“Tell us a scary story, Tanner!” Mariah squeals, clapping her hands.
“Yeah, tell us a scawy stowy!” one of the other kids chimes in. I laugh and throw my hands up in surrender as the chants of “Yeah!” and “Story! Story!” ring in my ear.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you a scary story.” I pull up my chair and sit with the back of it to my chest, leaning in to the group of kids that have now gathered close around Mariah’s bed. “Have you ever heard about the Candy Thief?”
They all shake their heads at me, their eyes wide and voices hushed waiting for me to continue.
“Well, the Candy Thief is a big, ugly monster. He lives on top of a mountain in Gum Drop Valley, and he never comes down for anything. Except…” I pause, the kids now leaning in close and eating up every word. “To steal candy from the little girls and boys.”
They all gasp and Mariah moves to lie down on her stomach, kicking her legs up behind her. “What does he look like?”
“He’s got reptile skin and big, slimy eyeballs. And he stands over eight feet tall!”
“Whoa! That’s taller than my mom!” someone yells. Everyone giggles and Mariah looks annoyed at the distraction.
“So what happened?”
Mariah has been in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for a while now with severe burns from being trapped in the backseat of a bad car accident. Her mom was driving and they were struck by a truck driver who had fallen asleep. It happened right outside of the city, and she was brought to the Emergency Room and eventually moved up here. I was assigned to her, along with the doctor I shadow, when she first came in. I’ve never had any patient get me attached the way she has.
She’s feisty and full of life – two things I admire.
I scoot my chair a little closer and look around like I’m telling them a big secret, “Well, it’s pretty scary. Are you sure you guys can handle it? I don’t want to get in trouble for giving you nightmares.”
“We can handle it!”
“We’re tough!”
I laugh again, but honestly they’re telling the truth. These kids are stronger than anyone I know, stronger than me, that’s for damn sure.
“Okay,” I say, getting up and backing up to the corner of the room. “One night, the Candy Thief snuck into the window of a little boy’s room. He knew the little boy had just gone Trick-or-Treating, and he was on a mission to steal all his candy. But, the little boy woke up. So, the Candy Thief knew he had to get rid of the little boy so he wouldn’t tell his parents.”
“Oh my gosh! What did he do?!” A little girl squeals from behind Mariah.
“Did he kidnap him?!” Someone else yells. Everyone gasps and I keep backing up to the far corner, turning to grab a prop from the drawer for the finale.
“Worse.”
“Worse?!” They all chime together.
I pause for dramatic effect, then turn suddenly and race toward them with the flashlight illuminating the bottom of my face. “He tickled him to death!”
They all squeal and laugh wildly as I chase them around the room, tickling them senseless when I finally catch them. I save Mariah for last and after making her laugh so hard she has tears in her eyes, I rough up the hair on her head and grab my clipboard.
“Alright you munchkins, I’m heading out for the day. Don’t cause too much trouble while I’m gone.”
“Aw, can’t you stay?” Mariah asks me softly as all the other kids go back to playing.
I kneel down and tuck her messy hair behind her ear, “Not today, Mariah. I’ve got a date tonight.”
“A date?!” her eyes grow wide. “I thought I was your girlfriend!”
I laugh and pull her in for a hug, “No way! You’re a princess, and I’m not a prince, so we can’t be together.”
As I pull back, her head is sunk down and she’s eying the floor, kicking her little feet. It breaks my heart and makes me want to laugh at the same time.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll go on this date tonight, and you and I can have our own date next week. A date for a frog and a princess. How’s that?”
Her eyes light up and she throws her little arms around me, practically strangling me. “Okay! We can have a picnic!”
I laugh, “Sounds perfect.”
I file the last bit of paperwork I have and then head to my apartment, pulling out my phone to text Kellee that I’ll be at her place in two hours. I’ve tried to hang out with her all week, but she’s been distant. She agreed to our date for tonight, but when I got her number from Sal and tried calling her to meet up before tonight, she declined every time and made some lame excuse about working or studying. Normally I wouldn’t even try so hard – hell, I really never had to. In fact, it’s usually the other way around. I can’t tell if it pisses me off that she’s been ignoring me or really turns me on.
Maybe a little of both.
Either way, I haven’t planned a date or anything even close to it since the last night I took Paisley to our spot in Orlando. I had the perfect plan that night. I was so sure that it would end with her in my arms, but instead it blew up in my face.
Hopefully tonight won’t end the same way.
“So are you going to tell me where we’re going tonight or am I supposed to act surprised and impressed when you finally do a big reveal?” Kellee asks, giving me a sideways smirk as she locks her door behind us. I told her to dress casual, but I swear I’ve never seen any girl look better in a pair of jeans than her. Her hair is pulled up in a loose, messy bun with curls falling here and there and my hands are aching to touch the soft sliver of skin that’s peeking just below the hem of her tight white t-shirt.
“Do you ever get tired of pretending you’re not into me?” I lift a brow in her direction and grab her hand as we walk downstairs and out onto the city streets. Her cocky smile softens a little and a faint blush spreads to her cheeks. I instantly harden.
Damn this girl is beautiful.
As we walk, she asks me more about Paisley and I grudgingly agree to talk. As much as it is somewhat therapeutic to talk about her, I really want tonight to be about Kellee. Something tells me that she’s more comfortable talking about me because there’s more to her than what she puts off. She’s definitely got the confident and sexy thing down, but underneath I can see the insecurities. I’m not sure if it has to do with her mom or some guy who fucked her over – hell, maybe she’s a tortured soul like me. Either way, I want to peel back her layers and see what’s underneath.
I’d like to peel off a few layers of clothing too, but that’s beside the point.
“Alright, Frecks. We’re here.”
Kellee looks confused and utterly unimpressed, “Um, you’re taking me to Grand Central Station?”
I laugh and open the door, “I am. Do you have a problem with that?”
She shakes her head, “I guess not. You did say this was a date of firsts. I can definitely say I’ve never been taken out to a touristy train station.”
I shake my head and grab her hand again, “This is just the beginning of the night. And that’s not the first I’m going for, either.”
“Well what is it then?” she asks. Suddenly, her eyes grow wide and her brows shoot up, “I hope you don’t think you’re about to get laid in a public place. That is one first you’re not crossing off my list anytime soon.”
I laugh again, “No, that’s not it either. Although I do want to point out that you said ‘anytime soon’, but you didn’t say ‘ever’. So does that mean I get to cross it off eventually?” I lick my bottom lip and throw her the sexiest half smile I can manage. For once, I think she might be speechless. The faint blush that was there earlier explodes into a full-on flush and she turns away from me quickly.
“Just tell me what we’re doing here, Don Juan.”
I smile and lead her inside and down to the lower concourse. It’s a lazy evening at the station and there are just a few other people buzzing around, which means everything should go perfectly.
“Stand right…” I put my hands on Kellee’s shoulders and place her in the corner where two of the arches above come together. “Here. And turn around.”
Kellee’s confused look is still cemented on her face, “Are you putting me in time out or something?” She crosses her arms and sticks out her bottom lip, popping one hip to the side.
And it’s fucking adorable.
“Maybe. Have you been a bad girl?” I wink and she rolls her eyes.
“I told you to stop with those shitty lines,” she says, turning to face the wall.
“What?! You asked for that one!”
“Yeah yeah,” she says dismissively, waving her hand. “Okay, so what now?”
“Stay right there.” I cross the room and stand in the corner directly across from her, and even though I know it’s only for a few minutes, I instantly want to be close to her again. What the fuck is wrong with me? No one has affected me like this since Paisley.
Hell, I don’t even know if Paisley made me feel this way.
“Can you hear me?” I whisper into the corner. I turn back and see Kellee’s head shoot up as she tries to figure out where my voice is coming from. She whips around and hesitates when she sees me across the room.
“What are you doing?” she yells. I shake my head and point for her to turn back around before whispering into the corner again.
“You didn’t answer the question. Can you hear me?”
“Yes, I can hear you. But I don’t understand how. It sounds like your voice is surrounding me, but you’re across the room.”
I laugh a little, “These are the Whispering Arches.”
“The what?”
“Whispering Arches. You can whisper into that corner and I can hear it clear as day over in this one, and same for you.”
I peek over my shoulder and see that Kellee is doing the same. Her eyes are glimmering as she takes in the ceiling and walls and how they meet at each arch. Suddenly her voice is in my ear again, “Why? Why does it happen?”
“I don’t know all the logistics, but I think it’s something with the sound hugging the walls and ceiling and traveling easier. The better question is, what secret are you going to tell me?”
“Secret?” she sounds a little scared, so different from her usual cockiness.
“Yes, secret. You can whisper into that corner and I’ll hear it, but no one else will. So, it’ll be our secret, and it’ll never leave this room.”
She sighs and it vibrates around me. I know it’s frustrating her, but at the same time I’m hoping she’ll play along. My usual lines that work so well on other girls don’t do anything for her, but maybe this will.
“Fine,” she huffs. “I’ll bite. But I don’t really know what to tell you. I don’t have that many secrets.”
“That’s bullshit,” I whisper back. “It’s bullshit and you know it. But you don’t have to tell me your deepest darkest secret, just tell me something that no one else knows. Or something that I don’t know about you, something you haven’t told me yet.”
“My favorite color is Macaroni and Cheese Orange.”
I laugh a little, “Ha ha, very funny.”
“What? That’s something you didn’t know.”
I turn around over my shoulder and wait for her to do the same. When her eyes meet mine, I hold them there for as long as I can, hoping they’ll see what I want them to. She softens a little and sucks her cheek between her teeth before turning back to the corner.
“You really want to know a secret?”
I nod before realizing she can’t see me, “Yes.”
There’s a pause, and I glance over my shoulder again just to make sure she’s still standing there when her voice finally finds me.
“I’m afraid of you,” she whispers, her voice cracking a little. “I’m afraid of being with you tonight, of falling for you, of you falling for me, and most of all I’m scared shitless that I might hurt you and break myself in the process.”
I just stand there for a minute, my breaths heavy in my chest. For a brief second, Paisley’s face crashes into my mind and a jolt of pain shoots through my heart, but before her memories can catch me I push off the wall and walk with determined steps toward Kellee. I feel like what I’m about to do could ruin this, whatever this is – but I don’t give a shit. She turns around just before I reach her and before she can tell me not to, I crush my lips to hers.
She hesitates and stiffens as I take her face in my hands, pulling her into me. “Don’t fight it,” I murmur against her lips, feeling them soften as I press my forehead to hers. Her eyes are wide and I feel her shaking a little. “Don’t fight me.”
I softly take her lips again, and this time she completely melts. She leans into me and a soft moan escapes her mouth as I slide my tongue inside. Fuck, she is so sexy. I slide my hands down her sides and rest them on her hips, tracing the skin above her jeans as I bite her bottom lip. I want so badly to pin her against the wall and kiss her harder, deeper – but I know I’m pushing it already. Against the wishes of the hard on growing in my jeans, I pull back and softly thumb her cheek.
“So, what’s your secret?” she breathes, her chest rising and falling in a rapid fashion as her gray eyes stare up into mine. The words tumble off her lips in a low and sexy drawl and I instantly want to kiss her again, but I refrain.
“You know too much about me already. I think you owe me at least five secrets before you get another one of mine.”
“Oh come on,” she shoves against my chest playfully. “That one should count for at least ten!”
“Yeah right, not even close,” I kiss her forehead quickly and grab her hand. “Come on, Frecks – we have to go. I don’t want to be late.”
“Late? For what?”
“You’ll see.”