Page 162 of One More Kiss
I hugged my mom from the back seat, “I love you. It’s the least I could do.”
“I love you too,” my mom replied, then we exited the van.
As soon as I closed the van’s door behind me, I heard a noise and looked up. There, sitting with my dad on the porch swing was Phoenix. What in the hell was he doing at my house? Well, we’ve been hanging out almost every day. I wasn’t sure why I would think he wouldn’t show up today. I hurried and hid my dress behind my back, hoping he didn’t see it. My mom saw my movements, slid beside me and grabbed the dress.
“I’ll put this on your bed,” she said, smiling. “Hi, Phoenix.”
Phoenix replied, “Hi, Mrs. Ellen. I brought some homemade chocolate cookies. It’s my grandmother’s recipe. Mr. Felix put them in the kitchen. I hope you like them.”
I’ve never seen my mom blush before, but she did when talking to Phoenix. I guessed the way to her heart was food, and it was working.
“Awe. I appreciate it, tell your grandmother we’d love to meet her,” Mom said, still hiding the dress behind her back.
Phoenix smiled. “I’ll be sure to tell her.”
“Well, I’d love to sit and chat, but I have some things to clean in the house. Felix, why don’t you come inside and give them some quiet time,” Mom said, indicating for my dad to follow her.
He grunted, but still followed, “I’ll talk to you later.”
My dad wasn’t known to say much, so it was surprising that he was sitting next to Phoenix on the swing. I wondered what they talked about but thought better of asking. Maybe he was trying to get close to Phoenix considering he knew that I liked him a lot. Almost every day so far, he visited, and I still couldn’t get enough of seeing his beautiful hazel eyes, or his handsome smooth face.
“Hey,” I said. I felt like a shy girl who didn’t know how to talk to a boy. It was almost embarrassing.
Phoenix leaned forward, grabbed my hand, before motioning for me to sit on the swing with him. “Hey yourself. Your dad told me you and your mom went shopping.”
“How long were you here?” I asked, concerned that I made him wait on me.
Phoenix responded, “Not long actually. But I’m glad I had the chance to talk to your dad. I asked him if I could bring you on a date to a restaurant this week, and he said yes. It looks like all that food I’ve been bringing over is working. He might be starting to like me.”
I laughed and wiped a tear from the corner of my eye. “I knew that’s why you brought the food. You are by far a clever demon. Do you know that no one else has thought of ever doing that? You’re actually the first.”
Phoenix chuckled. “Am I? Well, I don’t plan on ever stopping, and since you’re officially my girlfriend, I have to feed your parents too.”
I froze beside Phoenix as he continued to move the swing forward and backward. It’s official, the label was there. Deep down I knew what we were, but we’ve never placed a word to our relationship. I should be terrified of the situation, but I wasn’t. It felt right, like Phoenix and I were meant to be together. I shivered from the slight breeze that all-of-a-sudden blew.
“Here, put my coat on,” he offered, taking it off and placing it around my shoulders.
It was a certain material that mimicked leather. The arms had red flames and it was warm and cozy on the inside. The jacket smelled of Phoenix, I wanted to keep it and smell it all day and night. Yep. I was clearly a weirdo, but I didn’t care. I was over the moon for him.
“Thanks,” I said, holding the coat tighter. “So, I guess that’s it. We’re dating now?”
Phoenix smiled. His face brightened from my question. “Do you think we’re not? We’ve been seeing each other for a while. At least I feel like we’re closer.”
My lips couldn’t seem to lift any higher as I smiled at him. “Yeah. I guess we are.”
I leaned into his side, and we continued rocking talking about all sorts of things, except for the one important subject, boot camp. Where did we go from here? I guessed it was still too soon to broach the topic and so I let it be, enjoying the way Phoenix held me.
Eventually, day turned into night, and it was time for him to leave. But not without a promise to pick me up for a date. One that wasn’t classy, but down to earth.
