Page 12 of Between Hope & Tragedy

With as much as I hated to admit it to myself, the feeling I was getting from this kiss alone was enough to make me want to stay with him forever. I had never felt safer than when I was in his arms, no matter how forbidden it was at the time, it just always felt right. When I felt him push his hard cock up toward me, I pulled away from him and got off of his lap. It spooked me for some reason; no matter how good the kisses were, knowing that he wanted to be inside of me scared the shit out of me.

“I can’t. Not yet,” I whispered.

He let out a breath, pulled my face down to his and kissed me gently on the lips.

“I won’t force you to do anything you’re not ready for.”

That’s a first,I thought as I went back to my spot on the floor and went back to watching the History channel.

By the time ten-thirty came around, we were walking toward his car. He offered to drive to Grandma's house and I accepted since I was pretty sure I wouldn't be worth much after our morning rendezvous. True, it hadn’t been as much as he would’ve liked, but it was enough for now to keep him happy.

"Next time, we'll have to follow through on that," Garrett said as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Who said there was going to be a next time?" I asked, with a playful laugh.

He glanced at me with a cocky smirk on his face. It had been damn obvious at this point that he had no intention of letting me leave so easily. It was probably even more obvious that I refused to back down on that. Two weeks to sin with him was more than enough, and then I would go back home and erase the memory from my mind. I would act like this never happenedand I would learn to stop looking at the fucking obituaries hoping for a familiar death.

Grandma's house wasn't far from the hotel. She had lived in Burbank ever since I could remember, and was too stubborn to leave it. Not that I thought anything was wrong with the place, I just knew that trying to convince her to move down to Florida with me would probably be out of the question. My heavy sigh got Garrett's attention, and I felt his hand suddenly on my leg.

"What's up?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Nothing important," I replied quietly. I shifted in my seat in a way that it would knock his hand off and kept my eyes trained out of the passenger window all of the way to our destination. Garrett chuckled; he probably knew that us sharing the moment that we did before leaving meant little to nothing to me.

I'd never love him, and to be quite honest, I wasn't sure that I ever did. I never said it to him when I was younger and I wouldn't say it to him now. It's just how I was; the only person that had gotten an "I love you" out of me recently had been my grandfather, and he wasn't even alive to hear it.

"How are we presenting ourselves?" he asked, when he finally saw the city limit sign for Burbank.

I gave him a confused look and he shook his head.

"Never mind," he sighed.

Hm. Wonder what that's all about,I thought as I turned to look back out of the window again. I knew it wouldn't be long until we reached my grandparents' house and I didn't want to enter her home with any obvious tension between myself and Garrett.

"She said you can pull into her driveway," I told him, pointing as we approached the modest two-story home. I smiled at the yellow panels that lined the outside of the house, the wooden steps that I used to love sitting on as a child, and the tire swing that still hung from the lone maple tree in their front yard.

Smile still on my face, I went over to the swing, and gave the tire a gentle push. I found myself wondering if Scott had been on this swing at any point in his life, just once, and it made me turn away. It made me climb the stairs to my grandparents' house and ring the doorbell. There was a reason Grandma wanted me to come over today, and I wondered if it had anything to do with him.

I waited patiently until I heard the sound of Grandma's cane making thudding noises across the floor. She peeked through the old curtains hanging over the small side window and smiled when she saw me. A few seconds later, the front door was pulled open and she was holding an arm out toward me.

"Hi, Grandma," I greeted with a gentle hug.

"Oh, Zaydee. My darling Zaydee," she said happily. "I'm so glad you came."

"I never could say ‘no’ to you," I replied, pulling away. "Garrett came with me; I hope that's okay."

"Of course it is!" she exclaimed looking past me. "Come here and give me a hug, young man."

Garrett's face turned slightly red as he stepped forward and hugged Grandma. I smiled when I saw her hand grip the back of his shirt, before she pulled away and told us to come in. I waited until he walked past me so I could close and lock herdoor. Grandma and Grandpa always insisted that the deadbolt be locked first, then the doorknob. They said that way, if they ever forgot to lock the bottom one, the stronger of the two would always be set in place.

"Young man," I teased him quietly, as I caught up to them.

Garrett shook his head, an embarrassed grin spreading across his face as we sat down in the living room. I watched as he helped Grandma get comfortable in her chair before he came over and sat down next to me.

"Thank you," she said to him with a nod. "I put the tea kettle on, so hopefully it'll be ready soon."

"Thanks, Grandma," I said, clasping my hands on my lap. She smiled at me and set her cane next to her chair. I waited to see if she would say anything else, but she didn't. She just sat there smiling happily at me, stealing glances at Garrett when she thought he wasn't looking. I shook my head in amusement and decided to bring up the subject at hand.

"So, what's up, Grandma? Why did you want me to come by today?"

---