Page 54 of Loathing Ryan
When we made it to the Jeep, she crawled into the passenger seat, and then covered her face with her hands. “Gosh, I’m so sorry about that. I’m so embarrassed.”
I laughed as I pulled out of her driveway. “Why? He was just being a good dad.”
“Still, it wasmortifying,” she muttered.
“Nah,” I said with a grin. “I thought it was cute.”
She made a strangled noise from her seat, and then reached over to turn my music up. I chuckled again, steering the car in the direction of the park.As we drove, my hand slid over the console to rest on her thigh. I glanced over to see her beaming at me, her blue eyes sparkling. She leaned over and pressed a kiss to my cheek. With that, I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face.
We stopped at a fast-food restaurant on the way, ordering ourselves some burgers, French fries, and drinks. When we made it to the park, we found a picnic table to sit at and dug into our food.
Izabel unwrapped her burger, not hesitating before taking a massive bite out of it. I watched her in amusement as she nodded appreciatively at her food. As if she could sense me watching her, she looked up and gave me a tight smile.
“Better than fish, huh?” I teased her.
She swallowed her food and then nodded fervently. “A million times better. I don’t think I will ever eat fish again.”
“Right with you on that one,” I agreed, grabbing a small handful of fries and stuffing them in my mouth.
She took another bite and then set her burger down. After she swallowed that bite, she gave me a quizzical look. “So, is everything okay?”
I clenched my jaw, but then nodded. I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. “Yeah, Bells. I just wanted to spend the evening with you.”
She eyed me like she knew I wasn’t being entirely truthful, but she didn’t press the matter. When we finished eating, we pitched our trash and decided to go for a walk around the park. As soon as we hit the pathway, I grabbed her hand, threading our fingers together. There was just something that felt right, being with Bells on a summer night like this. We had grown so accustomed to being together that spending time apart now felt like a part of me was missing.
It was a little extreme, I was aware. Even though being stuck out in the woods was a significant event for us, it was still only about a week of our lives—and yet it felt like so much more.
A knot of unease settled in my stomach when I thought about the fact that there would be far more distance than a fifteen-minute car ride between us at the end of the summer. With me going to Germany and Izabel going to Princeton, I still really wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
Honestly, I wasn’t ready to think about that yet, so I squashed it down deep inside of me for later. Right now, all I wanted to do was soak up as much time with her as I could.
We wandered around the park for a while until we finally stopped at the playground. I let go of her hand and jogged over to the swings. Izabel watched me in amusement as I settled in one and then kicked off.
She followed my lead, taking the one next to me and swinging up into the sky herself. We joked and teased each other for a while, even going as far as having a competition to see who could go the highest. I let her win if anyone was asking.
“Are you excited to see Jules again?” I asked after a while, rocking back and forth on the seat of my swing.
“I am,” she responded. “Hopefully, she’s not too upset that I bailed on her for the last few days of camp.”
“Not like there was anything we could do about it,” I said. We had pretty much been escorted right out of Camp Wildwood the minute we arrived back. The guys had been blowing up my phone ever since, texting and asking questions when they could in an attempt to get the full story. I had no doubt Juliet was doing the same to Izabel. Now, they’d be back in just a few days, right before graduation.
“I can’t believe we graduate this weekend,” Bells said, as if she could read my mind. She was rocking gently on her swing, the side of her head resting against the chain. I worried for a second she might get her hair caught in it, but she didn’t seem that concerned.
“Are you sad?” I asked.
She pursed her lips to the side, but then shook her head. “No, I don’t thinksadis the right word. I guess maybe heartsick is a better way to describe it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Like I know everything we have is about to end, and I guess I’m missing it already.”
I frowned and looked down at the gravel, kicking it with my shoe. I still wasn’t ready to have this conversation. It was too soon. If we talked about it, then that would make everything real. “Everything will be okay,” I told her instead, taking the optimistic route.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course, it will. But you know what I mean? It’s like starting the last chapter of your favorite book. You know it’s going to end, and you want to know how everything works out, but it’s still a little disheartening knowing everything’s coming to a close.”
“Maybe just don’t read the last chapter then,” I teased, shooting her a wink.
She rolled her eyes even harder, if that were possible. “I could never.”
