The Fragile Fall (28 page)

As we skated, she gained more confidence and wanted to try skating on her own. I turned and skated backwards, watching her as she attempted to move. After a few seconds, she landed flat on her butt. Every time she tried to stand up, she slipped and fell down again. Once she was standing, she told me she needed a break. Her butt was freezing cold and so were her hands.

“Do you want some hot chocolate or coffee?” I asked as I helped her to the side of the rink.

“Hot chocolate would be perfect.” She sat on the bench and I went to grab her a drink. I brought it back and she sipped it. “That’s better.” She smiled at me and my heart jumped to my throat. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be used to the way she made me feel, but I hoped not. I liked how breathless she made me and how I reacted to her. “I want to watch you skate for a while.”

“I don’t want to leave you by yourself, though.”

“I’m not alone. You’ll still be here, you’ll just be showing off for your woman.”

“Well, when you put it that way.” I kissed her forehead and went back onto the ice. Now that I didn’t have Ryanne distracting me, memories floated to the front of my mind. The times my mom and dad would skate and he would hold her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him. My dad was truly an amazing, loving man. God, I missed both of them so much. I wished they could be here now to see how much I had grown. Though they may not like the fact that I had a girlfriend, I was certain they’d be proud of me.

As I skated around the rink, I realized that while the memories did make me sad because I missed them, I was also happy I had them at all. It was good to remember them as living, breathing, loving people instead of the way they had been in the car. I remembered the way my mom’s eyes lit up when she was happy and my dad’s deep belly laugh. I was relieved I had good memories to hold onto instead of the haunting ones. I smiled, feeling free. Skating faster, I enjoyed the lightness I experienced.

After several laps around the rink, I caught Ryanne’s eye. She was leaning against the wall around the rink and smiling at me. I skated over to her and pulled her close, kissing her. Her gloved hand came up and touched my face and I felt her smiling against my lips. “You looked incredibly hot out there,” she said.

“I’m glad you think so because I think you are incredibly hot all the time.”

“You are too much sometimes.”

“Only for you, Ry.” I kissed her again. “Thanks for coming here.”

“I’m glad you brought me.” She brushed hair off my face. “You feel better now, don’t you? The longer you skated, the happier you looked. As if a weight had been lifted off you.”

“I do feel better. I think I needed this.”

“I’m glad I got to experience this with you.” She smiled.

“Let’s move on to phase two of our date, shall we?”

We turned in our skates and rushed back to the car. We were at the rink longer than I thought we would be, but I was glad we went. It had gone better than I hoped, which seemed to be a common occurrence when I was with Ryanne.

I pulled up to a small coffee shop and turned the car off. “I know how much you love coffee, especially fancy coffee. I found this place and it’s supposed to have the best coffee ever, so I thought you’d like to check it out.”

Her face lit up and she bounced in her seat. “Oh, this is perfect, Will.” We got out of the car and I grabbed her hand.

I loved everything about her.

The way she smiled.

How easy it was to get her to laugh.

How much she loved those she cared about.

How she could be silly one second and serious the next.

How she accepted and supported everyone, even if she didn’t totally agree with them.

She was smart and beautiful…

And perfect.

As I watched her study the menu board, I realized I was in love with Ryanne. I think I had fallen for her the moment I first saw her,
but I had completed the fall.

She caught me staring at her and bumped into my shoulder. “What do you want to get?” she asked me.

I pulled her close to me, resting my hands on her hips. “I have no idea, I was too busy staring at you.”

She smiled and laid her head on my chest. “This is nice.”

“Yeah, it is.”

We stood like that as the coffee shop around us buzzed. Orders were called out and people came and left. Eventually, we pulled away from each other and ordered coffees. She wanted to stay and drink her coffee since it was the perfect, quaint coffee shop—her words—so we sat at a table and sipped our drinks. Her eyes darted around, trying to absorb all the details.

“How’d you hear about this place?” she asked.

“I may or may not have bugged everyone in school for awesome coffee shop recommendations. This one was the most frequently recommended one.” I had picked the one coffee shop that I had never heard her talk about, hoping she didn’t know about it. It was a little out of the way and new, so I’d lucked out.

“This coffee is heavenly. I’m glad you found it.” She drank her coffee slowly and I watched her. That was all I needed, just to be near her. When she finished, she looked into the cup and pouted. “That was so good. I’m upset that it’s gone.”

“You could get another one if you want.”

“No, I’ll be up until next week if I have another one now.”

“If you’re ready to go, I have dinner reservations.” I grabbed both of our empty cups and carried them to the garbage.

“No one has ever done all this for me,” she said as she came up behind me.

I took her face in my hands and smiled at her. “I would do this and so much more for you, Ry. You have no idea what you mean to me, but I hope you’ll give me the chance to show you.”

Her eyes teared up and she blinked hard. “You have got to stop being so sweet. You’re turning me into a mushy girl.”

“I’ll take you anyway I can get you.” I put my arm around her waist and we went out to the car.

I drove us to The Grinning Banana Leaf, a fancy Thai place. She said her favorite kind of food was Thai, but it was hard to find a good place to get it from. Again, I had bugged everyone I knew about where would be a good place to take her and this one had won out. I hoped it lived up to her expectations because I had no idea. I had never had Thai food before and I hoped my friends hadn’t steered me wrong.

As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, Ry started laughing.

“What?” I asked, pulling into a parking spot.

“The Grinning Banana Leaf? Seriously?” She wiped tears from her eyes.

“I figured it was fitting since you make my banana leaf grin,” I joked, smirking.

She slapped my arm and laughed harder. “Will!”

We went into the restaurant and Ry was again pulled into the décor, saying it was perfect. She couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.

Dinner ended up being amazing. The food was delicious and the atmosphere inside was awesome. They had authentic Thai decorations and music playing. Ryanne had been incredibly impressed. She kept stealing food off my plate and pretending like she wasn’t doing it, even though I had seen her do it several times.

After dinner, I could tell she was tired because she kept yawning, so I drove us home. I pulled into her driveway and parked the car, hating that our day was over. She took her seatbelt off and turned in her seat until she faced me. The smile on her face told me she was up to something.

“I’m assuming you’ve never made out in a car before, have you?”

“That’s a very fair assumption.”

She leaned closer to me, hooked a finger in my collar, and pulled me closer to her. “There’s a first time for everything.”

Her breath moved over my lips and my heart raced. As she brought her lips to mine, one of my hands went into her hair and the other went around her back, pulling her closer. When I brushed my tongue over her lips, she sighed. Her hands wrapped around my neck and she toyed with the hair touching the collar of my shirt, gently pulling on it.

I took my free hand and brushed it against her back before slipping it up the back of her shirt so I could feel her smooth skin. As my fingers danced over her lower back, she gasped and more goose bumps popped up on her skin. I smiled against her lips.

She pulled me in closer and deepened the kiss. I reached higher up her shirt until I felt the lace of her bra, which drove me crazy. I kissed my way over her cheek, down her neck and to her shoulder. She giggled softly.

“That tickles,” she said, her voice raspy. I smiled and kissed my way back up to her ear. She grabbed my face and pulled my lips back to hers. We were lost in a world where it was only us and I loved it. She was the only person I needed.

Suddenly, she pulled away from me. “I should head inside.” She cleared her throat.

“Yeah.” The last thing I wanted her to do was leave this car, but I knew she had to go inside.

She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thank you for today. It was really, really nice.” She smiled and climbed out of the car. I followed her to her front door, kissing her softly before she went inside.

I already missed her.

There was no denying it.

I was definitely in love with her.

Ryanne

S
OMETIMES
IT
SEEMED
THAT
MY
life was too good to be true. Will was the best boyfriend in the history of boyfriends. He texted me every morning and sent me a goodnight text every night. Sometimes, he would sneak over to my house and we’d make out on the back deck. If we were hanging out with Jax, as soon as he left the room Will was kissing me as though I was the air he needed to breathe.

And I loved it.

I loved every second of every day that I got to spend with him.

Dad was home again. He said he was going to be home for a month this time, but when he left again, he’d be gone even longer than usual. I had no idea what that meant or why it was important for me to know. He always came and went as he pleased, not telling Jax or I what was going on.

Jax had begun to avoid Dad at all costs. Whenever he came into a room and saw him, he immediately turned and left the room. I had tried to ask him about it, but he just said he didn’t feel like dealing with the drama surrounding our dad. I didn’t pester him, figuring he was an adult and could handle it however he wanted. Personally, I preferred to have as little as possible to do with Dad, so I understood where he was coming from.

Will and I spent every available second together that we could. He was constantly touching me as though he needed to convince himself that I was really there. He brushed against me when he walked near me, tucked hair behind my ear … I had never felt so important to someone before. When he looked at me, I felt like I was the only person he ever saw. I had no idea what I had done to deserve him, but I was glad.

I was afraid to admit it, but I had fallen in love with him. I had fallen for the way he felt so deeply. Most guys were afraid of their feelings, but Will embraced them and expressed them. Every time he touched me, I could feel how much he cared about me. Since he had told me about the accident, he was an open book. I felt like there were no secrets between us. I never had to wonder how he felt about things because he was more than willing to tell me, all I had to do was ask.

We continued movie nights, though they were more sporadic. I was scheduled a lot on Fridays, so we sometimes had to change which day we got together. Jax had confessed to me that he feared that Will and I being together meant he was not only losing his best friend, but his sister, so Will and I made sure to spend time with him. As much as I loved Will, I had to make sure Jax was okay. He had lost enough in his life, he didn’t need to worry about losing me.

I hadn’t seen Will in a couple days and we hadn’t spent much time together since our date the previous weekend, so I missed him desperately.

Ryanne: Do you have plans tomorrow? I have off and I wanted to plan a special day for the two of us :)

Will: No plans tomorrow. I was going to hang out with Jax on Sunday, so tomorrow works perfectly. What did you have in mind?

Ryanne: I want to surprise you.

Will: Why do I feel nervous?

Ryanne: Don’t. It’ll be awesome, I promise.

Will: It’s a good thing I trust you.

Ryanne: It is.