was finally his and
Lily's time to come full circle. The twins weren't the only ones
making a plan for the past three years.
    It had been almost three years since Lily and
Quinn had seen each other. They seldom exchanged emails anymore as
Lily had gotten tired of not getting many responses back from
Quinn. He missed her correspondence, but he knew it was for the
best, which is why he tried not to encourage. Now, she was nineteen
and all grown-up in his opinion. He was twenty-five and more than
anxious to see her and claim what he had long ago denied himself
when he decided that she was to be his forever.
    Quinn looked up at the ceiling in the
ballroom, balloons were in several nets and ready to rain on the
room below at midnight. Horns and confetti were on every table.
Movie stars of the forties era such as Clark Gable, Ester Williams,
Gary Cooper, Jean Harlow, Vivian Leigh, Susan Hayworth, Tyrone
Powers, Ingrid Bergman, and the list went on and on, had their
images flashing on large screens around the room.
    Waiters were scurrying about putting out
silver platters of food from pate', jumbo shrimp, salmon, caviar,
sushi, variety of canapés, cocktail buns of prime rib, cashew
encrusted Tilapia, cream puffs, melon, fruit and berries in stemmed
glasses. Champagne glasses in abundance adorned every table. It was
the waiter’s job to make sure every item was replenished all night
long. It was a task that they completed with great flourish showing
that they were up to the task.
    An ice sculpture of the Los Angeles skyline
with little lights that sparkled inside, was carved in one chunk of
ice, the numbers twenty-one with sparklers was carved on another,
and the rest of the sculptures were of the bust many movie stars on
an assortment of over fifty tables. Bubbling champagne fountains
were flowing like spring water all over the room. Someone said it
looked like they had more fountains than Rome. ( Indulgence was the other theme of the birthday.)
    A crowd of around four hundred was at the
birthday party extravaganza and having a good time. For the guys,
that meant getting laid, for the gals that meant having a good
time. Most came from the Los Angeles area and Stanford, but some
were acquaintances that the twins had picked up from all over the
world. Most were young adults of twenty-one. Those that were not
considered to be twenty-one, certainly did not stop them from
enjoying and imbibing the booze that was in abundance at the
lascivious and decadent party.
    All guests that came were decked out in their
rented tuxes and party dresses of the era, not wanting to take the
chance of being turned away from the event of the year. It was a
beautiful crowd that could have been used on the movie set in
Hollywood – L.A. Confidential. The scene all around them
seemed to have moved backwards in time as it imitated the past to
perfection.
    The gleeful and happy celebration had been
going full steam for almost three solid joyful hours before Quinn
finally spotted Lily in the middle of a mob. He probably hadn't
seen Lily when he was looking around previously, as he hadn't been
looking for her being constantly surrounded by a horde of panting
young men whenever she moved through the crowd. It was like they
all moved as one unit stuck together.
    Lily wasn't terrible tall. Even in spiky high
heels, she wasn't much more than five foot seven, just