Beyond Eighteen(67)

“Nick dropped me off,” Joanie answered in a nervous whisper.

It wasn’t a millisecond later that I recognized the black Toyota Sequoia parked on the other side of my driveway, past the limo waiting to take the girls. Wilson glanced over at me and I felt all the muscles in my jaw and down the back of my neck tighten. My heart started to thrash in my chest and the burning need to keep my girl safe rushed through my body.

“Maxi, was that Calvin’s friend Nick?” Mom asked as she held the front door wide open.

“Yeah,” I answered in a low growl as I grabbed the door and shut it.

“Well, why didn’t he come in? I think Calvin is still upstairs.”

“Oh, he was just dropping me off, Mrs. Goldstein,” Joanie answered quickly.

“Oh please, Joanie call me Nancy,” my mom insisted.

Joanie smiled at my mother before she looked over at Wilson and me. Instantly, her smile fell off her face and her eyes widened as she read every last painful story splashed across both of our expressions. I think it was at that moment Joanie realized how truly destructive Nick had been.

There was a light knock at the door. For a moment I thought Nick had the balls to come up and face me again. But when I opened the door it was Allen, our driver.

“Alright, is this sweet lady my other passenger?” Allen asked, looking at Joanie as he approached the group of us. He was clearly unaware of the situation that had just occurred.

Wilson’s face lightened and mine followed. I wasn’t going to let Nick ruin my time to say good-bye to my girl.

“Yeah, this is Joanie Emerson, Wilson’s best friend,” I answered him in a protective tone.

“Well hello, Mrs. Joanie, I’m Allen, your driver today. It’s my goal to get you ladies over to the Aspen airport before your plane leaves in about 45 minutes. I already loaded your bags into the limo, so when you and Miss Wilson are ready…” he said as he nodded to me and gave my mother a kiss on the cheek. “I will see you later, Mrs. Goldstein.”

“See you later, Allen,” my mom answered. “Thank you,” she hollered as he made his way down the stairs.

“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Joanie,” my mom said without missing a beat before pulling Wilson’s best friend into a hug.

“It was so nice meeting you too,” Joanie answered.

My mom turned to Wilson and I noticed tears begin to swell in her eyes.

“Wilson, sweetheart, I will miss you. If there is anything I can do for you…just ask, honey. I mean that! You call us when you get into California, okay?” My mom pulled her into a tight hug. I noticed Wilson’s eyes moisten at the words my mom so carefully shared with her.

“Thank you, Nancy. I promise to call the minute I land,” Wilson sighed as she tried to take a deep breath.

“Alright, I’ll leave you two to say your good-byes.” And with that, Wilson and I stepped out onto the porch. Joanie gave me a fast, courtesy hug.

“Take care of our girl, Joanie,” I whispered into her ear.

“I will,” she answered, and that was it. She pushed away from me and shuffled across the porch and down into the waiting limo.

I turned to Wilson. Her breath turned to vapors that floated across her face as she exhaled. She began to shake, and the time between her swirling, steaming breaths became almost nonexistent. Her nose red, her cheeks glowing rosy, I watched her eyes fill with the tears of our good-bye. As I pushed against her, her body was quivering from her core out.

“You know I love you more than anything in this world,” I said as I held back the tears that tried to force their way into my good-bye.

“I do,” she managed.

“And you know I will call you every day, and text you as often as I can.” I felt her body push more heavily against me. The vapors of our steaming breath mingled and danced together, breaking the ability to determine whose was whose. “Oh man, you’re shaking, babe. You’re freezing. You’d better get into the car.”

“Not until you kiss me,” she said through her tears.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you go without giving you the kiss you deserve, did you?”

I pulled her chin up so our eyes met. We both had tears clinging to the edges of our eyelashes. She closed her eyes; her tears fell across her rosy cheeks. I pushed my hands across her face, tangling my fingers in the hair behind her neck. She leaned to one side, I to the other, and we pressed our mouths together. The cold that once owned my lips disappeared in her kiss. Our touch was delicate at first until she opened to my good-bye. Both of us without jackets, the Aspen winter tried to take our moment as she shook but I wrapped my arms around her back and pulled her body against mine. No amount of cold, time, or elements I couldn’t control were going to invade our kiss. I felt the cold slice and lick at my unprotected arms, but I didn’t care. Wilson was enough at this moment to keep me alive, keep me wanting to be the man I was supposed to be. She slipped her mouth down to the bend of my neck and I felt her vibrating in my arms. I knew it wasn’t from the cold; she was crying at our good-bye. I pushed my mouth against the wintry strands of hair across her ear.