reprieve from reality, if only for a little while. “Let’s go do something fun.”
“Fun is good.”
We walk and walk and walk, until we reach our neighbor’s farm. I put my hand to my lips to make sure he stays quiet. “Where are we?” he asks in a whispered voice. I take my phone out and put on my flashlight app. I shine it on the corn stalk maze.
“My neighbors set this up every year for the kids.”
“It’s a maze?” he asks.
“Yeah, want to do it?”
He scratches his head and when I shine the light on him, he says, “Can you turn that off?” He used those exact words when I shone the light on him in his bedroom that first night, the night that feels like it happened so long ago.
“Sorry,” I apologize and turn it off. I run into the maze and he curses under his breath as he follows behind me.
“Where the hell are you?” he asks, and I run, loving the wind in my face, and just wanting to be twelve again, no worries, no hurt…
“Marco,” he calls out and I laugh.
“Polo,” I say and run around the stalks, coming to a dead end. I turn and take the right when I spot his shadow in the distance.
“Marco.”
His voice is close, and I keep running. When I get to a safe distance away, I whisper, “Polo.” I can’t stop the chuckle in my throat. It rises up and gives away my location as I try to get past him. He reaches out and snatches me by the waist.
“Got you,” he says, and tugs me to him. The chuckle dies on my lips as his heat reaches out to me, the space between us filling with want, need, and volatile energy.
“Ella,” he whispers in the dark, and I wet my lips, wanting his mouth on mine.
“Yeah?”
He pushes my hair back, and tucks it behind my ears and my entire body tingles, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. His finger lingers near my ear, and trail down along my neck. His touch is like fire on my skin as I pull in a fast breath. A noise sounds in the distance, an animal scurrying in the night, but we continue to stand there, face to face, our bodies close, aligned perfectly. Before I can think better of it, I put my hands on his shoulders, just for one second—one last time—wanting to feel him.
He leans into me, and his warm breath washes over my face. I wish I could see his eyes. But I’m being selfish, taking what isn’t mine even though it seems to be what we both want. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. I drop my hands, and step into him, pressing my face against his heart. His hands close around me, like he too knows we can’t do this. In the dark of the night we stand there, two lost souls.
“Ivy’s pregnant,” he finally says, his voice low, soft…afraid.
I inch back, and as his features form in the dark, I tell him, “I know.”
“You heard?”
“I didn’t mean to. I was coming into the kitchen to get the water.” Suddenly feeling confined in the maze, I take his hand and lead him out. We walk in silence again until we reach our farm and I drop down and press my back against an apple tree. Landon sits next to me, and I stare at the stars as his thigh presses against mine. I like him next to me like this, like we’re the only two people in the world awake.
“I’m…scared,” he admits, and his honesty, his fear, rakes me raw inside. “Here I never thought I could be more frightened than I was that day at the movie theater.”
“What happened?” I ask quietly. His hand goes to his cheek, to his scars, and I adjust my position and sit cross-legged facing him. “You don’t have to tell me the details, if you don’t want to.”
He shifts positions, and sits cross-legged to face me. “It’s not something I talk about. Not something I want to relive. I wouldn’t even go to counselling. I just wanted to forget it.”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.” I put my hand on his legs and he gathers it up. His warm palm closes over my smaller hand. He holds me like that for a long time, and I just absorb his heat, feeling closer to him than I ever have before. His head lifts