North Road {HS}

14. Adelaide

"What on earth do you have there?" I asked amused.

His silhouette shook in good natured laughter against the night sky as he finished fishing the object out of his pocket.

"A flask," he grinned.

"I know what it is," I answered going along with him, but why do you have it?"

"Ah," he nodded in understanding before taking a quick swig, "I found it."

He turned and offered it to me watching as I accepted it before sipping at it nervously. The boyish grin on his face grew as he studied.

"You're telling me," I asked sipping and then grimacing, "you just picked it up and decided it would be yours?"

"Well it was full, so I figured why not?" He shrugged good naturedly, "I'll return it when it's empty."

I rolled my eyes and laughed as I handed it back to him. We had begun talking hours ago and we hadn't stopped. It was nearly morning now and though my stomach hurt from laughing and I knew Kitty would have my neck I didn't want the sun to rise.

Our laughter died down to the pleasant kind of silence as we stared out at the bay.

"How come you never speak of home?" I asked after a moment.

"Because now this is my home," he answered looking like he was confident with his answer.

"But don't you have family somewhere?"

He turned to me with a curious expression in his eyes, "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"No," I smiled, "Just curious."

He turned his view back toward the bay and sighed deeply nodding to himself as if he was trying to convince himself of something.

"My father's a drunk... or was. I'm not sure if he's alive or dead anymore. I don't really care. My mother I know is dead. Has been since I was young. An old church lady raised my brother and I for a while but she beat us worse than our father had. So eventually we struck out on our own when I was eleven and he was thirteen. He wasn't a strong person really. He was sick a lot and probably needed glasses but he was smart and helped keep us alive. Our father would join us when he felt like it before he was off to to the next best thing. One day I came home from hawking papers to the shack that my brother Billy had found for the three of us to squat in. My dad didn't think it was good enough and he blamed my brother that we were living in a shack with nothing. I walked in and witnessed my father attack my brother in a drunken fit. He didn't mean to do it but he pushed Billy just right so that he hit his head on our brick stove we had built. He died right away. Billy was fifteen. We had always talked about leaving and finding a place where no one could find us. Billy had loved books. His favorite was Robinson Crusoe. He wanted to find an island for us to live on just the two of us. Imagine two boys in Alberta finding an island," with this Pierce let out a week laugh, "Anyways, without Billy I couldn't find a way to leave though. So when the war started I jumped on the chance to sign up because I knew it was my ticket out."

I felt the sting of tears in my eyes as I scrambled for something to say.

"Don't you dare go and say you're sorry," he looked at me seriously before a smile broke onto his face, "I'm not."

"I'm happier here than I've ever been," he shrugged.

The urge that overtook me was sudden and irreversible. And I knew now, as we sat beneath the big tree in the old park, that this was it.

Leaning in suddenly, I planted my lips on his. His surprise was only momentary before he responded with equal urgency.

"Laidy, darling," he whispered against my lips, "Thank you."

His hands were still on either side of my face when I pulled back a little and giggled nervously.

"For what? The kiss?"

"No," he chuckled, "well yes, actually. But I was talking about the happiness part. Though I think that the kiss only added to it."

"Well kiss me again then," I smiled.

It was only a moment before his lips were on mine again and he was laying me down gently against the grass. I wondered for a moment if my yellow dress would be ruined but my worries were quickly forgotten.

We kissed until we ran out of breath and fell into lazy half kisses and whispered conversation.

"Adelaide Winslow," Pierce muttered as he stopped and rolled onto his back with a sigh, "We're in dangerous territory."

I turned my head to look at him, "And why is that?"

"I think I may be in love with you."
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I like to think that there will be one more update coming tonight. Don't want to leave you hanging for all the story lines to come together again. 💁🏻
(Just to be clear this is part two of three of tonight's updates.)