Chapter Nineteen #2
“Definitely.” I sigh. “Sorry I’m so sweaty.
” I didn’t realize how much until I feel my dress sticking where his arms press against my back.
Strands of damp hair cling to my cheeks.
I should be embarrassed. I usually would be.
But I’m too happy to care. “You missed most of it. Or was that on purpose?”
“What do you think?”
I look up at him. He grins at me.
“Why are you here then?”
“I missed you.” He leans down and kisses me gently.
“Oh,” I breathe out. My heart’s fluttering faster than it has all night.
I spend the rest of the song in a gentle sway of movement, cocooned in his arms. The beat of his heart holding rhythm against my ear. The dreamy smile re-emerges. I’m not convinced he told me the real reason he decided to come, but I’m not sorry he did.
The DJ announces the last dance. A pop song everyone knows blasts through the speakers. Collin rushes out to join us.
Jonathan doesn’t dance. But he doesn’t leave us either. He watches Collin jerk his body, twirl me around, and scream the words to the chorus in his face. We both laugh at the absurdity that is Collin Humphreys.
When it’s over, the lights come on, and everyone groans, including me.
I can’t imagine what I look like. But right now, I don’t care.
I had fun. And that’s because of my best friend.
I love Jonathan Reeves, but I came here with the right guy.
And maybe that’s why Jonathan is looking at us with that odd, kinda sad smile.
“I think you should take her home,” Collin tells him. “My mom needs the car for work. She has to go in for the overnight shift, and, well… I’ll probably get lost if I have to drive across town in the dark.”
He’s not wrong. His sense of direction, even in a town he’s been in his entire life, is awful.
“Do you mind?” Jonathan asks me. I look at him funny. “Just wanted to be sure.”
Collin hands me my jacket after retrieving it from the table we didn’t sit at once. I give him a tight hug and say into his ear, “Thank you for tonight. You made it perfect.”
“You weren’t too bad of a dance partner. Although I’m questioning the moves they’re teaching you at that fancy dance academy.”
I shake my head at him. “Goodnight, Collin.”
“See you both for breakfast.” He walks off in a sort of skip toward the door.
“He’s—”
“The best,” Jonathan answers instead.
“Yes. He’s that,” I agree, taking hold of Jonathan’s hand. “But ridiculous.”
“Yep, that too.” Jonathan smiles. “What time do you have to be home?”
“No time really.” I grin sheepishly. “Why? Where are you taking me?”
“Didn’t she show up with Collin?”
Laurel and Bridget walk behind Jonathan, Bridget way too focused on us.
I brace myself for the snide comments. I really hoped I’d put an end to this that day in the bathroom.
Laurel shrugs. “Whatever. I give up trying to figure them out.” She rushes over to a group of girls huddled by the exit.
Jonathan shoots me a quizzical side-eye, probably anticipating the same thing.
I shrug. “Guess we’re not that interesting.”
“Finally.”
“So, where are we going?” I ask again, swinging our arms between us.
He just smiles.
What did you do today?” I ask as we turn onto a road leading out of town. Leading away from everything, actually.
“I caught up on homework.”
I gasp in mock surprise.
“Shocker, I know,” he says with a smirk. “I hung out with my brother for a while. And then helped my mom rearrange the furniture, getting ready for the Christmas tree next weekend.”
“You put it up Thanksgiving weekend?”
“Yeah, we usually go out to the tree farm and cut one down. It’s a tradition, I guess.”
I shift in my seat to face him with my mouth open. “You cut down your own tree? I’ve always wanted to do that, but my mom has a giant one special-ordered every year.”
“Your Christmas trees are famous.”
“Because we don’t actually decorate them. She has her team of designers do it.”
“You don’t have family ornaments?”
“Yeah. That’s for the tree in my dad’s office. I decorate that one.”
“I love that tree,” Jonathan says in remembrance. “Should’ve known it was yours.”
I almost forgot that he’s been in my father’s office—multiple times.
“Thanks,” I say, not sure if it’s something I should acknowledge or not. Which brings me to a topic I probably shouldn’t broach, but just have to. “Surprised you didn’t have to work for your dad today.”
“He’s in Massachusetts, scouting out a project. Won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“Oh,” I say, wondering if that has anything to do with Jonathan’s surprise appearance tonight.
I’ve heard so many things about Hal Reeves over the years, all of them contradicting the strict, disciplinarian Jonathan and Collin describe.
I could never have been prepared for the man I met. “He’s not who I expected.”
Jonathan releases a humorless laugh. “He never is.”
“He seems to really love your mom.”
“He does. And my brother.”
“So… it’s just you?” As soon as I say it, I want to take it back. I was hoping to decipher the contradiction that is Hal Reeves. “Sorry. That’s not what I meant to say. I’m just trying to understand why—”
“He hates me?” Jonathan cuts me off. His voice clipped and edged with anger.
I blink. That wasn’t what I was going to say at all. “You think he hates you?” My words are gentle, like I’m inching out onto cracked ice. “Why?”
Jonathan’s jaw is flexed as he strangles the steering wheel. “Can we not talk about him?”
“Sorry.” I tuck in closer to the door, looking out the window into the dark. Whoever Hal is, he’s not good to Jonathan if just the mention of his name brings him to a boil.
Jonathan reaches for me across the cab, brushing my arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped. I don’t want him here with us. Okay? Just you and me.”
I nod, scooting closer so he can hold my hand. “Just you and me.” I look out the windshield, the headlights illuminating a desolate road. I haven’t seen a house in a while. Haven’t seen a car in a long time either. I don’t even know if we’re in Hollis anymore. “Out in the middle of nowhere.”
Jonathan laughs. “We’re almost there.” He navigates the truck down a dirt road that causes us to jostle and bounce in our seats. I grip the bar above the door. The road is narrow and filled with holes. I think we’re in the middle of a field.
The truck finally stops. We’re most definitely in the middle of nowhere.
“Stay here for a minute, okay?” Jonathan grabs a duffel bag from behind his seat and gets out, leaving me in the dark. The chill of the night rushes in quickly with the truck shut off.
There’s a bunch of noise in the back of the truck. Scraping. Clicking. Shuffling. I sit still, just listening. Completely unprepared for what I find once he comes back for me.
The bed of the truck is lit by a lantern, and in it is what looks like layers and layers of plush blankets.
“Thought we could… I don’t know… look at the stars and just…” He doesn’t finish. I smile.
“Cuddle?”
He shrugs sheepishly. “That too.”
He helps me up and pulls back the blankets. I’m surprised to find a cushion under another blanket when I sit down.
“This is really comfortable.”
“Stole the long cushions from the pool chairs. Thought it’d be more comfortable and protect us from the freezing metal of the truck bed.”
I curl up next to him once he’s covered us with the thick, fluffy blankets.
The air is so cold, I can see my breath.
But I’m warm in his arms, my leg draped over his with my head on his chest. He reaches over and fiddles with something.
Guitar chords cut through the silent night from a small speaker beside his chair.
Jonathan pulls a thermos out of a duffel bag, along with two mugs. “Hot chocolate?”
“Of course!”
He even has a baggie filled with marshmallows that I eat straight from the bag, not bothering to put them in the mug. “You always pluck the marshmallows out of the hot chocolate, so I figured this way, you won’t burn your fingers.”
“I haven’t burned my fingers in a long time. I’ve mastered it now,” I say in mock defense.
He kisses my forehead. “You’re exactly the same… and not.”
I tilt my head so I can see his face, hoping he’ll explain.
“You still care about everything and everyone so deeply. You still peel the crust off your pizza and eat it first. You still get the hiccups when you’re super nervous. And you still let us talk you into trying the dumbest games.”
“I hardly ever get the hiccups now,” I correct. “How am I different?”
“You’re braver. Although you’ve always stood up for what you believe in.
You’re starting to stand up for yourself now too.
And you’re more beautiful than my ten-year-old self ever could’ve imagined.
” His eyes are on mine, his gaze stealing my breath.
“And I love you more than I thought was possible.”
I don’t notice when he takes the mug out of my hand. I can’t stop staring at him. “You love me?” It’s a whisper, my voice lost to disbelief.
“For a long time,” he says. “Probably since that time you found me in the woods.” He brushes his hand ever so gently against my cheek, capturing the tear that escaped without my knowing.
Before I can find my voice again to tell him the exact same thing, his lips capture my words. My thoughts. My heart.
They’re all I can feel. The soft warmth of them against my mouth. Against my cool cheek. Along my neck. I’m gripping the front of his jacket, pulling him closer. Needing him closer. My breath a pant of clouds.
I pull him down over me. His hand is warm as he slides it up the back of my thigh, wrapping my leg around him.
His mouth is urgent against mine. I haven’t let him go.
Not until he unzips his coat and mine, shrugging them off.
It’s almost too warm beneath the blankets even though it’s near freezing above them.
My body feels like it’s on fire. My heart heating it with every quickened beat. I am ablaze as his hands discover me. His mouth tortures me. The heat from his body undoes me. He’s pressed so close against me; I don’t have to imagine anymore.
My words erupt.
“I love you. I love you. I love you.”