Читать книгу Don't Let Me Go - J.H. Trumble - Страница 16

Chapter 11

The rest of the month passed in agonizing, heart-rending, mind-screaming seconds, minutes, and days. There were too few phone calls from Adam and too many from me, most of which ended in a one-sided conversation with Adam’s voicemail, and with me trying desperately but failing miserably to not sound needy and a little pathetic. He Skyped at night, always late, and almost always from the bathroom. There were those nights that he was so tired, he just said good night, then headed off to bed. I sometimes waited all day to talk to him, and that was all I got—a few seconds with the guy I loved sitting on a toilet.

The job helped.

A little.

Actually, not much at all.

August 22

His flight arrived at the gate two minutes early at 10:32. I met him at baggage claim, but he had only a carry-on, so by 10:47 we were all over each other in my car in the parking garage. I couldn’t believe he was here. I wanted to look at him, touch him, kiss him. No. That wasn’t quite right. I wanted to devour him.

“Can we go someplace?” he asked, breathless.

I groped blindly for the key already in the ignition, anxious to get him alone but reluctant to let him go long enough to get him there. “My house,” I breathed into his mouth, allowing my hands to travel across as many parts of him as possible before I let go. “Mom left right after I did. She’s taking Grandma to visit her sister.”

I pulled up to the curb, and we raced each other to the front door. I fumbled with the key even as we kissed. He bit my ear and pressed me against the door, his eagerness for me and mine for him grown so obvious that we should have been plastered with a warning label like they put on aerosol cans. Caution: Contents under pressure.

“Hurry up,” Adam breathed, his hands under my shirt now, his fingers raking across my chest.

“I’m trying, but you’re distracting me.”

“It’s just a key.”

“I know it’s just a key, but I can’t get it in the damn hole.”

He giggled and turned me so I was facing the door. “Now concentrate,” he said, then slipped his fingers beneath the waistband of my shorts, making it impossible for me to carry out my mission, except that somehow I did. I pushed the door in with my shoulder and we stumbled across the threshold, still groping at each other and panting.

“SURPRISE!”

HONK.

I gasped as Mom and Grandma, Juliet and Mike, and Gaby and Warren (another former leading lady slash mistaken romantic rival and her talented actor boyfriend—Adam’s friends, and now mine too) suddenly appeared from around the corner, all with party hats and horns poised at their lips. And then just as suddenly the room went utterly silent. Adam quietly removed his hands from my pants and slid behind me.

Mom blushed and turned away, but Juliet took a good long look at my lap and laughed. “Looks like the party started early.”

“Do you mind?” I said.

“Not at all,” she said.

I gave Mike a pleading look and he covered Juliet’s eyes. Not exactly what I had in mind, but, okay. Thank goodness Gaby had the good manners to look away.

“All right, everybody, show’s over,” Grandma said, herding everybody toward the dining room. “Time for cake.” Turning back and in a voice that bubbled with amusement, she told us she was lighting the candles and we had about one minute to put those things, as she called them, away.

Adam snickered behind me and kissed my neck.

“Just kill me now,” I said.

He laughed. “Here, let me help you put that away. Grandma’s orders.”

“Quit that,” I said, twisting away and trying not to be too loud, but laughing anyway. “Shit.”

“I guess your mom didn’t leave after all.”

“The liar.” I shook out my shorts and tried to get everything back in its place. Adam looked down and stuck his lower lip out in a pout. I strummed his lip with my finger and grinned. “You are so getting some of that later.”

He shook his head as if to clear it. “Come on. Let’s get you all birthdayed up so I can get you alone. You’re spending the night at my house.”

I made a wish (Go home, people! Honestly, my mind was firmly in the gutter.), I blew out the candles, I opened a few presents, and then I willed them to leave. I tried to at least look like I was listening to the conversation, but Adam’s eyes kept flicking to mine from across the table, making me squirm. I nudged Juliet under the table. She pretended not to notice, so I nudged her again, harder. A grinned played at her lips.

Finally, just when I was about ready to scream my wish—GO HOME!—Juliet stood up and announced it was time to leave.

Adam was on his feet so quickly his chair teetered, threatened to fall over behind him, then settled down with a thunk. “What’s your hurry?” he said sarcastically.

Juliet just winked. We said our good-byes at the door, then fell all over each other trying to get the table cleared. He buried his nose in my neck while balancing the leftover cake in one hand and plates in the other. “Tell her,” he whispered and then stuck his tongue in my ear, which sent a shiver up my spine so severe that I almost dropped the soda cans I was cradling in my arms.

Grandma took the cake from Adam in the kitchen. He grabbed one last pinch and popped it into his mouth. “Yum,” he said, flicking his eyebrows and charming the pants off my grandmother all over again.

She grinned and hugged him to her one-handed.

“Mom.” I cleared my throat. She was filling the sink with soapy water and glanced back at me over her shoulder. “I need to get Adam home.”

“Okay,” she said, turning off the water. She dried her hands on a towel.

“Um, I’m going to crash at his house, tonight.”

That stopped her. Crash hardly described what we’d be doing at his house. But I already knew she’d let me go. She had to have known it was coming, and there were some battles she knew she couldn’t win.

Upstairs I threw a few things in my backpack while Adam lounged on my bed. “I miss this room,” he said, looking around and sighing.

Not half as much as I missed him in this room, I thought. I dropped my backpack and crawled onto the bed, over him, and settled on his lap. “When do I get my birthday present?”

He cocked an eyebrow and laughed. “Are you referring to the tattoo I promised you, or the one where you get me naked?”

“The second one.”

He threw his head back and groaned. Then I kissed him and he kissed me, and soon it became pretty clear that somebody was going to have to show a little restraint or we were going to break house rules again. And it wasn’t going to be me.

“Come on, tiger,” Adam said finally, sliding out from under me. He slung my backpack over his shoulder. “We have an appointment at the tattoo parlor and Mommy Dearest still has to fuss over your birthday.” He grinned and adjusted himself again.

I groaned. Couldn’t I just be alone with him? Jeez.

At the door, Mom embraced Adam, and he kissed her cheek. She pulled away and held his face between her hands and then launched into a whole list of banal mommy questions—Are you eating enough? Sleeping well? Not working too hard? Seeing some sights? Finally, she released him and swatted me on the butt with a “Go. You boys have fun.” Then she reddened when she realized what she’d just said. After all, it wasn’t like it was the first time.