Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (111 page)

We sit quietly until Brad breaks the silence. “Do you want to play I Spy?”

Nearly breaking out into a fit of laughter, I shoot back, “I Spy? I haven’t played that since I was a kid.”

“You scared?” He tries to look intimidating, but it’s a lost cause. He’s too darn cute.

“Nope, I’m not afraid of anything. “ At least not right now.

Brad starts “I spy with my little eye something that is white and bright.”

“That’s easy,” I respond. “The moon.”

“You’re good at this,” he chuckles.

“My turn,” I call out excitedly. “I spy with my little eye something that is tall and pointed with bright lights.”

Deep in thought, he thrums his index finger against his mouth, and guesses, “The Toys ‘R’ Us store?”

I make a loud beeping noise. “Sorry, but thanks for playing.”

“I give up,” he says, sounding a bit defeated.

“You give up? You only guessed once!”

He lets out that loud throaty laugh. “What can I say? I have a low tolerance for games. Back to me!”

He’s staring straight ahead, but I feel his eyes on me. I like the way it feels.

“I spy with my little eye, something that is so beautiful, it leaves me breathless.”

Swallowing hard, I take a deep breath and answer, “the Manhattan skyline?” When I turn my head to look at him, I see serious brown eyes staring back at me.

“Nope...you.”

His words melt my heart. Pulling my hand to his lips, he softly kisses the inside of my palm, and I feel those familiar goosebumps multiply. I don’t know what to do with myself, so I start biting the inside of my lip and fiddling with the door handle.

When I look around, it appears that we’re fairly close to Central Park. I still have absolutely no idea what we’re doing. Brad finds a parking space, grabs my hand, and leads me toward the park.

“Okay, so what are we doing?”

With a relaxed smile, he says, “patience, grasshopper.”

I can’t help but laugh and hold up two fingers. “I’ve got two words for you. Corn and ball.”

“That’s three.” His dimple comes out to say hello.

I playfully flick his arm with my finger, and he loops his pinky through mine. We make our way through a clearing in the park and a sign comes into view.
The Loeb Boathouse.
“What is this place?”

He chuckles. “The word ‘boathouse’ doesn’t give it away?”

I squeeze his arm and he yelps.

“Just come on,” he says, tugging on my arm, pings of excitement radiating off his fingers.

The early evening sun is bouncing off the water, sparkling brilliantly. Wow. As I scan our surroundings, I notice what appears to be a gondola in a far corner of the water. I look over at Brad and a squeal of excitement jumps from my mouth and lands on the ground.

Quietly, and with a look of pride clinging to his face, he says, “I know it’s not Venice, but it’s the next best thing.”

Without thinking, I throw my arms around his neck and hug him. Then I quickly retreat.

Brad’s eyes fill with…something. “We can come here every day, if you like.” He grins and I let out a happy giggle.

Reaching the gondola, we’re greeted by a tall gentleman with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. “Welcome to the Loeb Boathouse. My name is Andre, and I’ll be your guide this evening.”

Andre helps me into the gondola, and Brad follows behind me. We take a seat next to one another; very close. Brad laces his fingers through mine and a tingle runs through me. I gaze at his lips, for no special reason other than I want to kiss them.

As the gondola begins to move through the water, a peace settles over me and I find myself opening up. “I’ve always loved the water, ever since I was a child. My family had a small cottage at the beach and we’d stay for weeks at a time throughout the summer. It was so much fun. We’d make giant sandcastles and walk the beach for hours collecting shells.” I can still feel the sting of the sunburn on my shoulders.

“I can just picture you, those bright blue eyes dancing with excitement, running through the waves at the beach. You must’ve been a real cutie.”

“Let me put it this way. When I was cast in
The Wizard of Oz
in fourth grade, I was chosen to play a munchkin. So that should give you some indication. Thankfully, I’m five foot seven now so I’d qualify for another role.”

Brad squeezes my hand. “Well, munchkins are quite cute.”

“Yeah, okay. You just keep telling yourself that,” I joke with a wide-eyed smile.

Brad looks out over the water and seems thoughtful. “My mom and dad had a boat. It was nothing to write home about, but it didn’t matter. The five of us used to go out on the water a lot. I remember spending all day on the ocean. My mom would bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with potato chips for us, and Matt, Clara and I would crush the potato chips on our sandwiches. My dad used to say how gross it was, but the three of us would just laugh and throw potato chips at him.” I see a tiny tear slide down Brad’s cheek and I reach up with my thumb and catch it. He turns around and smiles, and it’s like a hotline straight to my heart. The very thing I’m trying to protect, and at this moment, I feel weary.

After a gondola ride around the lake, we make our way inside the restaurant, hand in hand. We’re escorted to a table, and from every angle there’s an incredibly romantic view of the lake. While waiting for our food, I delve a bit more into Brad. He’s my favorite subject these days. “So, what was it like growing up in Westchester? Pleasantville, right?”

His expression shifts before he speaks. “Yeah. It was okay; hard at times because I didn’t have many friends and I got picked on a lot.”

“Why?”

“I was a gawky kid, a bit of an oddball actually, and unfortunately, that didn’t make me much of a friend magnet. Plus, once my mom passed away, everyone saw how angry and damaged I was, and they didn’t want anything to do with me.”

I lay my hand over his and give it an empathetic squeeze. “I know what it’s like to be damaged.”

Brad raises his eyes to mine. “I don’t know, Gabby. We’re all damaged, right? It’s what we make of the wreckage that matters. Anyway, once my dad mentally checked out, I was lucky that I had Clara and Matt, and my therapist, of course. Otherwise I probably would’ve ended up in juvie. What about you? What was your childhood like?”

“Actually, it was great. I had a lot of friends and tons of fun. Although I always felt that I was a bit of an oddball too, in the sense of my family.” I pause and take a breath. “Or, now that I think about it, maybe they just made me
feel
like an oddball. Nothing I ever did was good enough, and if my mom and dad couldn’t understand something about me, they’d chalk it up to me being strange. I remember one time, I must have been about fourteen, and Fran and I had gone to the mall with Fran’s mom to buy some new clothes for school. Fran helped me pick out a new blouse that was bright and colorful with tiny butterflies. I loved it the minute I saw it. There’s something about butterflies, you know,” I say as I stare out at the lake, “they’re free. Anyway, the next morning when I came down for breakfast, my mother took one look at the shirt and told me I had to change. She said, ‘you’re fourteen years-old, Gabby, and you’re wearing the shirt of a seven year-old. Go and change. You don’t want people thinking you’re weird, do you?’ I sat on my bed and cried, then reluctantly put on another shirt and went to school.”

Brad’s eyes meet mine and I feel a hand reaching out to touch my heart. “Do you still have the shirt?”

“Yup. I put my butterfly shirt in a big keepsake box I kept hidden in my closet. No one was going to take my butterflies away from me.”

Throughout dinner, Brad never lets go of my hand. When we finish, I look over at him and his eyes are alight with excitement. It’s most certainly contagious. There’s no way I’m ready for this date to end. He helps me from the table and we make our way through the restaurant until we’re outside again.

Looking over at him with a broad smile, I quietly ask, “so, what now?”

Brads face beams. “We’re going to Top of the Rock.”

“Top of the Rock? What’s that?”

His brown eyes grow large. “You live in New York City and you don’t know what Top of the Rock is?” He pulls me along. “It’s an Art Deco skyscraper forming the center of Rockefeller Center, and it’s very cool. I think it’s like 800 feet above street level. The view is amazing.”

Apparently, it’s about two miles from the park, but instead of driving, we take a gypsy cab, where you can negotiate a price and it’s a steal at four dollars. When we get there, we step onto the elevator and the first thing I notice is a transparent ceiling leading to the wide open sky. As we rise, different colored lights are popping all around us. Once we finally reach the platform, I realize that Brad’s description couldn’t have been more accurate. I’m rendered utterly speechless. Colored lights twinkle from various buildings and there’s a clear view of stars that sprinkle the night sky. There’s the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and the Hudson and East Rivers. You can see it all. I look over at Brad, who’s waiting on my reaction. “Wow. It’s just exquisite.”

Brad takes a deep breath. “It is, isn’t it?”

I lean against him, my back to his chest, and he rests his chin on my head. I feel a strange sense of calm. He laces his fingers through mine and we walk around the platform a bit, enjoying the view, until something catches his eye. When I look over to see what it is, I notice there’s a plaque attached to a long piece of rock that reads
This is a good kiss spot
.

Catching me by surprise, Brad grabs me and pulls me close. He threads his arms around the curve of my shoulders, causing my heart to pitter-patter wildly and my breath to come in giant gusts. His breath is blowing on my lips like a soft breeze as he whispers, “I’ve been wondering something all night.” My eyes go wide. “Have you ever been kissed by a superhero before?” My mouth won’t move, so I simply shake my head back and forth. His eyes are burning up my lips as he breathes, “because you’ve never been truly kissed until you’ve been kissed by a superhero.”

With a small gasp and a hoarse voice, I strangle out a reply. “Will it be life-changing?”

He dangles his lips over mine. “Oh yes, life as you know it will never be the same.”

My heart slams against my chest as his mouth claims mine. His lips are warm and soft, his tongue gliding across my bottom lip, caressing and teasing before sliding inside. The taste of him awakens my senses. I feel his breath whisper to me as he continues to explore my mouth, the wetness of our tongues soaking each other and twirling about like vines dancing in the wind. I reach up and slide my hands behind his neck, the strands of his soft, silky hair tickling the space between my fingers as his arms encircle my waist to deepen the kiss. When we finally pull apart, breathless, he leans his forehead against mine.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for your kiss.”

My pulse skyrockets at his words and I’m not sure what possesses me, but I pull his mouth to mine again. Sucking his bottom lip softly, my tongue traces the outline of his lips before realizing we’re in public and pulling away. With Brad’s hand in mine, we make our way over to view the lights of the Empire State Building. He stands behind me again and wraps his arms around my waist; I lean my head back against his shoulder and he dips down to place a soft kiss to my temple. I could get used to this.

It’s getting late. The stars in the night sky and the darkness tell us that it’s time to head home, though I can smell the hesitancy in the air. After what seems like hours of enjoying the view, the silence, and the feeling of his arms around me, Brad puts his arm around my shoulder and leads us down.

We’re both quiet as we make our way back to the car. I’m so happy I feel like tiny bright stars are surrounding my heart. But it’s not the stars, it’s Brad. My mind is soaking him in. He’s incredibly endearing and I feel so lucky when I think about the hordes of women who flow in and out of his shop every day that would kneel at his feet. For some reason, he chose me. The thought makes me smile.

Brad opens the door and helps me in. Just before he starts the car, he leans in, lifts my chin, and gently brushes his lips against mine. His mouth lingers, leaving me wanting more. A lot more. Then, flashing that dimpled smile I’ve grown to love, he starts the engine and we head back.

James Taylor’s voice croons softly, singing about smiling faces, fire & rain, and being the only one. With my head back on the seat and my hand in Brad’s, I feel a wonderful sense of peace, like this is where I’m meant to be. We ride in comfortable silence back to my apartment. Brad puts the car in park and comes around to open my door, ever the gentleman. I find myself fumbling with my fingers and staring nervously at my toes.

He gently places his hands on either side of my cheeks and lifts my eyes to his. “I had a wonderful time tonight, Gabby. Thank you.” His gaze is so intense it makes me want to look away, but I can’t.

I look deep into his eyes. “I did, too.”

He stares down at my mouth and then slowly presses his lips to mine. My lips part, and our tongues tangle ever so briefly before he pulls away. “Goodnight, sweet Gabby.”

“Goodnight.”

I run into the apartment, anxious to tell Fran all about my night. I drop my purse to the ground and sprint down our tiny hallway, pushing through her door. I use her bed as a trampoline until she bolts upright and I realize she’s not alone. Rubbing her eyes furiously, she points to the spot next to her.

I see Kyle’s honey blonde hair poking out from the blanket. “Gosh, Fran, I’m so sorry!”

“Shhhh…it’s okay,” she whispers. “Let’s go in the other room.”

“Sorry, Kyle,” I hiss, scampering into the kitchen.

She pours a glass of water, then sits down, pawing at her eyes furiously to try and wake up. “So, spill it, sister, how was the date?”

“It was amazing Fran. I feel like I’m walking on clouds.” I’m pretty sure I have a ridiculous grin plastered to my face and I’m giddily rocking back and forth on my heels. If Kyle wasn’t sleeping, I’d be squealing like a teenager right now.