Fragile(23)
Author: M. Leighton

Miracle’s.

He was nearly home free when his father’s booming voice stopped him in his tracks. His fingers were wound around the door knob and his keys were in his hand.

“Hardy! Where are you going?”

Emerald green eyes that felt like home and crinkled in laughter hovered at the back of his mind, but his lips said the first thing he could find beyond them. “The carnival. I won’t be late.”

When he was met with silence, he twisted the knob and all but ran down the walk to his car. It wasn’t until he found himself once more on Miracle’s stoop that he worried again at what a poor impression he was making on her and her family. But that was far from enough to stop him from ringing the bell. At that moment, he wasn’t sure what, if anything could’ve stopped him.

Kelly St. James opened the door and, much to Hardy’s relief, she said nothing. She simply tilted her head to the side for a moment and then shook it in exasperation, stepping back to let Hardy enter.

“Miracle!” she called before indicating the couch. “Have a seat.”

Hardy felt he should say something, try to explain the bizarre way he kept turning up at the front door, unannounced. But he had no idea what to say, how to explain why he couldn’t seem to stay away from Miracle. And if he did, Kelly would probably forbid Miracle to get anywhere near him anymore, thinking him some sort of crazed lunatic slash stalker. So Hardy simply sank down onto the soft sofa cushion and propped his elbows on his knees, settling in to wait.

Movement to his right drew his eye. Miracle had appeared just inside the living room doorway, where she’d stopped, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the jamb, watching him silently.

Hardy could only imagine what she must be thinking, what with the way he’d left the night before. He knew he needed to apologize and offer up some kind of explanation, but he didn’t yet know quite what to say. In the absence of that, he went with playful.

“Do you have a cell phone?” he asked, breaking the silence.

He saw the wrinkle of confusion drift over her brow and disappear. Then she nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“Can I see it?”

Miracle frowned again, but turned to leave the room. A few seconds later, she returned with a small dark pink rectangle. She held it up and Hardy grinned.

“Can I see it up close?”

Miracle’s lips twitched as she crossed the room to stand in front of him. She held the phone right up to his face.

“Is that close enough?”

Hardy grabbed her wrist and took the cell phone from her fingers, keeping hold of her as he moved his thumb across the keyboard. A few seconds later, a buzz sounded from Hardy’s pocket and he placed Miracle’s phone back in her hand.

“What did you do?”

“I sent myself a text from your phone. Now we have each other’s number.”

“Maybe I didn’t want your number.”

Although Hardy felt a pang somewhere in the vicinity of his heart, he knew he deserved that. But he wasn’t going to let it stop him. “Well, I wanted yours.”

“Maybe I didn’t want you to have mine.”

“Too late now. It’s 3 a.m. prank calls from here on out. Sorry.”

“Oh, so it’s gonna be like that?”

“Yep. It’s the only way.”

“The only way to what?”

“To make you think of me at 3 a.m.”

“And why do you want me thinking of you at 3 a.m.?”

“Because your defenses will be down and I’ll be able to get inside your head more easily.”

“Why do you want inside my head?”

A glib response rose quickly to Hardy’s mind, but as he looked up at Miracle—standing so close to him that he could count every eyelash and smell her heavenly scent—he became so consumed with her, it died on his lips. It seemed he was in this state more often than not, whether she was around or not.

“Because you’re inside mine,” he said, coming to his feet. As he rose, Miracle craned her neck to look up at him and Hardy wanted nothing more than to kiss her. When her lips parted the tiniest bit, he wondered if she was thinking the same thing. “It’s only fair.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for several long, tense seconds before Miracle laughed nervously and took a step back.

“Well, just so you know, you’ll have to deal with Mom if you run up my phone bill. I’m not taking the blame for nocturnal pranks.”

“Deal,” Hardy said softly, shoving his hands into his pockets to keep them off her; they itched to touch her smooth cheek. “Hey, you wanna come with me to the carnival?”

He hadn’t really intended to go to the carnival; that had just been for his father’s benefit. But now that he was here with Miracle, he didn’t know how else to prolong his time with her.

“We could take the cameras, of course, in case we find some really good people shots for class.”

A knowing grin curved the edges of Miracle’s mouth and Hardy knew that she could see right through the flimsy pretext. He held his breath, awaiting her response.

Miracle started nodding slowly. “The carnival, huh? I could do that.” The fact that she went along with it made Hardy’s heart soar. “You know, since it’s for school and all.”

Her eyes sparkled devilishly and Hardy nearly laughed.

“Give me five minutes to change, k?”

With that, she hurried out of the room. As Hardy watched her go, he wanted to stop her, to tell her that she looked great in what she was wearing, an outfit that made his pulse jump up into a faster rhythm. But he didn’t. He was too busy remembering how long her legs looked beneath the ragged hem of her cut-off shorts and how graceful her neck was in the scoop-neck t-shirt.

Less than five minutes later, she re-emerged wearing her usual baggy jeans. At least she wasn’t wearing a form-hiding sweater, though. She had left her t-shirt on.

As Miracle slipped her feet into flip flops, Hardy was almost wishing she had changed tops as well. The thin mint green material of her shirt clung snugly to her br**sts, making Hardy feel tight and achy in all the wrong places. Purposely, he turned his head and moved toward the door, holding it open for her.

“I won’t be late, Mom,” Miracle called as she pulled the strap of her cross-body bag over her head. With a quick smile, she breezed past Hardy. “All right. Let’s go.”

********

Considering the strained nature of their last couple of interludes, Hardy was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to be with Miracle. There was something about her that was thrilling yet comfortable. Enticing yet soothing. Fiery yet calm. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted another girl—physically and emotionally—yet he wanted to protect her from the world, from pain and harm and heartache, at the same time. Something about her tugged at his heart. He wanted to love her and shield her, like a rare, delicate flower. Like she was frail and breakable. Tender and precious. Fragile