Page 8 of Enchanted Kisses
“I’ve missed you…more than you know.” His voice was gentle and filled with pain. He kissed my forehead—also something he’d never done before. “I’ve half a mind to keep you under this spell. As soon as I lift it, you’ll go back to being angry with me.”
“What are you talking about?” I fluttered my eyelids open and tried to lift my head but lacked the strength. My nose brushed Caiden’s neck. His delicious scent infused my senses. For a dream, this seemed very real.
I tried to lift my head again but only managed to slide it to his shoulder. Emotions stirred within me—anger, surprise, hurt, and fear—but something smothered them.
“What’s going on?”
“Sorry about this.” Caiden pressed his hand to my forehead.
A jolt of electricity rocked my body and light flashed behind my eyes. As if I’d been underwater and had broken through the surface, the world around me burst to life.
Crickets and frogs buzzed in the nearby woods. Wind chimes sounded in the distance. A cool breeze carried the scent of the ocean. Streetlights danced above, and my father’s house came into view. I was home.How?
I lifted my head and looked into familiar turquoise eyes, bright even in the dim moonlight.
Caiden.He was real, alive, and holding me in his arms.
I didn’t like that and scrambled to get down. As soon as I was on my feet and steady, I backed away. “How are you here?”
I glanced from him to my car parked halfway up the driveway. A memory tugged at the back of my mind, only I couldn’t draw it forth.
“Lily?” Caiden stepped to me.
“Wait.” I held up a hand, trying not to freak out. My pulse climbed as images flashed in my mind—a pale-skinned guy, Olson’s parking lot, a soft melody, the desire to twirl, the urge to shout Caiden’s name into the night, and an icy pain that chilled me to the bone.
I shivered and closed my eyes, focused on calming down.Just breathe.
“Yes. Breathe,” Caiden said.
My head snapped up. Did he hear my thoughts?
“It’s all right,” he said. “Youare all right. I can explain everything. Well, most of it.” He glanced away. “Some will have to wait, but there’s a lot I can tell you. Once I decide where to begin, that is.”
He ran his fingers through his wavy hair. Grown-out strands, the color like melted caramel, fell into a perfect, disheveled mess. I remembered how much I loved it when he did that with his hair. He’d done it so often out of habit.
His gaze swung to mine, his eyes filling with hope. “I’ll run my fingers through my hair all night if it’ll keep you looking at me that way.”
He was flirting? Now? Did he think that would soften me to him? I grimaced.
“And there it is, the anger I’d hoped to avoid.” He sighed. “If you only knew—”
“Knew what?” I snapped. “Where you’ve been? Why you never called? Why you didn’t come back? Why you never answered your phone? I thought I was crazy, that I’d imagined seeing you disappear. Sometimes I questioned if you were even real. If it weren’t for my dad and Raysa , I would have believed I made you up. And when you never responded to a single text or message I left, I wondered if you were dead. Because why else would you ignore me—” My voice broke on a sob.
In an instant, he stood in front of me and cupped my cheeks before I could object. “I’m sorry. I never meant to be gone for so long. Things went wrong but—” he gasped. “Your eyes! They’ve finally turned. Winter’s blue is fading, and spring is in bloom. Do you know what this means?”
I shook my head, comforted by his warm hands on my cheeks but angry with myself for it.
“You’re ready.”
“For what?”
“Everything I couldn’t give you before.”
My thoughts circled back to our near kiss. Was that why he returned? To finish what we started? Did I want that? And what’s to say he wouldn’t reject me again?
“I didn’t reject you. I couldn’t kiss you without you seeing what you ended up seeing anyway.”
My breath caught. “I didn’t say any of that out loud.” The guy from the parking lot flashed in my mind. Hadn’t I said something similar to him?
