Salvaged (46 page)

"Please don't be overly excited about it. Really, it isn't anything
that great. I'm actually starting to think it's too hokey."

"Well, let me see it ... please."

She rolled her eyes and pouted a little but eventually reached
into her purse and pulled out a box. I practically had to yank it out
of her grip so that I could open it.

"This is so embarrassing." She covered her eyes as I unwrapped
the paper. "Okay, wait," she shouted.

"What?"

"Just a warning. I made it myself, so don't have high expectations or anything."

My heart melted. "You made what's in this box?"

"Yes."

"There's no way I'm not gonna like it."

"Oh yes, there is."

I carefully removed the gift wrap and opened the box.

"It's a cuff bracelet," she explained.

Removing it from the box, I held it up to light so that I could
appreciate it more. It was made from dark brown leather and had the
word Salvaged stamped in it.

"Charlie, this is amazing. You made this? How?"

"Out of an old belt. It's not very hard to do."

"I can't believe you did this for me."

"You don't have to wear it. I realize it may be a little much."

"It's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I love it."

"If you'll look on the inside you can see that I branded our initials and today's date on it."

I turned it over and saw the emblem. I was speechless.

"Here, let me help you put it on." I watched as she untied the
leather strip that linked the ends together, wrapped the cuff around
my wrist, and then secured it in place. "There. What do you think?"

"It's amazing. Thank you so much."

"I made one for myself too." She reached into her purse and
pulled out a thinner version of the same cuff. "Except this one's more
girlie. I bedazzled mine." She slid it on her wrist. "See, we're a set."

"We're perfect," I added.

Attie leaned her head back against the headrest and gazed at
me. Her eyes were warm and full of admiration. The way she was
looking at me made all the days of waiting well worth it. I wanted to
kiss her, but I couldn't muster up enough courage.

"Do you wanna get out and walk around?" I asked.

"Sure."

Holding hands, we walked in silence for several minutes before
taking seats in a couple of swings.

"You don't like it, do you, Riley?"

"Like what?"

"The cuff. It's okay, really."

"I do like it. I love it; why would you think I didn't?"

"You've barely said a word since I gave it to you."

"Trust me, it's not that."

"Well then, what is it?" she whispered. "What's the matter?"

"Can I be brutally honest?"

"Of course."

I held my legs out and entwined them around hers so that our
swings pulled closely together.

"I'm a nervous wreck," I confessed.

"About what?"

"Kissing you. I want to but I'm scared to death."

"Riley! Good grief, you've already kissed me twice. Why would
you freak out about it now?"

"The other two times, they just happened. There was no time to
get nervous, so I didn't think about. I just did it."

"Seriously? That's so cute. I'm not nervous at all."

"No?"

"No," she said quickly.

Attie unwrapped her legs from mine and stood up. Placing her
hands on the chains of my swing, she leaned closely to me.

"I could kiss you," she offered in a sultry voice.

"Really?" It sounded very appealing seeing as how I couldn't
move.

"Um-hmm," she whispered.

My heart raced as she slowly brought her face to mine, but instead
of our lips touching, her nose sweetly grazed mine several times.

"There's an Eskimo kiss," she explained softly before kissing the
tip of my nose.

"Close your eyes," she said quietly.

Of course, I obeyed and was rewarded by a small kiss on each
eyelid.

"You're killing me," I admitted.

She stood back up and giggled. "Sorry."

The distance between us became unbearable. I stood and pulled
her to me. "I love you, Charlie."

"I love you too." She placed her lips onto mine, and my entire body felt faint. I gently pulled my face away and placed my hands
on her cheeks.

"You do? You love me?"

She giggled. "Yes. Of course I do."

"You're not just saying that because I did?"

She shook her head. "No." Her eyes searched my face as if she
were looking for a sign of what was going through my mind. "Riley?"
A small crease formed between her eyebrows. "Are you all right?"

I leaned down and kissed her crumpled brow. "I'm perfect."

"Good, you scared me there for a second."

"I think I need to sit for a minute."

I grabbed one of her hands in mine and made my way to the
merry-go-round.

"Riley?"

"I feel a little overwhelmed." Little was an understatement, but
I didn't wanna scare her to death by letting her know how overpowered I was feeling. I was vulnerable and weak.

"What are you overwhelmed by?"

"Are you joking?"

"No." She was dead serious.

"The girl I love just told me that she loved me back. I swear, I
think my heart's gonna explode."

She giggled again. "Oh, you're so sweet."

"I'm whipped is what I am."

"I'm sorry," she said as she rubbed my shoulder.

"I'm not. It's the most amazing feeling ever."

"I would have to agree. I feel the same way, but I thought I was
the only one."

I turned so that we were facing each other, and her hand fell into
her lap. "Why did you think it was just you?"

"This is all new to me, Riley. I've never been in love before."

"This is all new to me. I've never been in love before either."

I reached over and traced the outline of her face with my
fingers.

"Are you trying to memorize my mug so you can sketch it later?"
she teased.

"I've already got your face memorized, Charlie. I'm just enjoying
finally being able to touch it."

Once I removed my hand from her face, Attie made her way
over to the jungle gym. I turned the merry-go-round so that I could
watch her without needing to turn my head.

"Do you want to know one of the things I love about our
relationship?"

It was wonderful to hear her say the words "our relationship"
and know that she was talking about the two of us.

"Of course."

"What we feel for each other isn't clouded by physical cravings."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

I had plenty of physical cravings.

"Well... " She paused as she carefully walked across the suspension bridge. "We've been together every available moment for three
months, we've slept next to each other over eighty times, and we've
only kissed twice."

"Don't remind me."

She laughed. "No, seriously, Riley. I think kids our age tend to
get physical too fast, before they even know if they truly like each
other. Then their feelings are jumbled up because they aren't sure if
they like the person or just like being with the person. It may be fun,
like Curt said, but what's special about it?" She stood peering down
over the fort wall.

I could answer that from my own experience. "Nothing. There's
nothing special about it."

I walked over to the jungle gym and stood below her. The
moment was reminiscent of a balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Attie elaborated. "I want to spend time with you because you're
fun and charming. Don't get me wrong, I like kissing you... " She
giggled and then smiled, beaming down at me. "But I love just being
with you. We don't need to be physical to feel connected to each
other, and that's important for a girl my age that's trying to do the
right thing.

"I'm sorry that you're beating yourself up over being afraid to kiss me. But there's something comforting to me about knowing that
every time you're alone with me you aren't only interested in getting
physical." She folded her arms across the wall ledge and placed her
chin on her arms. "I feel safe with you."

"You are safe with me. I'm not gonna screw this up."

"I know." Our eyes were fixed on each other for several moments
before she spoke again. "Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?"

"For the perfect first date. The dinner was wonderful, you sat
through a chick flick with me, and it was a musical too, which gets
you bonus points. And now this."

"Now what?"

"You're being sweet to me. You're just being ... my Riley. The
boy I fell in love with."

"Don't give me too much credit. It isn't like I don't wanna be
hanging all over you or anything."

"But you aren't."

"Probly not for the noble reasons you think."

"Then why?"

I jumped onto the sliding pole and climbed my way up until I
joined her on the fort.

"Why don't we cop a squat?" I asked.

Attie lay down on the jungle gym floor. "I want to look at the
stars."

"All right."

Not wanting to press my luck, I laid down similarly to how we'd
been on the bathroom floor the second day she was here. Only this
time, I placed the top of my head against her shoulder. Our cheeks
were practically touching, but our bodies were horizontal, and we
were facing completely opposite directions. There was no way that
we could come into any inappropriate contact.

I started off. "This is beyond embarrassing."

"Since when do we not tell each other things that are embarrassing?"

"I know. It's just weird being so brutally honest all the time."

"It's who we are. I like that about us."

"I do too. I love that about us; it's just a little hard sometimes."

"So what's so embarrassing to talk about?" she asked.

"I'm seventeen years old and outrageously in love with you.
Barely touching you could send me over the edge ... if you know
what I mean."

"Pardon?"

Evidently, she didn't know.

"Oh, I got you." She giggled. "I know all that stuff. I'm not going
to run away screaming if you get a little overexcited."

"You're not?"

"No. Girls get worked up too, you know. In any case, you'll get
more and more desensitized to me as time goes on."

"I don't know about that." I couldn't imagine ever getting acclimated to touching her. I hoped the thrill of being near her never went
away. "My parents set some boundaries for the time that we're under
their roof. We need to set some for when we aren't home but alone."

"I agree. Let's set some ground rules."

"Okay. First, let me fill you in on a few things."

"I'm ready."

"There are times when something is sweet, and there are times
when that same thing can be utterly sensual. I need you to be careful
with me."

"What do you mean?"

"Call me `my Riley' when you're ten feet away and we're all good.
Whisper it in my ear and we're in trouble. Honestly, Charlie, that
was one of the sexiest things I've ever heard. I about died. "

"Really? Okay." Her head was nodding next to mine. "No `my
Rileys' whispered in the ear."

I continued. "Then there are some things that are an automatic
problem."

"Like?"

"Like when you kissed my eyes a few minutes ago."

She was surprised. "That?"

"It wasn't the kissing itself; it was the way you did it. Slow and ... the way you were talking ... well, you get the point. That's
pure seduction; there's no way around it."

"You're probably right. I was trying to get you in the mood to
kiss me."

"I was already in the mood," I informed her. "Trust me. With
you, I'm always in the mood. Sometimes it's just best if I don't."

"All righty then, I get the point."

"It will never be a question of whether or not I wanna touch or
kiss you. It'll be a matter of if I should."

"I understand."

She turned her head and lightly kissed me on the cheek.

My mind instantly went blank. "Maybe we should sit up," I
suggested.

"I can't kiss you on the cheek?"

"Yes." I laughed. "Yes, you can kiss me on the cheek. I just need
to think clearly right now. We need to set the boundaries."

"Okay."

We sat cross-legged and faced each other.

"You're going to have to come up with the boundaries," she said.
"I've never done any of it. I would have to use my imagination to
come up with no-nos."

"Well, if you have to use your imagination to come up with it,
that's a big clue that it would probly be off limits."

She gave a quick nod. "Good point."

"We shouldn't kiss if we're in the horizontal position. It's a little
too convenient." Again, I was speaking from experience. "And obviously no getting carried away with our hands."

"Obviously."

"If there's serious heavy breathing going on, we should stop
immediately."

"Heavy breathing. Right."

She sounded as if she were writing everything down as I spoke.

I worked my way through a mental checklist of what could cause
a boy my age to lose his mind in ecstasy and then realized almost
anything could do it. "Ears are an iffy area."

"Kissing the ears or talking into them?"

"Both. Well, again, it's all in how it's done. Ifyou're joking around,
it's one thing. In the heat of the moment it becomes dangerous."

"I love how you say `dangerous.' It cracks me up."

"Unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating."

Her eyes grew wide. "Oh."

"This isn't gonna be easy. We need to be on guard all the time.
It'll be worth it though."

"Totally." She nodded. "How much longer until we need to be
home?"

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket to check the time. The
picture of Attie and me flashed on the screen. "Ten 'til twelve. We
need to get going pretty soon. I don't wanna be late the first night
they let us go out."

I stood and then pulled Attie to her feet.