Holidays In The Hamptons [COMPLETE]

Chapter Ten

For the second night during her visit, Marley went to bed with a smile. And for the second time, it was because of a certain boy with piercing gray eyes and a lopsided smile.

Only this time she didn't fall asleep. She hadn't spent the day wandering around the city, weaving her way through traffic. She had gone from the breakfast table to a make-up table to a car to another dining table to slowly swaying around an empty ballroom to yet another car.

And now here she was, staring up at the ceiling of her grandmother's house, watching what shadows there were dance across it.

The ceiling lit up blue with an excuse for Marley to avoid sleep just a little bit longer as the church bells in town tolled out the hour. Eleven o'clock, Marley's phone confirmed when she leaned over to check the cause of the sudden blue light.

Two words and her smile widened.

"Look outside," the message read and Marley obeyed. She climbed out of bed, her bare feet barely registering the ice-cold floor. Pressing her nose against the glass, her warm breath billowed clouds onto the panes.

Down below was a lone figure, looking up at the house, glancing from window to window. He looked... normal. Gone were the neat pea-coats and expensive shoes, the bow-ties and tuxedos. Even at the senior center he had looked polished and put together.

But standing in her grandmother's driveway, trying to see which room was hers, Felix looked like any other guy she might have come across at school, the beanie, down jacket and plain old sneakers would have made him blend right in.

He finally saw her and waved. Marley returned the gesture and held up her pointer finger; she would be down in one minute.

She was out of her room, jeans, and a sweater in place of her pj's, in thirty seconds. She waited until she had reached the kitchen door before she pulled on her jacket and slipped on her snow boots. She was pulling her beanie down low over her ears and wrapping her scarf tight around her neck to combat the bitter chill of the evening when she rounded the corner of the house and hurried towards the driveway.

"Hi."

Her greeting floated out in front of her.

"Hey."

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked. He shook his head, no.

"Me neither," she said.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

Felix gestured to the long winding driveway behind him. Marley nodded and fell in step beside him.

"Do you often spend your winter nights wandering around someone else's neighborhood?" Marley asked.

It had taken the trek to the large black gates and out of the side gate for Marley to accept that this was actually happening and think of something to say.

"Not really, no. I do, however, usually end up wandering around my own neighborhood."

Felix answered the questioning look on Marley's face why pointing down the street to the right as their footsteps took them left.

"We're neighbors. That's my house right next door. Did you not know that?"

"I had no clue."

"Our grandfathers were still friends when they bought the land and things only fell out once construction had started. Instead of giving in, my grandfather put in a hedge that can only be crossed by the use of a chainsaw. It's only grown over the years."

"Seems a bit extreme."

"You never met my grandfather. If you did, you would have said that sounds just like him."