Page 54 of Silent Count
“Sure, a bottle of water is good.” I place two chicken breasts on his plate, then scoop some of the couscous and veggies onto the plate. I walk over to the table and set his plate down on a place mat in front of him. Then I plate my food and stop to grab us forks and knives before I sit down.
“Thank you, Chelsea. This looks amazing.” He reaches for my hand, and I take it.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re here. Now let’s eat before you faint from starvation.” I wink at him.
“I think I’ll be fine, but I want to eat so I can get back to kissing on you.” He releases my hand, picks up his fork and knife, then stabs into his chicken and cuts it up into neat squares, but looks up at me and smiles.
That smile of his does things to me. I feel a flutter in my belly when I think about what we just did, and I can’t wait to do it again. “Yes, let’s do more of that.”
I cut into my own chicken and take a bite. He’s watching me eat while he eats.
“So, Chelsea, tell. me about that tattoo I saw on your arm.” He points his fork in my direction.
I turn my arm to the side to give him a better look. “This is Lady Justice.” It’s not huge, but it’s big enough to cover my shoulder and halfway down my arm. “As soon as I turned eighteen, I went and got this tattoo. My aunt nearly killed me herself when she saw it. Not really because of it, but more so because of how big it was.”
“Aha. That makes sense with you wanting to be a lawyer.” He nods.
That’s only a slice of why I got it, but I’m not ready to dive into my whole story. However, I can’t help but hear my aunt’s words in my head, telling me to be open to having someone to share things with. And I think Bo could be that person. Still, I don’t think I can tell him everything right now.
“Yep. Plus, the sword looked badass, so it was a win all around.” I smile at him.
We make small talk as we finish eating. He tells me more about the upcoming season and games he’s looking forward to. I tell him a little about the classes I’m taking. We clean up the kitchen together, and then he leads me over to the couch.
I sit down, and he sits down close to me, stretching his arm along the back of the couch.
“Want to watch a movie or something?” I ask him as I pick up the remote. “Or are you gonna head home soon?”
He shifts and angles his body to look at me. “I would love to stay if you’ll let me. I’m definitely not ready to go home yet.” His fingers play with a few loose strands of my hair.
I set my hand closest to him on his thigh. “I would like that. So, should we watch something?”
“Would you be annoyed if I said I wanted to catchSportsCenter? I just like to see what they’re saying.” He lifts a shoulder.
“Yeah, totally fine with me.” I hand him the remote. “Here, you can find it.”
“Thanks. I still want to talk to you though. I want to know more about you and things you like.” He finds the channel he wants, then sets the remote down on the coffee table in front of us.
“Okay, but you have to answer my questions too then.” I hold out my hand. “Deal?”
Bo takes my hand in his. “Deal.” He raises them and places a kiss on the back of my hand. “Let’s start with the basics. What’s your favorite color?”
“Umm … probably orange.” I tilt my head. “Yeah, orange.”
“Orange? Really? I would not have guessed that. Why orange?” His thumb traces circles over the top of my hand.
I shrug. “I think because it reminds me of a sunset at home. I love when the yellows, pinks, blues, and the oranges of the sun all blend together when the sun goes down. It just feels magical, you know? Like you’ve made it through the day and it’s time to just chill and get ready for a new one.”
“I like that. We have some pretty great sunsets in California too. The Oklahoma sky isn’t so bad either. But it’s not the daylight or dusk I love. It’s the dead of night. Did you ever notice how big the sky seems here?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy, right? I thought it was just me. That was one of the first things I noticed when I moved here for school. I would sit outside my dorm room and just look up at the sky at night. It seems like the stars are never-ending. And so bright.” I smile, thinking about how free I felt the first time I lay on the grass outside my dorm. The peace it brought me.
“I sit outside sometimes at night, looking at the stars. It almost feels like we’re in a planetarium or something,” he says, laughing.
I nod exaggeratedly. “It really does. That’s a perfect comparison.”
There’s a flutter in my stomach—a deep, swoopy feeling that’s somehow grounding and dizzying at the same time. It’s ridiculous really. One minute, he’s making me laugh, and the next, he says something about stars, and I swear my heart just … flips. Like my body knows I’m falling before my brain’s even caught up.
“Okay, so Chelsea from Florida has a tattoo and likes the color orange and the Oklahoma sky. What’s your favorite candy?” He reaches over and pulls my legs over the top of his.
