Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

later. Everyone's eyes follow him as he drops his backpack and leans down to capture my lips. He doesn’t break our kiss as he moves to sit next to me. I lean into him and sigh. He pulls back to look at me, tilting his head to the side to smirk at me.

I bump him with my shoulder, and he offers me a French fry. I open my mouth. As I go to take a bite, he pulls it away, eating it instead. He laughs when I pout and nicely feeds me a fry. He looks around us, tensing when he notices everyone has been watching us.

He chews on the corner of his mouth. "How are you doing?"

"It's weird. People never really noticed me before. I wish they'd stop."

He takes my hand in his and kisses it. "I'm sorry."

I reach out to touch his cheek with my other hand. "Don't apologize. You are amazing."

He leans over to kiss my cheek before feeding me another fry.

~*~

At the end of the day, we walk to his car. He opens my door for me before getting in. Once we're out of the parking lot, his hand rests on my thigh as we drive away. My seat is reclined, and I'm on my side, facing him. It's like I don’t want to take my eyes off of him. I pull his hoodie from the back seat and use it as a pillow. I glance down to his hand as his thumb slowly strokes my leg. I love the freckle on the back of his hand. Feeling impulsive, I pull his hand to my mouth and kiss it. He looks over at me, giving me a lopsided grin. It's still months away, but I cannot imagine how I will function when he goes to Italy. The language CD is going.

He pulls my hand up to his lips. "Bella ragazza. Wanna go get some ice cream?"

I smile, still not believing William Ethan Price asked me to be his girlfriend. As many times as I had imagined this moment, none of my dreams could hold a candle to what it's like. He kissed me in front of the senior class and again in the cafeteria today. Now he is taking me for ice cream, and he just called me beautiful in Italian. He shakes my knee as he pulls into the parking lot. I pop my seat back up and look for my sunglasses. Will walks around to my side of the car, opening my door and wrapping his arms around my waist once I step out. I put my hands around his neck and run my fingers through his hair.

He rubs his nose against mine. "Why didn’t we do this ages ago?"

"You had a girlfriend."

His forehead is pressed to mine. "Why didn’t you ever tell me?"

"Tell you what?" I'm confused.

"That you liked me."

"The whole world likes you. I'm kind of trying to figure out why you like me."

"I've liked you for a long time. That’s probably why Jessica has been such a bitch. She could totally tell I'd rather be with you."

I don’t say anything. I just pull his mouth to mine. He pushes me back, leaning me up against his car.

After a couple moments, he kisses his way up to my ear. "Want to go to my house?"

I pull back, my mouth open. We never go to his house. He hates it over there. Why would he even ask? The idea makes me really nervous, and it's clearly written all over my face.

"My mom is still at work. I thought we could swim in the pool. That way I'm the only one that gets to see you in your bikini."

"Did you still want to get ice cream?"

He gives me a look like, did you really just ask that? Then he kisses me again. The kiss is shorter this time, and holding hands, we walk up together to the parlor. He opens the door for me and comes to stand behind me, his arms around me as we wait to order. There are no other customers in the store, and we both already know what we want. Two scoops of chocolate chip in a chocolate-coated waffle cone for me and one scoop of fudge ripple, one scoop of cherry cordial in a plain waffle cone for Will. We have been coming here together for years and know the owner, Kurt, who is working today.

"You kids finally dating?" he asks, looking at Will's arms around me.

I blush and nod as Will kisses my neck.

"This one is on the house. Think of it as my contribution to young love."

"You don’t have to do that, Kurt," Will argues.

"It's my pleasure, kids."

Taking my cone and passing Will his, I turn back to Kurt. "Thank you so much."

It doesn’t stop Will from slipping a ten into the tip jar. We walk outside and sit at a small bistro table just to the left of the door. It's like we're afraid to let go of each other. His hand holds mine on top of the table as we eat our ice cream. Will finishes his way before I do, as usual. I'm used to him waiting for me to finish mine, but this time it feels more intense. My hand in his, his eyes watching my mouth and each bite and lick I take. I can't meet his eyes as he watches me. I just flush and look away. A bit of ice cream drips down the side, and I move to catch it. Will's breath hitches as my tongue moves up the side of the cone.

I giggle at his expression, and he groans, turning in his chair to face his car. "I can't watch."

"I'm almost done." I grin.

The idea that I can have a physical effect on him seems impossible to me. I can't help it. I giggle again.

"You know you're killing me."

"I'm sorry." But he knows I'm not.

I finish my cone, and we get up to leave.

Will pulls me to