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“Then don’t. Let’s take it a day at a time. Please,” he begged. “I’m not asking you for a commitment. I just want to watch a movie with you.”
“Uh-huh. I’ve heard that line somewhere before.” It always ended up with us not watching anything but each other and our lips being tangled up. That wasn’t a complaint.
He moved in closer, our lips dangerously close.
“Jonah,” I could hardly breathe with him so near, “we shouldn’t kiss.” I hoped he didn’t hear the longing. Because while we shouldn’t, every part of me wanted to grab his shirt and erase the distance.
“You think I want to kiss you?” He moved in a little closer, so close I could practically taste the mint he’d popped into his mouth before we left the house.
“I want to kiss you,” I admitted.
“Mmm,” he groaned and almost sealed the deal.
I backed up and placed my finger on his expectant lips, internally convincing myself we shouldn’t all while my body begged me to. I outlined his soft lips. “If we kiss, it will only muddy the waters.”
He kissed my finger. “Perfect. We’ll swim in them together. I love getting dirty with you.”
Oh, this man. I pushed him back. “We can’t until I figure out my head, and heart, for that matter.”
Jonah let out a deep breath of disappointment. “Okay. We’ll wait. Can I at least negotiate holding your hand?”
“I’d like that.”
“I’ll take what I can get.” He sat up and drove us through the entrance where Mr. Udall waited for us. Jonah rolled down his window. “Are we all set?”
Mr. Udall tapped the top of Jonah’s car. “You’re ready to go. Just tune your radio to 90.9. I’ll come back later to close up, so the place is all yours.”
“Thank you, sir. I owe you,” Jonah responded.
“Ah,” the old man waved. “You don’t owe me a thing. There’s nothing like young love.”
Jonah and I weren’t exactly young. But we were still in love. I wanted to say it shouldn’t be possible, but it was exactly how I wished it. I wanted to always love him. I didn’t want him to leave me for another woman or grow tired of me and discard me. I always wanted to say his name and be able to smile.
“Best thing around,” Jonah agreed before heading toward the middle of the empty drive-in.
It was until it wasn’t, though. Maybe Jonah was right, I should take it a day at a time. The problem was, I had never been able to live that way. My life experience taught me that when things went good it only meant that something really bad was going to happen. I could never truly enjoy the happy times. I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Like when my mom brought home a kitten when I was eight, I thought I could have died of happiness. Snowball was a puffy white dream. But then Tom, one of my mom’s husbands, got mad when she scratched him, and he’d killed her. I’d watched him throw her against the wall. It still made me sick to my stomach. More nauseating was that my mom didn’t leave him for that. Instead, she told me I should have kept Snowball in my room.
No wonder I had issues. Jonah was right. No one ever fought for me. Even when my mom left Carl because of what he wanted to do to me, it became all about her. I’d never wanted to admit that. My eyes teared up.
Jonah was ever observant. He slammed on the brakes, which barely jolted us since he was driving so slow. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Not yet.”
Jonah reached over and took my hand. He held it between his own, gently caressing it. “I know you’re waiting for me to mess up. And guess what, I will, and you will too. When that happens, we’ll work through it.”
“I’m a mess, Jonah.”
“A beautiful mess.” He brought my hand up and kissed it.
With my free hand, I wiped my eyes. “You ready to watch your movie?”
“I always thought of it as ours.”
“People battling it out in the ring to the point of death. That sounds about right,” I teased.
“I will fight for you, Ariana.”
I wanted to believe him. “We’ll see.”
“You will.” He squeezed my hand before letting it go and tuning the radio to the right station. The car was suddenly filled with the song, “Eye of the Tiger.”
Goosebumps erupted on Jonah’s neck. “I forgot how much I loved the soundtrack to this movie.” He pretended to play the drums on the steering wheel.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen it?”
He gave me a sly look. “Around nine years.” He reached behind the front seats and grabbed a canvas sack filled with a bag of white cheddar popcorn and the biggest bag of Skittles I’d ever seen. I swore Jonah’s eyes misted when he pulled out his beloved candy. “Oh, how I missed you.” He kissed the bag.
