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“I won’t get scared. Who do you think I am?”
I laughed a little.
The movie soon got quite scary, as I had not anticipated the older movies to be full of scares that didn’t rely on horrible jump scares as newer movies did. The first time I saw the villain show up on the screen, I yelped and hid my head in my hands. Seeing a little girl squeeze her body out of a television like that was horrifying.
If I was out of my depth, there was no way I was admitting it to Maverick. Not when he had already warned me that if I got scared, I couldn’t hide in his shoulder. I glanced up at the television, only to find that she had disappeared off the screen. That I was quite thankful for.
Maverick snorted softly.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to get scared. It’s clearly something she’s trained to do, that actor. That was a good bit of acrobatics, though,” he said.
“Hey… I thought you weren’t watching,” I teased.
His face flushed a little.
I jumped and screamed a few more times when Maverick finally put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. This close, I could feel his heart beating under my hand, which he had guided there. Feeling his heart beating steadily and calmly helped me calm my own racing heart.
“There. Not so bad now, is it?”
“No. Not at all.”
I looked up at Maverick and noticed that despite his best efforts, he was enjoying himself. The rest of the movie was spent hiding my head in his chest when I got startled. It became a reflex that was almost second nature to me, though I knew that he had never wanted it to get that way.
When the movie was over, Maverick put the DVD away for me. I took a deep breath and turned the television off. Why had I decided to do that to myself?
“Will you be able to sleep tonight?”
“Yeah. I should be able to. There’s still a couple of hours before I really should be heading to bed, anyway,” I said. “I never go to bed immediately after a horror film.”
He nodded.
“Well, you know where I’m sleeping if you need me, right?”
“Maverick, are you offering to help me get to sleep if I can’t find it myself?” I put my hands on my hips as I asked, half-teasing him and half-serious.
He nodded.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, I’m in the room to the side of the kitchen, right above your room,” he said.
With that, he walked through the kitchen and to his room. I wandered outside and sat in one of the chairs. I wanted to see the stars and the mountains that we were surrounded by. After all, it would have been awful to try to go to sleep now, so soon after that movie.
As everyone else filtered inside to go to bed, I sat and counted the stars, or at least tried to. I was able to find the little and big dippers but that was about all. I wasn’t an astronomer by any means. What beautiful country this is, I thought as I could see the mountains lit by the moonlight. With such serenity, it didn’t take long before my heart slowed down enough that I felt I could go to bed.
It didn’t take me long to fall asleep. Though I occasionally grimaced as flashes of the movie played in my head, I always ended up changing the thoughts to the way I had been able to snuggle with Maverick on the couch. He’d been so sweet to do that…
But when I woke up the next morning – Wednesday – I was suddenly glad that we had watched the horror movie the night before. As I checked my schedule, I remembered that Stacey and Caleb had scheduled a free day for all of us today.
Maybe I’d run over to Caleb’s parent’s house to see Mom and Dad. My folks had flown in from South Carolina yesterday and were staying with Caleb’s parents. They had developed a good friendship with each other before my parents decided to move to South Carolina – at least for a year or two. Dad had always wanted to live in Myrtle Beach, where he could golf pretty much year-round. He had retired, and they decided the time was now. So they sold their house and made the move. Shortly after that, Elliott moved there as well. Me? I was already in Texas. And Stacey? She was in love and had no intention of leaving Idaho.
I made my way upstairs for breakfast after getting dressed. In the kitchen, I found Caleb making crepes for everyone while quietly discussing something with Stacey. Most of the wedding party had already started eating, and I took it upon myself to go prep myself two crepes once they were off the pan.
“I hope you enjoy them. They’re absolutely delicious,” Stacey said. “This is my favorite breakfast thing that he makes.”
I turned to Caleb and found him blushing just a bit. I smiled a little.
“They smell delicious, but I’m sure half the fun of it is the toppings,” I stated. “Oh, Maverick and I have finalized the plans for the bachelor/bachelorette party tomorrow night. We’ll be going to the Black Key restaurant for a reservation at four-thirty, with dancing, music, and games to follow at a club just a couple of blocks down the street. If we take all the cars, everyone can return to their accommodations as they see fit.”
Stacey and Caleb both smiled.
