Page 22 of Catch My Fall (Catch)

He halted mid-stride and stared at me for a minute before he made a beeline for me and lifted me off the ground in a hug that made my pulse pound. It was over far too quickly, even though it caught me off-guard. I haven’t hugged a guy inwhat feels like forever, and I’ve never been hugged by someone that I’m so attracted to, but apparently Tristan and I have entered a tactile portion of our friendship.

Giving me a smile, he guided me into the dining room where he pulled out a chair for me at the card table. “How do you feel about board games?”

Whywas he asking me such a random question? Sometimes Tristan is so odd that it cracks me up.

“I feel good about them, I guess, but I haven’t played one in years and years.”

Tristan walked to a cabinet in the corner of the room and pulled out a stack of board games. He set the boxes on the table.

“When we were kids, the best part of the week was always game night at the McKenzie house. It would suck so badly when we’d get grounded for some ridiculous reason and we wouldn’t be allowed to go. When I was thinking of what we could do tonight, I immediately thought of the games‘cause to me, that’s what friends do. There’s a bunch of games that we can’t play because we would need more people, so that leaves us with Clue, Life, Monopoly or Candy Land. What’s your poison?”

“Ohmy God, that’s classic! You’ve got Candy Land?”

He nodded his head as he laughed. “Darbs got it for me a few Christmases ago and she’s even made me play it a few times. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t require a lot of skill. I’ve got a few puzzles too, if board games aren’t your thing.”

“Puzzles? Really?”

“Yep. Mom McKenzie isa real stickler about having us complete a couple of big puzzles every year. She swears that it helps us all calm down and think things through better. If you want, we could start the latest puzzle she gave me.”

That was actually pretty enticing and I nodded my head enthusiastically. “I’m down to do a puzzle for sure. You know that there’s no way we can finish it in one night, right?”

“It usually takes about a week,” he said with a smile. “We can set it up on the table and tackle it until we’re finished. What do you think?”

What I thought wasthat I loved coming over and hanging out with him and any reason to continue worked for me. This was going to become a problem; I was way more attracted to him than I should be and he was just trying to be a friend.

“Sounds like a plan, Stan.”

With a chuckle he went back to the corner cabinet and pulled out a puzzle. He came back across the room with it behind his back. Stopping in front of me, he grinned sheepishly. “The candy thing is pretty much something that everyone who knows me well teases me for. Mom McKenzie’s latest puzzle for me picks up on that.”

Pulling the box out from behind his back he handed it to me. I burst out laughing when I saw the photo on the front. The puzzlewas one giant photo of a pile of candy—Tootsie Rolls, Junior Mints, Dots and lollipops.

Looking up at him, I laughed out loud. “I get the joke but you do know that this puzzle is going to be next to impossible, right? It’s a big-ass jumble of candy that’s going to be a bitch to piece together.”

He laughed as he opened the box and dumped all of the puzzle pieces onto the table. “You don’t strike me as someone that turns away from a challenge. Are you up for this?”

“I’m up for it.”

The two of us huddled together over the table as we turned all of the pieces right side up and separated out all of the border pieces. From time to time our arms brushed together, something that I enjoyed far too much. He smelled amazing, so good that it made me ache to touch a lot more than just his arm.

Our heads were close together in our position over the table and it was making me a little (okay, a lot) crazy to be so close to him. I wasn’t focusing on the puzzle at all and my hands had stopped trying to assemble the border. Turning his head to me, he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. We were eye to eye staring at each other, the silence trapped between us.

He leaned closer as his hands came up to cup my face, and I didn’t pull away or try to stop him. For the first time in my entire life, I really, really wanted to be kissed. It’s not like I’ve never been kissed before; clearly I have. But when you’re the child of someone who got pregnant in high school, you get a lot of safety lectures. Add to that the fact that my father has never missed an opportunity to espouse what a selfish and manipulative person my mother is for ‘trapping’ him and what a ‘burden’ her ‘tricks’ had been for him, and I think it’s clear why I steered away from intimacy in high school like it was my job.

Tristan’s lips covered mine gently as he started softly before deepening the kiss. When we turned to face each other fully, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and ran my fingers through his hair. He tasted better than I could ever have imagined, and he kissed me like he’d been given a cheat-sheet for what would make me feel the best. I’ve never been kissed so passionately, or held as if I really mattered to someone. Tristan cradled me in his arms like I was precious to him.

We pulled apart at the same time a few minutes later, and because he didn’t let me go, I didn’t let him go, either. We stared at each other in silence for a few moments, and I smiled shyly at him, even as I felt a blush steal across my face.

He smiled back at me as he continued to stare at me with a look of confusion as the seconds passed before he spoke. “Holy Hell, Mia…You make me feel…I don’t even know. Different?”

That waslike the pot calling the kettle black. The way I felt around Tristan was entirely new. “Right back at you,” I said quietly.

He settled me back onto my feet then and when he didn’t say anything else, I turned back to the puzzle. Clearlyhe was no more ready to deal with what just happened between us than I was. “If we’re going to finish this thing in a week, we need to get on it.”

He looked surprised, I think because I wasn’t throwing myself at him or having a tantrum because he backed off. He doesn’t know what my issues are so he must think I’m some kind of freak.

Looking at me uncertainly, he answered, “Um, yeah. Sure. Okay, yeah. That sounds like a plan.”

I’m not sure how I kept my head on straight for the rest of the night, but somehow, I managed it. At least I did until it was time for me to leave. He walked me to my car and when I got to the driver’s side door, I saw that he was staring at me intently. I did the first thing that came to mind, raising my hand as I said, “High five!”

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