“I won’t.”
Chapter Seventeen
The next week flies by for both of us. I was up to my eyeballs in quizzes, lesson plans, and taking care of Reese, who was so done with her protective brother hovering around her. Maya was just as overwhelmed, spending every last second prepping the library for the grand opening today.
And it wasn’t just her working on it, but the whole town pitched in, offering their services or contributing a donation. Even her social media fundraiser brought in more money than either of us expected and earned a little over six thousand dollars. It allowed her to purchase all new children’s books and fund the new community programs—starting with something called Book Bingo. Whatever that is.
In addition to all the excitement of the opening, tonight will also be our rain check for our first date... which hopefully will lead to our first kiss.
I arrive at her door thirty minutes early, just to be safe, and sit in one of the porch chairs to wait. But before I can get comfortable, she opens the door and leans on the doorjamb.
“You’re supposed to knock on the door.”
“I was waiting here so you didn’t feel rushed.”
Maya slips through the opening wearing a sleeveless floral top and my new favorite jeans that hug her curves.
“Mind if I join you?” She sits in the chair next to me. Her curly hair fights the constraints of her braids, little flyaways poking out here and there.
“Nervous about the opening?” I ask, taking her hand in mine. “Or were you worried I wasn’t going to show?”
Her liquid brown eyes lock on me. “No, Des. I trust you. And really, I think I owe you an apology.”
“Oh, I don’t need?—”
“You do. I’ve been letting Felipe’s choices ripple over to you when you’ve done nothing to deserve that doubt. You’ve been only wonderful to me. So patient and supportive while you wait for me to leap over these emotional hurdles. And through it all, you’ve never rushed me or pressured me when I wasn’t ready, despite the fact you were.” She squeezes my hand. “And while last weekend was a bit of a rollercoaster, it made me realize that I care about you more than I had even let myself realize. We don’t need to go on a date for me to know that I love you, Des. Because I do—more than I thought possible. And the longer I’m around you, the deeper those feelings grow. I’ve never been so happy to have broken down on the side of the road.”
Relief flows through me as I soak up her words. I lift her fingers to my lips and press a tender kiss to her knuckles. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say that.”
She turns to me, biting her lip. “And I don’t want you to feel obligated to say it because I did.”
Leaping out of my seat, I kneel by her feet, clutching her hand to my heart. “Do you feel that? It’s been beating for you since the moment you dropped cookies off in my classroom and I chased you down the hall. I knew I needed you then just like I need you now. I love you, Maya. Before I met you, I never had a desire to be in a relationship. Now it’s all I can think about when I’m around you. You consume my thoughts. Where the noise and chaos of the world force me into my shell, you are the only one who knows how to coax me out.”
With a nervous smile, she stands and tugs me to my feet. It takes all my control to let her lead and not yank her mouth to mine to finally kiss her the way I’ve been aching to these last few weeks.
“Des, I know we?—”
Her phone rings in her pocket and she looks down, confused at the interruption.
“Answer it,” I say. “It’s your big day today. It could be important.”
“You are more important,” she says, placing a hand on my cheek. “For once, they can wait.”
I lean into it, enjoying the smooth feeling of her palm on my skin. It’s tender moments like this I will miss. The quiet times where we don’t speak yet we say all the things at the same time. Like our hearts are connected on a string... one I hope won’t break when she returns to Golden tomorrow.
“I wish you weren’t leaving tomorrow,” I choke out, another wave of sadness hitting me at the thought of not seeing her every day.
She flinches at the reminder. “We promised not to talk about that today. Fun things only.”
But she can’t hide her trembling lip or the glaze of tears forming in her eyes. Her alarm goes off on her phone, and she yanks it out of her pocket to silence it.
“All this chatting, and now we might actually be late,” Maya says, shaking her head at me. “Only you can make me lose track of time.”
I turn my face into her hand and kiss her palm, watching as the shadow of sadness melts away from her features. For a moment, I wonder what would have happened if I had kissed her lips instead. I hesitate for a second too long, and she pulls away, walking over to my motorcycle to head into town.
Main Street is the worst I’ve ever seen it, forcing us to do three laps around the block, including passing through all the side streets, to find a parking spot. I don’t think I’ve seen the church parking lot this full besides Christmas and Easter.
“I’ll just drop you off out front so you won’t be late,” I say through the comm.