Confessions from the Quilting Circle - Maisey Yates Page 0,65
though. He was the best. Whether he was walking up to the lighthouse with me or just...talking to me. Teasing me about how sweet my coffee was, or how messy my car was. He knew me.”
She took a deep breath. “He wouldn’t want me to go to OSU because he died. He would want me to follow my dream.”
“Well, I think you have your answer.”
She nodded slowly. “I guess so.”
He leaned across the cab, and she suddenly couldn’t breathe. “You have a little bit of frosting on your cheek,” he said, reaching up and brushing his thumb over her skin. And then he brought it to his mouth.
And then licked it.
“No sense wasting good frosting,” he said.
Her heart was thundering so loud in her head that she could hardly breathe.
It occurred to her for the first time that she was alone with a boy. Absolutely alone. And they could kiss...or whatever... And she wanted to. At least the kissing. So she stared at him, because she hoped that he would get the message if she did.
He smiled, and he leaned in. It wasn’t a long kiss. And it felt...
Strange.
His mouth was warm, and firm, and it made her feel like someone had wrapped her in a blanket and set her by a fireplace, safe and cocooned, but also close to something dangerous and destructive, that if it escaped its confinement would destroy her completely. When he pulled away she felt giddy. Dizzy.
“I want to see you again,” he said, his mouth still right next to hers.
“Okay,” she said.
“Good.”
“Yeah,” she responded, leaning back against the seat. She wished that he would kiss her again, but also, she wasn’t sure she could survive it.
“It’s pretty late,” he said. “And it sounds to me like your mom worries about you. So... I don’t want to cause worry. And if we want to go out again, then I suspect it’s a good time for you to head home.”
“It’s late?” She reached into her pocket, grabbed her phone and cursed when she saw the eight or nine messages and two missed calls. That meant her mom had probably called Catherine, who had probably ignored her, because she knew that her mom would want to talk to her.
Great. Now they were both in trouble.
“Yeah. I do need to go.”
“You look worried? Is everything okay?”
She wished a hole would open up in the truck and just swallow her up. “My mom doesn’t know that I’m with you.”
He frowned. “Oh?”
“I told her I was having dinner with my friend Catherine.”
“Okay.” He rested his elbows on the steering wheel and stared straight ahead. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not used to dating girls who still live at home.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You really thought I was older, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I should have asked up front.”
“Well, I’m almost older. I’ll be older...well, right now. But older in the way you mean soon enough.”
He sighed heavily, then looked over at her, his face shadowed. “I didn’t run away when you told me. I’m not running now.”
She bit her lip. “Good.”
“I don’t meet a lot of people who understand losing someone,” he said. “And I didn’t expect to find that with you. Honestly, I just thought you were pretty. But if you were just pretty I probably would have sent you away when I found out you were seventeen. But it’s more than that.”
A liquid, giddy feeling shimmered in her stomach, in spite of her anxiety. “I’m glad. Well, to be pretty and to be more than that. I... You know what I mean.”
“Handle your mom however you want. But...you know my opinion.” He laughed. “You know, the opinion of this guy you didn’t know until today. So if you want to ignore me, that’s fair enough.”
She wanted to tell him that she did know him. Because she’d been watching him for months. But then she would sound crazy, and he really wouldn’t want to see her again. She was going to try to minimize the fact she was in high school, not maximize it by revealing that she was a girl with a crush. Who had never been kissed before until a few minutes ago.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
She got out of the truck and slammed the door behind her, waving as she went back across the street to where she parked her car. “Wait a second.”
She turned around and saw him just a few paces behind her. “It’s not chivalrous for me to let you go without