by Craft, Maggi
“Oh yes, it is,” Lexi said quietly, but I heard her.
He smiled that beautiful half smile, and I couldn’t help but think about what she had said. Did he really talk about me to her?
Later that night, Slayde and I went out to eat alone. I loved this old town — it was gorgeous. “Thank you for inviting me on this trip,” I said. “It’s so beautiful here.”
“Thank you for coming. I love it here too. Maybe this winter you can come with us to snow ski. We usually go around Christmas every year.”
“We’ll see.” He looked like that wasn’t what he had thought I was going to say, but I couldn’t imagine this whimsical little vacation romance lasting forever. I mean, that’s all this was, right? I was sure that, as soon as I left for school, he’d be back to doing whatever it was he was doing before I got there. But I didn’t want to think about that right now. I was enjoying my fairy tale.
“Well, I hope you do,” he said and grabbed my hand.
That made me blush. I was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see it. “You and your mom seem really close,” I said.
He looked up abruptly. “What did she tell you?”
“Nothing.” But I couldn’t help but laugh, because he looked horrified.
“I swear, I want to kill her sometimes.”
“No, you don’t,” I said.
“OK, I don’t, but she’s so nosy.”
“She loves you. You’re what she worries about all day. That’s her job.” Not that I had a clue what that felt like. My mom never worried about me.
“I know, but sometimes she’s all up in my business. And she’s across the world. I swear, if she goes a few days without hearing from me, she will hop on that jet and come to Paris in a heartbeat. She’s done it more than once. The first time she did it, I thought something horrible had happened, but she told me she was worried to death that I was lying in a ditch somewhere.” He held his hand up. “I mean, come on.”
I still smiled. I enjoyed their family banter. They were normal. “And does your Dad worry?”
“Not really. He thinks Mom is overbearing and overprotective.”
“Is she?”
“Yes, but I won’t tell him that.”
“You don’t get along at all?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, we do. We just butt heads a lot. He thinks his way is the only way. It may have been great for him, but that’s him. Not me.”
“Do you think if he had left you alone, you’d have played baseball instead?”
“No, I don’t.”
“So, you were good, but you didn’t love it?”
“I guess. I don’t know that I was even that good or if everyone else was just mediocre.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Go home.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. It all depends on this one big thing I’m waiting on, but we’ll see.”
I knew if he’d wanted me to know, he would have told me, but I couldn’t say I wasn’t a little curious.
When we got back to the villa, everyone was asleep. We were leaving early the next morning, but Slayde and I weren’t tired. We figured we could sleep on the plane.
“You want to go sit outside overlooking the ocean and drink some wine and soak up what’s left of this trip?” he asked.
“Meet you out there,” I said and headed out to the chairs on the patio.
He’d taken off his shoes and grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Here you go.” We lay in a big chair, facing each other.
“You drink a lot of wine,” I said.
“You have met my mother, right? I’m pretty sure if they took her blood, it would be half pinot noir.” He laughed. “At home, as in LA, I don’t drink wine unless it’s with certain food.”
“Well, you drink it all the time with me.”
“Because I know you like it.”
“I like beer too. Actually, I prefer liquor, if I have my choice.”
He looked surprised. “I can’t imagine you drinking liquor. Or going to a bar, for that matter.”
“Well, I do. Do you think I’m a total dork or something? At school, my friends think I’m cool.” We both laughed.
“No. I guess I just think you’re above all that. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. You just seem like the kind of girl who doesn’t have time for all that.”
I cut my eyes at him. “Well, you just don’t really know me, then,” I said in a flirty tone. Which he definitely noticed, because he took my wine and put it on the ground. My heart started pounding out of my chest.
The moon was bright. It wasn’t all the way full, but it emitted plenty of light. When Slayde smiled, his eyes almost seemed to twinkle in the moonlight. He put his right hand on my cheek and leaned in and gave me one of those “make my breath quit, time stand still” Slayde Price kisses. The ones that always made me question what the hell was I waiting for. The kind that I could think about days later and still get butterflies.
He pulled away and said, “I don’t know as much as I want to. You hold back. I don’t get you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I want more.”
“You mean sex?”
He laughed. “No.” After he took a breath, he said, “Sorry, that’s a lie, but that’s not what I want more of. I want more with you. I don’t want you to leave.”
“I have to leave, Slayde. I have to go back to school.”
“I know, but you’re so worried about what your sister and everyone thinks that I’m afraid once you’re gone, that’ll be it.”
“I thought we already discussed this.”
“We did, but there’s still something keeping you from really being with me, and I don’t mean sex.”
I looked at the moon while I got my thoughts together. “This Kenedy thing is not going to get better, and Brady — I don’t think he’s going to be happy for us either.”
Slayde narrowed his eyes in anger and wrinkled his nose a little. “Is there a possibility you and Brady could work it out?”
“Oh, hell no!”
“Well, I’d rather have my toenails ripped out than go anywhere with your sister. So what’s the problem?”
“They’re our family.”
“Look, if you just don’t like me, say it.” He sat up, pulling his knees to his chest. What? “Please, I’d rather get the heartbreak over with. Don’t lead me on.”
“Me lead you on? How do you figure that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ve had too much wine. I’m going to bed.”
He started to get up. This is not what I wanted. “Slayde, stop.” He did. “Sit, please.” He did. “Why are you acting like this? I do like you. I’m just telling you the truth. I’m scared they’re going to make a huge deal of it.”
“I don’t care. Time will fix all that. I just want to be with you.”
The way he said that made me feel funny, feel something I’d never felt before. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. Maybe he was right. Maybe we’d had too much wine.
I smiled and grabbed his hand and said, “Let’s go to bed.”
He was really quiet when we first got in bed. I thought he might be mad. “Are you asleep?”
“No, just thinking about a way to make everybody happy.”
“Really? And what’s that?”
“Forgetting about them. You can’t make everybody happy, and they both seem happy with the choices they’ve made, so why should we not get a choice?”
That actually made sense, but I didn’t get to respond before he kissed me. He stopped. “It’s funny how, two days before I ran into you in Paris, I was trying to figure out a way to get out of that contract I had with the modeling agency so I could go home. And here I am, still in Europe with you, having the time of my life. I don’t know how I’m going to manage the six weeks after you go back.”
“Why did you want to leave Paris?”
“I was homesick and tired of the people I was with all da
y long. Imagine being in a room all day with fifteen or more Kenedys and Kinleys. That’s what every day is like for me there. It drives me nuts. I was starting to think I would never find a decent, normal person to hang out with, and then I ran into you.” He squeezed me. “It was more than a breath of fresh air.”
“I can imagine being in a room full of beautiful women all day has got to be painful.” I laughed. “I didn’t know being ordinary was such a turn-on.”
“Ordinary? You are definitely not ordinary,” he said.
“Well, I’m definitely no Kinley either.”
“And thank God for that. None of those girls have anything on you. They’re all the same, and have about as much depth as a rain puddle.” I could tell he was frustrated, because he started biting on his fingernails. I grabbed his hand and moved it away from his mouth. “Why do you say stuff like that anyway?” he asked. “Do you really think that’s the kind of guy that I am?”
I didn’t have a response. I didn’t think he was a jerk. I just didn’t see how he could be interested in me. We were so different. Or at least I had originally thought we were. I just stared at him and twisted the end of a strand of my hair around my fingers nervously while he went on.
“Do you really see me as the kind of guy who would date someone I couldn’t even hold a conversation with? I really thought you thought more of me than that. I never imagined you would give me the time of day, but I didn’t think you thought I was a shallow pig.” He sounded hurt.
I needed to take a moment to clarify how I felt. “I never thought that. I just didn’t think I was your type. I mean, you dated Kenedy, and we’re nothing alike. Why would you think I wouldn’t give you the time of day?”
“I was a teenager when I dated Kenedy. That doesn’t even count — and for the record, she came on to me. I just went with it. I was young and stupid. You can’t hold that against me forever. I always thought you were the prettier one, the smarter one, the funnier one, and definitely the nicer one. But I knew that you didn’t see me as anything but a stupid kid who dated your little sister. I even joked with Brady once about swapping sisters. I guess he took me up on it, but forgot to tell me.” He laughed and went back to chewing the side of his finger.
“I never saw you as a stupid kid. I just saw what everyone else saw. You, with your pick of any girl in the school. Why would I ever think about going out with you? That would have been crazy.”
“What?” He sat straight up in the bed. “Are you telling me that if I had asked you out in high school, you would have gone out with me? And don’t bring Kenedy into this.” He spoke slowly as if to make sure I understood. “If I had asked you out back then, would you have said yes?” He was dead serious.
“Absolutely, but Slayde, that would’ve never happened. You would’ve never asked me out. I don’t even know why you asked me out in Paris. I know that you can have any girl in that building, and I don’t know what you’re doing with me. I’m no model or actress or anything special. I’m just plain old me,” I said.
He looked completely shocked. “What are you talking about? You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid my eyes on. On top of that, you’re smart, funny, and kind. A little stubborn and hot-tempered, but I like it. I think I’m the luckiest guy in the whole world just to get to spend my time with you.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “I don’t know how you could ever think you weren’t anything special. There is nothing ordinary about you, Arden Simms. I know I don’t deserve you, but I’m sure going to try like hell to keep you.” Tears started filling my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and yet I truly believed he meant every word. “Please don’t cry. Why are you crying?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m happy but scared of what’s going to happen in a few weeks when I leave.”
“Well, I’m scared too, but I know my feelings for you aren’t going to change just because there’s an ocean between us. And I hope yours don’t. If anyone needs to be scared, it’s me. I would definitely have to consider you high risk. At the first sign of a complication, you run the other way. I can’t imagine being halfway around the world from you when you have one of those crazy ideas you get in your head sometimes. I don’t know how I am going to handle that, but I think anything worth having is worth sticking around and fighting for.”
I pulled him on top of me and kissed him. Slayde took off my shirt, and a few minutes later, I reached down and slipped off my panties. I was already nervous when he asked, “What are you doing?” I froze.
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“No, we’re not doing that.” I couldn’t believe he was rejecting me. I wanted to die.
“You don’t want me?” I asked. My throat tightened up, like I was going to cry.
“Of course I want you. I think you can tell I want you. I just don’t want to wake up and find you MIA again. I can’t chance that. It’s not worth it. I care too much about you to risk losing you. I can wait.”
I was so nervous, but I knew what I wanted. I had made up my mind even before his heartfelt little speech. This wasn’t the time for him to be self-righteous. “Slayde, I’m 100 percent sure that this is what I want. I promise I’m not going anywhere. Now take off your shorts.”
I guess he couldn’t argue with that, because he sure didn’t try. I was glad of that, because if I had to talk about it anymore, I might have lost my nerve. He was definitely worth waiting twenty-five years for, and I did not regret it one bit.
The next morning I woke up when I felt Slayde get out of bed. I opened my eyes and watched him walk to the bathroom. And he was still naked. Yes, he had a fine back, but it didn’t stop there. Holy moly!
I couldn’t believe I’d actually had sex with him, but I didn’t regret it. No, I sure didn’t. Could I ask him to do it again? Would that be slutty? I felt myself blush.
I heard him coming back, so I closed my eyes. He came back to bed, and he didn’t bother getting dressed either. Which didn’t bother me. I’d taken a quick peek as he headed back to bed.
But he thought I was still asleep. He took his fingertips and ran them down my bare back. His touch sent chills down my body, and I jerked a little as a reflex.
“I know you’re awake. I saw you open your eyes when I was getting back in bed.” I felt my cheeks get warm. No doubt I was blushing, embarrassed that he caught me, but he wasn’t at all. He just smiled that gorgeous, sexy grin. It was like I could read his mind, and he was saying, “I know you were checking me out. And I know you liked it.”
I sat up, turning my back to him, and slipped on my T-shirt. I pulled my long blond hair free, and it fell down my back; I got up to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. “Oh, that’s not fair,” he said as I walked away. I just looked over my shoulder and smiled at him.
When I got back in bed, he said, “Glad you were still here this morning.” He rubbed his finger down my arm.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. I don’t speak Italian.” I laughed.
“That’s not nice,” he said, pulling me on top of him.
“Where’d you think I would be this morning?”
“At an airport somewhere.” He pecked my lips, and I lay my head on his chest.
He was playing with my hair, and I was close to dozing back off when someone knocked on the door. “One hour!”
I jumped.
“OK,” he shouted like he was annoyed by the interruption.
I lifted my head and looked at him, thinking maybe we should get up, but he didn’t give me a chance to say anything. He pulled me closer and started kissing my lips and pulling off my shirt at the same time.
I pulled away. “That door doesn’t lock.”
“Didn’t bother you last night.”
“But your mom’s up. She just knocked.”
“Exactly. She won’t come in. I promise.” He pulled away from my lips and kissed my neck a few times and then looked at me. “Unless you don’t want to.”
Right
! I didn’t respond, just returned his kisses, and he got the point.
We had fallen back asleep, and I woke to Lexi standing next to the bed, shouting at us in her overdramatic way. “Get up! I thought y’all were dead. I’ve been screaming up the stairs for five minutes.”
She started picking up clothes and throwing them onto the bed as we both lay there naked under the sheet, wanting her to leave.
“Mom.”
She smiled. “Sorry, but hurry!” She left.
I looked at Slayde, and he laughed. “Come on.” And we both got up and threw some clothes on.
I wanted to die, but what choice did I have but face her? She was my flight home. Of course Slayde acted like it didn’t bother him at all.
Mister Perfect Gentleman was definitely gone. Not that Slayde wasn’t still sweet and respectful, but he couldn’t keep his hands off me. And it embarrassed me sometimes — like when it was in front of his mother and sister.
When we had just gotten seated on the plane and he kept kissing my neck, I finally said, “Slayde, stop with all the PDA, OK? Your mom has looked at us funny several times. It’s making me uncomfortable.” Truthfully, it was probably not the PDA as much as the fact that his mother had walked in on us naked that morning.
“Sorry, I didn’t even know I was doing it,” he said.
He put his hands in his lap and laced his fingers together. That really tickled me. So dramatic.
*****
Once we were back in Paris, the next few weeks flew by. Slayde and I spent every possible second together. One day, Slayde came back early from a photo shoot and said he thought it would be a good idea to have a picnic in the park. I still hadn’t showered, so he went and got everything together while I got ready.
When we were leaving, I noticed he had even gotten a cute little picnic basket. I was surprised when we got to our favorite little park and he pulled out a blanket and a whole spread of food from the basket. After he’d made me my favorite breakfast and set up that unbelievable first date, I should have known better than to underestimate him.
We ate deli sandwiches on croissants, fresh fruit, and the best little pastries I had ever tasted. We enjoyed lying under the shade trees, watching everyone in the park. I really loved being with him, and that still made me nervous sometimes. He lay down and put his head in my lap. “When we get back home, are you really still going to want to go out with me?” he asked.