Page 14

“Of course. You’ll get to open it later.” He gives me a smile that is so beautiful it makes my heart stop. Which my heart almost does.
I squeeze his hand as we walk toward the edge of the parking lot, where a big truck is parked. “Thanks. You didn’t have to get me anything, though.” I feel bad. He gave me something, but I didn’t have anything to give him back. I wish he had told me so I could have gotten him something nice.
“I wanted to. I hope you like it.”
“Of course I’ll like it,” I tell him with a smile. “You got it for me, so I’ll love it no matter what.”
He stops walking and turns to face me. He lets go of my hand, and I’m sad for a second, but then I feel warm tingles all over my face. He holds my face in his hands and kisses my forehead softly. The warm feeling makes my eyelids close. I sigh in happiness. Being close to him makes me happy.
He keeps his lips on my skin for a few more seconds before taking them off. Then he looks at me with a face I can’t read. I have no idea what he’s thinking. His lips move, and he whispers something that sounds a lot like “you’re perfect,” but I’m not sure.
He breathes in deeply through his nose, lets it out through his mouth, and then grabs my hand again. Jaxon leads me to the big truck parked in the corner of the lot. When we get closer, I see that it’s an ice cream truck. I might have made a small noise.
I jump up and down with joy and then give Jaxon the biggest hug I can. “I love ice cream!” I probably sound like a kid who is excited about dessert, but I can’t help it. And I know it’s going to taste ten times better because it’s from a truck that sells ice cream.
Jaxon laughs at me, but it’s not a mean laugh. It sounds more like “I think you’re cute.” As he hugs me back, his free hand presses against the small of my back. “I thought you’d like it.”
We walk over to the truck just as the people in front of us get their ice cream. The little boy, who looks to be about nine years old, stares at Jaxon with eyes as big as saucers when he sees him. He doesn’t move at all before bowing his head as if Jaxon were a king. The boy’s silliness almost makes me laugh.
When I look at Jaxon to share our laughter, I see that he is staring at the boy with a stone-like face. Jaxon has never looked at me like that before. It’s like he’s a different person—cold and mean. After paying for the ice cream, the boy’s mother turns around. When she sees her son and Jaxon staring at each other, she looks very pale.
“Colin!” The mother quickly grabs her son by the shoulders and pulls him behind her. She protects her son like a shield, keeping him safe from harm—like Jaxon would hurt a child!
“I’m sorry, Al, I mean sir. He didn’t k-know. I’m so s-sorry.” The woman keeps saying sorry to Jaxon, but when she looks at me, she stops. Her eyes get bigger, just like her son’s did a few moments ago, and she starts to shake and back away slowly. I look at Jaxon and try to figure out why she’s so upset. It’s clear that Jaxon scared her and her son, but why?
Even though she said some strange things, I can’t let her be so scared for no reason. I reach out and take her hand. I can see the sweat on her forehead and the fear in her eyes when I touch her.
“Ma’am, are you okay? I promise he won’t hurt you.” I start to walk her to the nearest bench so she can sit down. She really looks like she’s going to pass out. “Come on, let’s sit you down. You look a little faint.”
We get to the bench, and I slowly lower her to a sitting position with her son next to her. “Do you want some water?”
She shakes her head back and forth, but I won’t listen to her. “Okay, hold on. I’m going to get you some water. I’ll be back soon.”
I walk back to the ice cream truck, where Jaxon is still in shock. He is looking at me with a sparkle in his eyes. He has a small smile, but it’s hard to see.
“Broody,” I scold him, “You scared that poor woman. Let’s get our ice cream, but I want to give her some fluids.” He looks at the woman and then gives me a short nod of approval.
I order my ice cream in a sprinkle cone with two scoops of cookie dough. Jaxon orders five scoops of different flavors in a cup. He also wants three waters. Jaxon just raises his eyebrows and laughs when I try to take out my wallet to pay. He says, “Like I’m going to let my girl pay…” I get embarrassed.
We walk over to the woman, who seems to have a little more color in her face. “Here you go. Take your time drinking it.”
The woman smiles at me in thanks. “Thanks a lot. You’re very nice.”
I smile at her and then look at Colin, the little boy. “You’re pretty!” He comes over and hugs me, and I hug him back, but I’m a little hesitant. I love kids, but I just met these people and they’re being so nice to me. People you don’t know usually don’t hug you right away.
When Jaxon pulls on my arm, I pull back from the boy who is once again hiding behind his mother. I look at Jaxon and hope he gets that I want him to be nice to the people he scared. He smiles at them, but it looks more like a grimace. Then he says “goodbye” and drags me to another empty picnic table.
I don’t talk about the strange meeting; instead, I focus on myself as I slowly lick my ice cream, which is already starting to melt in the hot sun.
“Anyway, when can I open the gift?”
He lets out a sigh of relief because he is glad we aren’t talking about what happened. I think he knows who they are and doesn’t want to talk about it, but I don’t want to push it. He’ll share what he wants to when he’s ready.
He smiled and pointed to my cone, saying, “You can open it when you’re done with your ice cream.”
I mumble, “Crap,” as the chocolate drips out of the cone and onto my hand, which makes it sticky. I start to quickly lick the bottom of the cone to stop more ice cream from melting on my fingers, but it doesn’t work. My whole hand is covered in melted ice cream, and most of it has dripped onto the grass below us in just a few more minutes.
Jaxon had a feeling that my ice cream experience would end badly because he had gotten ten extra napkins. I put the cone down on a napkin and held out my hand to Jaxon, which was covered in chocolate. “Help,” I whine in a pathetic way while looking at my hand.
Instead of wiping my hand with the napkins, Jaxon gently grabs my wrist and brings my fingers to his mouth to s**k the leftovers off of them. I don’t know what to say, so I just sit there, shocked and a little turned on, as he licks and sucks the ice cream off of my fingers one at a time, never taking his eyes off of me. Suddenly, I feel hotter and try to stop the pain that is building up between my thighs by tightening them.
“W-what?” I stutter, unable to put together a clear sentence right now because I’m so upset. Jaxon just smirks at me, like he knows exactly how bad my thoughts are. He leans over and whispers in my ear in a low voice.
“I can’t wait to taste you. The ice cream was sweet, but I bet you’re even sweeter.”
That’s all. My heart burst. I’m dead. Dead.
My cheeks are hot and burning. His comment makes me nervous, but I really want to know what he’s talking about. The most I’ve done with a guy is kiss him, which is what I did with Jaxon. I really want to do these new things with Jaxon, but I’m not sure I’m ready for what he’s talking about yet. Even though we have a strong connection, I don’t know him very well yet.
He backs away from me until our foreheads touch. I instinctively close my eyes because my feelings for him are too strong to fight. “But not yet. I know you’re not ready.” He closes the space between us and kisses me sweetly. I kiss him back with all the strength I can find. I want to hug him and pull him closer, but I can’t because my hands are still covered in ice cream. Instead, I press my body against his, and as he pulls me closer and kisses me more deeply, a low rumble comes from deep in his throat.
When we finally let go of each other, I’m breathing hard, and Jaxon looks like he wants to dive in for more, but he stops himself. Instead, he pours some of the water on my hand and then wipes it clean with the napkin. He throws away our trash and then takes my hand and starts walking toward the woods.
“Um… Jaxon? The car is that way.” I point to the other side of the street, where his car is parked.
“Don’t worry, love. We’re not going to my car. This way is the second part of our date.”
“There’s more?” I smile.
He nods and pulls me along. We walk in silence, and it feels good until we get to a place where the trees stop. I can’t help but stare in awe at how beautiful it is.
“Jaxon, this is so pretty!”
The first thing I notice is the blue-green lake that sparkles and looks like it goes on for miles. There was no clear path through the forest, but when I walked through it, an opening in the trees showed me a beautiful view. The way the sun shines on the water makes sparkles that are so bright that it’s hard to believe they’re not man-made. But the best part of Jaxon bringing me here is that the picnic is already set up perfectly.
There was a checkered picnic blanket in front of the lake, and on top of it was a brown woven basket. This setup is so perfect that it could be in a movie. I don’t think I deserve the nice gesture, but when I look at Jaxon, all I can feel is gratitude. He looks so weak standing here, like he’s never been so open with me before. I can tell he’s worried about what I think of his gesture, but I can’t reassure him right now because I can’t talk.
My eyes start to water, and my bottom lip shakes. I try to hide my feelings from Jaxon by covering my face with my hand.
He smiles a little and his eyes soften. “So, I’m guessing these tears are happy?”
I can only nod, which I do, and my head is probably moving up and down so fast that I look like a bobblehead. He wipes away any stray tears with both of his hands on my cheeks, and then he puts his forehead against mine.
“It’s perfect,” I say, then I hiccup as I try to get my act together. I say the picnic is great, but what I really mean is that he is great. No guy has ever tried to get to know me better than just a little bit. I used to be a loner, but Jaxon has helped me open up and become more outspoken. He has also been very nice to me in the short time I’ve known him, and every time I see him, I want more.
Jaxon kisses me on the lips and then on the nose before taking my hand again and lowering us to the ground to sit on the blanket. “I thought we could have dinner and watch the sunset over the lake. I know we had dessert first, but I thought you might like it. If not, we could wait until later to-”
It’s my turn to stop him from talking. I quickly lean over and put my hands on his shoulders to keep myself steady while I kiss him with all my heart. I put all of my feelings of thankfulness, happiness, and awe into the kiss, and he kissed me back with joy. He puts his hands on my waist and holds on so tightly that it almost hurts, but that’s exactly what I need right now. To show him how happy I am, I need to be closer to him.