Moonshine(56)

“How come the two of us never tried dating?”

“First of all you never asked me, and second in all of our time as friends I never once thought that you liked me like that. It wasn’t til that day at school that things seemed different. The day that Melody asked you out you seemed to be extra flirty. I couldn’t understand why and then when you nearly kissed my lips that afternoon, I almost fainted.”

“I was gonna tell you how I felt that night, the night of the accident. I had been chicken shit all of these years. I was worried that you’d reject me.” He stated.

“What do you mean all of these years?”

“God Shine, I thought it was obvious. I have loved you since the day we met. It was the day that you pushed me down and took off my knee cap. Honestly, I really didn’t know what love was then, but looking back now I always knew that it was you that I wanted.” My hands were shaking and I was looking into his eyes. I don’t know how I let him get away from me. Looking at those eyes now, I realized that there wasn’t anything there that scared me. It was never the eyes but the man behind them. I was blind. He pulled me over to where I was sitting sideways on top of his lap. “I’m sorry that I wasted all of those years not telling you the truth. I love you, Shine baby. I need to know how you feel about me. Do you feel the same way?”

I couldn’t take it any longer. For years I had wished that those lips were touching mine and now they could be. I wouldn’t waste another minute. I put a hand on each side of his face and stared at him. I slowly let my lips touch his and it was the most intense moment I have ever had. There was electricity that sparked and it sent a tingling sensation from my head to my toes. It started out slow, but didn’t last that way for long. We had waited too long and there was so much sexual desire between the two of us that we could have used a fire extinguisher. When I pulled away we sat there with our foreheads touching trying to catch our breath. “That was the best first kiss ever. I love you back, Moon. I have known that I loved you for a long, long, time. I didn’t tell you because I was scared that we wouldn’t be best friends anymore. I didn’t want to lose you from my life. I figured that as long as we remained friends that I would always have you, it just wouldn’t be the exact way that I wanted you. Then when I got a second chance at life I realized that life is too short. I love you so much that I can’t picture my life without you.”

He kissed me again but this time it was soft and loving. “You said that I never asked you, so now I am. I want you to be my forever, Shine. I don’t want to share you with anybody. When you get out of here, I want us to get our own place and start a life together. I love you. Will you be my girlfriend?”

“Well duh!” I laughed. “But are you sure about us moving in together? We haven’t even been going out for thirty seconds yet.” I bit my bottom lip trying to hold back my laugh. He reached for my stomach and tickled me.

“I know it seems fast, but we damn near lived together our whole life. It won’t be any different, only more fun. Am I right? Besides, I know everything there is to know about you, and we have lost way too much time. I don’t want to miss another minute of our lives together. Please say that you will come live with me. I promise I will take care of you.”

“I know you will.”

“So will you move in with me?”

“Yes,” He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me close. “But, I have two conditions.” I whispered in his ear.

“Let’s hear em’.”

“First of all, I promised Bradley that he would have a place to stay. I can’t just leave him out in the cold. He is my friend and he has had a really hard time. Without him I don’t think I would have made it through this program.”

“That’s fine. We will get two bedrooms. One for us and one for him,” he answered like it was no big deal. This is why I love him.

“You just have it all figured out don’t you?”

“I think so. It depends on the second condition.”

“I am gonna need an abundance of strawberry Pop Tarts.”

“This is the happiest day of my life. He picked me up bucket style like he was cradling me, and showed half the community my undies, but I didn’t care. This man promised me a fresh start at a new life and I was ready to start living it.

“I love you, Shine baby.”

“I love you back, Moon.”

The rest of the afternoon we spent snuggled up inside but our evening was cut short when Moon’s papaw called. He had some kind of an emergency on the farm with a birthing cow. I didn’t ask for the details. As bad as we didn’t want to part ways, we had too. He promised me that he would be back next week with my parents to pick me up. I was so ready. I was getting my happy ending after all.