Presently Perfect (Perfect #3) (3 page)

I ran toward her yard, placed my hands side-by-side on top of the fence, and vaulted over.

Taking a few steps, I heard the voice of one of the top three females in my life, Tweet’s mom, who was over by the clothesline hanging laundry.

“Mornin’, Noah. You’re up and out early for a Saturday,” she said, clasping a clothespin to the top of a pair of light green panties that would cover Tweet’s cute little ass perfectly.

Looking past her, my eyes froze on the panty rainbow hanging from the clothesline. Images of Tweet wearing each pair with a matching bra flashed through my head. Mrs. Kelly’s chuckle jerked me back to the present.

Red heat crawled up my neck and over my face. Swallowing hard I answered, “I had to cut grass this morning.”

“You feeling okay? You look a little flushed.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said, slowly coming out of my panty haze.

“She’s inside doing what she does every Saturday,” Mrs. Kelly offered and then turned her attention back to the laundry.

“Thanks.” Taking one last eyeful of laundry, I backed away before spinning around and headed inside.

I found Tweet exactly where I always found her on Saturday morning—sitting on the sofa, with a bowl in her lap, a box of Cap’n Crunch cereal on the coffee table, watching
The Smurfs
.

Wow, that’s a huge bowl of cereal she’s scarfing down.

She had on her favorite thing to sleep in—a huge oversized long gray T-shirt with a big panda face on the front of it and striped multicolored fuzzy knee-high socks pushed down around her ankles. Her hair was piled high, shooting up from the top of her head like a spout. She was so focused on the stupid blue people that she didn’t hear me come in. I decided to have some fun. Besides, after the panty parade outside and with her looking so damn cute I had to touch her.

I quietly approached. Standing directly behind Tweet, I collapsed over the back of the sofa, wrapped my arms around her, and rested my chin on her shoulder.

“Mornin’, Tweet,” I mumbled.

“Noah!” She gasped. “You’re all sweaty! Let go of me!” Laughter flew out of her as she tried to wiggle free from me.

Holding on tight, I teased, “I’ve missed you soooo much, Tweet.”

“You just saw me last night.” She giggled.

The sound made me smile. Vibrations started in my chest and quickly spread to the rest of my body. I wanted to turn my head toward her neck and touch her skin with my lips. She smelled so good, like raspberries and Cap’n Crunch. The twitching in my shorts let me know I needed to back off. I wasn’t sure what was going on with me and Tweet right now. All I knew was that she invaded my thoughts and dreams all the time. She was usually either naked or about to get naked in them. It made me feel like a creepy pervert thinking of her that way. She was my best friend. My Tweet. Then when I was actually around her all I wanted to do was touch her— hold her hand, sit close to her, or put my arm around her shoulders. It was as if I had no control over what my body did. It just automatically moved toward her as close as possible.

Dropping my arms, I stood and walked to the chair next to the sofa. I sat on the edge, elbows propped up on my knees, and leaned forward.

“I’ll never get why you still watch this stupid cartoon,” I said, snatching up the box of cereal and tossing a handful in my mouth.

Placing the empty bowl down on the coffee table, a look of confusion crossed Tweet’s face. “The question is why
wouldn’t
I still watch
The Smurfs
? They live in a utopia with a ‘one for all and all for one mentality.’ Everyone is equal, but different, and they respect that. Plus, they’re really cute and have a lot of fun screwing around with Gargamel.”

“Yeah well, they’re still little blue fuckers who give me the creeps.”

The next thing I knew there was a pillow being pitched directly at my head. Holding my arm up, I caught it just before impact.

“Oh, it’s like that, is it?” I jumped up and quickly stepped forward, placing me directly in front of her. I tried to keep my expression serious, but the smirk kept creeping across my mouth.

“Give me the remote,” I commanded. “There’s got to be something better on than these little Smurffuckers.”

Tweet grabbed the remote and slipped it behind her back. “Don’t call them that,” she said, tilting her chin up defiantly, in an attempt to maintain her own serious expression.

I positioned my hands on the back of the sofa just above her shoulders. Leaning in, I looked into her eyes. “Give. Me. The. Remote.”

“I seemed to have misplaced it,” she announced, narrowing her eyes.

“Then you leave me no choice.”

“Noah, don’t you dare.”

We held each other’s gaze. The same feeling I had in my dream took over my body. Everything around me stopped and I got lost in those beautiful eyes. I felt a shiver come off of her. Tweet softly cleared her throat, which snapped me back to attention. A slow smile spread across my face. Moving with lightning speed, I placed my hands just below her rib cage and started to relentlessly tickle her. My heart almost stopped when the top of my hand brushed the bottom of her boob.

Whoa, she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Tweet doubled over laughing and fell to one side, all the while swatting my hands away.

The remote was within reach the second she fell to the side, but I wasn’t ready to take my hands off of her yet. Between fighting me off and laughing, she was having a hard time breathing, so I figured I’d give up my quest for another touch of her boob.

Grabbing the remote, I stepped back, leaving her a heaving mess on the sofa. I flipped through the channels.

“You don’t play fair.” She gasped.

I ignored her whining and continued to channel surf. “Let’s go for a swim.” “I can’t.”
She sounded weird.”

“Don’t be mad at me, Tweet,” I said.

“I’m not mad. Oh, go back one channel. I just saw Justin Timberlake.” I scrunched up my face. “So what.”

“So what? I like him. He’s cute and sexy. Besides, my TV, my rules.”

A burning sensation spread across my chest at the same time my grip tightened on the remote. I sneered at the TV and felt a slight growl rumble in the back of my throat.

What the hell was wrong with me? I liked Justin Timberlake.

I hated the way Tweet was drooling over him. She had this strange look on her face, like she was hypnotized. The more she stared at
him,
the more pissed off I got. I aimed the remote at the TV and clicked it off.

“Hey! I was watching that. Thank you.”

I turned toward her. “Go get your suit on.” I didn’t mean for it to come out like an order, but it did.

“I told you, I can’t go swimming today.” She lowered her chin to her chest.

“Why?”

“I just can’t.”

I didn’t know what her problem was. We spent every day hanging out together. She didn’t act mad at me, but she wouldn’t look at me either.

“Tell me.”

“No. It’s personal,” she said, quickly glancing up at me.

I could tell my questions were making her uncomfortable. I didn’t want her to feel bad. I wanted to make her smile.

“You know you can always talk to me about anything.” Our eyes connected. I saw relief in hers once she realized I wasn’t going to push her. “Besides, I think we are pretty personal. I mean, I’ve seen your drawers flapping in the wind.”

All the blood drained from her face. “What do you mean you’ve seen my drawers?” She sat up from the sofa, looking past me out the window. “Oh. My. God! Is it that woman’s goal in life to humiliate me whenever possible?”

Tweet bolted off the sofa and ran out the back door. I felt bad that I had a hand in embarrassing her. Although, I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched her snatch each pair of panties off the clothesline one by one while ignoring her mom.

God, she was cute.

Turning with an armful of underwear, she headed back toward the house.

The second she hit the door, she said, “Noah Jeffrey Stewart, we are never to speak of this again.”

Trying to hide the smile that was stuck to my face, I agreed, “Absolutely. In fact, I really didn’t pay any attention to what was out there.”

She let out one big sigh and nodded her head, looking relieved. She took one step toward her bedroom when my words stopped her.

“Oh Tweet.”

“Yes?”

“The yellow pair are my favorite.”

A loud groan escaped her as she sneered at me before heading down the hall.

I placed my hand flat on the picnic table behind her and scooted closer until our bare thighs rubbed against each other. I was so happy Tweet wore her short shorts. I’d spent most of the summer thinking about touching her and then trying my best to touch her in subtle ways as often as possible. She seemed to be okay with it for the most part. Spending time with Tweet had always been effortless. I never started a day wondering if she would be in it. It was like breathing. I automatically knew I’d be doing it. And just like I wouldn’t survive without oxygen, I knew I couldn’t survive without Tweet. But things were changing, lines were blurring, and becoming confusing.

I didn’t know if she was having the same feelings as I was. There were times when I thought maybe she did. Like when I held her hand, a shy smile appeared across her face, or the way she leaned into my side when I put my arm around her shoulders. And then there were the goose bumps that had popped up all over her thigh when our skin made contact. I wasn’t sure how to tell her how I felt or if I even wanted to. My head kept telling me it was wrong to have the thoughts I had been having about her. Somehow, my body started reacting to Tweet, the hot girl, but my mind was still seeing her as my best friend.

There was a slight breeze coming off the lake as we sat on top of the picnic table at
our spot.
This park had been a major part of our lives. Tweet and I played on the playground and in the sandbox as little kids. We had our birthday parties here, and family picnics, and Dad had pitched my first baseball to me here. We had one more week left of summer vacation before freshman year in high school started. Between classes and baseball practice Tweet and I knew time at our spot was going to be limited, so we made it a point to be here every night this week.

A tiny piece of dark brown hair brushed across her cheek. Tweet didn’t pay any attention to it. She was too caught up in listening to the music that was pouring out of my ear buds that we were sharing. With her eyes closed, she swayed back and forth, getting lost in the music of our favorite band, Lifehouse.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“They’re awesome,” she said, still swaying with eyes shut. Her head was tilted back slightly and there was a peaceful look on her face. “The entire CD is brilliant. The song “Everything”
is my favorite.”

“Mine too. It reminds me of you.” I was so close to her face that my breath caused that same piece of hair to glide back over her cheek.

Man, her skin looked even softer up close.

Her eyes shot open to meet mine. There was a look of surprise across her face. For a split second I had the urge to look away but I stayed focused. I wanted her to know I wasn’t teasing. Maybe if she saw how serious I was she’d tell me if she was having these same feelings. Her gaze dropped back toward the ground, her eyes closing again. I continued to stare. She was so pretty. I didn’t get a chance very often to take long looks at her. Whenever she caught me stealing a glance I turned away embarrassed. A smile crossed my face as I watched and thought about the surprise I had for her. I was so focused I hadn’t even noticed the song was over.

“What are you smiling at?” she asked.

“You. I like watching you listen to music. You get so lost in it.”

Our eyes locked and the air in my lungs rushed out. My mouth went dry watching her teeth glide across her lower lip as she sucked on it. The breeze that was helping cool us off suddenly wasn’t doing its job. I was burning up. Tweet must have been warm too because her cheeks were turning pink. She smiled at me as she handed my ear buds back, then looked away, breaking our contact.

“Do you think they’ll go on tour soon?” she asked, staring out over the lake.

Trying to act casual, I shrugged and answered, “Maybe.”

“If they come to town we have got to see them. I bet they’re unbelievable in concert.”