Outside (18 page)

He shakes his head. “Nope. Got hot chocolate, though.”

I nod. “Give me two.”

The guy passes two cups across the counter and I let go of Alaina to pay before handing her a cup. “This should help,” I say.

She nods and sniffs at it through the lid.

“It’s hot,” I warn.

Closing both hands around the cup, she lifts it and takes a sip. I watch her face to gauge her reaction. She blinks a few times and runs her tongue over her lips.

“It’s good,” she says, glancing up at me with wide, excited eyes.

I smile. “Good.” Picking up my own cup, I put my arm around her again and we step away from the counter, but remain under the awning.

By the time we finish our hot chocolate, the rain lets up and Alaina isn’t shivering anymore. In fact, I’m almost too warm. The sun breaks through the clouds.

“Should we head back to the car?” I ask.

She shakes her head, stepping out from under my arm. “I kind of wanted to see the lions.”

Rain continues to fall, though it’s more like a mist than anything.

“You sure?”

She nods.

“We can come back some other time.” I watch a family hurry past, heading for the exit with their kids screaming that they don’t want to go.

“I’m okay. Really. Unless
you
want to go.” She bites her lip and guilt flickers across her face. “We can go. I’m sorry.”

“I’m good if you’re good.” I reach for her hand and we step out from under the awning. Her fingers are still cold and I decide that a detour is in order. “This way first, though.”

I lead her to a gift shop I saw when we left the panda exhibit. We’re blasted with icy air conditioning and Alaina shivers, huddling close to me again. “Pick out a shirt to change into,” I say.

She glances up at me.

“No sense running around in wet clothes,” I say, gesturing to a rack of souvenir shirts.

She smiles and hurries over to the rack, hugging herself for warmth. I stand back and look around for anything that doesn’t look like it should come with a fanny pack and a bald spot.

Alaina pulls a pink and orange tie-dye shirt with
Zoo Atlanta
splashed across the chest in bold black letters. She holds it up to herself, mutters something under her breath, and puts it back.

“Do you like that one?” I ask.

She looks up, startled. “Oh. No. It’s…too flashy.” She smiles sheepishly and tucks her wet, wavy hair behind her ears.

“You can get it if you want it. I won’t tell.”

She’s already pulling another t-shirt off the rack. “No. It’s okay. It’s ostentatious. This is fine.” She holds up a sad, dull brown shirt.

I shake my head at her. “Get the other one. I know you want it.”

Sighing, she looks at the pink and orange shirt longingly. “I can’t. Women of the Lord don’t draw undue attention to themselves with brightly colored clothing.”

Frustrated, I walk over and pull it off the rack. “This shirt isn’t going to draw any more attention to you than that god-awful brown one. You only have to wear it until your other shirt dries out.”

She hesitates, her eyes bouncing back and forth between the pink shirt and the brown shirt.

“It’s just a shirt,” I say, holding it out to her.

She nods and slips the brown shirt back onto the rack before taking the pink one from me.

I manage to find a mostly plain black shirt with a barely visible Zoo Atlanta logo on it and two cheap rain ponchos in case it starts to pour again.

Outside the shop, I point Alaina to the women’s restroom to change before going to change myself. I’m faster than she is and when she comes out, wearing the bright pink shirt, I can’t help smiling. She bites back a smile of her own.

“See? It’s not so bad, right?” I reach for her and pull her to me before I realize what I’m doing. I wait for her to stiffen or push away, but she doesn’t. She rests her hand on my chest, gazing up at me. My arm tightens around her waist as everything in me urges me to kiss her.

I suck in a breath and let her go. “Let’s go see those lions, huh?”

I’m not sure if it’s because she’s wearing a shirt she actually likes, or if it’s all in my head, but Alaina is much less guarded as we finish wandering through the zoo. She takes pictures of everything we come across with her phone, talking more than I’ve ever heard her talk before, asking a million questions, climbing the guard rails to get a closer look at things. She even slips her hand into mine instead of me having to grab for hers.

When we’ve seen everything there is to see, we head for the car.

“What now?” she asks, swinging the bag with her damp shirt in one hand, holding my hand tightly with the other.

I pull my phone out of my back pocket and check the time. It’s still early. Barely five o’clock. “We can crash Drew’s house. He’s got a fire pit in the back yard. Y’ever had a s’more?”

She shakes her head and looks up at me. “Thank you,” she says.

I run my tongue over my lip ring. “For what?”

She sighs. “Everything. Being kind to me. Taking me places. Showing me new things and not…
expecting
anything from me.”

I stop walking. “Expecting anything?”

She turns to me and shrugs. “Yeah. I mean, I know you… I know that, um…” She stares at her shoes. “Other girls…You and other girls…”

Squinting at her, I tug her hand to make her look up. “You’re not other girls. And I never
expect
anything from anyone, okay?” She nods and I shake my head. “Who told you I’d expect something from you?”

Alaina bites her lip and her eyes dart to her shoes again. “Holly,” she says quietly.

Figures. I squeeze her hand. “Don’t listen to Holly, alright? She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” I pull Alaina to me. “Alright?”

“Alright,” she says, peeking up at me.

I park behind Drew’s Mustang and note Holly’s car is already here. Serena pulls in behind me as Alaina and I are climbing out.

“Hey!” she calls. “Look who I found!”

Bryce Pierson gets out of the passenger side of Serena’s primer gray hatchback.

“’Sup brah!” he says, heading toward me with his fist extended. Fist bumps are Bryce’s favorite form of greeting.

I can’t stand this guy. I shoot Serena a dirty look. She
knows
I don’t like Bryce.

Serena smiles sheepishly and runs over to Alaina. “Awesome shirt!” she says, pulling her toward the front door.

“I take it that unicorn movie worked in your favor,” Bryce says when the girls are out of earshot. He wiggles his eyebrows, still holding his fist out, waiting for me to bump it.

“Yeah,” I say, knocking my fist against his harder than necessary.

He laughs. “Right on, brah. Right on.” His eyes dart up the street. I know what he’s looking at. Brittany lives at the end of Drew’s block and Bryce would give his left nut for fifteen minutes alone with her.

“You think she’s home? You don’t care if I go say hi, right?” He scratches the back of his head, still staring at her house.

“Go for it,
brah.
Just don’t bring her over here.” If I can get rid of him, even for five minutes, it would improve my evening dramatically.

He grins at me and holds his fist out for another fist bump. “Good lookin’ out, brah. Tell Serena I’ll catch up with her.”

I bump his fist and he jogs off down the street.

Thank. God.

Inside the house, Drew is crushing Holly at Madden on the Xbox in the living room while Jacki tries to help, shouting for Holly to press A. I find Serena and Alaina in the kitchen. The sun is still up, but Serena is already rummaging through the cabinets, looking for stuff to make s’mores.

“She’s never had a s’more,” Serena says to me. “Can you believe that?”

“I know. It’s why we came,” I say, winking at Alaina. She blushes and leans against the counter.

“What happened to Bryce?” Serena asks, climbing onto the counter next to the fridge to reach the top cabinet.

I move to stand next to Alaina. As much as I want to, I resist the urge to touch her or grab her and pull her against me. “He went up the street. He said he’d catch up later.”

Serena kneels on the counter and twists around to scowl at me. “He went to
Brittany’s
?!”

Alaina’s head snaps up. “Your ex-girlfriend? Is she coming here?”

I shake my head and inch a little closer. “No. She knows better than to come here.”
I hope
.

“That sorry sack of shit,” Serena spits, turning back to the cabinet. “If she shows up here…”

“I told him not to bring her over,” I say, lifting one shoulder.

“That don’t mean nothing,” Serena grumbles, yanking an unopened bag of marshmallows off the shelf and tossing them over her shoulder to me. “Take them outside and see if you can get the fire going while I look for the graham crackers.”

Slipping my hand into Alaina’s, I lead her out the sliding glass door on the far end of the kitchen onto the patio.

The fire pit is in the furthest corner of the backyard. I point at the roasting sticks leaning against the side of the house. “Grab those, will you?”

Alaina picks them up as I pull my hand away from hers. I grab a lighter off the picnic table and put it in my pocket before picking up two of the nylon folding chairs off the pile laying under the table.

“This way,” I say, heading out into the yard.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

ALAINA

Adam sets up a chair for me and then begins throwing small pieces of wood into the fire pit. Watching him work, I try to come up with something to say. Normally I’m bursting with things to say and trying to hold them in. Now, it’s the right opposite.

Why did I have to bring up the fact that he’s fornicated? Why can’t I stop thinking about it?

I press my lips together and rub the palms of my hands over my jeans.

He tosses another piece of wood on the pile and looks up at me. “You alright?”

I nod.

“Need anything? Want a drink?”

I shake my head and mentally scold myself for not answering him aloud. “No. I’m okay.” I take a breath and straighten in my chair. “I, um, wanted to say something about earlier.”

He lifts one eyebrow and the corner of his mouth quirks up. “I told you-”

Waving my hand, I cut him off. “I know. I just…” I sigh. “I feel weird about it. For even bringing it up and I just don’t want you to think-”

“Come here,” he says.

I furrow my brow and stand up, going to his side. He takes both of my hands in his and gazes down at me with those intense blue eyes.

“You want to know what I think? I think Holly needs to keep her mouth shut and worry about her own relationships. And I think you need to relax and stop worrying about what I think.” He smiles and I melt a little.

There’s a fluttering in my stomach. It was there earlier when I came out of the bathroom in my new shirt and we were standing like this. The sensation is strange and exciting, getting more intense by the second.

One of his hands moves up my arm, grazing my skin, giving me goosebumps before it comes to rest gently on the side of my face. My heart thunders against my ribs and my body goes cold and then hot. His other hand moves to my hip, barely touching me at first, but when I don’t move away, he rests it there and takes a step forward.

My breath hitches in my chest.

“I want to kiss you,” he says.

“I want you to kiss me,” I confess in a whisper.

He grins and moves in slowly. My eyes close and my lips part slightly, waiting, unsure of what to expect. He tilts my face up and gently presses his lips against mine.

The kiss is nothing like the one I saw in the movie. This kiss is soft and sweet and incredible. And when it’s over, I’m left wanting more. His hand drops away from my face to settle on my other hip.

I open my eyes.

“Okay?” He smiles.

Sucking in a deep breath, I nod. “Yes.”

“Want to do it again?”

“Yes, please,” I breathe, stretching up on my tip toes to find his lips.

He pulls me closer, pressing my body against his. He opens his mouth just enough to capture my bottom lip. My hands have a mind of their own, moving of their own accord to tangle in his hair. Any concerns I had about doing things correctly are forgotten when I manage to catch his lip piercing between my lips. My tongue instinctively moves against the metal and across his lip. He makes a low sound in the back of his throat and grips my hips tighter.

“Hope we’re not interrupting.” Holly’s voice cuts through the haze in my brain and I pull away from Adam, breathing hard.

She’s standing there with Drew, Serena, Jacki, and the blonde boy from the movie theater that went to visit Adam’s ex-girlfriend earlier.