Page 60 of Loathing Ryan
“Here, I brought this along,” I said as I reached into the back of my Jeep for the fluffy blanket. Izabel’s eyes lit up when she saw it, and I grinned. “Thought we could do some romantic stargazing on this lovely summer evening.”
She rolled her eyes and shoved me. “You’re funny.”
I laughed. “What? I thought it was a good idea.”
She just rolled her eyes again but grabbed our ice creams and followed me out of the Jeep and over to the field. I spread out the blanket for us to sit on and then crawled right into the middle. She followed after me, sitting close as she handed over my ice cream.
Popping the top off, I took a big spoonful of my cookie crumble, and she did the same with her hot fudge sundae.
There wasn’t a whole lot going on at the park this evening. Most of the families were starting to taper off now that the sun was setting, which was fine with me. The cicadas were singing, creating a nice background buzz and enunciating the summer evening. As they sang their song, it reminded me of our time back at that cabin, and I smiled to myself, reminiscing on some of the good memories I had.
I finished off my ice cream and then leaned back on the blanket with a satisfied groan. The stars were just barely poking out in the sky, and I started counting them as Bells finished her dessert. Recalling our time in the cabin, I said, “Tell me something I don’t know, Bells.”
This was my favorite game to play with her. The things that would come out of her mouth were unexpected and entertaining. Izabel loved her history books, and I seemed to love anything she loved. Maybe it was the way her eyes would light up whenever she shared a fact that she thought was interesting or the curve of her lips as she told me about it. All I knew was that I could spend hours picking this girl’s brain just to hear her talk.
I felt her start to get excited as she thought about it. Her fingers drummed against her inner thigh, slightly drawing my mind off our game and onto morephysicalthings. “Historians discovered a lot of human remains in Benjamin Franklin’s basement. They think it was because he taught anatomy lessons.”
“Benjamin Franklin again, huh?” I questioned.
She shrugged, giving me a sheepish grin. “I just finished a biography about him.”
“Huh, well, that’s creepy.”
Izabel laughed and shoved me. “You’re creepy.” I stuck my tongue out at her.
We fell silent again. I sat up so I could be closer to her, still leaning my head back to look up at the sky. Izabel gave a small laugh.
“What’s funny?” I asked her.
“Who would have ever thought that we’d be here? Just a few weeks ago, I wanted to throttle you. Now we’re sitting all cozy-like on a blanket, looking at the stars.”
I laughed too. “Do you wish things were back to the way they were?”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. I love what we have now.”
I looked down and slid my hand against Izabel’s cheek, pulling her lips to mine and pushing my tongue against hers. She tasted like vanilla. Even still, she was intoxicating. She moaned against my lips and threaded her fingers into my hair, pulling me closer. Leaning her back against the couch, I pressed my weight into hers. I loved the way she felt against me. I was bigger than her, but somehow, when we were flush against each other like this, we fit perfectly.
I could feel myself starting to harden. I knew where this was leading. So did she. Izabel swung one of her legs around my waist, maneuvering herself until she was sitting in my lap.
“Izabel,” I whispered.
She pulled away and stared at me with a loving look in her eyes before leaning up and capturing my lips again. “Yeah?” she asked, bringing her eyes up to meet mine. They sparkled in the moonlight as she brought a spoonful of ice cream up to her lips.
My throat was tight, but I knew I had to say this. We only had a few more weeks together before we’d go our separate ways into the next chapter of our lives. “I love you.”
Those blue eyes widened. “What?”
I wrapped my arms around her hips. “I love you, Izabel Sanders. Even though you’re a little know-it-all nerd who drives me absolutely nuts sometimes.”
That got a small chuckle out of her, but still, she looked surprised. “You love me?”
I nodded and slowly leaned forward, pressing my lips to hers. My hand cupped the back of her neck, and she whimpered into my mouth. When I pulled away from her, she licked her swollen lips and gazed up at me.
“I love you, Bells, more than I ever thought was possible.”
“I never thought I’d hear you say that,” she whispered. “Nor would I have ever thought I’d want to hear them.
“I know we only have a short time left together, but I wanted to make sure you knew that. I’m absolutely fucking crazy about you, Bells. I’ve never felt the way I do when you’re around.
