When something wet seeped through the front of my shirt, I realized Jolene was crying silently.
“Jeremy couldn’t even nut up enough to help me get her out of the tub. All he kept saying was that maybe we should call Dad. He didn’t understand or wouldn’t understand that Dad had moved out to get away from exactly that kind of thing. Calling wasn’t going to help, but he did it anyway, and my dad moved back home. For a month.
“When he moved out the second time, Jeremy and I got packed up with the rest of his stuff. Here. Every other weekend.”
Jolene
On Sunday, I chewed on my lip and watched Adam open my gift. Of course, he would be the kind of person who carefully peeled off the tape and literally unwrapped the gift instead of tearing into it.
We had decided to exchange Christmas gifts early, because we weren’t going to see each other on December 25. At this rate the weekend would be over before his was half-opened.
“Adam,” I said, trying not to grit my teeth as he unfolded one end of the box and then turned his attention to the other side. “It’s gonna die before you get it out of the box.”
Adam paused his surgical gift unwrapping and stared at me. “You better be talking about a plant.”
I grinned at him, putting the gap between my front teeth on full display. He always seemed to like that. “It’s not a plant, but seriously.” I nodded at the gift. “Before we’re dead.”
Eyeing me, Adam carefully slid his thumb under a taped edge.
“Oh my gosh, just give it to me.” I lunged for the gift but all Adam had to do was raise his arms above his head and I couldn’t get to it.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?” He kept leaning one way or another to avoid my leaping grabs.
“What do you—” I made another attempt and failed “—think?”
Adam took pity on me, and I didn’t even mind, because he finally ripped off the rest of the wrapping paper and let it fall to the ground of the top-floor stairway. And then he was holding it. For some reason, I felt like looking away when he lifted the lid.
It wasn’t a huge deal. It hadn’t even cost me anything, but I was nervous and I desperately wanted him to like it.
The flash drive spilled onto his palm, and I pushed my laptop toward him.
“What is it?” he asked, but with a kind of wonder and anticipation that made me take a step back as soon as he opened the laptop.
“Just...” I nodded at the computer.
He inserted the drive, and then his eyes widened. Tugging at my braid, I watched him smile, softly at first. “Jo, did you—” He pointed at the screen but I shushed him.
“Just watch.”
And he did; we both did. He watched the movie I’d made, and I watched him.
His smiles—there were a lot of those, and laughs that seemed to catch him unaware—gave me the courage to draw closer to him instead of backing away. Even the moments when his smile dimmed, his eyes never did.
I was still staring at his face several minutes later when he looked up at me.
“You made that.”
“What gave it away, my name or—” I broke off when I felt his hand slide into mine, fingers threading together.
True, I’d held his hand before and leaped on his back a time or two, but those were always moments that I’d initiated and he’d just sort of...gone with.
This time it was all him. His warm skin against mine, the gentle squeeze that I somehow felt in my heart. I could swear I even felt his pulse echoing the rapid beat of my own.
“It’s still a rough cut but...you like it?” I asked, in a voice that almost came out timid except I knew my body wasn’t capable of being timid.
Adam’s hand increased its pressure and sent tingling waves rippling through me. “It’s the best thing anyone ever gave me.”
I told myself that he was just being nice, kind in the way he always was without even trying, but his hand and his eyes and his voice all said it was more than that.
