His hand stroked my arm as I thought on his words for a moment. I had already made peace with everything, but I appreciated his thoughts. His effort to make something right. The genuine distraught in his tone as he did so. “Thanks Chase. And I’m really okay.” I smiled up at him, placing my hand on his chest. “I’mveryokay actually, but I appreciate you saying that.”
He nodded, his eyes flashing with something sexy and drew me closer, before I pulled away again to add, “to be fair, I think I got you back in high school.”
He laughed. “Actually, that was probably my favorite part.”
“Really? I was so horrible to you.”
Brushing a hair back from my face, he added, “I don’t think you were as mean as you remember. All the insults just made you that much more enticing. Combine that with your hostile, overprotective twin brother and I thought about you all week long. Friday night was my favorite night of the week.”
I smiled into his chest, my face ablaze. “Mine too.”
And then we were kissing again. All warm and cozy. Seriously though, were his fingers laced with fire? Everywhere he touched left a trail of heat in its wake. So much fire. Too much fire. Chase didn’t seem to have the same inhibitions as me. This relationship was new. So new. I guess I could call it a relationship, though we hadn’t really given it a definition. Actually, we hadn’ttalkedmuch at all, since last night. The last thing I wanted to do was too much too soon and ruin everything. Which meant I had to be extra vigilant with us alone together in the cabin. My breath hitched as he pulled his lips from mine, leaving tiny kisses along my jaw before finding my lips again.
Okay, maybe just another minute or two.
After a few more moments full of complete bliss, I forced myself to pull away from those dang lips. “Do you want to go cut down a Christmas Tree?”
He blinked back at me, as though confused as to why I had pulled away, his eyes still hazy with… desire? I felt my face redden at the thought. A moment later he breathed out a laugh of disbelief, biting his lower lip with his teeth. “How did you know? That isexactlywhat I wanted to do this very second.”
I hid my face in his chest again, trying to hide my embarrassed smile, when he cupped my face, tipping my chin up to look at him. He kissed me again, briefly, before he said with a knowing smile, “that’s probably a good idea.”
After spotting an ax and old tree stand in the dusty garage, we geared up and spent the rest of the afternoon hunting down the perfect Christmas tree. We held hands, threw snowballs, and made snow angels. At one point, I jumped on his back and he carried me while I nipped at his ear with my teeth. We acted like teenagers. Giving all the signs of complete infatuation. Except, when Chase looked at me, there seemed to be more than just admiration in his gaze. Something much deeper, and sweeter shone through when he looked at me. Something that made my heart race and my body tremble. Something that had me thinking about tomorrow.
Our expiration date was stamped on our foreheads. Tomorrow he would leave. He would go back to Eugene to be with his family and then, after that, his life was in Boise. And my life, well I guess technically as a writer it could be anywhere, but it had only been a week. That’s crazy, right?
I made it three hours until I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. The not knowing. And really, surviving all the kisses andaccidentalpinches and nudges while we fixed dinner, put the lights on the tree, popped popcorn, and decided on a movie, all the while feeling like I was going to blow a gasket, felt like quite the accomplishment. We were cuddled under a blanket, sitting on the couch, the movie credits beginning to roll, when I could stand it no longer.
“What happens with us after tomorrow?”
Chase coughed, jolting forward on the couch. He had just tossed a handful of popcorn in his mouth. I had impeccable timing. I grinned sheepishly at him while I banged on his back and handed him a glass of water from the coffee table.
After approximately seventeen hours later, he could speak again. He paused the movie, leaned back on the couch, his head resting on the headrest, and shifted his eyes toward me.
“That depends. Are we done messing around?”
I held myself still, my lungs waiting for me to give the signal to breath.
“What do you mean?” My defenses prickled. Was this all messing around to him?
He sat up on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees, as he turned toward me. “You’re it for me. Even after all this time, I still want what I wanted in High School. I’m not messing around here. I want us to be together. And I’m pretty damn sure I love you.”
I sat in stunned silence for a moment, and then, ever so slowly, a smile crept across my face, growing bigger and bigger as his words hit home. Was it really going to be this easy? No more games? He seemed to be waiting for some sort of answer, but with his expectant brown eyes peering intently into mine, a bit of shyness overcame me, and I tried hiding my face with my hand.
He grabbed my hand away from my face and pulled us both up and off the couch. His arms wrapped around me, but I quickly tucked my face into his chest.
“Hey, no hiding. What are you thinking?”
Smiling into his shoulder, I lifted my head up and whispered, “same.”
“Same?”
“Yeah.”
He scoffed, even as his face lit up and he pulled me closer. “I bared my heart and soul to you and all I get is ’same?’ You’re the writer.”
I poked my finger into the side of his stomach, laughing as he squirmed. “You’re right, should I think of four more sentences?”
“Brat.”