Ever: The Ever Trilogy, Book One (Volume 1) (13 page)

Mmm,
I thought, breathing him in. He smelled fresh … like Irish Spring soap.

He moved his face up and found my mouth, closing over it with his own in a slightly restrained kiss. When he stopped and pulled away, I was happily breathless.

“Well, hello to you too,” I said with a giggle.

“Hey.” He kissed me again, but this time just a quick peck. “You look
especially
amazing today.”

I ran my hand over the braid hanging over my shoulder, twisting the bottom of it in my fingers. “Um, thanks,” I managed to get out through my huge smile and red cheeks. I was giddy all over again, the butterfly frenzy in my stomach becoming a usual occurrence now. I’d have to get used to that. Not that I was complaining.

He was wearing dark-washed blue jeans and a black and white ringer. His faded black boots had been replaced with black Chuck Taylors. I was sure Jessie would be glad to know we weren’t
totally
matching, but the converse made me think of Frankie, sending a pang of guilt through me. With a deep breath and a quick shake of my head, I pushed the guilt aside and made myself focus on the guy in front of me instead of the ghost in my house.

“So … it turns out my parents want to meet you.”

His eyebrows rose slightly, but he smiled.

“Okay. Is
now
good? I mean, I can only be out in the sunlight for so long, you know.”

I laughed at his vampire reference and gently shoved him, grabbing his hand to head inside. When we entered the house, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my parents weren’t standing on the other side of the door. Instead, they were sitting at the kitchen table, and my mom was brewing a fresh pot of coffee. When they saw us, my dad stood and shook Toby’s hand, while I introduced him to them both.

“Toby, this is my dad, George, and my mom, Annabelle. Guys, this is obviously Toby.”

After that, I just stood there. I had absolutely no idea what to say after the introductions were made. Luckily, my mom quickly went into hostess mode, getting everyone a cup of coffee and placing some banana bread on the table.

“Well, Toby, you and your father are antiques dealers, is that correct?”

Toby glanced at me curiously before he smiled at my mom, diving into a similar explanation as the one he’d given me.

Funny, I didn’t remember telling my mom about Toby’s profession.

My dad, clearly much less impressed or curious about Toby’s work, interrupted the story smoothly and changed the topic to one about cars.

“Say son, what year is that black stallion you’ve got parked outside?”

My mom clucked her tongue at my dad for interrupting, but did so with a smile, and I knew she was just pleased to see him joining in the conversation with Toby.

“Nineteen sixty-five, sir. Want to take it for a spin?”

And that’s when Toby won my dad’s heart. Their mutual knowledge and adoration of classic cars made for a very easy conversation between the two of them. My nervousness faded away. The four of us took a few quick spins around the neighborhood, my dad smiling like a circus clown the entire time.

About an hour later, pleased with both my choice in boys
and
my easy-going parents, I kissed my mom and dad goodbye and headed out for my date.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad. You’re parents seem pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I guess they are, aren’t they?”

It had gone
really
well in fact, and luckily, I hadn’t seen even a trace of Frankie while we’d been inside.

“So, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise. There’s somewhere I’d really like to go, and I’m hoping once we get there that you can show me around. Ready?” He hurried in front of me to open the door to the Mustang.

As we pulled out of Toby’s driveway, I noticed his dad standing in the window of their living room. My mom’s gossip mill information had been correct—he
was
insanely handsome, although a bit young looking. I deduced it was where Toby’s good looks came from. My appreciation of him ended abruptly, as did my sense of relaxation after the smooth meeting between Toby and my parents, when I caught his dad’s fierce stare. The way he was looking at me sent a chill down my spine.

I shuddered.
What the hell?

Toby looked over at me and followed my eyes to the front of his house. When he saw his dad standing there, his jaw hardened, and he picked up speed. We practically burned rubber getting out of the driveway.

“Whoa. Easy there, Speed Racer. You okay?”

“Yeah, I just … never mind. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just excited to spend the day with you, that’s all.”

I knew there was more to it but didn’t push him further. I had already concluded that Toby would rather talk about
anything
than his home life and his family, and I was okay with that. He’d tell me when he was ready. Plus, he had just endured over an hour of talking with my parents, and even though it hadn’t been nearly as torturous as I’d thought it would be, it couldn’t have been the greatest way for Toby to start his day.

But as we drove away, I couldn’t shake the strange feeling his dad’s stare left me with.

After a little over twenty minutes of driving, I realized that the
somewhere
he’d like to go was the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I hadn’t been there forever and didn’t really think of it as a
date
type place. But I was open, and seeing the ship looming up in front of us turned out to be a bit more exciting than I would have expected. The ship was massive.

Toby quickly came to my side of the car, opening the door for me and taking me by the hand. His fingers intertwined with mine, and he gave my hand a squeeze that sent sensations throughout my body. I was falling fast, and falling hard, and I hadn’t thought about Frankie in—well, that’s not necessarily accurate, but I was
trying
not to think about Frankie. That’s really the best I could do, and more than I’d done before.

The ship was bigger than I even remembered. Once onboard, we headed to lunch at the Promenade Café. The hostess sat us at a table near a wall of windows overlooking the harbor. The day was beautiful and sunny with very little smog, so the view was amazing.

The restaurant gave me the same feeling of stepping back in time that the rest of the ship did, with carpet that had an art deco pattern in shades of blue, mustard, cream, burgundy, and black, and large circular lights popping out of the ceiling like portholes looking in, not out. Amid all the architectural details from the 1930’s, I felt as though I was actually a part of something larger than myself.

We ordered our meals and waited, reading through various pamphlets while we did. As soon as the plates were on the table, we simultaneously removed the dill pickle spears from our plates. We noticed ourselves doing it at the same time and laughed.

“I hate pickles,” he said, grinning around a mouthful of burger.

“I only like Bread and Butter pickles.”

We talked a bit during the meal, and I told him everything I knew about the Queen Mary … which was very little. Our server, after overhearing us and helping herself to a seat at our table, began telling us about a couple tours we could take, rambling on and on about the haunted tour while absently rubbing one of her old, callused heels with equally old and callused fingers.

She proceeded to tell us about the people—
ghosts
—who resided aboard the Queen Mary, which of course made me think of my own ghost. Feeling annoyed by my thoughts, I tried to push him out of my mind and listen to her stories.

One couple in particular, who you could occasionally—
supposedly
—see swimming in the pool, was the focus of her story. Apparently, these were the ghosts that she’d personally had contact with. She explained to us that she’d been on the deck by herself after her shift just a few weeks ago, when the man waved to her from the water, smiling and beckoning for her to join them. Toby and I looked across the table at each other with amusement in our eyes, and poorly hidden smiles on our faces.

I was fighting a very strong urge to kiss him. But I decided that doing so right in front of our waitress might be frowned upon.
Especially
while she was mid-story. Still, the desire to do so was there nonetheless.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” she accused, noting our smiles. “Well, that’s fine. I know what I saw. You two aren’t too scared to check it out for yourselves now, are you?”

Um, no.
Our server definitely had a few ghost stories of her own, but I knew her
experiences
had nothing on mine. I just smiled at her and shook my head, not knowing how to answer, when what I’d really like to do was invite her over to dinner. Not only would my ghost smile and wave at her, but he’d sit right down next to her and strike up a conversation. I had no doubt that his slightly crooked smile, big brown eyes, and casual ease would charm the pants right off that tired old waitress. She winked at me, as if following my thoughts, and turned back toward the kitchen.

After we paid our tab, we did a little exploring. We passed a door with a sign that read Stairs to Engine Room, and Toby grabbed my hand, pulling me through the door. Once on the other side, the door closed behind us, and we descended the stairs. Toby was smiling mischievously all the while, like we were doing something we shouldn’t be doing. I just laughed and allowed him to lead me further down the narrow, metal staircase.

After a few turns, and going through a door or two along the way, we were in one of the inner stairwells of the ship, between the engine room and lowest visitor-accessible decks, when he pulled me quickly out of sight. We ducked under a burgundy velvet rope with a sign hanging from it stating
KEEP OUT.
I let a little shriek escape me, though I wasn’t really scared, and followed Toby through another door.

Once inside, I looked around at our strange surroundings. We were in a warm, dark room with walls that looked like they were sweating. I glanced around and realized they were wet from steam. The sound of gears turning and machines clicking was an overwhelming noise. I knew these weren’t the actual engines for the ship since the Queen Mary hadn’t departed Long Beach Harbor in decades and those particular engines wouldn’t be running. But it must have been some sort of machinery room that helped run the hotel and restaurants above us.

Toby pulled me tightly to him and kissed me, pressing me back against the wall with his body. He had both hands on my hips, and one hand moved slowly up my waist. My nerves shot into overdrive as his fingers lightly grazed the side of my chest on their ascent to my hair.

“Finally,” he whispered between kisses. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about kissing you all afternoon.”

I giggled, and he pulled back to look at me.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing … I … I’ve just been thinking the exact same thing.” I giggled again, embarrassed by my honesty.

He smiled broadly and resumed kissing me, his right hand cradling my head and his other hand resting on my hip, thumb hooked into one of my belt loops.

A few minutes later, we heard a door open and close, followed by footsteps that stopped just on the other side of the huge metal tanks we were standing behind. Toby looked at me and put his finger up to his mouth in a silencing motion. I held my breath, praying we wouldn’t get caught.

I felt the hand on my waist begin to move as he unhooked his thumb from my belt loop and slowly slid his hand up under my shirt. My breath caught in my throat, and I bit my lip, trying to keep quiet. My nerves were going crazy, and all the blood in my body seemed to be rushing toward the places where his fingers met with the bare skin of my belly. He looked at me, staring deep into my eyes, and my heart rate increased even more. I wondered where his hand would move to next, and when he started to lean in again for a kiss, I opened my mouth to inhale a breath and … .

He tickled me.

Laughter flew past my lips before I could stop myself, and Toby started laughing too. He grabbed my hand, and we pushed past the stout security guard and out the door we had come in through.

He started to follow us, his angry voice a booming threat that echoed off the steel walls behind us. “Kids! Hey, you two! Stop! I knew I saw you come in here! The sign says
Keep Out!
Can’t you kids read these days?”

We ran out onto the deck and headed to the front of the ship, never looking back. When we got there, the security guard was nowhere to be found, so we stopped to catch our breath.

The rest of the day was like that. I felt like a little kid, running from place to place, letting Toby chase me for kisses, stopping only to laugh and catch our breath. I couldn’t remember ever having this much fun.

We were walking back through the ship and stopped to check out a small replica of the Titanic when I realized we weren’t alone. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, as if someone had run a cold finger up my spine. I shivered and turned around quickly.

A pale, ghostly woman stood off to the side, well out of the way of any foot traffic. She wore a long, flowing white dress that moved around her ankles as if the wind was blowing the light fabric. We were inside. There was no wind. She watched us with a sad, wary look on her face. When I made eye contact with her, her eyes widened as though she was as shocked that I was seeing her as I was. She looked from me to Toby and shook her head from side to side, as if she was telling me no. I felt a shiver go through me.

Toby realized I wasn’t looking at the display anymore and turned. Seeing the haunted look on my face, he squeezed my hand.

“Babe? What’s wrong? You’re all pale.”

He followed my gaze to the corner of the great room, and then looked back at me, obviously seeing nothing.

He can’t see her.

“Ev? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost. Are you okay?”

Ha. A ghost. I’ve just seen a ghost.
I’d never seen another ghost before. I was
not
okay.