Sweetness (Bold As Love) (13 page)

“
Long,” I say with a smile.

“
Hey Jake.” I look up to see Emily. Instead of her usual loose fitting shirts, she’s wearing a fitting pink shirt that outlines her figure and dark blue Capri’s.

I stand and walk over to greet her. Her shoulder length hair frames her face and I see that she’s wearing eyeliner and mascara. I give her a kiss on the forehead and softly breathe a hello. I take her hand and ask her if she’s ready. She nods and I say goodbye to Mike. “Don’t stay out too late,” he calls over his shoulder.

“
I won’t,” Emily assures him. I open the car door for her and she slides in. I jog around and get in. Cranking the car, I back out and head towards Wilmington. Once we reach the stop sign at the end of Emily’s road, I park the car. “What are you doing,” she asks. I look over at her, place a hand behind her neck and bring her to me.

I give her a slow passionate kiss. When I release her, I tell her, “You look beautiful, you know that?” A blush burns her cheeks and she mumbles a thanks. Taking the car out of park, I continue to our destination. “Are you going to tell me where we are going,” Emily asks after a few minutes of silence.

“
Wilmington.”

“
Well, I figured that.” She laughs.

I grin. “We are going to an undisclosed location. Where would the fun be if I just told you? Just know that we are going to have a fun, carefree night.” I reach over and take her hand.

Her hand sits inside of mine. She feels fragile, but I know that is far from the truth. Underneath the damage her mom did to her, she is strong. Emily lifts up my hand and brings it to her lips placing a soft kiss there before returning our hands to her lap.

After a few silence moments, I ask her about her day. “It was okay. I don’t have homework this weekend so that’s great. I’ve been feeling a little off all day though.”

“
What do you mean,” I ask with concern.

She shrugs. “I’m not sure. How about you? How was your day?”

“
Antagonizing. I’ve been waiting all day to have you to myself out in the open instead of my bedroom.”

She looks over at me with a sly look. “What’s so bad about hanging out in your bedroom?”

“
Nothing. Just that now we get to go out.”

“
Jake?”

“
Yeah?”

“
Are you sure this is what you want to do?” she asks softly.

“
What? Us? Of course. Em, I wouldn’t be here with you if I didn’t want to be. I wouldn’t walk out in the cold in the middle of the night just so I can spend some time with you. You’ve got to believe me when I tell you that there is no other place I rather be right now.” I squeeze her hand and see her smile at me.

“
Okay. It’s just that sometimes I don’t believe that you would want to be with me.”

This time, I lift her hand to my mouth and kiss it softly. “I do,” I tell her. I glance over at her and see another smile. We sit in comfortable silence for about five minutes before Emily starts asking for clues about where we are going.

“
Well, it’s a lot of fun.”

She rolls her eyes and says, “Of course it will be! I’m going with you so that clue doesn’t count. Give me another one.”

I chuckle and say, “Hmm. You have to wear a certain kind of shoes.”

Emily thinks for a second and then asks, “Are we going bowling?” I nod and she continues, “So that’s what the pair of socks was for? Well, why did you tell me to wear flip flops?”

“
That is not going to be revealed until we get there.” She seems content with that and finds a station playing something she likes before turning the radio up a bit.

Twenty minutes later, I park my car at the bowling alley. I go around and open the door for Emily. I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her to me as we head inside. “I’ve got mad skills, you know,” I tell her.

She laughs and says, “I always play with gutter rails just so my score will be better.”

“
No gutter rails today. Oh! I almost forgot.” I reach for my pocket and hand over the twenty bucks I lost from our bet last night. A smile takes over her face and she stuffs it in her pocket.

“
Thank you.”

I chuckle and shake my head before we head to the counter. I buy two games and we get our shoes before heading to our lane. Emily pulls out thin ankle socks from her other pocket and removes her feet from her flip-flops. I slip my shoes off and replace them with the bowling shoes. I stand, enter in our names, and then we head to the counters behind us to pick out our balls.

“
Ready?” I ask her once we return to our seats. Emily nods and I go first. The ball goes a little to the left, but I still get a strike. “Yes,” I say with a fist pump turning to see Emily. I step down from where the floor is lifted up and give her a quick kiss. “That is how you bowl.”

She laughs and walks around me. She stands in concentration for a moment and then rolls the ball down the lane. It heads right and knocks down a few pins. When her ball returns, she goes back and knocks down the rest of the pins. “Your turn,” she says with a smirk as she passes me.

I get up and bowl a strike. On Emily’s next turn she gets a gutter both times. I try not to laugh but a chuckle escapes. She does a playful backhand into my stomach, making me laugh more. “Will you bowl already?” she exclaims. I grab my ball and knock down six pins. The next one is a gutter.

On Emily’s turn, she does the thing I least expect. She granny-rolls the ball. It makes a slow travel down the lane, but knocks right into the first one and sends the rest crashing down. I stand right before where you have to step up and Emily comes over to me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “That is how you bowl,” she says with a kiss.

I laugh and shake my head. “Hey, I like it up here,” she says noticing that she is taller now that I’m standing on the lower level. I laugh, give her a quick kiss, and get my game on. The rest of the game, I bowl either strikes or spares. Emily continues to granny-roll the ball and gets quite a few strikes. She does a little happy dance each time and the night is filled with laughs.

I won the first game and Emily won the second. We return our shoes and head to leave. The bowling alley is connected to a mall strip and outside something catches Emily’s attention. “Jake! C’mon!” She takes my hand and breaks off in a run down the strip.

“
Where are we going?” I ask just as she stops in front of an ice cream place. Cold Stone’s. “You’ve never been, right?” she asks. I nod. Excitement takes over as we go inside. “You sit right there and I’ll be right back. You are going to love this place.”

I do as I’m told and watch her as she orders. She seems so relaxed talking to the girl behind the counter. She pushes a strand of hair behind her ear and my eyes travel down her body. Down to her shapely, fit legs and back up. She catches me watching and a blush takes over her cheeks. I smile and minutes later she walks over with a waffle bowl dipped in chocolate and filled with ice cream with two spoons sticking in it. She sits down beside me and tells me to dig in. I spoon me some and stick it in my mouth when Emily does. Emily closes her eyes and moans.

It was really good. She opens are eyes and looks at me. “Isn’t it a piece of ice cream heaven?”

I grin and say, “It sure is. What is it?”

“
It’s their birthday mix. It’s my favorite.” We eat the ice cream in silence with the exception of an occasional moan from Emily. “Well, that certainly ruins dinner plans,” I say once we start eating the waffle bowl.

Emily looks at me with wide eyes, “Oops. I’m sorry Jake.” I laugh and tell her it’s fine and that means we get to head straight to part two of our date. While we were eating ice cream, darkness fell outside. “Jake?” I look over at Emily and she leans in kissing the corner of my lips and flicking her tongue out. “You had some chocolate,” she says when she leans back.

If I wasn’t turned on the other night, I was now. Before she can lean back completely, I place a hand behind her neck and pull her to me. I kiss her, flicking my tongue over her lips to get her to open to me. She does and our tongues move with urgency. She sighs into my mouth. I kiss her for a little bit longer before releasing her. She stares at me for a moment and then it must have hit her where we were because she looks around at the adults giving us shocked glares.

She picks up our trash and throws it away. When she comes back to the table, she holds out her hand with a big smile on her face. “I’m most definitely ready for part two.” With that, we return to my car and I head to our next destination.

Emily

That kiss was all I could think about on our way to wherever we were going. I had seen a change in Jake’s eye after I got the chocolate off of his face. That kiss ignited a fire in the pit of my stomach that was still ablaze. Everything over the past few years just melted away and all that existed was Jake and those lips.

I see that we are heading towards the beach. We aren’t really going are we? I see that I’m right when we park at a public access. “I thought we could walk down the beach to the pier,” Jake says looking over at me. “We can just leave our shoes in here,” he adds taking off his shoes and socks. I slip off my flip-flops as he gets out and comes to open my door. He holds out his hand and I take it. We walk over the walkway and down to the beach.

The sand is cool beneath my feet. Jake tries to pull me out to the water. I shake my head, “Jake! It’s going to be freezing!”

He laughs and says, “Okay. You’re going to make me do this the hard way.” He pulls me to him and picks me up.

I wrap my arms around his neck and beg him to let me down. “Jake! Please! It’s going to be so cold!” All he does is laugh and walk closer to the water. He sucks in his breath as the water runs over his feet. I tighten my grip around his neck. “Jake! You will regret this,” I warn him as he sets me down. I try to resist but he’s stronger than I am and soon my feet touch the freezing water. I squeal and Jake laughs harder. He allows me to run back to the cool sand and he follows me.

I start walking down the beach, leaving him behind hoping that he thinks I’m upset. “Em, wait up.” I keep my steady pace and he jogs to come up behind me. He grabs me from behind and twirls me around. I let out a laugh and he sets me down turning me to face him. He pushes a strand of hair behind my ear and smiles at me.

“
How can I even pretend to be mad at you when you look at me like that?” I ask.

He leans in, his lips brushing mine as he talks. “You are really beautiful standing in the moonlight with the ocean and stars behind you.”

I involuntarily suck in a breath feeling his arms going around my waist and pulling me to him. I don’t know what to say so I decide to let my lips do the talking. I stand on my tiptoes and crush my lips to his wasting no time to deepen the kiss. I run my fingers through his hair, down his neck, and then start the descent down his back. He groans into my mouth and slides one hand up my back while the other makes a trail of fire up my arm.

The blaze in my stomach intensifies running throughout my body and slipping into my blood. Reluctantly I pull away. I needed air and I was afraid what would happen if that fire inside me took over. That look in Jake’s eyes from earlier had returned. “C’mon,” I say tugging his hand and walking towards the pier.

“
Emily, sometimes you drive me insane.”

I glance sideways at Jake but he isn’t looking at me. Before I can say anything, he starts talking again. “You’ve taken over my life and my mind. All I can think about is wanting to hold you in my arms and make sure nothing ever hurts you again. Then you kiss me like that making my mind go into overdrive. It’s…crazy. You’re amazing, you know that?”

A blush takes over my face and I’m speechless. I wrap my arm around his waist and give a light squeeze that he returns. I lean into him and we make the quiet walk through the soft cool sand to the pier. We walk up the steps and down to the end of the pier. Between the lights on the pier and the moon shining down brightly, we aren’t in the dark.

I place my hands on the railing and Jake stands behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. The stars look dim with the lights around us. Nonetheless, the scene before us is beautiful. The salty air and the waves crashing below us relax me. I lean into Jake and decide to ask a question that has been on my mind for the past few days.

“
Jake? Can I ask you a question?”

He kisses my neck and says, “Of course.”

“
Where’s your dad? Like, Drake is always with you and you never mention him.”

Jake sighs and is quiet for a few minutes. “The day my mom died, I didn’t come straight home like I usually did. I wanted to hang out with the guys and when I got home, I found her collapsed on the floor. She was already dead, but I tried to save her.

“
My dad got home and found out I wasn’t there when it happened. He was devastated and angry that she died alone. The blame was on me for not being there to save her. My dad started drinking heavily. He goes to work and comes home to get trashed then repeat. I keep Drake with me because he doesn’t need to be around that any more than he already is. Plus, with me he will be watched. Since then, Dad goes to work to make the money and I take care of everything else.”

I leaned my head against his. “Oh Jake. I’m so sorry.”

“
I’m used to it now. I just wish he will get over his anger and quit drinking. Drake misses him. Hell, I miss him.”