Chapter Fourteen.
We spend the rest of the evening laughing, sheltering from the wind and the rain, our fun moments only broken up by random interruptions when Ben has to greet other guests that arrive. Another reason why I love being here is the chill vibes. No fancy expectations, no nuance of rules, only real people, real memories and wholesome moments.
By eleven, the rain has stopped, and all the guests are gone besides Ben’s friend group of bikers. Even his parents go inside to start cleaning up.
Ben glances at his phone and then at his buddies. “It’s about time we wrap this up, gentlemen. I’ll see you on Thursday at the meetup, right?”
“Kicking us out, man? Not cool. It’s your graduation! We should be celebrating all night!” Paul says, stretching his arms and yawning.
“You sure about that grandpa? By that yawn, I don’t think you can handle the whole night.”
Paul chuckles, yawning again. “I suppose you’re right. Well, hey, congrats on graduating, man. We’ll see ya Thursday. Love ya.”
One by one they grab his hand and pull it into their chest as they embrace in a hug with the other arm. Surprisingly, they all give me hugs too.
When they walk out of the barn into the cool night, I wonder if it’s time for me to go too.
But when I turn to ask him, his expression catches me off guard. He’s staring at me dreamily, like he’s never seen me before. Warmth bubbles inside me, shooing away the damp cold around us.
“I suppose I should get going?” I say bashfully, trying to initiate the conversation to see if he actually wants me to leave or not. I hope he doesn’t want me to leave. I want more affection, more kisses, more of him…
“Absolutely not. You still have your other surprise.” His eyes light up. “Sit. Don’t move until I tell you to, okay?”
I nod, relieved, and obey. He starts rummaging around somewhere outside the side of the barn where I can’t see him. I have no idea what he’s up to. He grunts right outside the door at the same time another door slams shut. What the heck’s he doing out there?
I stand to check it out, my heart hammering in anticipation. But when I reach for the side door handle, it pulls away from my grip.
“Impatient, are we?”
“Well, all I could hear was you causing a ruckus out here, so I was coming to investigate. What’re you doing?”
“Let’s go. I’ll show you.”
His cold fingers wrap around mine as he leads me out to the back pasture. The back pasture used to be where they’d keep cattle but since they built a new pasture for grass-fed beef, they just use this one to store pallets, equipment, wood, and other various things they don’t have room for in the other barns.
Our breaths swirl in the cold air as we walk in tune with each other, the mud squishing noisily beneath our feet. I definitely wore the wrong shoes for this. I can already feel my feet getting wet through them. They’re going to be soaked if we don’t get out of the mud soon.
When he leads me left, a large wooden pallet covered in blankets with pillows and a small radio next to it comes into view.
“Surprise!” He throws his arm out and dramatically points to it.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I laugh, pleasantly surprised. “This is awesome! Although it’s a bit cold to be doing this, isn’t it?”
“That’s what the blankets are for.” He winks.
Man, this brings me back. When we were younger, we would play back here all the time, past dusk into the night and sometimes sit on the pallets and talk about our futures and dreams…the things we wanted, people we hated, random things we saw on TV that week. As time went on and we got busier, we outgrew it.
Back then, we’d just freeze our butts off on a wooden pallet with no blankets and only go inside when we couldn’t take the shivering anymore. I’m glad we won’t have to do that tonight.
I’m excited.Andnervous.
Is he expecting something from me? It doesn’t sound like something Ben would do, but I’ve never entertained anything from him in a romantic way until tonight. Does he like to move fast?
My legs feel heavy, and it’s not from the mud pulling my shoes down as he leads me the rest of the way to the pallet. I take my shoes off, step on it, not looking at him, and sit down.
“Holy crap. It’s so soft. Did you put a mattress under here?”
His eyebrows rise in delight. “Something like that. We had a few unopened memory foam pads, so I used those up and put them under the blankets. I’m glad you find it comfortable. Here, lay down and get under the blanket so we can keep the heat trapped.”
