Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen (28 page)

“
You know, when we get back
to Wesley things will have to be different.” His eyes dropped to
the pendant.

Why did he go there? It
was our last night together, I didn’t want to worry about Monday or
even the rest of my life. I just wanted to live right
now.

“
I know. But we aren’t
there right now.” I turned towards him.

“
I want to make sure we’re
on the same page. This is the only time we’re going to be able to
talk about it before we get back.” He broke his gaze from my
pendant and examined me, his eyes capturing my
expression.

“
Yeah, I know.” I rolled
onto my back. My necklace fell against my skin and slid behind my
hair. I closed my eyes, stopping the rush of heartbreak that tried
to take over.

“
Wilson, I wish we didn’t
have to think about it,” he whispered, the tips of his fingers
brushed around the side of my face.

“
Me too.” I opened my
eyes.

“
We are going to have to
really watch our actions around each other. No touching.” His eyes
tightened as he swayed onto his back.

I wasn’t going to let this mess up my
last night with him. I rolled up, pushed my chest against his and
wrapped my arm around to the other side of his head twisting my
fingers into his hair.

“
I can’t touch you like
this?” I asked low.

“
No,” he let out a breathy
sigh.

“
How about this?” I
unzipped his sweatshirt and slipped my hands up under his
t-shirt.

“
Definitely not.” His hands
tucked around me. His stomach tightened.

“
What if I did this?” I
stretched up and kissed him. This time, I pushed my desires on
him.

His arms tightened and pulled me
closer to him. I felt his body give up and surrender to my way of
explaining. We both had a grasp on how we were going to act back at
school—I think.

Chapter
Twenty-one:

Sometimes I think honor
should be compromised. I know—hard to see where that is logical.
But in certain circumstances honor just gets in the way. Tonight,
it is so in my way and I couldn’t seem to find a way around it.
Maybe if I was one of those paratroopers, I could scale it with my
bare hands and discover what’s on the other side, but I am not a
paratrooper. I’m a seventeen year old girl with a twenty-two year
old boyfriend who wants to wait until I’m eighteen to go “all the
way” with me.

I understand why, I’m not
stupid. His career, my education, his freedom, my innocence all
tied together in a nice little package of morality.

“
What are you thinking
about?” Max whispered across my neck.

“
My eighteenth birthday,” I
answered. He stopped kissing my neck, the tip of his nose pressed
firm against the edge of my ear.

“
Really, what did you want
to do?” he laughed just enough as he asked.

“
Celebrate Christmas,” I
said.

“
Okay, what else do you
want to do?” He pressed his lips up behind my ear. I was going
wild. He knew what else I wanted.

“
Open my present from you,”
I breathed. He growled hot against my skin. My butterflies twirled.
It was exactly what he wanted too.

“
I want to give you your
present; so bad.” His face tensed as he pressed his fingers light
on my neck. “Twenty-nine days from now.”

“
How about a sneak peek?
Just a little something.” I was done waiting. I just wanted him
entirely.

“
This whole weekend you’ve
been sneak peeking.” He adjusted his body on top of mine and I
could tell he was aroused.

“
I like sneak peeks.” I
slid my hands into the back of his Levis and felt his muscles
tighten.

“
Me too.” He navigated his
lips down the front of my neck towards my chest.

“
Whoa, you’re vibrating.”
The phone in his pocket rang. He didn’t stop kissing me as he
reached between our bodies to pull out his phone.

“
Sorry,” he spoke against
my skin as he set it next to me on the bed. He didn’t check it. He
slid his hands down to my waist and pulled at my shirt
instead.

“
Max? Don’t you need to
answer that?” I asked as he ran his hand up my side and over across
my stomach.

“
No. Whoever it is can
leave a message.” He pulled my shirt up to expose my chest. He ran
his hands across my bra, his lips kissing the edges exposed.
Nothing better than a man who knows how to change the subject,
however; there was something desperate in the ring of his
phone.

“
Don’t you think you should
find out who called? What if it’s important?”

He pressed his ear to my chest,
listening to my heart pound. My hands, comfortably tangled in his
hair held him against me.

“
Well, your heart is
telling me you’d rather have me continue what I was doing.” He
turned his head to look up at me. His hair ticked across my
skin.

His phone chimed with a text
message.

“
There you go, now that’s a
sign you need to find out who’s calling you.” I grabbed it and put
it in front of his face.

He snatched it. I watched his eyes
shrink. His hands worked hard to answer whoever contacted
him.

“
Send. Okay, happy right?”
He held his phone up in the air and set it down on his night stand.
I heard it shut off.

“
Yeah, so it wasn’t an
emergency?” I sat up.

“
No. Now where were we?” He
leaned me back adjusting his body to press where it was before he
got up. “About here?” He pressed his lips to my neck.

“
Yeah, about there.” I slid
my hands back in between his underwear and his muscled
backside.

“
Because you looked pretty
intense when you texted back,” I continued.

“
Wilson, the only person I
would want to talk to is here with me.” He stopped kissing and
looked into my eyes. “Besides, it was only Calvin telling me he’s
at Nick’s and he needs me to pick him up.” He pressed back against
my neck.

“
Oh Shit, are you kidding
me? Oh My God! We’ve gotta go. I told Cindy I had a headache.” I
pushed him up and I slid off the bed. My head was swimming. Exactly
what I didn’t want, Cindy to come home and find I wasn’t there. Max
stood, watching me bounce around his room talking to myself. “What
am I going to tell her? What excuse will she believe? What the
hell, I’m so stupid.” My arms tingled hot, and I wanted to throw
up.

“
Why are you freaking out?
There’s nothing she’ll do. She’s too chicken shit.” He stopped me,
holding me by my shoulders. He took a deep breath, lifting his
head, telling me to take one too. I did.

“
You underestimate her. If
she’s pissed enough, she’ll attack. And
leaving
after I told her I was
staying home just might be the thorn that pops her bubble.” I
pulled him towards the bedroom door. We had to get back.

“
Well, it’s about time her
bubble was burst. I don’t like how she treats you. You deserve so
much better.” He grabbed me, his eyes captured mine. “Slow down.
Don’t worry; I’ll take care of it.” His arms wrapped tight around
my body and his lips pressed firm on the top of my head. I melted
into his embrace. I believed him.

“
Grab that jacket. It’s
cold and I don’t want you to catch a chill.” I snatched the puffy
jacket I wore earlier and hung it over my shoulders. It smelled so
good, just like him. I’ll have no problem keeping warm in his
jacket. He pushed my arms through the sleeves and zipped it up to
my neck. He grabbed my hand and pulled me downstairs to the great
room.

His whole family was there, except for
Calvin. Max swung his hand in the air and gave a firm
wave.

“
Well, I have to take
Wilson home. I’ll be back late.” His mom scurried over to us and
held out her arms. I let go of Max and hugged her.

“
Oh Wilson, it was such a
delight meeting you. Come back tomorrow, you and Maxi. We’ll have a
nice brunch.” She let go of me, I wasn’t ready. I held her tight
against me a moment longer. Her embrace was something I’ve longed
for my entire life. I felt her arms wrap back around me. Finally I
got to feel what a mother’s embrace could be like. The smell of
sweet peas and the weight of a sun soaked hot day saturated my
body.

“
Okay, I would love that
and thank you for opening your home to me,” I answered back
instantly.

“
Mom, we’re leaving
tomorrow,” Max told her.

I let go of her, a flood of vacancy
washed across my soul. I didn’t want to forget how she
felt.

“
Well, you’ll just have to
find time to come back.” She looked at Max and pulled at the back
of my hair, lifting it off my neck. “You have the prettiest hair.”
She focused back to me.

I wanted to pack her in my suitcase. I
found what I’ve been missing my whole life.

“
Thanks,” I whispered to
her.

“
Frank, Camille. Max and
Wilson are leaving, come say goodbye.” She swung her hand in a
‘come here’ motion.

“
Don’t worry. It’s okay;
they’re deep in their game.” I waved at them. They were playing
pool and I didn’t want to pull them away from it. Frank and Dan
waved and said something I couldn’t hear. Camille came over and
gave me a light hug.

“
I don’t know where Max was
hiding you, but it was nice he brought you here.”

“
Nice to meet you,” I
exhaled. She winked at Max and popped him in the chest with her
fist before she went back to the pool table.

“
Okay honey, drive safe,
it’s dark and icy out there. I’m not going to wait up. I’m pretty
tuckered out.” Nancy gave Max a kiss on the cheek and pulled at the
collar of his hoodie.

“
That’s fine mom. Thanks.”
He kissed her back.

I loved him. I really wanted what they
had. The way she fussed over him and he let her.

He pushed his arm around me and led me
to the entry where we left our boots. I held him and slipped my
feet into my fake UGGS. Not too bad, only lost my balance
once.

“
We’d better hustle,” he
whispered in my ear. He opened the front door and the stinging cold
air rushed against my face and hands. I really was leaving and I
truly didn’t know if I was going to make it back tomorrow. He
grabbed my hand and pulled me to the car.

He drove fast through the cold, dark,
icy, roads. It was a good thing all I could focus on was him. He
stole glances on the straight-a-ways.

“
So I’ve been thinking, how
you can explain to Cindy why you weren’t there.” Max turned down
the radio playing some bass heavy song about love and
drugs.

“
Good, because she’s
probably really pissed off right now. I’m surprised she hasn’t
called me yet.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and
checked.

Cindy wasn’t one to text or call me a
lot. She was usually busy with other people. Which, don’t get me
wrong, I didn’t mind. I wasn’t one who liked to talk on the phone
much. I’d rather talk to people face to face anyway.

“
I think we should tell her
the truth,” he said. I felt my gut tie in knots.

“
You’re joking, right? Or
you’ve lost your mind. We can’t tell her.” I pushed my hands
through my hair and rubbed my eyes. Something I do when people come
up with totally insane ideas.

“
Wait, now hear me out.
What if… by telling her about us, we are giving her the power to
prove herself trustworthy. You know, kinda like creating
responsibility and ownership to something she has access to. Does
that make sense?” He pushed his hand in the air between us and
glancing over when he could; to field my reaction. I sat silent for
a moment before I answered.

“
I think if we did
something like that, you would be in jail and I would be lying on a
psychiatrist’s chair explaining in detail, what you did to me and
why I let you.”

I was as calm as I could
be. The fierce fire storm raged hard and chaotically in my
body.
There was not an ice cube’s chance
in hell she could keep us quiet. She is all about personal and
private PR. I remember the time our friend Tracy told her about
kissing some random guy behind the bleachers at a football game and
by half time, everyone knew about it. She is the last person you
would want to tell anything to.

His jaw tightened and I waited for him
to argue his point. But instead he exhaled slowly tilting his head
to the side.

“
I wish we could be open
with her, I really do. But I think—no—I know, she would warp it
into something bad or wrong and use it to her own twisted
advantage. And to be honest, I don’t think I could handle that.” I
was glad I told him my feelings about Cindy. Hopefully he’ll see my
logic. If not, God help us.

“
It doesn’t feel wrong to
me. You aren’t wrong for me. What is a month from now? You and I
will be the same people. But it’s all about the numbers and that’s
what matters to the law. You’re right, we can’t tell her.” He slid
his hand across my thigh after he shifted. “I don’t know what I was
thinking.” He twisted an awkward smile.