Healing Rain (8 page)

 

 

When Anna's alarm went off, I actually woke up feeling refreshed. I got up, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, and put a little powder on my face. Gathering my things quickly, I waited for Anna to get ready to take me home so that I could spend the day with Tyler. I wanted to make sure to get there before Mom left so that she wouldn't worry about me coming home.

Just as we were about to walk out the door, Anna's cell phone rang. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID, and then quickly grabbed my arm. “Oh my gosh, Rain, it's Ethan!” she said, holding the phone up close to my face. “Answer it!”

“No way!” I told her. “It's your phone; he's calling you. You answer it!”

She let it ring one more time, and then answered. “Hi, Ethan.”

I couldn't hear his end of the conversation, but she grinned at me instantly and made a thumbs-up sign. “Sure, that sounds great. We'll be there in a few minutes. We were just leaving, actually.”

I shook my head. Whatever they were planning, I knew I couldn't go along with. She knew I had to be home. Once she hung up, I said, “Why did you tell him we were coming over there?”

“Um, because we are. He asked if I would pick him up and give him a ride back over to Logan's, since we left his car there last night.” Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. “Anyway, he said if I could take him back to Logan's, he would take you home from there. He remembered you had to go home early today,” she said, giving me a puppy dog face. “Isn't he so thoughtful?”

I laughed. “He wants to take me home?”

“Yep,” she said. “So let's go!”

We were at his house in minutes. He was standing outside the gate, waiting for us when we pulled up. Giving us that dimpled smile, he hopped into the back seat. “Hey, girls. Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem,” Anna told him, flashing her pretty smile in the rearview mirror.

There were a few somewhat awkward seconds of silence, until he said, “How are you, Rain? Your body aching after all that dancing last night?”

I turned around to face him with a friendly smirk. “Please. My body is just fine, thank you.” I immediately felt my face get warm as I said the word “body,” and turned back around to face the front. Great – another awkward silence.

Before I could think of a brilliant conversation starter, we were already at Logan's. I hadn't realized just how close the three of them lived until just now. As I looked at all the big, beautiful houses, I felt that sad feeling again. Logan's house looked much different in the daylight. There was still trash all over the yard, and the stage looked big and bare without Aiden's band's equipment. We pulled up next to Ethan's SUV. Several other cars remained in the driveway and the yard.

“Well, here you go, Ethan,” Anna said. “Guess I'll see ya Monday.”

“Thanks again, Anna,” Ethan replied. “Hey, Rain, can I take you back to your house?”

“Sure,” I said, noticing Anna's huge smile out of the corner of my eye. “Thanks for letting me stay with you last night, Anna. I'll see you Monday.”

“No problem, Rain. I'm glad you came. Have fun,” she said, wagging her eyebrows up and down at me. Man, she was so obvious.

I glared at her and got out of her car, following Ethan to the SUV. He stopped at the passenger side door and opened it up for me, turning to me with that make-your-knees-weak smile. I smiled back and got in. “Thanks,” I said, feeling a little shy. A guy never opened my door for me before. I mean, he had done it yesterday in the school parking lot, but he had opened both mine and Anna's doors so it wasn't the same.

He got in the driver's seat and took off toward our apartment. We rode in silence for a few minutes, but it really wasn't uncomfortable. It felt normal. I looked at my surroundings, trying to memorize the route in case I ever got to return to his house.

He spoke, breaking the silence. “So, I kind of promised Tyler that I would play race cars with him today, if it was okay with you,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road.

I looked at him in surprise. “Oh, Ethan, you don't have to play with Tyler. Don't worry about that,” I said.

I felt horrible when I saw the disappointment wash over his face. He shrugged. “I don't mind. But, I won't, if you don't want me to.”

I tried to fix the hurt on his face. “Well, you can, if you would like. I just meant you shouldn't feel obligated, that's all.”

He laughed. “Well, will your mom care? I mean, I didn't know if there were, like, rules at your house about boys being there when she's not there.”

I paused and thought about that for a moment. Mom and I had never discussed that before. Since she started working, I hadn't had a boy over. Based on my behavior the last few months, she probably never figured a boy would even
want
to hang out with me. “Well,” I said, thinking about my answer carefully, “I don't think she would care. I mean, we wouldn't be alone. I can pretty much guarantee that Tyler won't leave your side the whole time. He basically worships you.”

He laughed. “I don't know about that, but if you think it's okay, I'll come in for a bit. If you're sure you don't care.”

“I'd like that,” I told him, blushing. Though my heart began to beat out of my chest with nervousness, I really meant it.

A few minutes later, we pulled into our apartment complex. It was right at ten o'clock, so I knew Mom would already be gone. We went inside, and to my surprise, Tyler was still in bed. “Wow! I don't think the kid has ever slept this late before,” I told Ethan. “He's usually the first one out of bed. He must have stayed up late last night.”

He nodded. “Well, then it's just the two of us, for a few minutes, anyway,” he said with a grin.

I suddenly felt extremely self-conscious. What were we going to do? I had never entertained a boy before. Or, at least, not one that I felt so nervous around. He, however, seemed completely at home. He walked straight into the living room, sat down on the couch, and turned on the TV. He flipped through our limited channels until he found a baseball game and seemed perfectly content.

I stood in the doorway awkwardly for a moment, and then had an idea. “Are you hungry?” I asked. “I was going to make some breakfast for Tyler, so I thought maybe I could go ahead and start on it.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I am hungry, actually. But come sit down first.” He patted the couch next to him.

My heart fluttered as I walked over to join him on the couch. He pulled me closer to him and put his arm around me. “Look, Rain, I wanted to talk about what happened last night.”

Bracing myself, I took a deep breath. I didn't know when this conversation would ever come up, if at all. I mean, as excited as I was over the kiss, I still remembered in the back of my head what Anna told me about him and Alexis. He had broken up with her because he wanted to be single his senior year. I knew what it meant when a boy wanted to be “single.” It meant he didn't want to limit himself to just one girl. That made sense for Ethan; from what I had heard so far, he could pretty much take his pick from the litter. And in the past, I had never been
that
girl. You know, the girl that keeps hanging out with that “single” guy with the hope that someday he would change his mind and decide to date her exclusively. But the truth was, I wasn't sure I could trust myself with Ethan. If he told me he didn't want to date me exclusively, could I guarantee that all more-than-friendly contact with him would stop? I didn't know. It sounded crazy, because I had only known him for two days, but there was something about him that made me feel different than I had ever felt before.

He hadn't spoken for at least a solid minute. I could see that he was trying to put the right words together. Immediately I felt like a complete idiot.
He'
s trying to figure out how to let me down gently
, I thought. He didn't want to hurt my feelings over the kiss, which probably meant absolutely nothing to him, but he could probably tell what it did to me. Wow. How full of himself could he possibly be? I could just imagine him, trying to figure out what to say so that he didn't break my heart.

I scooted away from him on the couch. “Look, Ethan, you don't have to say anything about it. It was just a kiss,” I said, trying to sound casual.

His eyes got wide, and then I saw a look of hurt flash over his face. He immediately wiped it away, and forced a smile. “Okay, if that's how you feel…” he started, but I interrupted.

“Ethan, Anna told me all about how you and Alexis dated, but that you guys broke up because you want to be single. I totally get that. So, I just wanted you to know that you don't have to explain anything to me.”

He nodded slowly. “Anna told you that, huh? Well, do you want to hear what I have to say about it?”

I looked at him in surprise. “Sure.”

He looked away from me. “Yes, I did date Alexis last year, for seven months. And yes, I did break up with her at the end of the year, and yes, I did tell her I wanted to be single my senior year. And at the time, I really believed that. But now, I've kind of realized that maybe it wasn't so much that I didn't want to date
anyone
, maybe it was just that I didn't want to date
her
. There's a lot more to it than what Anna knows.”

I listened to him intently, trying to take it all in. He stopped, trying to decide what to say from there. My heart raced. What was he saying? That he wanted to date
me
? He barely knew me! With a sinking feeling, I thought about all the drama he definitely did not know about me. I knew that was enough to change anyone's mind about dating me.

He interrupted my thoughts. “Here's the thing, Rain. I don't know what it is, but there is something about you that I am drawn to. I know you don't know me that well, and I'm not asking you to be my girlfriend or anything like that, but I guess what I am asking you to do is to give me a chance. Let me take you on a real date. Let's get to know each other better, and see where this goes. I don't want to scare you off or anything like that…” Ha!
Him
scare
me
off? “…but I just feel something between us. Is that all one-sided? Is it just me? Because if it is, I swear I'll never bring this up again, and we can just be friends.”

I shook my head quickly. “It's definitely not just you,” I admitted.

He exhaled a loud sigh of relief. “Good. So, you'll let me take you on a date?”

“Sure,” I said with a smile, trying to look nonchalant while the little girl inside of me jumped up and down and cheered.

“How about tonight?” he asked, catching me off guard.

I laughed. “Okay,” I said. “Oh, wait, no. Tonight's no good. I have to watch Tyler tonight. Mom's working a double.”

He nodded. “Oh yeah, I forgot. Well, how about I take you guys both out?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Me and Tyler?”

He grinned. “Yeah. I mean, this obviously wouldn't count as our first official date or anything, but we could all go out and do something. Maybe see a movie or something? Or…wait! I got it! The Plainview Fall Festival is going on, and they have a car show there! We could all go and you
know
Tyler would love it!”

“The what?” I asked.

“The Plainview Fall Festival. It's a big deal here. People come from all over for it, and they have a ton of stuff to do there. You'll have fun, I promise. And the car show is always awesome. Tyler will love it!” he rambled excitedly.

I couldn't help but melt yet a little more as I saw how excited he was getting about taking me and my little brother to a car show. It really was thoughtful of him to want to do something like that; he knew how much Tyler loved cars and the fact that he came up with this idea showed me that he was attentive. Seriously, was there a flaw in this guy? There had to be one somewhere, but I sure hadn't found it yet.

Almost as a reflex, in a rare, bold move, I grabbed his face and kissed him. He was totally caught off guard, but he quickly recovered. He turned his body toward me, moving closer. He put both hands on my face as he kissed me back, slow and soft at first but gradually getting faster and more passionate. One hand slipped from my face into my hair and held the back of my head as he pulled my face even closer to his. The electric currents were shooting through my whole body again, making me forget about everything else besides the kiss until…

“Rain? Ewwww!”

I jumped away from Ethan faster than I have ever moved in my entire life. I landed on the complete opposite end of the couch as I looked up and saw Tyler's confused but tired face.

“Hey, sleepyhead, you're finally awake!” I said, getting up and going over to him. I rubbed his messy hair and nodded at Ethan. “You remember Ethan, I'm sure.”

That seemed to make him forget all about what he had just witnessed. “Ethan! You came back! You wanna set up my race track?”

Ethan smiled at him, still looking a little flustered from the kiss. “You bet I do! Bring it in here and we'll get it all set up!”

“How about I make you some breakfast first?” I asked them both.

“Will you make those orange rolls?” Tyler yelled over his shoulder as he ran to his room to get the race track.

“If we have them I will,” I called to him.

I looked at Ethan, who was sitting on the couch with his face in his hands. He looked up at me with a smile, shaking his head. I smiled back at him and, glancing down the hallway to make sure Tyler wasn't coming back yet, leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. “To be continued?” I whispered.

He sighed. “Definitely,” he said.

I walked into the kitchen and found the orange rolls in the refrigerator. Setting the oven to preheat, I got out the baking sheet and listened to Ethan and Tyler while I took the dough apart and formed them into rolls on the pan. Ethan was asking Tyler if he would like to go to the car show, and I laughed as I heard Tyler start jumping up and down.