“Ok! Ok. I give!” he called out and bent down to rest his hands on his knees.
I came back to him slowly and stood next to him.
“Hmm. I’m not sure I can be seen with you anymore. I’m thoroughly disappoint—Ah!” He grabbed me around my stomach from behind and lifted me, swinging me around. “You tricked me!”
He pressed his face to my ear. “And you totally fell for it, too.”
This savored strongly of the vision I had had of us when we imprinted. His breath on my ear, so close to my neck... I felt goose bumps glide down my skin rapidly and instantly blushed because I knew he could feel them too.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” I said, but it was all wrong and breathless.
He set my feet to the ground, but didn’t let me go, his hands moved to my upper arms. We stood looking out at the lake for a minute. I could feel every breath he took behind me. I pressed into his mind, focusing on him, to see what he was thinking. He was wondering the same about me. I could feel his pulse in my veins and it was faster than normal. I took some comfort that he was just as affected by my presence as I was by his.
“I think I’m more affected if you ask me,” he said suddenly.
“You are getting really good at that,” I said dryly.
He laughed softly. “You get better at it the more time we spend together. You’ll only block me when you’re trying to. Soon, you’ll be able to pick up exact thoughts, too, not just my feelings.”
“Are you nervous about your ascension? Getting your abilities?”
“Nah. I’ve waited for this all my life. Are you nervous?”
“Terrified,” I breathed truthfully.
He turned me in his arms to look at my face, his arms held me firmly to him. “Don’t be. It’s not that painful.”
“Not that painful?”
“Yeah. And the chills, fever and convulsions only last a couple days.”
“What?” I said and even though he was touching me, I felt a spike of terror.
“Yeah, but don’t worry. The little green spots that appear all over are mostly under your clothes.”I gaped at him and he smiled widely and cockily. “Caleb!” I pushed at his chest playfully. “I believed you.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” He hugged me to him so I couldn’t see his face as he spoke into my hair. “You really think I’d be so happy about something that would hurt you and I couldn’t fix it?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“I don’t want you to be scared about it. It’s a good thing and it doesn’t hurt at all. And it won’t happen if I’m not around.” He pulled back to look at me. His hands moved down, slid really, to rest on my lower back and I thought my pulse couldn’t possibly race more than it was already. “We’ll be together and I’ll know exactly what’s happening so don’t be scared. My parents said it feels kind of like the imprinting. You feel hot and cold, your heart races. Our abilities will complement the other’s so we’ll be even more in tune and drawn to each other after that.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible,” I muttered and then realized I’d said it out loud. I pressed my lips together and he smiled. “So, you’ll be with me when it happens and it won’t hurt?”
“I’ll be with you and it won’t hurt,” he assured and his hands flexed on my back.
“Ok. So what do you think your ability will be?”
“No clue. But none of us have the same ability. So it will be something that no one else in the family has.”
“Can it be something like making honey buns appear out of thin air? Because I could get used to that.”
He laughed and pulled me closer, pressing his forehead to mine. “I don’t think so, cutie.”
“Dang,” I whispered.
We sat for a few minutes just like that, eyes closed. I breathed him in and enjoyed the feeling of clarity and calm from his touch. “Are you ready to go home yet?”
“No, but I guess I better. It’s getting late.”
“Here,” his hands went inside my jacket and he pushed my arm through the sleeve, “better zip this up. It’s dark so it’ll be even colder on the bike.”
I let him pull both my arms through and zip my jacket up before he took my hand and we made our way back to the parking lot.
“I picked a good day to wear a dress, huh.”
“It may not be practical, but you look very pretty.”
“Thanks. So, um.” I had wanted to ask him this question since I first found out about all this, but couldn’t get up the nerve. “Do you…” I sighed.
“What is it?”
“Do you, uh, feel withdrawals like I do?”
“Of course, yeah. Significants always feel withdrawals for each other, especially in the beginning.”
“But are they like mine? I mean, this morning I thought I was having a heart attack or something.”
“Well,” we made it to the bike and he leaned against it, “no, from what Gran says, humans feel it a lot more than we do. This morning I felt sick and sore, just like you said, like I had the flu. It sucked, but I knew what was going on and got to you as soon as I could but I wasn’t in pain. I’m really sorry about that. I’ll be there sooner tomorrow.”
“It’s ok. I think it’ll be better tomorrow now that I understand what’s going on.”
“So, that’s what you wanted to ask me?” he asked and looked unconvinced.
“Not all of it. I…” I so didn’t want to say the words.
Then a thought hit me. He could read my thoughts earlier, my actual thought. I decided to try it again. I thought about how I feel when he touches me. How I feel calm and collected and have no worries. I wondered if he felt that way with me. If my touch calms him and makes him feel better like his does me. Like a balm to soothe and comfort.
I pushed my thoughts to him and watched his face to see if he heard me. He looked at me expectantly and then his mouth opened. He looked shocked and surprised. He smiled and laughed.
“You did that all by yourself. I wasn’t even trying to read you!” I smiled, too, enjoying his happiness as he moved to stand in front of me. “Wow. You are amazing, you know that? You’re constantly surprising me. But even with that, I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.” I stood listening and looking at him in complete agreement of what he was saying and complete awe at how we seemed to always be feeling the same thing. Then he pushed my hair behind my ear as he stepped a little closer. “And to answer your question, yes. Every time I touch you, it’s like a switch is flipped. I do touch you a lot when I feel your anxiety, but I do it for me, too. It’s like everything that was wrong is right and it’ll all be fine if I can just touch you again. It takes everything away that I don’t want to feel. I could touch you all day long.” And as to demonstrate, he let his fingertips coast down my cheek. “I can’t believe I only met you yesterday.”
“Me either,” I breathed and then sighed. “And you won’t see me tomorrow if we don’t get me home before midnight.”
“Right. Yeah, let’s get going,” he said hurriedly, not liking the outcome of that.
He put on our helmets and climbed on, then I hopped on behind him.
“Hang on, gorgeous. I’m not taking it easy on you this time,” he said. My heart flipped and I heard him laugh through the helmet.
Whether it was because he could hear my thought or he could feel my excitement through my heartbeat, I didn’t know, but I didn’t care.
“Ok.”
“You trust me?” he asked as he cranked it up and I gripped him tight around his stomach. I could feel his muscles were hard and bunched through his shirt.
“I trust you.”
We rode in almost silence the way home, except for the occasional squeal from me. I let him ride as fast and as crazy as he wanted to. I was scared sometimes, especially on the curves where we leaned the bike into them, but I was having just as much fun, too. I’d laugh and I’d hear him laughing too, through the helmet mics. He’d reach up and grip my hand or sometimes he’d reach back and rub my knee to soothe me and I felt instantly calm yet excited at his touch at the same time.
We pulled up in front of my house with twenty three minutes to spare. I got off and handed him his helmet and jacket. He took his helmet off too and we stood by the bike for a minute as I thanked him again for dinner and he thanked me for going.I wondered again if he was going to try to kiss me.
“All right, I better let you go. I’ll be here first thing in the morning.”
“Ok. I’ll see you then.”
I started to go, but he stopped me by grabbing my hand.
“Maggie, I just need one more thing.” He pulled me close and I knew this was it, he was going to kiss me, but he didn’t. He pressed his forehead to mine and his arms went around me. “I just needed to touch you one more time,” he confessed softly. He kissed my cheek and ran his hand down my arm. “You’re really soft,” he said too quietly, more to himself.
“Thanks,” I muttered breathlessly and lamely.
“Bye, Maggie.”
“Bye,” I said, but couldn’t take a step to go. “Caleb.”
He glanced at me. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “It’ll get easier, I promise. Maggie, I want you to go inside and get some sleep. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll see you in the morning, I promise. And I can’t wait.”