Adore Me

by Jillian Dodd

  "Sounds like a plan," he says as I flip around, start the wave runner, and head back to shore.

  When we get there, Damian waves at us from the beach, indicating that he wants me to bring it up on shore.

  "Hey," he says, walking out in the water. "The other wave runner won't start. If you're done with this one, I'm gonna take Peyton out and show her some of the island from the water."

  "Yeah, we're done," I say as Aiden and I hop off. "Did you see the dolphins that were swimming all around us?"

  "No, we were, uh, in the house."

  "I thought you were kayaking?" Aiden asks.

  "Oh, we were, but we came back in as soon as you went out."

  "So what were you doing inside?" Aiden asks them.

  "Uh, relaxing," Damian answers as Peyton says, "Watching TV."

  Aiden squints his eyes. "Which one was it?"

  "I watched TV while he relaxed," Peyton says smoothly.

  Aiden grabs her by the elbow and pulls her aside. I'm pretty sure he's chewing her out and she's telling him to mind his own business.

  She marches away from him and pulls Damian out toward the water.

  Aiden's scowling toward them, so I walk up to him and say, "She's having fun."

  "She's acting like she loves him already. They just freaking met."

  "She told me it was love at first sight."

  Aiden nods. "She told me that too."

  "And do you believe in it?"

  "Yes, of course I do."

  "Then you understand why she needs to see it through."

  Aiden nods solemnly then grabs my hand. "Come on, we have some things to do."

  "Like what?"

  He runs down the beach along the water's edge, dragging me with him. Then he grabs me around the waist, lifts me off my feet, and kisses me.

  And kisses me.

  I feel like I'm starring in an amazing beach-set love story.

  I don't want this day to ever end.

  "This looks like the perfect spot," Aiden says, setting me down in the sand, but not letting me go. "Remember that bracelet you had on the day of the Gods of the Olympics competition? You had love written on your arm."

  "I remember."

  "Close your eyes and don't move."

  A few moments later, he comes up from behind me, wraps his arms around my waist, and whispers, "Open."

  I open my eyes and look at the sand in front of me.

  "Love in the sand," he says. "I put it higher on the beach so the water wouldn't wash it away."

  I want to cry. "The water always washes it away," I tell him.

  "Maybe the words, but not the feelings." He spins me out of his arms in a dance move and says, "Go write your name."

  I move a little ways down the beach, fighting back tears, and wondering if he could be right.

  I find a stick and use it to draw all sorts of doodles in the sand. Hearts, flowers, swirls, a castle, a frog, a wand, lips, stars, a moon, a rock, waves, a surfboard, the chaos symbol, fireworks, a soccer ball, pompoms, a four-leaf clover, and then, in big, bold, capital letters, KEATYN.

  Aiden says, "I wish I had my phone to take a picture. That's, like, a work of art." He studies it more closely. "Is that the story of your life?"

  "What?"

  "Oh, it just looks like you drew all the things you love."

  I study my sand doodles more closely, realizing he might be right. I smile at him. "I was just messing around, drawing random things, but they are all things I love."

  He points over at his name written in the sand. Just a simple Aiden. "Mine looks pretty lame in comparison."

  "Actually, yours looks perfect," I tell him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "It says everything about you."

  "That I'm boring?"

  "No, that you don't need any embellishments to make you stand out. You just do."

  He gives me a hug and kisses my forehead. "I saw some shells down here by the waterline. Want to gather some up?"

  "Yeah, let's do that and then we'll go make necklaces!"

  We gather shells, filling his board shorts' pockets with them.

  When we get closer to the cabana, I stick my tongue out, splash him, and then run down the beach screaming, "Bet you can't catch me!"

  Oh course, I'm not as fast as him and two seconds later, he grabs me from behind.

  I deftly spin out of his grip, kick water at him, then land in a karate stance, and go, "Ka-cha!"

  "Oh, you're gonna fight me?" he says with a laugh.

  "Unless you're a chicken," I reply, kicking more water at him.

  He makes one fluid leap and tackles me straight into the water.

  I was totally not prepared for it and come up laughing. "What the hell was that? That wasn't even fair!"

  He rolls me over and pins me on the sand underneath him. "Maybe I'm tired of playing fair."

  I lean up like I'm going to kiss him, but instead elbow him in the ribs and slip away.

  Almost.

  He grabs my legs, pulls me back underneath him, and pins my arms above my head.

  Truth be told, I totally could've gotten away if I wanted to. I've learned a lot from Cooper. But when he leans down to kiss me, I'm really glad I didn't.

  The waves rush up over our feet and legs, the cool water doing nothing to quench the fire inside me. I don't even care that my hair is probably getting caked with wet, nasty sand.

  Because when Aiden kisses me, I don't care what the rest of the world thinks.

  A ding dong ditcher.

  7:30pm

  We collect some more shells, watch the sun slide below the horizon, and then sort through our shells, deciding which ones will work best for our jewelry.

  "Come on. We'll go in the toy shed to make them. There are tools in there."

  "We gonna hammer, nail, and screw?"

  "Actually, we'll use a drill."

  "Drilling sounds like fun," he says with a naughty smirk.

  As I clean the shells off with bleach, I say, "You know, you've become a tease."

  "I'm a tease?" he asks, pointing to himself.

  "Yeah, you're a ding dong ditcher."

  "I don't get it."

  "Think about it. You act like you want in my house. You keep ringing the doorbell, but when I come to open the door, you're gone. You're totally a tease."

  He puts his forehead against mine. "I told you I won't run away."

  "Honestly, Aiden, if you were smart," I say, seriously, "you'd run far away from me."

  He tenderly touches my cheek. "My dad says love makes you do stupid things."

  I want so badly to say, Love? And for him to answer, Yes, Boots, I love you. But I can't bear to hear it, so I let out a nervous chuckle. "That's true. I think all of us have done some pretty stupid things in the name of love. So, back to these shells," I say, patting them dry. "Next, we'll drill them. Here are the little shells we picked for you. Do you want to have a single shell or a whole row of them?"

  He slides the most perfect teeny pink seashell out of the pile and touches my four-leaf clover necklace. "Can I have this?"

  He doesn't wait for an answer; he reaches his arms around my neck and unclasps it.

  He lays the shell on a piece of felt, drills a hole in the top of it, adds a little metal circle to turn it into a charm, and then slides it onto my necklace with the clover.

  He puts it back on me, and I look in the mirror. The clover nestles perfectly on top of the shell.

  I hold the charms in my hand. "I love it."

  "You know, they say the moon controls the tides. So now you'll have both luck and the tides of fate on your side."

  I smile at him as he pushes me up against the workbench and flirts. "Which means you're about to get very lucky."

  His lips land hard on mine, his tongue sliding into my mouth, and controlling the tides of desire that roll through my body.

  "Uh, um," Damian coughs, interrupting our hot make out session.

  "Oh, hey," I say, untangling myself from
Aiden. "Uh, we were, um, just making jewelry."

  "I can see that," Damian smirks. "We got a bunch of shells too."

  "Awesome!" I turn my attention back to the shells, but Aiden's hand is still on my back, touching both my skin and the top of my bikini bottoms. And although I am trying to sort through shells to make him the perfect wish bracelet, I'm having a really hard time concentrating.

  Especially when he starts massaging my back gently.

  I choose shells and then drill holes on the sides of each, sliding them onto a string one at a time and putting a square knot in between each. "Where do you want it?"

  Aiden's eyes get big and he gulps. "Uh . . . ?"

  I realize very quickly what he was just thinking. "Your ankle or your wrist?" I add.

  He does a little head shake, like he's clearing out the cobwebs in his brain. "My wrist. So I can see it."

  "Okay." I lay the shells across the top of his wrist. "This is a wish bracelet. As I tie it on, you have to close your eyes and make a wish."

  "Then what? When do I get my wish?"

  "We don't know when, but once you get your wish, the bracelet will fall off."

  He gives Peyton and Damian, who are sorting through shells, a glance. Then he whispers sexily, "Can I wish for drilling?"

  "You can wish for whatever you want."

  "So I'll be losing the bracelet tonight?"

  I try to control my smile, but I can't.

  Because Aiden the tease is the cutest thing ever.

  I roll my eyes at him and smack his hand away from where it's sneaking down the side of my bikini.

  Plus it's so much more fun to be the one to say no.

  "This wish business is serious," I tell him as I tie the bracelet around his wrist, purposefully tying it in three tight knots. Maybe if I tie it tight enough, he won't be able to get it off.

  And maybe he won't forget me when I'm gone.

  I picture Aiden back at Eastbrooke, surrounded by girls at the cave, and quickly close my eyes to keep from crying.

  "Are you wishing on my bracelet too?" he asks.

  Part of me wants to curse his bracelet, so that no one else's lips will ever touch his.

  But I know I'm being ridiculous. I'm giving him closure so that he can move on.

  "No," I say, fighting back tears.

  "Why do you look like you're about to cry?"

  "I'm not. I think I got shell dust in my eyes." I wipe tears from the corner of my eyes. "I was supposed to wear safety goggles when I drilled."

  "You need safety goggles for drilling?" he says, grabbing a pair. "Maybe I should bring them to bed."

  I grab his now shell-wrapped wrist. "Come on, we've got to finish our list."

  I drag him to the courtyard, where a hammock is strung between two palm trees.

  "Lie in the hammock and read? There's only one problem. We don't have any books."

  "We don't need a book. We have some homework to do."

  He groans. "You're going to make me study French?"

  "No, but it turns out that I have this survey I have to do for health class."

  "You're not in health class."

  "Neither are you. I had to answer your questions, now you have to answer mine."

  He rolls his eyes and pulls me closer to his chest. "Fine. I'm an open book."

  "Names of the last four girls you dated."

  "Emily, Lauren, Megan, and Chelsea."

  "Why did you break up?"

  "Um, Emily and I got in a fight about something stupid. I honestly don't remember. She was always accusing me of cheating on her."

  "Were you?"

  He looks at me seriously. "I've never cheated on anyone in my life."

  "Good."

  "What about the rest?"

  "Lauren broke up with me because she decided she liked someone else. Megan and I had a very volatile relationship. That was a mutual break up. And Chelsea. Um, we never actually went out."

  "How many girls have you said I love you to?"

  "Oh, the list is long. The first girl was Angela; she stole my heart in third grade when she gave me a special Valentine. She was a fourth grader. Older woman, you know."

  "Maybe we don't need to go back quite so far," I laugh. "And I'm ready for dinner and some wine. Where do you want to eat?"

  "Can we watch a movie while we eat?"

  "That sounds fun. Then what?"

  "Then, Miss Monroe, we're going dancing."

  Screaming a lot.

  8:30pm

  We set ourselves up in back of the theater room at the bar table, deciding to watch a little college football while we eat. We enjoy part of the game, our dinner, and the whole bottle of wine.

  "I'll go grab another bottle," I tell him. "You pick out a movie."

  When I come back with the bottle, he holds up two movies. "I've narrowed it down to two. Which was really tough considering all the options."

  "They do have a lot of movies," I say, moving our glasses and the wine cooler up to the theater seats in the front. "What'd you come up with?"

  "Well, since we're on an island, I went with a water theme. So we have Jaws, which may be a bad idea, since we'll be out surfing again in the morning, or A Day at the Lake, which I've never gotten to see but is one of my parents' favorites."

  I freeze in the middle of pouring more wine when he mentions my mom's movie. The movie that Vincent wants to remake. The movie that started all this.

  I've seen the movie before. A few years ago. But I don't really remember all that much of it, and I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I need to study this movie. I need to understand the script. I need to try to figure out what Vincent has in mind.

  "A Day at the Lake," I say, sounding too eager. "I mean, I definitely don't want to have bad dreams about being attacked by a shark."

  "Have you ever seen it before?" he asks me.

  "A few years ago, I kinda watched it on TV. But it was one of those things where it was on, but I wasn't really watching. So I've never seen the whole thing. I just remember the girl in the bikini screaming a lot."

  "Perfect," he says. "We'll watch it and then go dancing."

  I snuggle up on the big padded couch next to him, sip my wine, and press play.

  The movie starts out showing my mom's character in her everyday world. Hanging out with her hot frat boyfriend. Her friends hanging out and planning their weekend party at the lake. Figuring out how to get all the alcohol they needed. Who is bringing the weed. The guys are looking forward to hooking up. The girls want to work on their tans. Mom and her boyfriend are adorable together, say they love each other, and have a romantic scene. But there's also a scene where they argue about an archeology semester abroad she really wants to do. You get the impression that he's not supportive of her dreams, so you're not really sure what to think about their relationship as they head to the lake.

  We watch, drink more wine, and then Aiden starts kissing me.

  Saturday, November 26th

  A dangerous journey.

  9am

  I wake up, wondering where I am.

  I squint my eyes, seeing only darkness and feeling Aiden's arm across my shoulder. I remember that we were in the theater room, watching Mom's movie, drinking wine, and kissing.

  We must've both fallen asleep.

  Aiden is still breathing heavily, and I sadly realize that I'm down to my last twenty-four hours with him. That it's our last night together.

  Tick. Tick. Tick.

  I get up and go find Inga. I need to see if she'll make us a special dinner tonight. We'll watch the sunset from the beach, have an amazing meal in the moonlight, and then I'll tell him that I'm not going back.

  The moonlight.

  I suppose that will be a fitting place to tell him I'm leaving, since it's the damn moon's fault. It's like rubbing a dog's nose down by where they peed on the carpet.

  I want the moon to see what it did.

  I shake my head. It sucks. But I have to do it.

>   "Inga, since it's our last night here, I'd like to do a special dinner on the beach at sunset. Would that be possible?"

  "Of course. What would you like on the menu? I have some filets and some fresh mahi mahi."

  "That sounds yummy. Could we have a little of both?"

  "Absolutely." She glances around her kitchen and then grabs my palm. "May I have a closer look?"

  "Um, sure."

  She looks at one palm and then studies the other, shaking her head. "I had a dream about you last night."

  "You did?"

  "Well, about your palm. I dreamed that the line, here, moved. And now I look at it and see that it was not just a dream, but more of a prophecy." She shakes her head. "I've never had something like that happen before."

  "What do you mean?"

  She holds up my left hand. "This hand is what could be." Then she holds up my right hand. "This hand is what is. This line. The one running through your life line on your right hand was not clear before."

  "Does that, like, mean something important?"

  She nods solemnly. "This line breaks your life line. Remember this one, up here, where I said you had cheated death?"

  I swallow hard. "Um, yes."

  "I believe death is coming back for you."

  "Oh," I say.

  She stares at me. "You're not surprised by this. You are about to embark on a dangerous journey, yes?"

  I can't do anything but nod in agreement.

  "And you know that you may not survive?"

  I nod again. "Yes."

  She wipes her reading glasses off on her apron, puts them back on, and studies my palm some more. "Maybe you should consider canceling this journey?"

  I shake my head. "I can't. It's something I have to do."

  "It is about getting your life back?"

  I nod again.

  "You love him, yes?"

  "Yes."

  "Inga will cook you an amazing dinner."

  I nod and give her a grateful smile. "Thank you."

  I walk to the great room window and look out at the ocean, so many thoughts going through my head, when Aiden leans his chin on my shoulder.

  "You ditched me."

  "I was coming back for you."

  "You better always come back for me."

  I reach down and grasp his hand, giving it a squeeze and praying that will even be an option.

  "So what's on tap for today? We haven't done yoga in the sand yet. Or built a sand village."

  "We're surfing and snorkeling today," I hear Damian say.