Ruin .(51)
“Everything okay?” I asked in a small voice, coming up behind him.
His eyes scanned the house, as if memorizing it one last time. “Yeah, just father-son stuff. Football stuff really.” Wes shrugged. “No biggie. Hey—” He flashed me another killer smile. “Let’s go watch a movie.”
“Cool.”
When he said movie I thought he meant in the living room.
Not a theater room.
With popcorn and reclining seats.
From here on out when I think of heaven this is the picture I’m going to have in my head. Sitting with Wes in our own private movie theater, at his house, holding his hand.
“Any movie, but it has to be a Christmas movie.” He clicked through the Apple TV. “You pick.”
“Why Christmas?”
“I love Christmas.” He shrugged. “And I may not be around for Christmas this year, at least not in this house, so I thought it’d be nice to watch.”
“Where are you going to be?”
“Oh, we have other houses around the area, just depends on my dad’s mood which one we stay at.”
“How awful for you,” I teased.
“My cross, my burden. Now pick.” He flipped me the remote and put his hands behind his head.
“I choose…” I clicked through. “This one.”
He squinted at the screen. “You’re kidding.”
“You said any Christmas movie and I believe you said lady’s choice.”
“It’s Mickey Mouse.”
“My favorite Christmas movie. You gonna go back on your word?”
“You really are my little lamb aren’t you? All innocent, wanting to watch Mickey Mouse Christmas.” He reached out and stroked my face. “Tell me it’s wrong to want to blot out all that purity… right here, right now.”
“It’s wrong,” I said simply, ignoring the buzzing in my head as his fingers ran down the side of my cheek.
He sighed and pulled back. “Fine, the lamb speaks, Big Bad Wolf listens.”
“As it should be.” I leaned into him and then moved the armrest so I could truly lay across him.
“And then Lamb tempts Wolf,” Wes said in a low voice.
“And Wolf rises above temptation,” I sang.
“Wolf likes temptation.”
“Wolf needs to watch the movie.”
“Lamb needs to stop talking before Wolf silences her with his teeth.”
My grin was so huge, I swear I couldn’t see out of my own eyes as I laughed and turned away from him. “Stop!”
“Not used to hearing that particular word. What ever does it mean?”
“It means no.” I pushed at his hand as it rested on my hip and lifted my shirt to touch bare skin.
“Hmm, what’s no mean?”
“It means…” The movie suddenly blasted across the screen.
Wes leaned down and spoke against my ear, “Saved by the Mouse.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I should have walked away. Instead, I blocked the way, made myself so impossible to walk away from that it was too late. Late, early, not that it mattered, time wasn’t on my side, and she wouldn’t be either, not when I told her.
Weston
She fell asleep in my arms during the first fifteen minutes. I closed my eyes, not because I was tired, but because it felt normal. I could almost imagine it was normal. I’d taken my girlfriend home for the holidays, we got bored, watched a movie, and she fell asleep.
But it wasn’t.
I checked my watch.
I needed to take more meds, so as much as it killed me to move that gorgeous girl away from me — it was time for bed. I picked up a piece of hair and examined it, twisting it between my fingers. It wasn’t an obsession with hair, it was more of an obsession with everything that made her unique. Her red hair, her smile, her laugh, the way she pushed people away — the way she let me in.
Damn. I was screwed, so damn screwed.
She would find out soon. I’d have to tell her. I had one game left and then Coach was going to bench me. He said I wasn’t the same player I used to be. I couldn’t argue that. Not with me puking at practice every day. I knew I was letting the team down, but it was better to step down from the entire team then to allow them to get their asses kicked or worse, allow any of them to get hurt because I couldn’t hold my shit together anymore.