Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Knox
“ O h, my God! And then he fell face first into the tree!” Ryan can barely get the words out as she holds her sides. Her belly laugh taking over her body.
“Exactly! This is why it’s one of the top three best moments in Goose Hollow history!” I reiterate as tears of laughter stream down my face.
“Stan’s wife was mortified. Oh, the poor thing.
Remember how she was holding her coat open, like she could somehow hide him from view?
He was on a twenty-foot ladder. What good did she think that would do?
” Ryan wheezes as we recount the time Stan McClain, who runs the rec center back home, ruined the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Main Street Park.
We started with pizza and a game in her penthouse, but we never declared a winner.
An intense debate over the best pizza in New York City derailed us.
The game was all but forgotten as our debates continued, eventually morphing into a speed round of what’s your top three?
Top three fast-food chains... songs... bands.
.. colors... TV shows... movies.... When that wasn’t enough, we broke it down.
Top three action movies... comedies... dramas.
.. period pieces... romances. The entire time I memorized her answers as though they were the lyrics to a new song I was planning to sing for the rest of my days.
When we got to the top three things we missed about home, excluding people, we each wrote our answers on the scraps of paper Ryan ripped up an hour ago.
She thought I was cheating because my answers either matched hers or were such a complete 180 from hers it would spark a fresh debate.
There was no cheating involved. We have more in common than we don’t and we both love to argue with each other.
It’s like some strange foreplay that’s almost better than moving our little party of two into the bedroom.
Almost.
Main Street Park was number three on our favorite spots in Goose Hollow lists.
From there, memories flowed. We agreed The Shack, an adorable VW van turned into a food truck, that served the smoothest soft serve on the planet was one of the things that got the park to the number three spot.
I was surprised to find out she’d worked there during her teens.
When conversation moved to the hot cocoa they served in the winter, The Great Christmas Tree Lighting Debacle of 2012 came up, and we’ve been in hysterics ever since.
This afternoon when I got her text, the relief was intense.
It was so late in the day I thought she might not be checking in at all.
I worried I might have crossed too many lines, or that Daisy called her.
Or maybe, just maybe, my gifts were too much, and I had pushed her away.
Fresh out of the shower, I was sprinting to the bedside table when I heard a text notification.
I stubbed my toe as I reached for the phone, and cursed as I threw myself on the bed.
The pain in my foot became an afterthought when her name popped up on my home screen.
I had been aching to see her.
Desperate even.
Who knew I could enjoy myself as much as I did with her?
Pizza, soda, games, and laughs. So many laughs.
As much as I want to know how good it would feel to be inside her, after tonight, I’ve got an entirely new attraction to her.
I want to be her friend. Want to spend every minute of my free time with her.
Spending alcohol-free hours talking to a woman who isn’t a member of my family is a first for me. I haven’t felt this happy in so long I find it hard to believe I was ever truly happy before Ryan Jameson entered my life.
This is why I’ve agreed to watch her all-time favorite movie. A movie I’ve made a point to avoid for years now. But it’s impossible to say no to this woman.
“Holy crap, it’s already nine. We have a movie to watch before you turn into a pumpkin, McKinnon.”
At least she didn’t add the old man to my name this time.
“We can save it for another night.”
Please say I’ll get more nights like tonight.
“Nice try. Turn the TV on and we’ll mirror the movie from my phone. I’ll be right back.”
She rushes out of the room with a skip in her step. Like a kid walking through the gates of Disney for the first time. As in tune with each other as we seem, this is one thing we differ on. I’m not sure a movie has ever made me skip.
She’s only gone long enough for me to turn the TV on. A gray throw blanket is draped around her shoulders when she returns.
“Ready?”
Ready and willing for anything you throw my way. As long as you keep looking at me the way you are right now.
She’s devastatingly beautiful, and blissfully ignorant of her impact on me. There isn’t a song in existence that could express the way I feel when I’m around her. The way she destabilizes my world while righting it all at once.
Keeping my internal thoughts to myself, I pretend I’m not looking forward to spending the next two hours with her. “Do we really have to do this?”
She’s about to sit, but my question halts her, leaving her ass to hover above the couch. “Knox, do you want to be my friend?”
“Pretty sure, we’re already friends.”
Placing herself in front of me, hands on her hips, without a trace of humor, she says, “You wanna keep things that way?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re a smart man and you’ll make the right decision.”
“ The Notebook it is.” Tugging one of her hands, I pull her toward me.
Giggling, she lands on my lap, our eyes meeting for the briefest moment.
It’s enough to make me hard, so I scoot her onto the couch cushion next to me, hoping she doesn’t notice how turned on I am.
She spreads the blanket out, covering both of us, and messes with her phone until a loan boat drifting in the sunset appears on the TV.
Ryan tucks her feet under her, pressing against my side.
My arm wraps around her shoulder, and she sighs in contentment.
This is it.
This is what I’ve been waiting for.
She’s what I’ve been waiting for.
Two hours and one minute later, the front of my hoodie is a mess. What kind of bullshit was that ending?
With about thirty minutes left, Ryan fell asleep with her head in my lap.
I rubbed her head while I continued watching, unable to look away even though she was out cold and would never know if I turned it off.
I watched every torturous second and used my sweatshirt to stop my tears from landing on who I’m starting to think of as my Allie.
Not sure if I’m her Noah or not, but to be that to her, I’ll build as many houses as it takes.
During the nearly six hours I’ve been in her suite, she put her hair up and took it down a half dozen times.
She fell asleep with it down, allowing me the luxury of running my hand through her thick curls while she slept.
I could never count all the freckles on her face, but she has a small cluster of three darker, slightly larger freckles on her right cheekbone that captivates me.
The urge to run my finger over them is hard to resist, but I don’t want to wake her.
I give myself ten minutes to sit and take her in.
Her light breathing and the new cadence my heart is beating are the only sounds in the room.
The frantic feeling of anxiety usually flowing through my veins is gone.
Replacing it is a content, steady rhythm.
One that skips a beat every time Ryan laughs or aims her smile in my direction.
My ten minutes up, I maneuver myself off the couch with her in my arms, her blanket covering her.
I smile when I see the horse I sent her on her bed.
Laying her down gently, I go to cover her with her blanket but pause.
Pulling back the blanket, I don’t put my hand in her pocket, but I do feel for its contents and find a familiar heart shape in one pocket.
When I feel the other, my hearts new steady rhythm falters.
She’s carrying a new heart-shaped stone in her other pocket.