For Keeps

CH 16 - #wait

Rhys

Song: “You Should Probably Leave” by Chris Stapleton

I WAS SITTING on my patio, listening to music on my cellphone, and watching the sun drop down to the horizon when the sound of a car coming up the road to my house grabbed my attention. When I saw the silver Camaro, I got up and walked toward it.

“Don’t you think it’s a little late to travel these backroads at this hour, ma’am?” I asked after opening Riley’s driver-side door.

“I’m a big girl and can do whatever I want.”

“Not in question, but your safety is.”

Grinning, she got out of her car and stepped up to me. “You’re the only thing that threatens my safety. Now kiss me goodbye and hello.”

“Happily.” I cradled Riley’s face in my hands and kissed her twice, smiling against her teeth when I was done. “How was that?”

“Just what I needed.”

“Me too.” I tucked her hair behind her ear and ran my fingertips down the length of it. “Do your parents know you’re here?”

“Yes.”

“I’m still so damn embarrassed about your momma knowing we had sex in her house today.”

“Seriously, everything is fine.”

“The next time I see her, my face is going to turn beet-red.”

“Hers probably will, too, and then my daddy will wonder what’s going on.”

“I’m turning red just from thinking about it.”

“You look mighty cute with those rosy cheeks, Silverman,” Riley said, pinching my left one.

“I haven’t heard you call me that in a long time. I always liked it whenever you did.”

“I love your last name. It has a ring to it, unlike mine. Martin is boring.”

I shook my head in disagreement and then looked down and touched the linked hearts necklace I’d given Riley.

“Can you believe I found it?” she asked.

“No, but I’m glad you did. I never stopped wondering what happened to it.”

“I clearly remember placing it in the top drawer of my jewelry box and putting on a choker for our date that night. After you took me home, I wanted to put my necklace back on, but it was gone.”

I nodded and kept looking at her.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I’m going to show you something. I wasn’t going to, but I have to now.”

After pulling up the picture of my ghost’s recent mischief, I handed my cellphone to Riley.

“Two linked hearts drawn in sand! Did you do this?” she asked, focusing on me again.

“My ghost did, and that isn’t sand. It’s sugar on my kitchen counter.”

Her eyes dropped back down to the image.

“I promise I didn’t do it,” I continued.

“I believe you. What I can’t believe, though, is your ghost drew our symbol.”

“I know.”

Riley gave my cellphone to me. “Do you think it’s just a coincidence? Or do you think your ghost somehow knows what the hearts mean to you and me?”

I shrugged. “I’m as stumped as you are about this.”

“When did it happen?”

“Last night.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

“I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

“Rhys, I know how Cypress Hills ghosts can be. I’ve encountered them and dealt with their activities my entire life, just like you and everyone else around here. As far as not believing you goes? I’ve believed every word you’ve ever said to me and will continue to do so.”

“I’ll remember that the next time my ghost decides to act up.”

“Remember it regardless of what your spooky friend does.”

I smiled. “Okay. I will.”

“Thank you very much.”

I kissed Riley again. Hell, I couldn’t do it enough. After tasting her lips and tugging on the bottom one with my teeth, I asked her if she’d like something to drink.

“What do you have?”

“Good ol’ Cypress Hills water, milk, orange juice, Dr. Pepper, whiskey, and wine.”

“You don’t drink wine.”

“But you do. I bought some earlier, hoping I’d get the opportunity to watch you enjoy it before you leave on Sunday.”

“That was very thoughtful of you.”

“Shall I pour some for you?”

“Like you’ve got to ask?”

“Come with me, ma’am.”

Riley looped her arm through mine, and I led her into my house to the kitchen. Then, I grabbed the bottle of wine out of my refrigerator and set it on the island.

“Oh my gosh, that’s my favorite!” Riley said, her eyes big with surprise.

“You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m serious. Macie brought some to my momma and daddy’s last Friday and had Rachel and me try it. We both loved it.”

“I knew you preferred sauvignon blanc now because that’s what you ordered at Cheers and Beers. I didn’t know which brand to get for you, though, and took a wild guess that Josh Cellars would be one you liked.”

“Lucky guess on your part.”

“I’m lucky in another way, too. You’re here with me.”

After snagging another kiss from Riley, I poured some of her favorite wine into a glass and handed it to her.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Of course.”

“What are you going to have?”

“Whiskey on the rocks.”

“Thought so.”

While fixing my drink, Riley asked me what I was doing before she got here.

“Sitting on my patio, listening to music on my cellphone, watching the sunset, and wondering when you would call me. I like you showing up at my house much better,” I told her.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“Oh, you did. And quite pleasantly, I might add.”

“Good. Mission accomplished.”

“What would you have done if I hadn’t been here?”

“Relaxed on your patio until you got home. It’s beautiful out there. It’s beautiful everywhere here at your place, but your patio is my favorite spot.”

“It’s mine too.”

“Will you take me out there? Now?”

“If you say please.”

Riley grinned and poked me in my stomach. “So it’s going to be like that again?”

“Yep,” I chuckled.

This say-please-thing was a game that she and I used to play whenever we wanted something. The “want” could be as simple as what Riley had just asked of me, or it could be her wanting me to take her somewhere new to eat or to see a movie.

I often had to say please to get Riley to kiss me. But before saying the word to her, I’d wrap my arms around her and try to steal a kiss while she turned her face away, giggling like I always did.

On several occasions, our playfulness carried over into the sex we had. Right before it happened, Riley would place her hands against my chest, cross her legs, and lock her ankles. Then she’d tell me to say please. I always did, but what she never knew was that I would’ve begged her to let me fuck her. I wanted her that badly and always would. But I needed her more.

“Pretty please with sugar on top; take me out back to your patio,” she said, still grinning.

“Damn, I got some extra there! Let’s go, mia bella!”

We were walking across the raised walkway when she stopped in the middle, causing me to stop.

“Look,” she said, pointing to the right. “Lightning bugs. I only see them when I come home.”

“I can catch some for you and put them in a mason jar.”

“That’s okay. I’ll enjoy nature’s little twinkle lights while I’m here.”

Seeing Riley’s happiness from watching them made me happy. The country girl in her really had missed being home.

After she and I reached the patio, she sat at the table, and I lit the citronella candles to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Once I joined Riley, we chatted between taking sips of our drinks and looking out at the lake. It wouldn’t be long before I had to flip on the string globe lights because the sunlight was fading quickly.

“Rhys, this might be a crazy question, but have you ever slept out here?”

“Yep.”

“In a sleeping bag?”

“On a camping cot with a thick mattress, blanket, and pillow.”

“Very nice!”

“Spend the night with me sometime, and we’ll camp out here with all the critters.”

“Your cot is big enough for both of us? Or do you have two?”

“I have one, and we’ll fit comfortably on it without any problem.”

Riley kept looking at me. I could tell the wheels in her mind were spinning. Then she told me what she was thinking.

“If I spend the night with you, I’ll have to figure out a way to do it so my daddy doesn’t know. My momma would probably be excited for us. It’s just that I’m not ready for my daddy to find out—”

“We’re lovers again?” I asked, winking.

“Yes. Spending the night with you anywhere would indicate we are.”

“I understand your father-daughter predicament.”

“I knew you would.”

“We haven’t talked about this, but what will it be like between us after you go back to Fort Worth?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are we going to keep texting and calling each other while you’re gone? Or is that only going to happen whenever you come back home?”

“Are you crazy? I plan to blow up your phone while we’re apart, and not just with texts and calls. I want us to FaceTime each other as often as possible so I can see your blue eyes and dimples.”

“Is there anything else you’d like to see?”

Riley shoved my arm. “Maybe!” she chuckled.

“There ain’t no ‘maybe’ about it, princess. I know you.”

“I know you, too, and what you’re going to ask me to show you.”

“Would you really do it?”

She looked me up and down. “If you do.”

“I’ll show you any part of my body that you want, but you’re going to have to say please first.”

“Back at you!”

We smiled at each other and took another sip of our drinks.

“So when are you coming back to Cypress Hills for a visit,” I asked.

“A couple of weeks.”

“It’s going to be torturous, going that long without seeing and talking to you in person and touching you.”

“Then come to Fort Worth and spend next weekend with me.”

I hadn’t expected Riley’s invitation, but I was excited about it. “Are you sure you want this ol’ country boy hanging out with you on your big-city turf?”

“I’d be thrilled to have you there. I’ll show you around while also showing you off. Let all the city girls see what they’ve been missing. They’re going to be so jealous of me.”

“They likely are anyway.”

Riley grinned and gazed back out at the lake. I kept watching her from the corner of my eye, relieved she was comfortable with being here. When she came to see me yesterday, that occasion was different. Talking about our past wasn’t easy, but it was needed. Just like what Riley and I were doing now.”

“Do you know what’s missing out here?” she asked, looking back at me.

“What?”

She pointed at the four corners of my patio’s roof. “Music speakers, up there. You could also use a hammock over there.” She pointed again, but it was at my pit fire area to the left of us.

“Those are great ideas. I’ll start working on them.”

Riley waved her hands at me. “I didn’t mean for you to do that. I just meant that if I lived here, I’d have something to blast my favorite music on whenever I was outside and something I could stretch out on with a good book.”

“You make me want both.”

I leaned over and snagged another kiss from Little Miss Décor. When I started pulling away from her, she grabbed the front of my T-shirt and pulled me back. We kissed again, but I tasted her tongue this time. It made me feel like throwing her over my shoulder and taking her straight to my bed.

Afterward, we stared at each other in the quiet of this summer evening. I could feel our bond and thanked God for allowing it to survive our goodbye.

“What music were you listening to when you were sitting out here earlier,” Riley asked, snapping me out of yet another trance she’d put me in.

“Country.”

“I figured that. Tell me which song was playing when I got here.”

“Chris Stapleton’s ‘You Should Probably Leave.’”

“That’s ironic. Should I leave?”

“Hell no. You aren’t going anywhere.”

“Where’s your cellphone?”

“In my pocket.”

“Get it out.”

“What do you say?”

“Please.”

I grabbed it and looked back at the emerald-eyed, raven-haired woman who still owned me in every way.

“Dance with me and to that song,” she continued.

I was anxious to feel her in my arms, so I didn’t make her say please again. Instead, I turned up the volume on my cellphone, pushed play, and laid it down on the table. Then I led Riley to the far end of my patio, where we began swaying back and forth, slow-dancing instead of two-stepping. It better suited the rhythm of the song.

The first time I heard it, I was hooked because of the picture the lyrics painted. It was of a man telling a woman he knew well that she should probably leave where they’d run into each other because he knew what would happen if she stayed. The scenario reminded me of my relationship with Riley before our break-up. Anytime she and I got together, one thing usually happened: we had sex. I could see it happening for the second time today.

While the song played, I kept my eyes on Riley’s, getting lost in them and her. Just when I thought I couldn’t love her more than I already did, I fell deeper in love with her. I didn’t know where things were heading for the two of us, but I had my hopes. I wanted a second chance with my high school sweetheart. I believed we could get it right this time.

When the song ended, I held Riley’s face and pressed my lips against hers, breathing her in again. Then I pulled back and looked at her, smiling up at me.

“I’ve really missed dancing with you,” she said.

“Same here. We’ve always been good at it.”

“And the other kind of dancing.”

I chuckled. “You’re right about that.”

On our way back to the table, I flipped on the string globe lights. After we sat down, Riley held her arm out for me to see. It was covered in goosebumps.

“Your ghost just joined us,” she said.

“I sense it, too.”

“I hope it does something while I’m here.”

“You never know. It just might.”

“Speaking of ghosts… Do you still go to the cemetery when the moon is full?”

“I haven’t done that since you and I last went. What about you?”

“I’ve been once.”

“Did you go by yourself or with your girls?”

“By myself.”

“How was it?”

“Strange, because you weren’t with me.”

“That’s why I didn’t bother going. I knew it’d be lacking without you.”

Riley canted her head to the side. “Are you game for mingling with the spirits tonight?”

“Of course I am.”

“I don’t know where the moon is in its cycle, though.”

I grinned. “It’s full and will be rising within the next hour.”

“Really?”

“Really. I still keep up with it on that Deluxe Moon app.”

Riley’s face dropped. “Crap.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s too late to get Joseph and Rosalie gifts.”

“If we hurry, we can make it to the Dollar Store before it closes.”

In one hand, I held a flashlight. With my other, I kept my fingers laced through Riley’s as she and I walked through the cemetery where her ancestors and mine were buried. After paying our respects to them, we headed to Joseph and Rosalie Hamilton’s graves.

In the mid-1800s, the couple arrived in Cypress Hills by steamboat and took up residence. They were both knowledgeable of the healing abilities of herbs, flowers, berries, leaves, roots, tree bark, etc., and soon opened an apothecary on the town square. They sold tinctures, ointments, and household and personal items such as soap, toothbrushes, candles, cooking spices, salad oil, and tobacco.

Joseph and Rosalie were readily embraced by the townsfolk and were considered excellent “pharmacists,” as they would’ve been called in modern times. They were also thought of as exceptionally kind people. But what stood out in legend about them the most was their love for each other.

When Joseph suddenly came down with a mysterious illness, Rosalie did everything she could to heal him, but nothing worked. Joseph died in her arms in their home, and a week later, Rosalie died in her sleep from a broken heart, as believed.

They were buried side by side in the Cypress Hills cemetery. On the first Valentine’s Day following their deaths, the townsfolk visited their graves and left gifts ranging from red roses to cards to anything heart-shaped. It became a yearly tradition, carried on from generation to generation, to remember Joseph and Rosalie and their extraordinary love.

When Riley and I started dating, we honored them together, not only on Valentine’s Day. We took it further by visiting their graves on every full moon because it was meant for lovers, just like the night.

After Riley ended our relationship last year, I thought about many things I would miss about her. One was coming to this cemetery with her, yet here we were again.

“There they are!” she said as we approached Joseph and Rosalie’s graves.

Standing before them, I waited for Riley to begin her usual routine of closing her eyes, bowing her head, and saying a private prayer. When she was done, we placed a silk red rose and a figurine of a man and woman kissing on Joseph and Rosalie’s headstones.

“It feels so good to be out here, doing this with you again. Thank you for bringing me,” Riley said, smiling.

“You’re welcome.”

“Would you happen to be game for carrying on another tradition of ours?”

“I am. Are you sure you are?”

“Yes. I want to live all I can while I can. Being here with you has reminded me of that.”

We walked to the back of the cemetery, where no one was buried, and took our clothes off. After making a pallet with them underneath our favorite magnolia tree, I sat down, and Riley straddled me, taking every inch of my dick into her tight, wet pussy. Then she started riding me while I grasped her hips, and she hung onto my shoulders.

“I didn’t know I was going to have you all to myself again today,” I told her, staring into her half-closed eyes. “I’d planned to fuck you over and over again whenever I did and make you keep coming until you screamed for me to stop.”

“Don’t forget you were going to do that while we imagined Chad watching us.”

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten. All of that’s going to happen, but just not here. It isn’t the right place.”

“I know, and it’s fine.”

Riley kissed me and began riding my dick harder as the full moon illuminated her beautiful face.

“You feel so damn good,” I told her.

“You do, too.”

“I figured you’d be sore from earlier.”

“I am. But there’s only one way to work it out.”

Most folks, if not all of them, would’ve viewed Riley and I having sex in this cemetery as being sickly morbid and disrespectful to the deceased. She and I never had, though. Something about being here made our intimacy feel incredibly elevated. I believed it was due to the hallowed ground we were on, our ancestors’ love and protection, the moon’s energy, and the magic of Riley.

I heard the rumbling of a Union Pacific train coming down the tracks on the other side of the fence, but Riley and I were too close to coming to stop fucking and hide behind the magnolia tree. When the train had almost reached us, we began losing control together—Riley closing her eyes while I kept mine open to watch her. Seconds later, the engineer blew his horn at us after getting an eyeful, but it didn’t matter. Like me, I knew Riley wouldn’t have changed a thing about this moment.

With her body and mine spent once again, we held each other as the rest of the train continued racing by us. Then it was gone, and the night was quiet once more.

“I love you,” I whispered in Riley’s ear.

She raised her head off my shoulder and stared at me.

“Don’t let my telling you that again scare you away,” I continued. “How I feel about you doesn’t obligate you to feel the same way about me. Yes, you care about me, but you fell out of love with me sometime last year. I just wish you’d tell me when it happened.”

Riley’s eyes filled with tears.

“Talk to me, mia bella,” I said, tightening my arms around her.

“I…”

“You what?”

She looked up at the sky, took a deep breath, and focused back on me. “I never fell out of love with you, Rhys.”

It was my turn to stare. Finally, I was able to speak. “How could you walk away still loving me?”

“It took everything inside me to do it. I had to see what was beyond here and truly believed you wouldn’t go with me if I asked. I wanted you to so badly, though.”

I shook my head in disbelief, yet I believed every word Riley had just spoken.

“Something that you aren’t aware of is on the day I left Cypress Hills to move to Fort Worth, I pulled over to the side of the road after crossing over the bayou,” she went on to tell me.

“I know you did. I was parked down by the bayou with a half-empty bottle of whiskey in my hand, waiting to see you leave. Rachel told Jackson the day you planned to get out of town, and he told me.”

Riley’s jaw dropped after hearing my revelation.

“Why did you pull over?” I asked.

“Because I wanted to turn around.”

“And do what?”

“Find you and tell you I wasn’t leaving because I couldn’t live without you.”

“God, Riley, why didn’t you?”

“I thought it was too late for us, just like I thought it was too late with my parents. They’d paid for my car, college education, the first three months’ rent on my duplex, new furniture, decorations, linens, dishes, pots, pans—everything. Then I met Chad and tried to forget you. But I couldn’t. Your face was before me in everything I did and still do. You were in my dreams, too, and still are. If you only knew how much I regret ending us.”

“Then let’s start over. I want you and only you for the rest of my life.”

“Why would you, after I hurt you so badly?”

“Because I love you, and I need you. I also understand you. As much as it devastated me to lose you, I knew you needed to spread your wings and fly away from here. I used to think often you would one day.”

Riley’s eyebrows pulled together. “What?”

“Yes. I thought you would because of who you are. You’ve always been cut out for more than me and our hometown.”

“No. I never viewed myself in that way, like I was better than you and everything here. I was just hungry to see what else was out there in the world, and I am so sorry that I sacrificed us to do it.”

“You had to follow your dream. I get it. But your journey led you back to me. Can’t you see that?”

Riley took a ragged breath. “Yes.”

“Then say you’re mine again.”

“I can’t. Not yet. After all that’s happened with Chad and you, I feel so mixed up inside, and I’ve got to work through it. It’s only fair to both of us that I do.”

“At least tell me you love me. I need to hear it.”

“I love you, Rhys Michael Silverman. I love you so much.”