Salvaged (43 page)

I looked over at Riley. He gazed back at me. "Yes."

Joshua looked at Riley. "Do you like her?"

"Obviously." His eyes stayed locked on mine as he spoke.

I gave him a small grin and a wink. We'd been looking forward
to being together for the majority of the summer, and we were prepared to present our case to the jury.

"Well." Pops lifted himself so that he was sitting on the kitchen
counter. "As I told Riley yesterday, this is no surprise to anyone in
the room, Attiline. We've all known for months ... no, years, that
Riley was interested in you. Molly and I discussed it when Eddie
first asked if you could stay with us for the summer. We expected Riley's feelings but weren't sure if you would reciprocate. Evidently
you do."

I nodded in acknowledgement.

He shrugged. "Far be it for us to stand in the way of true love,
right, Molly?"

She enthusiastically nodded her blonde head. "Right."

He continued. "I don't wanna take the joy away from the fact
that you're gonna be living with us for a while. We're thrilled about
that. But this does complicate things. Joshua, you wanna jump in
here?"

"Of course." Joshua stood and walked over to join Pops at the
counter. "We support you two. We love you, and we want you to be
happy, whether that means you date or you don't. I've spent hours
with each of you, and I know where you are spiritually, personally,
emotionally, physically, all of it. I've told your parents that I trust
you. I believe that you two will respect any boundaries that we, your
support group so to speak, put into place."

"Thank you," Riley spoke, but his eyes remained locked on me.

I removed my gaze from Riley and saw Joshua pull a folded-up
piece of paper from his back pocket.

"We've written down some guidelines that we would like to
share with you." He unfolded the piece of paper and read from it.
"First, you may no longer enter each other's rooms. If you want to
talk to each other, one of you better be on the other side of the
doorway."

Riley and I both nodded in agreement.

"Second, you may not be alone in any room of the house with
the door shut."

I visualized the house and realized that the boundary was redundant seeing as how our bedrooms were pretty much the only rooms
we went into that had doors on them. But I kept my mouth shut and
nodded at the second condition.

"Third, little to no physical contact when you're in the house."

We all caught Riley roll his eyes.

"It may sound harsh," Joshua spoke directly to Riley, "but trust
us, with as much time as the two of you will be spending together,
touching each other all the time will not make this easier on you.
The more `familiar' you are with each other, the more difficult it's
going to be to resist temptation when you're alone."

"This is beyond embarrassing," I admitted out loud.

"Don't be embarrassed, Attie." Marme reached over and patted
my arm. "We're on your side. Plus, we can't ignore the elephant in
the room. We've all been teenagers, and it was hard enough without
living with the people we were dating."

"Fourth," Joshua continued, "each of you will meet with Nicole
and me weekly. It won't be a counseling session as much as it'll be
a debriefing. I would hope that if you're struggling in any way with
temptation or anything like that, you'd bring it up during our time
together."

Pops spoke up again. "Molly and I are your parents, so we realize
you won't be comfortable coming to us with issues. Having Joshua
and Nicole for that will be a great outlet for you two."

"I won't share anything with your parents unless I ask your
permission first." Joshua walked over and placed his hands on my
shoulders. "I don't see that needing to happen, but I'll warn you now
that if I feel this spinning out of control I will intervene."

I looked up at him. "Yes, sir."

"We've already agreed that if this becomes too difficult, one of
you will be living with us."

It was all common sense to me.

"Fifth..."

"There's more?" Riley was growing impatient with the boundaries.

"This is the last one," Joshua assured. "You'll attend church every
Sunday and youth on Wednesday nights." His eyes darted back and
forth between Riley and me. "So can we all agree to the rules?"

"Yes," Riley and I spoke in unison.

"All right then, you have our blessing," Pops announced.

"Why do I feel like we should have popped open a bottle of
champagne after you announced that?" Marme asked.

"Because you're as excited about the two of them dating as they
are," he informed her.

"True." She nodded her head and clapped her hands. "I really
am. I think you're adorable together."

"Oh yeah, one more thing," Joshua announced as he made his
way over to Riley. "You hurt her and your dad and I will hurt you.
Got that, Riley?"

I giggled.

"Me?" Riley squealed. "She's the one with the power here."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"I'm much more involved in this than you are."

"What?" I asked. We'd forgotten that there were other people
in the room.

"It's true. You have a much better chance of breaking my heart
than I do of breaking yours."

"That's not true. Just because I wasn't on the bandwagon as early
as you were doesn't mean I'm not completely on it now. If this ship
sinks, we're both doomed."

"You two better shut your mouths," Pops interrupted. "Or I'm
calling the entire thing off now. That's all we need, two heartbroken
teenagers moping around our house."

"There will be no heartbreaking going on," Riley announced.
"We're meant to be."

"That's so sweet." Nicole was gushing. "Remember when you
used to like me like that, josh?"

"Give them time, Nicole. They'll get sick of each other before
long," he teased before kissing her on the nose.

"All right." Pops clapped again to bring the room to order. "This
court session is now over."

"Thank God." Riley rolled his eyes and slunk farther into his
chair. "That was brutal."

Pops ignored him and continued, "So when's the big official first
date?"

Riley sat back up in his chair, and a grin spread across his face as
he looked back over at me. "What do you think?"

"I think you haven't even officially asked me yet," I answered.

He smirked. "So, Charlie,"-he leaned across the table as he
spoke-"will you go out with me?"

"On a date?"

"Yes." He nodded. "An actual date."

Again, it was as if there was no one else in the room.

"I'd love to."

"Thank God." He laughed as he laid his head on the table. "You
have no idea what a relief that is to hear."

"You're a doll baby, Riley," Marme announced. "Who could say
no to you?"

Riley looked back up at me and grinned. "Tomorrow night
then?"

"Sounds good."

"Goody, we get to go shopping for an outfit!" Marme said.

"Oooh, can I come?" Nicole asked.

"The more the merrier," I said.

Pops got our attention again. "Well, I have a gift for you two."

"I love gifts!"

"We know," Riley teased.

Pops walked into his bedroom and returned with two large
beanbag chairs.

"What in the world?" Riley asked.

"Well, since you can't go into each other's rooms, I figured we could
put them in the upstairs hallway so you can hang out up there when you
wanna get away from us without getting totally away from us."

"Good thinking, babe," Marine said proudly.

"Wow, that's a great idea. Thanks, Dad."

"Trust me, you two, I've put as much thought into this as you
have. Now granted, I've focused on how to keep the two of you
safely away from each other rather than what you've been thinking
about. I believe I even contemplated plastic bubbles at one point."

I stood, walked over to him, and gave him a hug. "We'll be good.
I promise."

"I know you will." He kissed me on the top of my head. "All
right, let's leave these two lovebirds alone for a little while. They've
got a big date to plan."

I jumped onto the counter as everyone but Riley filed out of the
room.

"Does this feel strange to you?" he asked from his seat.

"Totally. I hope the anticipation wasn't better than the reality is."

He leaned toward me and spoke in a hushed voice. "I've already
kissed you twice, Charlie. I can say with one hundred percent certainty that the reality will be much better than the anticipation."

"But the mystery will be gone," I warned.

He sat back in his chair and chuckled. "Trust me, you are and
always will be a complete mystery to me."

"You, on the other hand, are an open book."

"I realize that. It's disgraceful but true." He stood and walked
toward me but stopped a few inches away. "So what do you wanna
do for our first date?"

"I don't know. I've never been on a date before."

"That's a lot of pressure on a guy-being the first date and all."

"I'm sure you'll be the guy for a lot of my firsts."

"Good to know." He acted as if he licked the tip of an imaginary
pencil and wrote in the air. "Should we start a list? For a few of these
we'll have to wait until we're married."

"Riley! First of all, that's not what I meant, and secondly, we
haven't even gone on a date yet, so I don't think you should be talking about marriage. That's a little overconfident and unrealistic,
don't you think?"

"I'm an open book, and I'm gonna tell it like it is. Ten years from
now, our kids are gonna be running around this house."

"Kids?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah."

"We won't still be living with your parents, will we?"

"No." He laughed and shook his head. "They'll be babysitting."

I put my hand on his face. "You've lost your mind, Riley Bennett."

"You're breaking the third rule," he informed.

I yanked my hand away. "Sorry." I hopped off the counter and
walked past him toward the refrigerator. "Just for the record, I'm not
getting married until I finish undergrad."

I felt him walk up behind me as I opened the fridge door and
grabbed two bottled waters.

"You're gonna be on that accelerated program, right?" He was so
close that his breath was warm on my neck, and the sensation caused
chills to run down my spine.

"Riley," I spoke without turning to face him, "it's probably not a
good idea to stand that close to me."

"Why?"

"It makes me want to break rules one, two, and three."

He moved away from me, and I heard him laugh as he left the
kitchen.

"Don't you want the water I got out for you? It'll cool you off."

"You keep it." He laughed. "Sounds like you need it more than
I do."

"You called?" Jesus asked as soon as I put my ear buds in.

"I did. I assume you heard the conversation that took place
downstairs."

He sat down on the bed next to me. "Of course."

"Well, it's great to have their permission and everything, but I
wanted to run it by you too. Riley and I like each other, and we want
to go out, but-"

"I know."

"So how do you feel about it? Are you okay with that?"

"Would it matter if I wasn't?"

"Yes, it would matter. If you told me not to do it, I wouldn't. I
know you would tell me no if it were in my best interest."

"I appreciate that."

"It's true."

"I know it is." Jesus smiled at me. "Riley's parents, Joshua, and
Nicole have been praying about this for months. As they told you,
this is no surprise to them-or to me. They've put a lot of thought into their boundaries, and they've consulted me about it as well.
They feel at peace about it because I feel at peace about it."

"So you're okay with it?"

"Yes, as long as you follow the rules. If you ever decide to be
deceitful or not follow the guidelines, I'll feel differently, but I don't
see that happening. You two are good kids, and like I said before, I
believe that you're good for each other."

"I believe that too."

I was relieved that Jesus was accepting of our relationship.

"But something else is bothering you. Why don't you talk to me
about it?"

My mind wandered off for a few moments, and I sat in a trance
as I thought about Jesus's words to me at the river.

He read my mind. "We haven't spoken since our talk at the river.
I don't think you and I ever came to any resolution about it."

"Evidently, I need to deal with some forgiveness issues. Is that
what you think my nightmares are?"

"Yes. Your subconscious has a way of speaking to you even when
your conscious mind doesn't want to listen."

"And you can help me with the whole forgiveness process? Honestly, I thought I'd already dealt with it all."

"Ignoring and forgiving isn't the same thing. Just because you
don't think about it on a regular basis doesn't mean you've forgiven.
Refusing to accept that your father has abandoned you doesn't mean
he hasn't."