AllFreeNovel
Share Us
EMILY
For two days, Archie and I stayed in bed. We paused to shower, for a walk around the neighborhood when we realized neither one of us knew whether it was even day or night, and to make a quick run to the grocery store. And I called my parents to reassure them everything was good. But other than that? Bed.
It was as if we were making up for the days we’d spent apart, for the time we’d been emotionally separated, and for the time we were together, but without the full context of our identities revealed. Now, we weren’t simply naked physically, each of us was exposed completely in other ways too.
And it was the most meaningful, tender, and fulfilling time I’d ever known.
As the sun tracked across the wall of my bedroom, we laughed, slept, and loved one another as if no one else existed in the world.
And we made plans.
“I brought you something,” Archie told me as I nestled against the solid warmth of his chest.
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been enjoying it for the last couple days,” I said, dropping a kiss against his warm skin as a laugh rumbled through him.
“Not that,” he said, smiling down at me as he pushed my hair away from my face. “I brought you a gift.”
“Well, excuse me for saying so, butthatis quite a gift, you know.”
He laughed again, a beautiful pink tinge coloring his neck and cheeks. “I’m very glad you think so,” he whispered. “But it’s something else. Hang on.” Archie slid from my grasp and walked across my room to where his backpack sagged against the door frame. He squatted, every muscle in his back and powerful legs on display and giving me ideas about what I might do to him once he slipped back into bed. I wasn’t done with him yet. I didn’t feel like I’d ever get enough of touching him, feeling him inside me.
“This,” Archie said, presenting me with a square of folded paper before rejoining me.
I slid up to sitting, propping myself against the mound of pillows pressed up to the headboard, and he sat beside me, his eyes glowing.
“What is it?” I asked, taking the thin paper in my hand, and staring at it. It felt old, delicate, like it might crumble if I wasn’t careful.
“So traditionally, when one is presented with a gift, it is customary to open the gift as a means of discerning its makeup and identity.”
I whacked him hard on the shoulder. “Smartass.”
There wasn’t a lot to open; it was more of an unfolding. But I did so gingerly, careful not to rip the paper, laying out theitem across my lap. It was, indeed, a piece of paper. It was beige and the edges were torn and weathered. It looked like a treasure map, except for one thing.
“It’s blank.”
“Not entirely.” Archie pointed to the single item in the center of the map. It was a line drawing that looked like a building of some kind. And a couple of evergreen trees were drawn on either side of it, along with a hill beneath it.
“Is that Kasper Ridge?”
“See? You really are good at this treasure hunting thing.”
That earned him another whack.
I turned to look up into his gleeful face, the “map” between us. “I want to love it and to get as excited as I can see you are,” I told him. “But I’m so confused.” The end came out as a whine and Archie reached out to stroke my jaw and plant a careful kiss on my lips.
“It is a map,” he said lifting it to hold it up. “And it’s blank because it’s up to us to fill in.”
“Oh.” I still didn’t really get it.
“Don’t you remember what Uncle Marvin said? Life and love are the treasure.”
I nodded, beginning to understand as love for this man swelled inside me.
“This is my way of asking you if you’ll go on an adventure with me. I know my time at Kasper Ridge is done—at least, I know I don’t need to be there all the time now. There’s a whole world out there, waiting for me to discover it. And I want to do it with you.”
Confidence brought the thought I’d been considering to my lips at last. “Maybe we should put Costa Rica down here?” I asked, pointing to the bottom of the map.
Ghost frowned and moved my finger higher. “Better scoot it up to leave room for Antarctica.”
