Beyond Eighteen (15 page)

“
Well, it’s a perfect
opportunity to cool off in my arms,” I mumbled against her ear as I
pulled her closer to me, swallowing her in my embrace.

“
I don’t think this is the
best way to cool off,” she teased before kissing my neck where my
collar separated from my skin.

As I looked over at Dan and Camille, I
guessed the conversation that they were having was over. At least
from my perspective. We stood for a silent moment as I just held
Wilson against my chest.

“
How’s your mom?” Wilson
whispered.

“
She’s doing better than I
thought. How are you?” I slid my hands down her spine and rested
them in the small of her back, whispering low, “You still trust
me?”

“
I’m fine. And yes, I
still trust you,” she breathed back before she stretched up and
tickled her lips against mine. She slid her tongue along the edge
of where my lips met. I pushed into her and our mouths opened, our
tongues exploring each others. Tasting the sweet flavor of our
kiss, she let out a slight moan from deep within her throat. We
became the only two people in the room. Finally Wilson pulled
slightly away from our kiss, just far enough away to formulate a
sentence.

“
I think we cleared the
room.”

“
Good,” I growled against
her lips. My hands drifted down around her ass. I just wanted to
pull her up against me. Wilson’s fingers climbed up my around my
neck and knotted in my hair.

Unexpectedly, I heard my brother clear his
throat.

“
Shit, you two…get a
room.”

“
Shut up, Cal,” I spat
toward him, going in for another kiss. Wilson pulled away, though.
Her cheeks blushed red and her eyes constricted, like she was
embarrassed to kiss me. She swept her eyes toward Cal.

“
Alright everyone, I’m
exhausted. It’s been a long day, and we have another long,
emotional day tomorrow. I think we should all hit the hay,” Mom
said as she walked in behind Calvin. When she passed him she locked
her hands together on his shoulder and pulled him down toward her
to kiss his cheek. “Good night, sweetheart, I love you.”

“
I love you too, Ma,” Cal
replied as he kissed her cheek then turned and gave her a tight
hug, longer than usual. She let go first, rubbing her hands across
his back.

Mom walked toward Wilson, pushing her arms
out in front of her.

“
Come here, sweetheart,”
she beckoned.

Wilson’s breath caught as she let go of me
and slipped into a hug with my mom. I watched as their breathing
became synchronized.

“
I’m glad you came home
with Maxi,” she whispered before pressing her lips to the side of
Wilson’s head. “He loves you beyond aching. Just like Frank loved
me.” Her voice cracked and she struggled to hold her tears
back.

Wilson tightened her arms and held her just
that much longer. And, right there, was why I fiercely love my
girlfriend.

“
I know, I’m so sorry…I
wasn’t there today,” Wilson whispered.

“
But you’re here now,” my
mom answered as she pulled back from their embrace and played with
Wilson’s hair, bringing it into a loose ponytail.

“
Thank you for accepting
me back into your home,” Wilson finished with a wavering tone. They
stood holding each other an arm’s length away, keeping a gap of
just enough comfort between them.

“
You are always welcome
here, honey,” she said as she let go of Wilson.

I liked watching my mom fuss over my
girlfriend. There was something satisfying about seeing Wilson with
my mom. They let their arms drop and my mom continued toward me. I
stood, frozen, waiting for the moment she was going to lose it in
my arms. It always seemed like all her major break-downs were saved
for me. I don’t know why. Surprisingly, though, she didn’t cry.

“
Night, sweetheart,” she
mumbled to me before she wrapped her arms around the back of my
head and pulled my forehead down to her lips. “Thank you for
looking out for me,” she stammered a little. Her words shook, but
no major crying.

“
No problem,
Mom.”

“
Love you, Max,” the words
rolled off her tongue.

“
Love you too, Ma,” I
answered back automatically. She pressed her finger into my chest.
“Take care of that love, and never take it for granted. Trust me.”
And with that pearl of wisdom, she walked away to go to
bed.

Calvin stood for a moment longer before he
looked around the room and realized he’d just become the third
wheel.

“
Gary will be here at
10:00 tomorrow,” he murmured as left through the dining
room.

I turned to Wilson, inhaling an exaggerated
breath and pulling her against my chest. I felt her breathing
become ragged, and without warning, I felt the pain of the day
swell in my chest.

“
I love your mom,” she
said as she looked up at me. I shifted her body in my arms. I could
see it in her eyes, she was about to tear up.

“
She loves you too. But
obviously not as much as I love you,” I teased, dragging her leg up
around my hip.

“
Obviously,” she uttered
deliberately before pushing me down on the couch. She slipped on
top of me, her knees burrowing into the cushions on either side of
my legs as she lowered herself onto my lap. She knotted her hands
in my hair, pulled my head back, and dropped her lips down against
my mouth.
I guess she doesn’t want to talk
about my family or what happened in the bathroom earlier…fine by
me
. I slipped my hands between her shirt
and skin, sliding my fingertips up her back, causing her to shiver
and me to smile.

~ Wilson ~

Maybe making out with Max right then gave me
the reprieve I needed to just be swallowed up by him. Was I scared
about what happened between us in the bathroom?
Hell, yes.
But I was also anxious about going back to California and finishing
my senior year at Wesley without him. The irresistible comfort of
always knowing that Max was nearby turned into nothing more than a
vacant desire. It tore my soul open and encouraged an unsolicited,
searing pain into my heart. Why did Calvin have to remind us about
Frank’s will? All it did was create a frenzy deep in my core.
Tomorrow they would read their dad’s wishes, and every fear I had
of living without Max for the next five months would be cemented by
the words Frank had written before he even had a chance to meet me.
I guess that’s when reality will take over, for all of us. So
right now, whatever I can give Max, whatever we can share before
his life becomes something different than he ever expected, I’m
going to do it.

The heat we were generating smoldered
between us. It didn’t help that the raging inferno in the fireplace
made the room feel like it was over a hundred degrees. I could feel
the humidity our bodies created, especially with my arms wrapped
around his neck. My fingers continued to entangle in the loose
wisps of his silky black hair. I wished, silently, that he’d open
his breathtaking green eyes, as I kissed him, but he didn’t.

Max dragged his hands up my spine,
memorizing every sway and curve before reaching their destination
at my shoulder blades. He pulled me tight against his chest. We
both realized that my bra couldn’t pad the evidence of what he
could do to me. In his desire to feel me completely he shifted his
body, pinning me under him on the brown leather couch. And that’s
when his eyes opened. I became breathless, melting in his gaze. I
felt my eyes rush damp; I couldn’t help it. A tear dropped from the
edge of my eyelash, tracking down the side of my face toward my
ear.

Max noticed this and dragged his thumb
across my face, dissolving the evidence in his touch.

“You okay?” Max’s words delicately danced
and tickled against my lips.

I nodded.

“What is it, Wilson?” he asked as I felt him
shift his weight across my body. Every curve and bump of him
communicated his intentions and he became awkwardly heavy.

“Noth—,” I began.

“Don’t say nothing. Come on, Wilson,” Max
stated as he moved his body off of me, leaving me between him and
the back of the sofa. I twisted to face him as he wedged his arm
under his head and swung his leg over mine. He pushed his fingers
into the side of my head, clearing my hair away from my face.

I felt the words surge up through my throat
but I couldn’t find a way to tell him. I didn’t want to be selfish
or make him feel even worse knowing he had no choice. So I came up
with a compromise.

“I’m just thinking about how I’d feel if I
lost you.”

“Well, you won’t. I’m not going anywhere,”
he whispered as his eyes converged with mine. His blinking gaze
tugged at my heart.

That’s right, you’re not. You’ll be here
with your family and I’ll be the one who has to go back to Wesley.
Without you.

He leaned in slowly as his eyes gleamed with
every hidden plan to keep me wrapped up in him forever. And just as
if there was a force that wanted to keep us from kissing, our lips
grazed right as my phone started vibrating in my pocket, shattering
the trance we had.

His breath rolled, firm and short, across my
mouth as he growled, “Let it go to voicemail.”

Normally, being consumed by Max, I would;
but seeing that I hadn’t heard from Joanie in quite a while…

“What if it’s Joanie? I can’t let it go,
knowing she’s with—” I stopped talking before mentioning Nick. I
noticed his expression shift slightly to annoyance before he seemed
to forget about it. He watched me lean back as I retrieved the
phone from my pocket. It wasn’t Joanie calling me after all. It was
Dax Fuller, the lawyer for my grandparents’ estate. My heart
crashed down into my stomach. I didn’t really want to hear what he
had to say so, as Max suggested, I let it ring until it stopped
mid-jingle and got swallowed by voicemail.

“I take it that wasn’t Joanie?” Max ribbed.
I shook my head and attempted to toss the phone over him and onto
the coffee table, but Max jetted his hand into the air and stopped
it.

God, he’s so quick.
He clipped the
bottom of the phone with his fingers, causing it to somersault over
and over in the air above me. I covered my head and shrieked,
hoping he was going to catch it so it wouldn’t bonk me. He bobbled
it, one-handed, over me until he had it securely in his hand.

“No, it wasn’t Joanie. Oh my God, you scared
the shit out of me,” I said, instinctually thrusting my hands
against his chest. He swiftly caught my arms and hooked his leg
around mine as he slid off the slick leather sofa and onto the
floor. I sailed off, too, and landed squarely on top of him.

Max smiled wide. It was the type of smile
that was uncontrollable and hurried to keep up with his twinkling
eyes. It was filled with spontaneity, and reflection, as he twisted
my hair in his fingers and pushed it behind my ears.

“If it wasn’t Joanie, are you going to tell
me who called and interrupted our kiss?” he asked as I watched his
sultry eyes draw me in, slowly and deliberately.

“It was nobody,” I said as I lowered my face
closer to his, waiting for him to kiss me again. I could feel my
body ride the swell and lull of each breath he took.

“Nobody? Then I guess you won’t mind if I
check?” he teased as he held my phone up. My heart thrashed against
his chest.

“Give me my phone,” I commanded, wiggling to
reach for my phone.

“No, I wanna know who was rude enough to
call my girl when she was about to kiss me,” he rebutted as he held
the phone farther away from me. I stretched, trying to get it from
his hand, but he wrapped his other arm around my waist and clamped
me down against his body.

“Max, give it to me, please,” I insisted, my
voice flat and serious. I really didn’t want to deal with telling
him who called. I didn’t want him to get all serious about
something I had no control over until I got back to California.
I just want to be with him tonight.
I wanted to touch him,
play with him, kiss him, and live in the discovery of how we both
felt as we made love.

I felt his body shift and his embrace
tighten as he took a huge breath and exhaled. His whole demeanor
changed and his eyes filled with everything he felt he needed to
say, yet his lips tightened as if he was trying to hold back
words.

“I can’t make you…tell me. All I can do is
let you know that I want to be the person you share
every
part of your life with. Good, bad, or whatever. Wilson, I want to
be
it
for you.” He set my phone onto his chest, in front of
me. His moody green eyes twinkled with just enough dampness to pull
at my heart before he looked away. I knew he was speaking from that
space in his soul that needed me to respond. That place within him
that ached to be made whole again. His breathing lengthened in an
effort to keep from losing it. Seconds felt like minutes as every
attempt to work out the words in my head kept rolling over and
over. Finally I just spilled my guts as tears, filled with the
whole day’s stress, cluttered my eyes.

“Dax Fuller,” I sighed. “He’s the lawyer for
my grandparents’ place. That’s who was calling. He called a couple
of days ago, too, when I was with—when we were apart.”

I noticed Max flinch as the words spilled
from between my lips. I took a hurried breath as I sat up off his
chest and claimed a spot on the sofa. I continued, “He called to
tell me that, now that I’m eighteen, the restraining order has
expired against Candi. He said there was nothing he could do, and
that I’d have to file it in person again. I don’t know how to do
that.”