Chapter 8
EIGHT
LEXIE
Getting used to dating was surprisingly easy, given that both of their schedules were... in a word... difficult.
The times they did spend together opened her eyes to a lot of things.
Things that she'd seen as common place and basically boring were different now.
Having someone with her who hadn't been to the same place over and over gave her a new perspective.
When they had a day off together, they caught a Lyft out to Dunne Gardens across the Beaver River.
As they pulled up to the entrance of Dunne Gardens, Kaleo turned and smiled at her.
"I think taking a Lyft was a great idea.
I liked hearing about the buildings we passed and what they mean to you.
The murals you pointed out. Even the bridge we just crossed over.
It's like a sightseeing tour of the places where you grew up. "
"You'll see more of it in the gardens. I think the section I'm taking you to is one you're going to enjoy."
"Thanks for this," he reached for the seatbelt clasp as the driver put the car in park. "It's nice to be here where it's mostly trees and hardly a building to be seen."
Lexie freed her seatbelt. "Except for the visitors center and the bathrooms." She gave him a wink. "And out here, those bathrooms are everything."
They got out of the car and Kaleo thanked the driver and sent him an extra tip through the app before they walked up to the reception desk.
When Lexie reached for her wallet, Kaleo reached across the counter and gave them his card to scan.
"Kaleo!"
He looked at her, smiling. "You snooze..."
The cashier giggled. "You lose."
Kaleo nodded and gestured to the girl. "See?"
She gave him back his card and his receipt. "Date?"
He nodded and folded the receipt to fit in his wallet. "Yeah. We finally have a day off together so I'm making the most of it."
The cashier looked at his T-shirt and smiled. "CCFD?"
He nodded. "Firehouse Twenty-Nine."
The cashier frowned a little. "I should have noticed it before. We have discount ticket prices for Military and First Responders."
Lexie felt his arm wrap around her shoulders.
"Do E.R. nurses count?"
The cashier nodded and shrank a little more behind the counter. "Oh man... I feel horrible now."
She held up her hands, her eyes pleading.
"If you can wait a few minutes, I'll have my supervisor come up and help me give you a refund for the discount."
Before she could turn around and disappear, Kaleo leaned in and softly tapped the countertop. "It's fine. Leave it the way it is."
The cashier hesitated.
"Really," Kaleo beamed a smile at her and Lexie watched the girl bask in the sunlight of that look, "consider it a donation to the gardens. Next time we come back we'll remember to show you our work IDs for the discount."
Lexie followed his gaze and the gesture of his free hand.
There was a sign on the wall detailing the different ticket prices and discounts, including the instructions to show their ID cards for the discount.
Lexie felt a little breathless when Kaleo turned his smile on her.
"Ready?"
Ready?
She'd already lost her heart to this man. Crazy? But true.
It wasn't just some kind of flippant feeling.
He was deep inside her heart and every time she saw him, she wanted more.
Every time they parted, she missed him all the way to her bones.
"Yeah," she smiled at him and felt her heart skip a beat in her chest, "I'm ready."
They stood there looking at each for a long moment and Lexie was sure that her face must be beet red from all the blood rushing up to the surface.
"Uh," the cashier cleared her throat and when Lexie looked at her, the girl was fanning herself with a brochure, staring at Kaleo.
Once she realized that Lexie had seen her, she straightened and held out the brochure.
Almost coughing, the cashier explained that the brochure was, "A map of the gardens and a little introduction about their creation.
Near the ground in certain places along the pathways you'll see signs with names of the plants and QR codes.
If you scan those QR codes you'll get even more information about the plants that won't fit on those signs. "
Kaleo didn't seem to have any reaction to the starry-eyed look of the teen behind the counter.
He took the brochure and thanked the younger woman who probably would have fallen to the ground in a swoon if she didn't have a chair right behind her.
With his arm still wrapped around her, Kaleo walked away from the ticket counter.
Lexie took the brochure that he handed her, but she didn't need to open it to know where to go.
She lifted the arm closest to Kaleo and wrapped it around his waist.
For a moment she wondered how he'd react, but all he did was draw her in closer to his side.
"You've been here before."
She felt him lean closer and a moment later felt his lips against her temple.
If they didn't have their arms around each other, she might have tripped over her own feet and gone down face first into the grass.
"Too much?"
She heard the smile in his voice and felt her heart kick against her ribs. "No," she cleared her throat, "not too much."
As they walked under an arbor covered in flowering vines, she turned toward him and felt his arms close around her.
Whoa.
With their bodies pressed against each other, she could barely breathe.
"So, do you want more?"
Lexie drew in a quick breath hoping that her mind would manage to kick into gear before she was reduced to unintelligible sounds instead of words.
She licked her lips and saw his gaze drop there for a moment.
When he looked back up and met her gaze she heard his breath. Faster. Shallower.
There was a scent that reached her nose, something like... jasmine.
The vines, she told herself as she searched for more than a single coherent thought.
The world around them smelled like Jasmine and his hands moved down her back, fitting them together.
He moved closer, his eyes closing. "Lexie?"
She could feel his breath on her lips, and she leaned in to meet his kiss.
It felt like magic.
Gentle.
Tender.
Searching.
She wrapped her arms tighter around him, her free hand skimming over his back, feeling the stretch of his muscles under her palm.
The scent in her nose was jasmine mixed with something else. Something clean and warm.
It was him.
His skin.
His scent.
She leaned back, pulling in a breath through her mouth.
She wanted to keep kissing him, but they weren't exactly in a private place, and she knew that she was dangerously close to falling completely under his spell.
"Wait... wait."
He still had one arm around her, but the other lifted and braced against the metal arbor beneath the vines. "Sorry."
Lexie shook her head. "Don't... don't be sorry. I'm not."
His expression lightened a little. "You're not?"
She shook her head again. "Kissing you is dangerous."
He smiled.
A broad grin on his face. "Really?"
"Really," she shook her head at him. "You like that."
Instead of speaking, he leaned in and pressed a slow, easy kiss on her lips.
When he pulled back, her eyes were closed for a long moment before she opened them and saw his heartbreaking smile.
"See?" She grumbled at him with a smile. "You're enjoying this."
He pulled her in for another hug, rocking her back and forth a few times while they both laughed softly. "It's the best thing to happen to me all week."
She had to agree.
Getting to spend time with him was the best part of her week.
She knew it was only going to get better from there.
DUKE
"Okay," he smiled down at her as he took a half step back, lowering his voice a little, "I can't wait to see what you're going to show me."
She blushed and he knew that he'd hit the nerve he was going for.
In the limited time that they'd spent together, they'd put most of their time in talking and getting to know each other. Which included showing him around to find some great secondhand furniture for his apartment.
He almost felt like he had his own home there in Center City.
He'd always gone shopping with his family, so he was well prepared to shop with Lexie. He'd shopped with his mom and his aunts, so he had an idea of what to expect going bargain shopping. And he's gone shopping with his younger sister, Hoku, so he developed stamina.
Lexie had gorgeous legs and she liked walking, so he walked beside her along the winding path along the edge of the garden fence.
At one point he lowered his arm and folded their hands together. "Uh, Lexie?"
"Hmm?" She was happily humming beside him. "Yeah?"
"Uh... did I do something wrong?"
"Wrong?"
She looked up at him, the skin between her eyes furrowing slightly.
"What do you mean?"
He felt one corner of his mouth pull up into a half-smile. "Are you taking me into the woods to bury me?"
She didn't say anything, so he continued walking along beside her and saw a sign up ahead.
DUNNE WETLANDS
"Ah..." He cleared his throat. "Drowning me?"
He heard the tone of his voice rise into his upper range.
"Can I at least... apologize?"
She turned toward him, rolling her eyes. "I'm not drowning you..."
He grinned at that.
Relaxing.
"Yet..."
He turned his head toward her, his eyes wide. "What?"
She started laughing so hard she couldn't walk.
They stepped off to the side of the path and he sighed as she giggled, one arm wrapping around her middle.
"You think I'd do something like that?"
"I'm more concerned that I did something stupid and you didn't tell me." Kaleo felt his heart clench in his chest.
She was quickly coming to mean everything to him. He found himself double and triple thinking things sometimes just so he didn't make a mess of this... this relationship.
He watched as Lexie took in big, lung-filling breaths and let them out slowly.
When she could take a breath without breaking it up with a laugh, she spoke.
"I think you're thinking too much."