Page 35 of Our Hearts Knew Better

No way Levi talked about me with his parents.

With the two most important people in his life,he talked about me.

“Good impression?” The nerves in my tone were all natural.

After a stalled moment, when Levi took the helm, he told me, “They love you.” And I shimmied as he steered us a bit farther out on the water.

I watched the first firework after he set it off, a gasp parting my lips as the sky exploded with color.

One color.

Green.

I watched Levi as he set off the second, more shades of green washing over us, the boat, and the water, as Ten Decembers soundtracked this moment. He kept his eyes up, but his throat bobbed the longer I studied him, as I soaked in all these wonderful things he was doing for me. How he remembered even the smallest details, and he didn’t hide from that, even inside his way of being not obvious.

My chest squeezed as I wanted to squeeze him.

So, after the pops and the greens faded out, and we were back in the white bay light, I slid my arm through his, my fingers grazing along his back until my hand rested on his waist. He was both soft and firm as I pressed myself against him.

It was a side hug, but I was still feeling him. I was still letting him know how much this meant to me.

He hesitated in hugging me back, his arm moving up slowly, sending a shiver through my skin, even with the barrier of my shirt.

My reaction pressed me more against him, and that’s when his hand found my hip, heavy and strong and heating me up.

I wondered if I was affecting him in the same way.

He didn’t shiver, but his fingers did dig into me, the slightest bit.

Then he released me with a breath, mine just as big as we returned our hands to ourselves.

“I loved that,” I said, my voice thick, with a beam up at the sky, not sure which I loved most, watching the fireworks with him or having his hand on me.

But they both thrilled my heart the same.

“If you want more, we can do this again,” Levi told me, with a similar thickness in his voice, and that determination that sounded like myno fucks. No fucks given for waking people up if I wanted more fireworks.

What about the touching too? Can we do that again?

I did want more. I wanted it all.

And I was too deep now to ever let this go.

Breathe. Slow Down.

I was extra conscious of the shadows tonight, like my subconscious had been preparing me.

Each one loomed as a warning, shaped my dad in the distance as I paced my driveway to my window, Levi beside me. I kept bumping against him, stepping closer to his warmth as we took our steps over the gravel, my pulse pounding.

This had to happen.

It was written in the stars above us.

I just didn’t know it would happen like this, that I would be tipped as far as I was over an edge I’d only traced before now.

The trellis was gone.

Nowhere in sight as our pairs of feet halted together, my fingers a vise around Levi’s wrist.

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