Page 48 of You Before Me

“What do we do first?”

And that starts our journey of becoming kids again. Ryan wanted to do the piñata first and while she wore the blindfold, I gave her instructions on where to swing. She missed the first time, swinging entirely too low thanks to what I told her, and I sprayed her with silly string, causing her to giggle and squeal my name.

“So close. Just a bit higher,” I lie.

She misses again, and I laugh, spraying her again. We do this a couple more times before I come behind her and help, breaking the seahorse in half. I hold Ryan by the waist and turn her away, so I can grab the candy for myself, causing more giggles to bubble out of her. We play all the games, blow bubbles, and engage in a silly string fight, making an absolute mess of my house. But it's tons of fun, and Ryan hasn't stopped smiling since she walked into the house.

“Okay! Okay!” she surrenders from behind my couch as I crouch behind the recliner. “You win! I want cake now.” She peers over the couch, and I can see that she has the green silly string all tangled in her red hair. “Truce?” She questions.

“All right. Truce.” As I stand up, Ryan runs for the kitchen, spraying me on her way, laughing. “Shame on you, Ryan,” I chuckle, pulling it off my face. She slides into the chair, and I set my cans down. I was empty anyway.

“C'mon! Time for cake, Gabe.”

I find a knife and two spoons and retrieve the ice cream, going ahead and taking off the lid. Ryan asks to cut the cake, so I let her. She cuts a large slice and puts it on the plate. I raise my eyebrows when she slides it over in front of me before getting up to squeeze between the table and me to straddle my lap.

“Do I get to make special requests?” She asks, running her hands down my chest.

“Of course. Whatever you want, Ryan.”

She smiles, reaching behind her to slide the plate over further so she can access it better. Ryan gets a spoonful of cake and waits for me to open my mouth. I do, completely turned on by the fact that she's feeding me. Ryan watches me, seemingly fascinated before handing the spoon to me.

“Your turn.”

I lean forward, pressing her between me and the table as I tug the ice cream closer. “Vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry?” I ask.

“All three.”

Chuckling, I manage to get a small bit of all three onto the spoon, lifting it to her lips. She sucks the ice cream off the spoon with more force than necessary, and I shake my head at her, smiling. We keep going back and forth until the slice of cake is gone, and the ice cream has melted puddles around the edges of the container.

Ryan takes the spoon from me, setting it on the paper plate. “Thank you, Gabe. I don't even know what to think. Did you do this instead of going to your parents?” She wraps her arms around my neck, her fingers playing with some of my curls.

I rest my hands on her hips. “Yeah. Mom wasn't happy that I cancelled last minute, but she'll understand.” I curl my fingers into her back. “I wanted to do this for you.”

She rests her forehead on mine, her eyes closed. “Best birthday ever,” she says quietly. When her eyes flash open, they are watery, causing me to notice her shallow, cautious breathing as if she's trying not to cry. “Gabe, I-” her voice falters, struggling with whatever she wants to say. Her mouth closes and opens several times, but nothing more comes out, so I decide to ease the tension.

“It may be your party, but you're going to have to clean this mess up because I'm not going to do it,” I tell her, pulling a piece of silly string from her hair.

Ryan barks out a laugh just as I hoped. “That's so wrong.”

“Just kidding.” I pause. “Sort of.” Ryan giggles, and I push her hair behind her ear. “Ready for your hot birthday sex now?”

Her eyes darken with desire, her laughing halts immediately, but she shakes her head. “Maybe later.” That is unusual for Ryan. With a blink of the eye, her desire is gone, and so many emotions take its place.

“Tell me what you're thinking.”

Ryan takes a deep breath. “You really want to know?”

“Absolutely.”

She almost looks nervous for a moment. It quickly disappears. I love that she looks directly at me, whether she's nervous or not. She's going to face it head on. Finally, she mutters, “I was thinking about us and how... how this, us, scares me a little.”

For probably the first time ever, Ryan doesn't ramble on. She waits for me to say something. I wish she would babble endlessly to explain herself.

“You're going to have to give me more than that, Ryan. What do you mean?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing. Everything. I don't know. Thank you again for today,” she repeats, changing the subject. “It means a lot that you did this for me.”

I try to decide if I should press her or not, but her phone rings from across the room. Ryan makes no move to get it. Her eyes don't leave me. I wonder if she wants me to pry further. She doesn't give me a chance to make a decision.

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