Breathe (26 page)

“I found the cutest dress last week in Mobile,” a girl on the other side of Amanda gushed. Several other girls started talking about their dresses and how they planned to wear their hair. I listened, but didn’t have anything to add to the conversation since I wasn’t going to go.

“Sadie, are you coming to the game?” Amanda asked me before she bit into her apple.

I started to say no, but then I remembered my promise to Jax and his wanting me to go to football games. “Um, I don’t know,” I said over my bottle of water.

Amanda swallowed. “Please come with me. I am going to the dance afterwards with Jeff Garner, but he is on the football team, so I will be dateless during the game.”

That sounded good to me. I could go to the game and tell Jax and maybe that would satisfy him for a while.

“Sure sounds good.”

Amanda beamed. “Great! You can come over to my house after school, and we can play around with those amazing curls I’m so jealous of, and we’ll find a way to style your hair, and then you can help me with my straight as a board head of hair!”

I frowned. “Um, does it matter how my hair looks for the football game?”

She grinned and nodded. “Yes, because you’re not going to have time to do anything but change before the dance.”

“Oh, well I’m not going to the dance, so that isn’t a big deal.”

Amanda frowned at me. “Why not?”

Well, because I didn’t want to dance without Jax. I shrugged my shoulders instead of telling her the truth.

She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “If you want a date, all you have to do is crook your finger and every guy will come running.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not it. I just don’t want to go.”

She sighed. “So you’re going to leave me alone. I thought you said that Jax wanted you to take advantage of all high school experiences.”

I nodded reluctantly.

“Well, big news flash, the Homecoming dance is one of the biggest experiences of the year.”

I sighed. She was right. He had said dances. I could come and go quickly. “Okay, I’ll show up.”

Amanda beamed. “Perfect! You want a date?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m going alone.”

She sighed and shrugged. “Whatever, I’m just glad you’re going.”

* * * *

We won the homecoming football game, so the dance was a wild celebration. The cheerleaders actually wore their cheerleading outfits to the dance, and the football player’s wore their uniforms without the pads. They were dirty and sweaty, and I wondered how Amanda was going to dance close to Jeff with him smelling like that. I wrinkled my nose at the thought.

The D.J. played music the minute everyone walked in the door, and I had already started watching the clock so I could make my escape. Amanda had tried to get me to go shopping with her for a new dress, but I assured her I had one I could wear. She had drooled all over herself when she saw the blue dress Jax had given me. I’d let her play with my hair, since she enjoyed it so much, but in the end, I had just worn it

down and loose. It was easier this way.

“Sadie, will you dance with me?”

I turned to see Dameon, and he was, of course, in his sweaty uniform. I didn’t want to dance with anyone but Jax. Dameon could have been nice and clean, and I still wouldn’t have wanted to dance with him.

I started to shake my head when Mary Ann walked up and slipped her arm inside his. “Well, hello, Sadie. All alone tonight?”

I smiled at her because, really, she was just a very insecure silly girl. “Yes, I am,” I assured her.

She looked at Dameon like she had won some sort of prize. “Once again you seem deserted by your famous friend,” she purred and pulled on Dameon’s arm.

“Let’s go dance.”

He stared at me as if he wanted to argue, but I turned away to let him know I wasn’t interested. Mary Ann tugged one more time, and the couple walked off. I let out a sigh of relief. Amanda waved at me from the dance floor, and I smiled and waved back.

The clock said I had been there twenty minutes. I had promised Jax I would stay thirty at least. I had ten minutes to go. I turned to go get a drink, and I stopped short when I heard the song coming over the speakers. It was my song. I watched the couples on the dance floor slow their pace and hold each other closer. Hearing his voice made me feel less alone.

“Excuse me, but can I have this dance?”

My heart faltered. I swallowed and prayed I wasn’t imagining this. I turned around, and Jax stood grinning at me with his hand held out.

“Jax,” I said breathlessly, and then I threw myself into his arms. He chuckled in my ear and pulled me closer. “What are you doing here? How? You have a concert in Detroit tomorrow night!”

He grinned and leaned down to kiss my lips softly. “I couldn’t let you come to a dance without me.”

I laid my head against his chest, and breathed him in. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

He held me tighter. “Because I wanted to surprise you.”

I smiled. I liked these kinds of surprises.

“And I wasn’t completely sure I was going to be able to get away. When I talked to you on the phone this morning, you sounded so sad I decided nothing else mattered. I made a way. You come first, always.”

I kissed his chest, and then gazed into his intense eyes. “I have become so selfish. All I care about is that you’re here.”

He laughed, took my hand, and kissed it. “That’s okay. You can be selfish with me all you want. I’m yours.”

I sighed and listened to his heartbeat.

He leaned down to my ear. “Come down to the beach with me.”

I nodded, and he took my hand. We walked in silence out of the school parking lot and down the hill that led to the beach.

“I want to hold you a little while longer, away from the audience we had in there.”

He stopped and sat down just as gracefully as he had the first time we sat on the beach together. I sat down, and he frowned. He pointed to the sand right beside him.

“Come here,” he said, grinning wickedly.

I laughed and scooted as close as I could get.

He lay back then, with one hand behind his head and the other out beside him. “Now, lay right here,” he said, nodding toward his outstretched arm.

I lay back on his arm. He pulled me closer, and then he began playing with my hair.

“This is so much harder than I imagined,” he murmured into the darkness.

I sighed. “Being apart from your ‘air’ is never easy.”

He grinned. “No kidding. I’ve had a hell of a time breathing this week. I want nothing more than to tell you to forget this and leave with me. But I can’t do it. I want you to have this. I will be here for everything I possibly can. I want to experience all the stuff I missed, with you. I just want you to know there isn’t a minute that goes by I don’t miss you and think about you and wish I were holding you.”

I leaned up on my arm and stared down at him. “When it is over and I graduate, what happens then?” I needed to know.

He grinned, “Then I take you, and I don’t give you back.”

I laughed quietly.

His face got serious. “What do you want to happen when this is over?”

I thought about college, and my desire to be more than Jessica had been. I wanted to have a purpose in life. “I always thought I would go to college. But now....”

Jax pushed up on his elbows. “College is good, Sadie. There are plenty of colleges in California.” He paused. “Or were you thinking of staying close to home?”

I pretended to have to think about it. “Um, well, I guess I could go to somewhere in California, that is, if I get accepted.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Have you not figured out by now, I can move mountains?”

I laughed and shook my head. “You’re not moving mountains to get me into a college.”

He sat up and pulled me with him, and then took my face in his hands. “I will do whatever I have to do to be close to you. I am not going to lie. This year is going to be the hardest year of my life. When it is over, I want to get you close to me.”

I wanted that too. My future was Jax. Yes, I wanted to go to college, but I wanted to be with Jax more than anything else. If he could make both of those things happen, I wasn’t going to let my stubbornness get in the way.

“I want to be with you.” My words brought a huge grin to his incredibly beautiful face.

“You’re my present and my future, Sadie, I will use whatever power I have to make you happy.”

He leaned down and touched his perfect lips to mine, and my heart took flight. I would never get tired of his kiss. Jax Stone was my everything.

Abbi Glines began her writing career as a staff writer for a countywide newspaper while pursuing a major in journalism. She later moved on to freelance writing and has been published in several parenting, family, and travel magazines. Currently she lives in Fairhope, Alabama with her husband and three children. This is her debut novel.

www.abbiglines.blogspot.com

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