Chapter 24 Tabitha #2
“I just think it’s suspicious that you’ve said you want to get fit, and have also said you were forced to quit dance lessons.”
“Kai, stop looking for the conspiracy.”
“I’m not. I want you to admit the truth to yourself.”
I groan. “Fine, dancing is fun. But I really didn’t care about quitting because I’m the worst in the class.”
He rubs my arm. “But you can be the best if you take more lessons.”
“I’m not like you. I can’t try something once and be the best at it.”
He rolls his eyes. “That’s not what I said.”
My heart plummets to my stomach. The last thing I want is him thinking I’m twisting his words. I don’t want him to see me as that girl again.
Kai brushes my curls off my shoulder and caresses my cheek. “I just want you to do whatever makes you happy.”
I swallow hard. “Really?”
“Of course, really.”
“Well, that’s something new to get used to.”
His voice lowers. “Don’t you think it’s sad that your normal is being around people who don’t care if you’re unhappy?”
I nod. “It is sad.”
He chucks my chin. “Stop thinking I’m one of those people.”
I brighten. “Okay. But, to be fair, you were one of those people before.”
“We’re light years past that. Those versions of us don’t exist anymore.”
Unintentionally, I squeal, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “I love that!”
Kai’s eyes widen, and he snorts. “Okay.”
I grab onto his shoulders. “I really feel like I can move forward. Like, maybe I can stop fearing everybody else’s reactions.
” I look up at the neon lights of the dancing platform.
“I never would’ve done this with the girls, or my family, for that matter.
I’d been too scared of people laughing at me. ”
“Well, I thought you were very cute. I liked seeing how hard you were concentrating.”
I mumble a laugh. “That couldn’t have been cute.”
He nods, brushing back my curls. “You’re cute, Tabitha.”
I bite into my lip and fan my face. “You wanna get out of here? The ice-creamery is only a few stores down.”
He smirks. “You need to cool down?”
I blush. “Mm-hmm.”
We grab our bags from the cloakroom and I link my arm around his as we make our way into the crisp afternoon air. The sun is lowering, creating melds of dark orange and navy in the sky. Inside the ice-creamery, I choose the hazelnut swirl, and to my surprise, Kai orders vanilla.
“Such a plain Jane order,” I comment.
He shrugs. “I don’t really eat a lot of sweet foods.”
“Seriously? Oh my gosh, I can’t live without chocolate.”
Kai nods at the server, handing over my paper cup of hazelnut goodness. “Looks chocolaty enough.”
I shake my head and tap the glass display. “That one there has all the chocolate. The fudgy brownie flavor.”
“Why didn’t you order that?”
“Because I want you to still think I’m cute. I won’t look cute in a chocolate coma.”
Kai takes his paper cup and pays for our ice-cream orders. The outside setting looks too romantic to pass up, so we head outside. On the terrace, we sit at one of the picnic tables, canopied with twinkle lights, and take in the changing colors of the mountains ahead of us.
I slide a spoonful of hazelnut goodness onto my tongue and let it melt. I purr in satisfaction and watch the growing smile of the gorgeous boy sitting across from me.
With a tension-relieving sigh, I say to him, “Kai Nelson, I think we’re on a date.”
His eyebrows lift. “Is that so? Don’t dates have to be planned?”
“We went to the mall, then the arcade, and then to the ice-creamery. They’re activities, meaning this is a date.”
“By that logic, you’re saying I’ve gone on dates with my friends.”
I lean in and wiggle my eyebrows. “And how many of those friends have you kissed?”
“Ah.” He smiles, tapping his spoon against his scoop of vanilla ice-cream. “Now I see the distinction.”
I can’t help noticing it wasn’t a direct answer.
I watch him as he eats his ice-cream. He said he’s been to all those places with his friends. Did he mean specifically Jamie? I mean, she is a girl, and he is a guy. Have they ever…?
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, forcing me out of my thoughts.
“Nothing.”
“Bummer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was hoping you were thinking the same thing as me.”
I sure hope I wasn’t. “What are you thinking about?”
He leans over his paper cup and whispers, “Kissing you again.”
Tingles sprout goosebumps across my skin, and I shiver in the best way.
“And if you were thinking the same thing,” he continues, “maybe it’d give me the green light to do it again.”
Even though my mouth is drying out, I manage, “You have the green light.”
I catch his smile before I lower my eyelids. His lips meet mine with less urgency than earlier. There’s something tender in his movements. His lips part, and mine slip between them like adjoining puzzle pieces.
In a smooth motion, one of Kai’s hands scoops through my curls and nestles at the back of my head. His other hand brushes up my arm, and it coaxes me to move in closer to him.
Breathily, I giggle against his mouth. I pull back to whisper, “This is awkward with a table between us.”
Kai’s arms unravel from me, and he hikes a leg onto the table and propels himself over to my side. His arms wrap around me, and he grins. “Better?”
I slip my arms over his shoulders and latch my hands behind his neck. “Oodles better.”
He tugs me close, and when my chest collides with his, our lips press together.
Hoping rom-coms don’t lie, I tilt my head for a better angle.
Following my lead, Kai sinks deeper into the kiss, and something surprises and delights me.
A hint of tongue teases my bottom lip. Mmm.
He tastes of smooth vanilla, and it makes my insides flip-flop.
The next time his tongue tickles my lip, I press down with a slight sucking motion. A moan murmurs out of Kai, and his hands slip under my blazer and massage the middle of my back. He explores, tracing my spine, and then something else.
I suck in a breath during our kiss. Through the fabric of my blouse, his fingers glide over the back clasp of my bra.
He laughs, breaking away from our kiss. “Sorry,” he mumbles, fishing his hands out of my blazer. “I didn’t mean to go that far up.”
I clear my throat. “Yeah. You kinda took me off guard.”
He laughs, fanning out his open collar. “Sorry, I got curious. Besides, it felt kinda lacey.”
I gasp, turning redder. He’s right; it does have a lace overlay. “So?”
He sniggers. “So, nothing. It felt nice.”
I whack his arm. “Well, don’t feel it again.”
“I won’t. It was an honest mistake.”
“Mm-hmm.”
He laughs to himself, lifting his spoon and digging it into the rest of his vanilla ice-cream. It’s only a moment of reprieve, because soon he sets it back down and is playing with my curls.
“So, we’ve kissed,” I murmur, playing with his tie. “What happens next?”
He twists one of my curls around his index finger. “Anything.”
I tug on his tie, and my shoulders lift with a thrill of excitement. “Like we can do this again?”
“I just thought you said I couldn’t—“
“Not that!” Boys. Are their minds always in the gutter? “I wanna hang out with you again.”
“You wanna go to the arcade and have ice-cream again?”
“No, silly. I want to do anything. As long as it’s just the two of us.”
He grins, swiping his thumb along my jawline. “Sure. We can do that. Tomorrow morning I have my soccer game, but we can hang out after that. Oh, shoot. I forgot my grandparents get to town tomorrow. But if they arrive before my game, I can skip out.”
“But they’ve traveled to see you.”
“They’re coming for my birthday. My birthday is on Sunday. We have time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Besides, I’m usually with my friends whenever they visit.”
“You want to see me at the same time you’re seeing your friends?”
“You’d prefer it being just the two of us?”
“Won’t they be judging why I’m suddenly around?”
“I told you, I wanna tell my friends about you.” His thumb brushes against my bottom lip. “About us.”
A fresh coat of goosebumps lines my arms. “Maybe I just don’t have your level of confidence. I have no idea how they’ll react.”
“Not as harsh as your friends. I guarantee it.”
I smirk. “That’s a given.”
“Well, we can ease into you hanging out with my friends. I’ll make up an excuse to ditch them.”
“I don’t want to be that girl.” My shoulders bunch high as I pull away. “I don’t want to be the reason you see less of your friends.”
Kai sighs. “Then I don’t know what you want.”
I shrug. “Should we just wait until Monday to see each other at school?”
He latches onto my arms. “No, I don’t want that. That’s way too long to wait.”
I giggle at his eagerness. “We can still text.”
“Texting is such a downgrade after finally kissing you.”
I blush. “You’ve been thinking about kissing me?”
He sighs again, this time more heartfelt. “I’ve been dreaming about your lips.”
I can’t help it. I lean in, latch my arms around his neck, and suction my mouth to his.
How is it possible that this boy makes me feel so giddy, delighted, and good about myself?
Before last week, when I word-vomited all over him at the Chinese restaurant, he was one of my enemies.
Yet, in that moment, he was intently listening to me and asking those words, “Who hurt you?”
With a gasp, I pull back from his lips. Cupping the sides of his face, I breathily ask, “What about tonight?”
“Huh?” he asks in a daze.
“What are you doing tonight?”
“No hard plans. Are you going back to the Jasmine Garden after Freddy’s game?”
I nod. “It is our after-football tradition. But I could ditch. I’ve done it before when the girls wanted to hang out.”
“Or I could suggest to my parents we make a return trip,” Kai replies. “Although, I bet my mom would be suspicious.”
“Why? You don’t like Chinese food?”
“No, I do. It’s just, last week I made a big deal about how we should have gotten pizza instead.”
“Mmm,” I purr. “Pizza sounds like a way better idea. But it’d never happen.”
“Why’s that?”
“For one, my parents are sticklers for routine around game day. Like a superstitious thing. But, most importantly, we’d have to deal with Amber’s wrath if Freddy doesn’t turn up at her restaurant tonight.” I sigh with a weak smile. “I don’t know how he found a Camila of his own.”
Kai deadpans me. “You’re worried about the reaction of another version of Camila? These girls aren’t worth your time. Actually, it sounds like you’d be doing your brother a favor if you got him away from her.”
“Yeah, probably. Plus, he keeps insisting they’re not together despite her clinginess.”
Kai’s grin slides to the left. “So, I’ll see you at Sal’s Pizzeria?”
I giggle and hook my pinky finger around his. “It’s a date.”