Forever Yours

Bliss and Stupidity [19]

19. Bliss and Stupidity

Maureen

I think I'm falling in love with you.

My heart stopped beating for a moment and I stared up at him, speechless.

Had he said what I'd thought he'd said?

"I..."

His clear blue eyes searched mine and my heart slowly picked up its scattered pieces, thrumming out a discordant beat which only grew faster as he stared down at me.

He's waiting.

Speak.

Oh my gosh, he's falling in love with me? It hit me in a stunning blow and then I found that I was having a hard time finding my voice.

Ryan... Ryan. Me. Falling in love with me.

"I..."

"Say something," he whispered hoarsely and I saw that his face was flushed, waiting for my answer.

"I... think I'm falling in love with you, too." The words came out in a raw, little voice. I'd meant to sound like a woman but my voice sounded young and inexperienced, trembling unapologetically. It didn't matter though. Ryan was staring at me, searching my eyes - searching my soul, it felt like - and then he suddenly had me in his arms, his lips on mine, his hold just a little desperate as he kissed me with a fervency I'd never before felt in his touch.

"I never felt this way before, never," he told me, his hands cupping my face.

Neither have I, I wanted to say, but of course, he knew that.

"I don't know how, I know it's all going so fast, but I can't stop it."

"I know."

He pulled back then, his hand cupped around my face and he stared down into my eyes, and I held onto his shirt like I was holding on for dear life.

In a way, I guess I kind of was.

-

The afternoon somehow slipped away, like sand in a sieve, unbeknownst to me. I felt like the universe had shifted; like I'd died and reawakened, like the ground had given away beneath my feet and I'd somehow lived to tell the tale.

Is this what it feels like to be in love? I wondered. My head was swimming with it; my body felt weak and limpid.

"How do you feel?" Ryan's husky voice in my ear was soft. I blinked dazedly in the setting sunlight and then turned to meet his eyes. They gazed down warmly on me, as sick with love for me as I felt for him.

"Like I'm on cloud nine," I said.

He smiled. "That makes two of us, then."

I didn't understand why, after all of that, he couldn't have forgotten about the ice cream. Maybe as much time didn't pass as I thought it did, when he procured the carton in its bag from the rock behind him and opened it to show me it hadn't completely melted. I stared at him, wondering, if now that we'd declared our budding love for one another, it was inexcusable to tell him to go jump off a cliff.

But I was too weak and enamored to do anything other than take the proffered spoon, to settle back against the rock, and feed myself the stuff that would forever ruin any former impressions of maturity or of elegance that he might have once had of me.

He watched me, his eyes alert and expectant, as I finished off a third of the carton and then handed it back to him.

"It takes a while," I informed him shortly and he grinned provocatively.