With This Heart Read online

  “ I’m pretty sure they just call it rope?” he answered with a hint of a private smile.

  After hours of wandering around, we stood at the entrance of the flea market with our purchases in hand. We stayed together at first, picking out the most heinous items and containing our laughter until we were far, far away from the vendors. But then when I spotted a gift that I had to purchase for him, I decided we had to split up for a little while so I could surprise him.

  “ Alright, time to see who won,” Beck said, sitting down on a bench just beside the front doors.

  I followed him over and set my bag in my lap. “Who won?”

  “ Yeah, who found the better stuff?”

  “ Ah,” I nodded, and unpeeled the top of my bag to look inside. “I got one thing for you, but it’s not a gift or anything and it definitely doesn’t mean I’m like pining over you. I just knew you had to have them when I saw them.”

  He smirked and opened his bag as well. “Well, that’s okay because I found something for you, too. But mine definitely means I’m pining for you, so you should take it as such.”

  I rolled my eyes playfully and tugged out his gift. “Here,” I said, handing him the tissue-wrapped items.

  “ You shouldn’t have,” he joked before he’d even unwrapped it. I hit my shoulder against his.

  “ Open it, you fool.”

  With a laugh, he tugged off the paper to reveal a pair of ceramic salt and pepper shakers. In the shape of zombies. Really awesomely-realistic zombies. His mouth dropped open as he turned them in his hands.

  “ You win,” he declared with a look of awe. Ceramic zombies will do that to you.

  “ Not fair,” I poked him. “I should get to see what you got me before the winner is declared.” Although I knew there was no way he was going to top my gift.

  “ Okay, here,” he said, shifting the shakers into one hand and handing me a little cardboard jewelry box out of his bag.

  I’d never been given a piece of jewelry before, so when I opened the lid and found an old tarnished locket, I was speechless. The heart locket was tiny, barely half an inch tall. It was made of gold, or fake gold, I couldn’t tell and I didn’t actually care. My eyebrows scrunched together as I felt tears burning the back of my eyelids. I couldn’t cry over something so silly, but there was something deeply personal about the gift.

  Beck was watching me with a steady focus, but I couldn’t meet his gaze. Not yet. I fumbled with the clasp on the side until it gave and then peeled the locket open. Inside, there were two tiny black and white photos. On the left was a young girl with a bow and frilly dress. On the right was a soldier in uniform. They looked to be the same age and I knew they were a couple. This had been the girl’s locket.

  “ Look on the back.” Beck motioned for me turn the locket over.

  I closed it and flipped it gently in my palm so that the back of the heart was facing up. Inscribed on the tarnished gold in perfect cursive were the words: with this heart .

  “ I thought we could replace the pictures,” he offered timidly. “Or you could be a creep and leave the old couple in if you want.” It was so like Beck to do something extremely thoughtful and then follow it up with a joke to try and lighten the mood. I wasn’t going to let him get away with it. So, I turned toward him on the bench and leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on his lips. His mouth was slightly open so it was awkward, but the moment our lips touched, he pressed back into me with equal amounts of fervor. His empty hand wrapped around my neck and brought me closer to him. I opened up for him, letting him slip his tongue past my lips. He tasted sweet, like the funnel cake we’d shared earlier. I needed more of him and the way he gripped my hair told me he needed more of me as well.

  There we were, sitting at the front of a flea market in the-middle-of-nowhere, Texas, with hundreds of people shuffling around us. He was holding onto zombies and I was holding onto someone’s long-lost locket that now felt intimately mine.

  Just as we were pulling away from each other with dopey grins, a grouchy old woman huffed past us. “I cannot believe the indecency displayed by youth these days,” she declared, clutching her oversized purse closer toward her chest as if we were street thugs about to mug her.

  Her equally-as-old friend emphatically agreed with her as the two waddled around us with snooty glares.

  Beck gave me a scolding glance. “Abby, we’re indecent ,” he muttered, unable to keep a smile from spreading wide. His eyes were alive with lust and there was a glow under his tan skin. I knew I looked the same.

  “ So indecent,” I added.

  “ They acted like we were having sex or something,” he added jokingly.

  Without missing a beat, I declared, “I bought condoms before we left for the trip. Magnum condoms.” The announcement slipped out before I’d even thought about whether it was an appropriate response. The truth is, the condoms were burning a hole in my suitcase. I didn’t want Beck to stumble upon them and get the wrong impression. Like I was planning on having sex with so many guys that I had to purchase different sizes.

  “ That’s cool. I bought deodorant and travel toothpaste,” he answered with a wicked grin. Just then, a window-shaking clap of thunder sounded from outside. The storm had finally reached us.

  “ They were so you and I could have sex.”

  Beck started cracking up. “They were ?”

  My face blushed twenty shades past red. I was pretty sure I looked like a cherry. A big loser cherry with too many condoms. I had no way to answer that without basically giving him the green light to have sex with me.

  “ Can we stop talking about sex in a flea market? I feel like those grannies are still listening or something.” Another clap of thunder punctuated the end of my request.

  He let out a chuckle and tugged me up off the bench. “We should get going anyway; we’ve been here way too long. I doubt we’ll make it to the car before the rain comes.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Beck was right. The sky broke midway to the camper, which was still parked on the other side of the world. We started to run, shielding our purchases under our clothes, but by the time we reached the car, the rain had soaked into our every pore. He unlocked the doors as quickly as he could and then we crashed onto the leather seats, laughing hysterically and flinging drops of water off of our clothes.

  Just as I started to close the passenger side door, the wind picked up and worked against me to keep the door open. Rain drops slapped against my face and I couldn’t blink fast enough to keep the water from dripping down into my eyes. Beck leaned across to help me tug it close. With both of our strength combined, the door slammed shut and we fell back onto our seats with contented sighs. My clothes stuck to me like plastic wrap and no amount of force could pry them off.

  “ So you think it was the biggest in Texas?” Beck asked, buckling his seatbelt.

  “ That’s what she said,” I answered, because the outdated joke was too good to pass up. Forgive me.

  “ Nicely done. You can use that while you’re stuck on a desert island with Michael Scott,” he commended, sliding his gaze over to me. His dark eyelashes were stuck together from the rain and there was a slight dewiness to his skin, like he’d just slid out of the shower. I sat there giving his beautiful demeanor a moment of silence-it deserved it. His shirt was stuck to his skin, accentuating every masculine detail hidden beneath. He wasn’t bulky, he was a runner, but his arms were strong. Strong enough to pin me against the passenger door so that I wouldn’t be able to budge an inch. My eyes drifted across his skin like he was mine for the taking, as if I had the right to peruse his body.

  But then he started the engine and cut off my indulgent daydreams. We weren’t going to have sex in the parking lot of the flea market. The angry grannies were probably parked directly next to us. I’d be seconds away from my first orgasm and the granny would tap onto the window with her wrinkly finger, damning B
eck and I to hell for all of eternity.

  “ What are you thinking about?” Beck asked as he pulled to the end of the long line trying to exit. There must have been a hundred cars in front of us and the rain wasn’t helping expedite the process.

  “ Oh, nothing. Did I see a CD in that bag of yours?” I asked quickly, fumbling for a safe topic.

  “ John Denver. Want to put it in?” he asked, motioning to the bag sitting in the cup holder.

  “ I’ve never listened to him,” I answered, grabbing the bag and starting to peel off the plastic encasing.

  “ What?” Beck exclaimed. “He’s the iconic road trip musician. I’m surprised we’ve made it this far without him guiding us.”

  “ That sounds really serious.”

  “ Everything about John Denver is serious.”

  “ Oh, is it?” I said, spinning the CD around my finger and pretending to drop it.

  Beck nodded with a smug grin. “That’s fine, Abby. Disrespect the road trip gods; watch what ends up happening to us.”

  What ended up happening to us was the longest exit line that has ever existed. We sat there long enough for John Denver’s CD to repeat twice. I didn’t care about “country roads” or “jet planes”, I needed to pee. Stat.

  “ Holy buhjesus,” I complained, smashing my face to the window for the fiftieth time. I suppose I thought that if I pressed my face into the glass hard enough, I’d finally be able to see what was going on up ahead.

  Beck laughed and shook his head. “I don’t want to blame the traffic jam on you, but I think it’s fair to assume that it’s one hundred percent your fault,” he declared with a hint of amusement.

  “ What?!” I snapped, peeling my gaze away from the rainy line of cars.

  “ John Denver is demanding penance for your sins,” he explained with a silly grin.

  I laughed indignantly, “Ah. I’m sorry . I didn’t realize he was God.”

  Before Beck could respond to my sarcasm, a police officer dressed in a long, bright-yellow raincoat tapped on Beck’s window with the tip of his index finger. Rain fell in sheets around him so that his face was shadowed under his hood. Beck rolled down his window and the officer leaned in through the threshold.

  “ Sorry for the hold-up. There was a wreck up ahead because of the slick roads. We’ll be redirecting traffic back through the town and I’d suggest not traveling much farther than that. The traffic is heavy and they’ve issued a flood warning for all of our surrounding counties.” His instructions were direct and authoritative.

  “ Do you know how long the warning is supposed to last?” Beck asked respectfully.

  The officer’s mouth formed a thin line. “Through the night. Rain should lighten up in the morning.”

  It was a good thing we had no real destination in mind because Mother Nature was deciding our fate for us. We’d stay somewhere in this tiny-ass town for the night and start driving again tomorrow.

  “ Alright, thanks officer.”

  The officer tipped his head and then offered us a final “stay safe out there” warning.

  “ John Denver is not a merciful God,” I declared once the window was rolled up.

  Beck chuckled, “I guess you really pissed him off.”

  The line of cars finally started moving and soon we were pulling out onto a road that was barely visible beneath the sheets of rain.

  “ So,” I started, “I’m drenched and it’s almost nighttime. What if we just pulled in somewhere and called it a night?”

  “ In a motel?” Beck asked, turning his windshield wipers up to their highest setting, which still wasn’t enough. The longer we drove, the more paranoid I became. Country roads weren’t safe and I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of our car.

  “ Or we could just sleep in the camper,” I offered, dreading the idea of searching for a vacancy in that tiny town.

  He nodded and kept driving. We passed through Main Street, where shops and businesses were all closing their doors for the night. People darted for their cars and one old man tried in vain to stay dry using an old newspaper. I wondered if the ink dripped from the articles onto his clothes.

  I only spotted one motel on our path and it looked like it had seen better days. Half of the rooms had broken windows and doors falling off their hinges. There was no way it could still be open and operating.

  “ There’s a rest stop a few miles up ahead, we can pull in there and stay the night,” Beck declared.

  “ Is that safe?” Visions of rest stop serial killers danced in my head. We were in the middle of nowhere, but I’d seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I wasn’t going to be the next victim.

  “ We’ll be fine.”

  I grunted and stared out the window, wondering what the night had in store for us. The idea of sleeping together in the back of the car seemed oddly romantic, but I didn’t think Beck thought of it that way.

  We only had to drive a few more minutes before exiting the two lane highway and driving into a recently renovated rest stop. It was, dare I say… nice . It was made of stone bricks and topped with a metal roof. Tall street lamps dotted the path toward the front entrance.

  “ Want to go scout out the bathrooms?” I asked after he parked in the spot closest to the doors. There were a couple of other cars parked near us. I assumed they were waiting out the rain as well.

  “ I guess there’s no point in changing in there since we’ll just get drenched again?” Beck asked, turning toward me with a defeated frown.

  “ We can change in here when we get back,” I answered simply.

  “ Pfft, so that you can sneak a peek?” He shot me a wink that stole my common sense, and then bolted from the car. I hopped out and ran after him, shielding the rain with my hands and fingers. By the time we reached the rest-stop entrance, my wet underwear was wedged so far up my ass that I didn’t think it would ever come out. Beck held the door open for me and we darted inside to the soundtrack of my howling laughter.

  “ What’s so funny?”

  “ Nothing,” I said, trying to edge toward the ladies room without turning around. I was sure he’d be able to see my bunched up underwear beneath my soaked dress.

  “ Mmhm, I bet. Meet me back out here after you fix your underwear!” Beck grinned and I pinched my eyes closed in embarrassment as I pushed back against the swivel door.

  After using the facilities, I checked my appearance in the mirror. I was prepared for the worst, so my wet rat appearance actually wasn’t that bad. I ran my fingers through my soaked hair, trying to de-tangle the long strands, but it was hopeless. My jade green eyes looked eerie in the fluorescent lighting and my skin appeared like alabaster marble. I was freaking cold standing in the air conditioned bathroom, so after I washed my hands, I held them underneath the drier for a few minutes, letting the warm air coat my skin.

  When I finally walked out, I was greeted by Beck standing in front of a group of vending machines, gathering the various “courses” of our dinner.

  “ Oh jeez, I don’t even want to know what you’re getting out of there.”

  “ Unless you want s’mores for dinner, you’ll appreciate my vending machine hunt.”

  “ At least get a granola bar or something,” I muttered, stepping closer to him.

  “ It’s all taken care of,” he answered, shoving the food wrappers under his shirt so they wouldn’t get soaked in the rain. “C’mon!” He motioned for me to follow and then darted for the door.

  Once we were back in the car, my body was shaking from head to toe from the cold rain. There was no way in hell I was getting out of the car again before the rain stopped. I was tired of being wet and cold.

  “ Do you have a towel or anything?” I asked, rifling through my bag for a change of clothes. I pulled out an oversized t-shirt and a fresh pair of underwear. My sleeping shorts were somewhere in my bag, but I’d look for t
hem when my teeth weren’t about to crack from chattering so hard.

  “ No, but you can use one of my shirts,” he offered, and then climbed into the back with me. The space was small, but we could both fit easily. He tossed a t-shirt over and I caught it just before it hit my face. His scent overwhelmed me.

  “ Mind if I change, too?” he asked, already working the hem of his shirt up.

  “ Ahh,” I muttered awkwardly, trying to think of the correct answer. I didn’t want to seem like a prude, so I shrugged and turned away from him to give us both some privacy.

  I heard him digging clothes out of his bag behind me, so I took a deep breath and tried to pretend he wasn’t watching as I crouched onto my knees and peeled my dress over my head. I was in my underwear and bra, but they were both wet and I’m sure completely translucent. Fortunately, the important sections were facing away from Beck.

  I kept expecting him to say something or to make a joke, but he stayed silent as I reached for his shirt and dried off my arms, stomach, and back. I sat down and stretched my legs out to dry them off. I could feel his eyes on me, amplifying the goose bumps covering my skin. My ears were focused for any movements in my direction. Sadly, the only thing I heard was the rustle of a new shirt being put on. No hanky panky in the camper for me. I tugged my oversized shirt over my head and then reached under to unsnap my wet bra.

  “ Abby,” Beck huffed agitatedly, and I twisted around to look at him. He was bent down onto his knees as well.

  “ What’s wrong?”

  “ Did you just take your bra off?” he asked.

  My brows scrunched together and then I looked down at my lacy size 34-A bra still resting in my palm. It could have fit an American Girl Doll. Was I not supposed to take it off?

  “ It was soaked,” I answered with a confused scowl.

  He wet his lips and looked up at the roof of the camper for help. His hands rested on his hips and when I inched toward him, his jaw clicked a millimeter tighter.

  I tilted my head and gave him a small smile. “Did you want me to leave my bra on, Beck?”