Page 59 of Safety Net
"And you still want that? Us?" she tried to confirm. "After how long it took me?"
"I will always want us," I promised. "Doesn't matter if it's today, months, or decades from now. I will always want you."
Celeste tried to close the distance between us, stopping when her cap clashed with mine.
"Sorry." She laughed nervously. I laughed too, but reached up and removed her cap.
"Alright, folks," the tour guide started.
Celeste's eyes flickered to the front of the bus. I gently grabbed her chin and turned her face back to me. "Just stay with me here for a second?"
She nodded. I positioned the cap so it blocked us from the outside world and everything that'd dare to make this moment anything other than ours.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CELESTE
Lincoln held the baseball cap in front of us as we leaned in to kiss each other. He was sweet from the lemonade and warm from the summer sun. I parted my mouth, my tongue sweeping across his bottom lip, and he followed my lead. It wasn’t as gentle as our kiss backstage. I'm hot with the need for his mouth to be on more than just my lips.
I knew Lincoln. His love for his friends. His want for excitement. His fear of working so hard and not living up to expectations. Every little piece of him I've seen this past year has built this growing fire I possess for him and only him. The burn ignited the feelings I've read about in books. The feelings Naomi whispered about during sleepovers. Or students talked about during classes. I felt the heat now, the desire to never disconnect from a man I wanted to call mine. I’d gone from unable to look in his eyes to unable to pull myself away. But we did manage. The kiss couldn't have been for more than twenty seconds because when we broke apart, the tour guide was still getting through introductions.
Lincoln lowered the hat and offered it back to me. I finished off the rest of my lemonade, hoping the sugar would hit my dopamine receptors like Lincoln's lips did. It was nowhere close,and for a second, I panicked nothing ever would get close again. That I'll forever need a high only he could give me.
Would that be so bad?
Lincoln's gaze flickered between the front of the bus and me. He traced his bottom lip with his thumb, mouth parted as if he were going to say something, but couldn't figure out how to say it. I smiled because he had way more experience in this department than I did. And yet, he quickly downed his drink like me, desperately trying to keep his attention on the tour guide.
The bus jerked forward, setting us off to the first stop. As much as I tried to listen to what was on our agenda, my mind wouldn't center itself long enough to remember what our tour guide said. I opened the brochure, scanning its pages as I brushed my fingertips across my mouth.
"We'll start at the center of downtown." Lincoln's voice was low and soothing. Our kiss had left me wide awake, but it seemed to do the opposite to him. Lincoln sounded calm enough to drift off into a carefree sleep.
"Here." He pointed to the map on the brochure. "And then they'll take us around in a circle, which they call the Haunted Circle —very original. It's on this stop we'll get to see a haunted house."
I chewed on my bottom lip and nodded. "Sounds fun."
We were still close enough that a lean in wouldn't take more than a second. My eyes flickered to his lips, but he didn't move. Didn't take the hint. So, I shocked us both by closing the remaining distance. This time it was a quick peck because I was too nervous to linger.
Lincoln chuckled under his breath when I pulled away and leaned back into my seat like I hadn't just given him the world's shortest kiss.
"It'll be very fun," he promised.
Tinsel was a coal mining town founded in the 1700s. Its legacy was a mix of gritty labor and folktales.
"When the need for coal declined." Our tour guide stood on a step that led up to a statue I had passed a million times, with a stone plaque I had never taken the time to read. "The town lost almost half of its residents in a mass exodus. However, those who stayed behind began to experience strange occurrences. And the first one documented was right here, on the steps of our old city hall. An apparition of the first mayor appeared here with a warning to all:never mind the coal, we need to go deeper."
The crowd oohed and ahhed. I raised my brow, less fascinated, more creeped out.
"You good?" Lincoln had his mini notebook out and been scribbling in it since the tour group started walking. I tried to stay quiet while he wrote, not wanting to derail his train of thought. But he seemed to master the art of writing and talking because he consistently whispered other facts into my ear whenever he felt the guide glossed over something. I leaned in more than I needed to whenever he whispered, causing his lips ever so slightly to brush across my skin.
"I'm fine," I said. "Just…I wish someone had listened to him and dug deeper, you know? Now, it's going to haunt me—no pun intended—not knowing what he was talking about.”
Lincoln smiled. "Do you believe in ghosts?"
"I don't think so." I paused to give it proper consideration. "But I think I'm going to for the next few hours, so it gives more weight to the stories. Feels more exciting that way."
He chuckled and nodded in agreement.
"Do you?" I asked.
