Heart Of Marley (5 page)

“That’s so great, sweetie!” She hugged me, bringing me back from my six-year period of deception.

“I have to go or I’ll be late.” I pulled out of her forced embrace.

“Of course, Marley. Have a good night at work.”

I rushed out of the house and jumped in my sporty little Mustang that I bought with some of my pageant winnings. Within a record ten minutes, I pulled into the busy mall parking lot. For the first few hours, my shift went by with no excitement to speak of as I straightened up the clothes that had been thrown around during the Friday afternoon rush. About an hour after I got back from my break, I sensed a presence approach as I stood at a table, folding a bunch of t-shirts. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I grabbed it in mine and pinned it behind the stranger’s back, spinning around to face him…but it wasn’t a stranger.

“Doug,” I exhaled, my eyes growing wide as I released him from my hold. “I’m sorry. You know that I don’t like it when people sneak up on me.” I lowered my head and avoided his gaze. I had lost count of the number of times I had pinned him in that exact hold over the years.

“I know. That’s why I did it. I like a girl who can take on a guy. But don’t let it go to your head. If you weren’t a girl, I’d have you on the ground in two seconds flat after that move.”

My eyes scanned his tall frame, settling just below his waist as I raised my eyebrows in a playful manner. “Oh, really? Pretty sure I can get you laid out in less than a second, Douglas.”

He instinctively backed up and covered his crotch with his hands.

“That’s what I thought.” I spun back around to continue my mindless chore of straightening the store.

“Are you going to the bonfire tonight?” he asked and I could feel his nerves from a few feet away.

“Maybe. Why do you ask?” Turning to face him once more, I placed my hands on my hips and smirked at him, heat rising in my cheeks in response to his attractive face, his formerly boyish features having grown more and more mature over the past year. Doug always dressed very well and tonight was no exception. His khaki shorts fell from his hips in such a way that made my heart speed up, especially when he lifted his hand and ran it through his dark hair, causing his polo shirt to rise up and expose a thin strip of his abs. I met his green eyes and tried to continue playing hard to get, but it was becoming more and more difficult, especially when he took several deliberate steps toward me and looked at me as if he wanted to consume every inch of me.

We had been playing this fun cat-and-mouse game for the better part of our junior year. There was something about him that I had been drawn to for as long as I could remember. He was my brother’s best friend, which could make it a bit awkward if we were to date seriously, especially if things didn’t work out. Then again, there was a reason my brother trusted him above anyone else he knew. If he was good enough for Cam, he was certainly good enough for me. He had always been the typical southern gentleman, holding the door open for me at school or when a big group of us would go somewhere to hang out. I would have been lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy our past year of flirting. But relationships scared me. With relationships came intimacy and my past still haunted me, forcing me to refrain from getting too close to anyone.

“I want to take you,” he said, his voice husky. “I mean…not take you in the sexual sense, but take you to the bonfire. With me.” His expression turned from one of lust to one of unease and I could sense that he was embarrassed.

Always the one to try to rectify an awkward situation, I placed my hand on his shoulder and drew my body close to his. At five feet, eight inches, I was one of the tallest girls in my class, but Doug still towered over me by more than a half-foot. Standing on my toes, I whispered in his ear, “I’d love for you to take me, Douglas. Pick me up at my house at ten.” I pulled back and winked before walking away from him. I could feel his eyes trained on my hips as I swayed them. And I was swaying them for him alone.

The rest of my shift passed painfully slow as I grew more and more excited about going to the bonfire with Doug. We had been out together numerous times in the past but it was always with other friends. Granted, we would be heading to the bonfire where approximately a hundred of our classmates would be but, this time, I was going with him and not simply seeing him there. As I was leaving the store after we closed, I couldn’t help but think that maybe a normal, high school relationship was what I needed to finally be what I had wanted to be for so long… Normal.

I pulled up in front of my house a little after nine-thirty and ran inside to make myself look presentable. Changing out of the jeans and top that I wore to work, I found a white sundress to wear, making sure my back was fully covered. I applied lotion to my olive-toned legs and sprayed a bit of perfume behind my ears. Adjusting my long blonde hair so that the waves framed my face in a carefree manner, I grabbed a light blue cardigan and a pair of flip-flops before bounding down the steps.

Almost instantly, there was a quiet knock. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was quarter to ten. Pulling back the door, I was surprised to see Doug standing there.

“You’re early,” I commented.

“Yeah,” he agreed, shuffling his feet, visibly nervous. “I saw you pull up with your car. Then, just a minute ago, I saw the light in your room go out and figured you were ready. I took a risk and hoped I was right.”

I beamed at him. “Well, looks like you were.” I stepped onto our front porch and locked up behind me, throwing my house keys into my hobo bag. “Don’t worry. I don’t think it’s weird or anything that you were staking out my house,” I joked, clutching onto his outstretched arm, walking down the steps toward his car. “Creeper.”

Blushing, he turned to face me. “Sorry. I was just excited, I guess. I didn’t want to waste another second of tonight.”

Butterflies swam in my stomach as I processed the words that came out of his mouth. There was an electricity between us that had never been there before…or, at least, that I had never noticed. Maybe it was because I finally realized I wanted to stop with the cat-and-mouse game and let him catch me. Part of me had a feeling that he had already caught me ages ago, but it just took my brain this long to figure it out.

The intensity in his gaze caught me off-guard and I was a mess of nerves and hormones…never a good combination, especially in a darkened car. “Do you want to just walk?” I asked hopefully. “It’s only a few blocks and, chances are, you’ll never find a spot in the public lot anyway.”

“Okay,” he agreed, leading me past his car and toward the main street going out to the beach. The mood was tense, the silence between us uncomfortable as we awkwardly enjoyed each other’s company.

“Thanks for asking me to come. I mean, tonight… I mean, for asking me to go to the bonfire with you. Not for asking me to come. That doesn’t sound right.” My face flamed red with embarrassment.

He smiled at me and winked. “No but, if you ask me, it sounds good.”

I halted in my tracks, completely frozen in place.
I can do this
, I said to myself.
He was just joking. He doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just a harmless joke, Marley. Just a joke.

He noticed my reaction and turned to face me on the street. “I’m so sorry, Marley. That was completely inappropriate. I don’t know what possessed me to say that. That’s not the way my mama raised me. I really am a good guy. I normally wouldn’t joke like that. You’ve got to believe that I didn’t mean anything by it. Please.” He slumped his shoulders, the formerly confident Doug replaced by a Doug that was full of remorse. “I understand if you don’t want to come with me.”

My eyes grew wide, more in irony than dread or concern.

“I mean, you don’t have to go to the bonfire with me. God, I really hate that word right now.”

I giggled. “Me, too.” I raised my head and met his pleading eyes. I could tell that he was bracing for me to turn around and walk away from him, but that was the last thing I wanted to do.

“Come. Say it with me. Come…” I said to him. “It feels good.” Throwing my head back to look at the stars in the sky, I shouted to the heavens, “
Come
!” I raised my arms like an angel and spun around, screaming the word over and over again. I must have looked like a spectacle, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want one word to come between what could blossom into a good thing with Doug.

I slowed my spins, but the sky kept moving even when I stopped. I attempted to regain my balance, but soon found myself tripping over my own feet.

Two arms were around me instantly, preventing me from falling to the ground. “Whoa. Careful, Marley Jane.”

I closed my eyes and basked at the sound of his voice calling me Marley Jane. Cam called me that all the time, but there was something so warm, affectionate, and thrilling about my first and middle name rolling off Doug’s tongue. Focusing my gaze on his, I was met with his brilliant green eyes.

“Hey,” I breathed.

“Hey.”

“You still haven’t said it.”

He scrunched his eyebrows at me. “Said what?”

A grin crossed my face. “Come.”

He chuckled, and the way his body shook made me want to melt into his arms so that our two bodies were entwined as one, never to be separated again. Leaning down, his breath was hot on my neck. My spine tingled.

“Come, Marley Jane,” he whispered.

My eyes fluttered in the back of my head, overwhelmed with the effect that his body and voice had. This was completely new to me. It was exciting, exhilarating, and petrifying at the same time.

I licked my lips as I searched his eyes to prepare myself for his next move. I could tell he was conflicted with how to act.
Time to take the bull by the horns and grow a set
, I said to myself.

“What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?”

“For what?” he asked in earnest.

“To kiss me.”

“Are you sure?”

“If I didn’t want you to kiss me, I wouldn’t have asked you to. So kiss me, Doug. I know you want to. You’ve wanted to since we dissected that frog in Biology class last October.”

He tightened his hold on me and before I could add any more quips, his lips were pressed firmly against mine. I ran my hands through his thick hair as he kept my body close to his, supporting me, making sure I was steady on my feet, even though the touch of his lips on mine made me feel anything but grounded. I felt as if I was floating in the air, the sensation of his caring and gentle movements opening up my heart to new feelings and emotions.

He pulled away from me and I was left panting. “That was some kiss,” I commented.

“You’re right about one thing.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“Well, you were right that it was some kiss. But you were most certainly wrong about me wanting to kiss you since dissecting a frog in Biology.”

A disappointed look crossed my face at the thought that he didn’t actually want to kiss me.

He nuzzled my neck and nipped on my earlobe. “I had been wanting to kiss you since we were paired up on that astronomy project in Earth Science in ninth grade.” He planted a sensual kiss on my neck before raising me so that I was standing straight once more. Winking, he grabbed my hand in his and said, “See. You were dead wrong, Marley Jane.”

I tried to hide my excitement as we walked the few blocks toward the beach, but it was useless. Out of nowhere, a light streaked from the sky and into the ocean. I gasped in shock.

“What?”

I pointed toward the shore. “It’s a shooting star,” I said, my voice low and contemplative.

He stared at me as if waiting for me to elaborate.

“My grams,” I began. “She had this thing. She would always say that was how we would know our relatives who passed before us made it to wherever they went when they died. She said the shooting star was their way of letting us know that they were happy and were watching over us.” I continued walking on the beach, the heat of the approaching bonfire warming my skin. “Maybe that’s Grams’ way of saying that I’m doing something right.”

He nudged me. “I hope it’s Grams’ way of saying that she approves of me.”

“It’s not her approval you have to worry about. Or have you forgotten that I have a
very
protective twin brother?” I winked as we greeted a bunch of familiar faces that were huddled around the fire on the sand, coolers and beach chairs making a maze of the area.

He rested his hand on my hip, his arms warming me in the cool summer night. “Perhaps. I have a feeling he’ll be more than okay with us. I already asked him.”

I turned to face him. “When? Why?”

“Well, he’s my friend, and I didn’t want him to think I was like half of the guys we go to school with that make comments to him about your legs or chest or anything else. I’ve never done that. And I
won’t
ever do that. I just wanted him to know that my intentions weren’t to just add another notch on my belt and that I do care for you. A lot. More than I think you realize, Marley Jane.”

That’s all he ever had to do and I couldn’t stay angry or upset at him. His apparent admiration and devotion to me was shocking and comforting at the same time. For that brief moment in time as I raised myself onto my toes and planted an innocent, but affectionate kiss on his lips, effectively announcing our relationship to everyone at the bonfire that night, I felt as if I could finally move on from my past. I felt as if I was finally normal.