Our Song (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Becca

“Becca…Can I sleep with you?”

What?!
Is he crazy? “Excuse me?”

Asher’s face is very serious, so I know he’s not joking. “I swear on all that is holy, there won’t be any funny business. We made the same promise, and it’s just as important to me that I keep my promise as I’m sure it is to you.” He takes a deep breath and rubs the back of his neck. “But I just can’t give up the opportunity to spend the night holding you, not having to worry about anyone else barging in on us and coming to the wrong conclusions. When we go home on Tuesday morning, it’s going to be a long time before we are going to be able to spend hours and days on end with each other: you’ll have volleyball practices, I’ll be in the workroom editing the back-to-school edition of the school newspaper, and class starts in two weeks.” Asher takes both of my hands in his, and gives them a gentle squeeze. “I don’t want to waste a single second of the time we have this week.”

I look into the depths of his ocean blue eyes, and I can tell he means every word he just said. And it’s not that I don’t want to say yes.
Do I ever want to say yes!
But I’m worried now that there’s no one else here, and I’m not crying on his shoulder, if anything even remotely started, we wouldn’t be able to stop. But maybe there’s a way to make myself feel a little more secure. “On one condition.”

Asher sighs a breath of relief. “Anything.”

I take a deep breath. “If I start to feel like we might be heading to a place where I won’t stop, you will get out of my bed.”

“Absolutely,” Asher says, without hesitation. He lets go of my left hand to put up his right three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

I start to giggle, and then we’re both laughing, releasing the tension of the moment before. “Get over here,” I say as I pull Asher toward me. I wrap my arms around his neck, reaching on my toes to kiss him.

-----

Asher

When her lips meet mine, I wrap my arms around her back and pick Becca up off the floor. She pulls those delicious lips away to squeal. Having no other way to hang on, she wraps her legs around my torso, clinging to me like a monkey.

“Where are you taking me, Asher? Put me down!”

I chuckle and say, “I have an idea.”

I walk us to the game room, and sit down on the love seat with Becca on my lap. “Let’s get some of the kissing, etc. out of our system here, sitting upright, before we go to bed. That way there can literally be no funny business when get under the covers.”

Becca’s blush is gorgeous, along with her shy smile, and that’s all the invitation I need. I lean in and kiss her forehead, and Becca giggles. Then I kiss both cheeks, her nose, finally making my way to her lips.

Becca runs her fingers up my neck, and into my hair, leaning into me. Everywhere her body is touching mine, electricity pulses across my skin. And her body is touching mine in
a lot
of places.

***

I lift the covers on the bed so Becca can climb in first. “After you, m’lady.” She scoots in, laying on her side, facing the wall. I’m pretty sure she’s still a little nervous about this, because she’s using her thumb to spin her purity ring around her finger again. I slide in behind her and pull the covers up over both of us. I reach over her and grab her left hand with mine, twining our fingers together, resting them on her belly. I tuck my other arm under her neck, and Becca tucks herself in close to me, her back against my stomach. As she’s settling against me, I can feel all the blood in my body rushing in a southerly direction.
Think about something else!

1, H, hydrogen. 2, He, helium. 3, Li, lithium. 4, Be—

“Asher?”

“Yeah?”

“I—I…goodnight.” She sighs, and I can’t help but think she had something much different than
goodnight
to say.

“Babe, what were you going to say?”

“Nothing. Just goodnight.”

“Rebecca Grace Haines, tell me right now what you were going to say before you decided to
just say goodnight.
”

She sighs again, and rolls over to face me. “Well, if I have to.”

“I’m not going to let you sleep until you tell me.”

“I just…I don’t want you to freak out.”

“Nothing you could say to me right now would freak me out. Well, as long as you aren’t about to tell me that you’re really one of The Doctor’s companions, and you’ve traveled through all of time and space to be here, and you’re not sure you want to stay.”

“Oh, shut up,” she says, sticking her tongue out at me. “That’s not at all what I was going to say. I was going,” she stops to take a deep breath. “I was gonna say that, well…” Then she spits it out so fast I almost don’t catch it, “Iloveyou.”

Wow. I’m in shock. I can’t believe she’s already comfortable enough to say that to me.

Becca pulls her hands up and rubs her eyes. “See, I told you that you were going to freak out.”

But I pull her hands away from her face and smile down at her. “I’m not freaked out. Surprised, yes. But not freaked out in the least. I love you, too, Becca. I have for a long time, if I’m being honest. And now that we’ve gotten up the nerve to say it the first time, I’ll be reminding you. Often.”

She smiles at me, and kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For loving me, even though I’m a mess. And for not embarrassing me when I finally fessed up to my feelings.”

“There’s no need to thank me. Just get a good night’s sleep.”

She rolls back over, resuming our previous position. “Goodnight, for real this time.”

I lean forward and kiss her hair. “Goodnight, sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

“But if they do, grab your shoe, and beat ‘em ‘til they’re black and blue.”

This is going to be a long night.

4, Be, beryllium. 5, B, boron. 6, C, carbon. 7, N…

Chapter Twenty-Two

Becca

“It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a sunrise.” I rest my head against Asher’s shoulder, breathing deep his cedar scent. I take another drink of my hot cocoa to try and warm up a bit, but it makes me shiver instead.

Asher sets his mug down on the dock, holds my left hand in his, and wraps his right arm around my shoulders, rubbing his hand up and down my arm, helping to warm me back up.

“It’s my favorite time of day. But I think this is my favorite sunrise ever.”

“Why’s that?”

I can hear the smile in his voice when he says, “Because I’m watching it with the most beautiful, amazing girl in the world. And she’s mine.”

I turn my face up toward his, leaning in for a kiss, when I hear faint whistling. And it’s a tune I know all too well.

I pull away from Asher, looking frantically back behind us toward the cabin, knowing he’s here somewhere.

“Becca? What’s wrong?”

At first, I can't move. I hear another line of "Run for Your Life" being whistled, and I turn back toward the water.

“Asher,” I say as quietly and urgently as I can, “I want you to stay here, facing this way. Take out your cell phone, quietly call 911, then call one of our parents’ cell phones and tell them to get back to the cabin.” I stand up and start walking down the dock, but Asher grabs me around the thigh before I can get away from him.

“What do you mean, stay here and face this way? What's going on?"

The whistling gets louder, and Asher shoots to his feet. "What is --" he stops mid-question, and I can see he's finally figured it out.

Wrapping his arms around me, Asher whispers in my ear, "If he’s here, I want to protect you from him. You stay right here, make those phone calls, and I will go find him.”

I take a deep breath, knowing this is going to be hard for him to understand. “Asher. This is something I have to do on my own. I’m glad you want to protect me. Really, I am. But I need to be the hero of my own story.” I stand on my tip-toes and give him a quick kiss, then gently pull out of his embrace.

I hear him grumble under his breath, something about if anything happens to me, but I try to ignore it. I say extra loud, “I’m just going to run and grab a book. Then we can head out on the water.” It seems like a legitimate excuse, since everyone present knows I’m a huge reader.

“I’ll be here, waiting,” Asher replies, though I can hear the warning in his voice. If he even remotely thinks I can’t handle whatever happens next, he will be right there to jump in.

When I’m about halfway up the dock, I hear the next line of the song, whistled even louder this time. It is really scaring me that I can’t see him. There aren’t a whole lot of places for a person to hide between here and the cabin. My pace slows significantly, but I force myself to keep moving forward, as if nothing is wrong.

Then Trip sings aloud the last line of the chorus.

I hear Asher walk up behind me, but without looking at him, I put my hand behind my back and point toward the boat. He’ll be a little bit closer to me, but I just said we would be going out on the water, so it shouldn’t seem like a protective move. That would only fuel Trip’s fire.

Just when I think I can’t handle not knowing where he is, Trip jumps down out of the giant ash tree, the only thing standing between me and the cabin. I stop cold, wanting to keep enough distance between us to run if I have to.

“Bet you didn’t expect to see me here, did you, babe?” Just hearing his voice gives me the shivers.

Blech.
Did he seriously just call me babe? I take a deep breath.
You can do this, Becca.
“Actually, I’m really not all that surprised,” I say, hoping it might shake him off his game a little.

“Is that so? Well, have you figured out how I found you, yet?”

“I don’t really care how you found me. But I suggest you leave. Didn’t your parents get a hold of you? I have a temporary restraining order against you, that says you can’t have any contact with me, in any way, shape, or form.” I hope I sound a heck of a lot braver than I am feeling right now.

“Babe, I am here to change your mind about that, and a few other things.”

“Stop calling me babe. I’m sorry you think I need to change my mind about anything, but you don’t need to do anything. I am quite happy with the choices I have made. And quite frankly, making sure you can’t touch me, or talk to me, is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I am not interested in hearing anything you have to say. The only thing I’m interested in, that has to do with you, is you leaving, and never trying to contact me again. Ever.”

“Becca, why can’t you understand? I love you! I want you. I know what’s best for you. And
I
am what’s best for you.”

“Trip. Either you don’t really know what love is, or you never really knew me at all. Maybe both. You keep trying—”

“I
do
know you, and I
do
love you! How can you not see that? I keep trying to tell you. We belong together. You belong at UW next year, with me. Your ACT scores were amazing, so you’ll have no problem getting in. We can even get an apartment togeth—”

“No.”

“What do you mean,
no
?”

“I mean
no
. I will not be going to UW with you next year. I will not be going
anywhere
with you. You say you love me, yet you told me that what I want to do for the rest of my life is stupid. You don’t tear down the people you love, Trip. You build them up. I tried to do that for you, but you have never once done that for me.”

“But that’s exactly—”

“Just stop. I don’t want to hear another word. Please, just leave Trip.”

Trip claps his hands together, and rubs them like he’s washing his hands. “Well, if that’s really what you want, I guess I’ll go.”

My jaw drops open. It can’t really be that easy, can it? Hesitantly, I respond, nodding my head slowly. “Yes, that’s what I really want.”

He casually drops his hands back down to his sides before saying, “Alright. But before I leave, just one more thing.” He starts walking toward me, instead of away, and I immediately begin shuffling backwards, toward the water, but never taking my eyes off of him.

All of a sudden, I hear footsteps coming up the dock, and I’m terrified that Asher is about to try and get in between Trip and I.

I start to look behind me, but then I hear something that I had hoped to never hear outside a gun range. “I’d stop right there if I were you Asher.” When my eyes focus back on Trip, he’s holding a semi-automatic, safety off. But it’s not pointed at Asher. It’s pointed at me.

I really hope that Asher already called the police. But in case he didn’t, I’m going to have to figure something out, and fast. Nobody needs to be shot today. Not even Trip.

“Trip.” I change my stance as he looks back at me, putting one foot slightly farther forward than the other, and moving my hands to make fists in front of my chest. “Put the gun down.”

But he only chuckles, and starts moving towards me. “What are you going to do, Becca? Hit me? Go ahead, I like it when you put up a little fight. I certainly did that last time we were together.”

Thinking about that horrifying day makes my eyes begin to tear up, but I refuse to cry in front of this jerk. He hurt me before, hugely, but I’m not going to let him do it again.

I stand my ground, and when he gets close enough, I throw my right fist out toward him. Which he quickly grabs out of the air before I get my punch in, and he turns me so my back is to his stomach, wrapping his free arm around my shoulders, and pointing the gun at my temple.

“Let go of me!”

He moves his lips to my ear and whispers, “Never.”

I can't stop shaking, my breaths coming faster and faster. My mind is racing through what to do to get out of his grip. So I do the only thing I can think of.

I S.I.N.G.

Elbow to the
solar plexis
, heel Trip’s
instep
, other elbow to his
nose
, and fist to his
groin
, at which point he fully lets go of me, and drops the gun, in order to protect his goods.

Thank you,
Miss Congeniality.

I quickly pick up the gun, pointing it at Trip, who is now on the ground, curled up in the fetal position.

“Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?”

-----

Asher

Well, I didn’t see
that
one coming. As soon as Becca has control of the gun, I run up the dock to her. “Are you okay?”

She doesn’t take her eyes off of Trip as she responds. “I’m fine. Did you happen to make those phone calls?”

“Our parents are on their way back, and the cops should be here any minute.”

Trip’s ear perk up at this. “Cops? I gotta get outta he—”

“Not so fast.” When Trip first showed up here Becca was scared. But now? She’s plain pissed. “I’m the one holding the gun. And you aren’t going anywhere until the cops say you are.”

“You wouldn’t shoot me Becca. You, you…you don’t even know how to use that thing.” Trip looks like he’s about to piss his pants. I kinda wish he would. He deserves it.

I crack a grin at him. “Really, you think she doesn’t know how to use a gun?” I shake my head. “You really don’t know Becca at all.”

Just then, I hear the boat pulling up to the dock. I can’t believe our parents made it back before the cops got here.

“Is anybody hurt?” Becca’s mom shouts as she jumps from the boat onto the dock. She’s running towards us, but Becca has everything well in hand.

“With the exception of Trip’s nuts, I think we’re fine, Amy.” I respond.

Before the rest of our parents can even make it up the dock we hear, “Everybody freeze! Police! Don’t move!”

Finally!
They sure as heck took long enough to get out here! We all put our hands up slowly, out of habit from watching television shows and movies, I suppose.

Two police officers quickly remove the gun from Becca’s hand, then roll Trip over and cuff him. If he wasn’t such a d-bag I would almost feel sorry for him. That had to hurt.

Once Trip’s cuffed, one officer takes him up the lawn, and the other takes Becca aside. To get her statement I suppose, since she had a gun in her hand when they arrived.

A couple minutes later, a third officer walks out to where Becca’s mom and I are standing. “Sir, are you the one who placed the call to the dispatcher?”

“I am.”

“Would you mind answering a few questions about what happened after you placed the call?”

“Whatever you need, officer.”

“I’m assuming the young lady over there next to the suspect is Rebecca? If that’s correct, who is this?”

“This is Amy Haines, Becca’s mother. I called our parents, who were out on a houseboat on the lake after I got off the phone with the 911 dispatcher. And the others down on the dock are the rest of our parents.” They still hadn’t moved since the officers first told everyone to freeze, except to drop their hands again.

The officer pulls out a notepad and pen. “Son, what happened after you got off the phone?”

“Becca asked Trip, repeatedly, to leave, and warned him she had a temporary restraining order against him, but he advanced on her anyway. I was standing on the dock at this point, and tried to move closer to them. He pulled the gun then, pointing it at her so I couldn’t get any closer to her. But, to make a long story short, when I thought I was going to have to find a way to step in to save the day, Becca took care of Trip on her own. And once he was down, she grabbed the gun and pointed it at him so he wouldn’t go anywhere.”

The cop is trying to hide his smile as he takes notes on his little pad of paper. “Well, we’ll need both of you, as well as Becca, to come down to the station before you leave town to write a statement. But I think this case will be pretty cut and dried. Thanks for giving us a call as soon as you knew he was here. Although, it seems, she took pretty good care of all of you.”

That she did.