Hold the Forevers

I’d said no at New Year’s. I’d said I wanted to go slow. And yet here, right now, I could go a lot further.

A tap on the window sent us both scrambling. I jerked back across the seat. Ash ran a shaky hand back through his hair as he rolled the window down.

“Afternoon, officer.”

The police woman had her bike propped next to her. She looked us both over with amusement in her eyes. “You kids should probably get home.”

“Yes, of course. We’ll get home right away.”

“This is just a warning.”

“Thank you,” Ash said with a radiant smile.

As soon as she was gone, Ash gunned the engine and pulled back out on the street. I burst into laughter, and he joined me.

“Maybe we should find a better place to make out.”

His eyes were still glazed with lust when he looked at me. “Maybe we should.”

“Or maybe we needed the break,” I said, biting my lip. “I’m not sure I’m ready for more.”

He took my hand again as we parked in front of my house. “We’ll go at your pace. I’m not in a rush with you, Lila.”

I leaned over and kissed him again. “Thank you.”

“No need,” he said as he dragged a finger across my collarbone. “We can take all the time you want. This is forever.”

Forever.

Ash was forever.

9

Savannah

March 30, 2007

Marley rolled her neck. “I pinched something in that last acro section of the dance.”

“Tell me about it.” I cracked my back with a sharp twist. “I really need a massage.”

“Same.”

We were heading out to her minivan when my phone rang in my purse. I fished it out and saw Ash’s number on it. I smiled at Marley and held up a finger.

“Hey! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until later.”

“Can you meet me at the park?” He sounded frantic and maybe even angry. Not at all like himself.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I mean, maybe.”

“Ash, are you driving? Should you pull over?”

“Please meet me at the park,” he all but begged. “Near the fountain entrance?”

“Okay. Yeah, I’ll see if Marley can drop me off. My mom is working tonight. She won’t even notice.”

He breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Then he hung up on me.

Marley’s eyes were round. “Is everything all right?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Do you mind dropping me off at Forsyth?”

“I can do that. It’s not that far out of the way.”

Marley’s grandparents were stricter than my mom had ever been. If she wasn’t home within a certain time frame after dance, she’d be grounded. I didn’t think she’d ever date with how strict they were. They loved her, which was why they cared so much. Sometimes, I wished my mom cared a little bit more. Though at this particular moment, I didn’t mind.

We pulled up to Forsyth Park, the same park Ash and I had gotten interrupted by the cop a couple months earlier. We’d spent an inordinate amount of time together in here since then, meandering the thirty acres, lounging by the fountain, and sitting lazily under the Spanish moss. Tonight, the park was dark. It was open twenty-four hours, but no one ventured in this late at night.

Marley let me out next to the passenger side of Ash’s Mercedes.

He waved at her. “Thanks, Marley.”

“Hope everything is okay,” she said to him.

He nodded unconvincingly.

She drove away, and I sank into the passenger side. “Hey, what’s going on?”

His hands still clenched the steering wheel, his knuckles gone white. “Can we drive for a bit?”

“Should you be driving?”

“Yeah. I’m better because you’re here.”

“Okay.” I bit my lip in worry.

He put the car in drive and pulled away from the park. We drove in silence for a few minutes before he finally spoke, “I told my parents.”

I straightened at that statement, my eyes going wide.

We’d been in a sort of argument about his parents for months. He’d promised back in January that he was going to tell them about me. That he wasn’t hiding me. Then, every day that went by where he didn’t tell his parents felt more and more like he actually was hiding me.

We’d been making plans to go to prom. We hadn’t been going to any of the Holy Cross or St. Catherine’s parties. So prom was a big day in our relationship. It was the next step. The biggest step for me. But I’d been cautious about the whole thing. Not with Ash exactly, but with the possibility that he never would tell his parents.

“They didn’t take it well?” I guessed.

Because of course, they hadn’t. The fantasy in my head was, they discovered their son was dating someone, and they were magically excited. They’d want to meet me and get to know me, and I’d be the daughter they never had.

But no. Of course not.

“You could say that.”