staring at me with total adoration as he moved a piece of hair off my face. Sometimes I wondered if he would still look at me that way if he knew all the secrets I kept hidden in my thoughts.
“Come home with me,” he stated as if he just decided to ask.
“What?” I asked sitting up.
“You said you weren’t going home until right before Christmas anyway, and I don’t want to be away from you that long. Besides, I want you to meet my family.”
I suddenly felt stressed. “I don’t know, Parker, they’re going to think its weird me coming to their house around Christmas when we haven’t even be dating that long.”
“Are you kidding me? My mom has not stopped hounding me about it since I told her about you at Thanksgiving. In fact, I don’t even know if I’ll get my Christmas presents if I come home empty-handed. Just spend a few days with us before you go home, please?” He was looking at me with puppy dog eyes, and I knew I was going to cave. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to meet his family…I really did. I just didn’t know if I was ready for it. Everything with Parker was all in, almost to an overwhelming measure. He never did anything halfway, and there was still a part of me that I wasn’t ready to give him.
I smiled at him and gave him a light kiss. “I’ll think about it.”
He laid back on the grass next me and we just stayed in silence for while. His hand was covering mine like he always did, and I wondered if life got much better than this. Parker made all things seem possible, even when I knew they weren’t.
I sighed, not wanting to end the moment, but also unable to fight my own practicality. “Don’t you have a test in an hour?” I asked not moving.
“Oh the bitter words of reality,” he said as he sat up. I felt a shadow cover my eyes, and I opened them in time to see Parker’s beautiful blue eyes as he leaned in to kiss me. It was passionate and full of wanting, and took me off-guard for a minute because he had never kissed me with such intensity before. I looked at him questionably, but he didn’t say anything—just grabbed his stuff and shot me wink before he headed off to class.
I laid on the grass a few minutes longer, enjoying the heat of the sunlight against the cold breeze of the day. It suddenly hit me that finals were over, and I was free from the pressures of school for the next month. The realization sent a wave of ease through my whole body and out of the blue, I felt so energetic, I wanted to get up and run home.
Christmas was coming in a few weeks, and I hadn’t done any shopping. Asheville was the perfect place to go, and I couldn’t wait to get there where I knew that each little store downtown would smell like cinnamon and be filled with the wonderful sounds of the holiday. I still hadn’t decided what to get Parker. My budget was pretty slim, especially with the tuition payment looming over my head, and I wanted it to be meaningful, to somehow convey thanks for all he had done for me this year.
I walked though several stores, looking at knives and watches, each more than double what I knew I could spend. I was starting to feel frustrated and opted to take a break so I could walk through my favorite gallery. They had updated all the photos on the walls, and I was blown away by some of the new pieces.
My eye caught one piece in the corner that attacked my heart with a flood of memories. It was a black and white close up photo of a zip line. The background was fuzzy, but in crisp focus were the line and a gloved hand solidly grasping it. The picture was angled on a diagonal and felt like you could jump right into the photo. As if in a daze, I asked the lady at the counter if they had any smaller prints for sale and within minutes had purchased an eight by ten copy. I found a beautiful black frame at the next store I went to, and the effect was breathtaking. I convinced myself I was giving it to Jake as healing for his mom, and nothing more.