Diving Deep (UK Crush #2)

Chapter 40

We took a break from walking on a convenient bench and sat in the fall sunshine. He pulled me close, tipping my head into his neck. We just sat that way for a while, holding hands, rubbing fingers. He kept pulling me closer, even though there was no more room.

"Can't you sit any closer?" he complained, fruitlessly pulling on me.

"The only way for me to be any closer would be for me to actually sit on your lap," I said.

"Okay," he agreed, lifting me onto his lap. Technically it wasn't his lap, since he spread his legs so I was sitting on the bench between them, but still.

"Much better," he said. "Now I can get my arms all the way around you--get your knees up, Birdie--" he hooked his hands together. "Now, tuck your head under my chin, just there," he said, lifting his chin. I obliged. "Perfect," he declared. "Now, if we could just stay this way forever..."

"Teddy," I said, "I'm kind of scrunched up, and I can't really breathe very well."

"Well, we all have to make sacrifices for love, now, don't we?" he replied, holding me even tighter. I gasped.

"Oh, all right," he said, releasing me. "But just so you know, it was working perfectly well for me." He repositioned his arms around my back and around my neck, weaving his fingers into my hair. I leaned on him, as content as I ever had been.

"Excuse me, are you Theo Shelley?" A shadow fell over us as the quiet voice spoke. We looked up to see a girl of about ten, with knee socks and braces, in obvious agony.

"Well, I'm not, but he is," I said with a laugh, sitting up.

"Oh, please don't sit up and bother yourself," she said, shaking her bobbed brown hair violently. I always was a sucker for bobbed hair.

"It's no bother," said Teddy, sitting forward with me between his legs. "We were just doing nothing when you came along, honest. What's your name?"

"Ruthie Ann Patton. That's my sister over there." She pointed to where an older girl stood watching. "She told me to come and check if you were really him. I said no. She said if I didn't she wouldn't let me in the bedroom tonight, so I had to. She said if it was really you, I was to come and get her straight away."

"Did she?" Teddy laughed. "Well, she can probably wait a few minutes, don't you think?

"Did you want a photograph with me, Ruthie Ann Patton?" he asked.

She nodded eagerly, pulling a phone out of her pocket. I stood up.

"How about if I take it?" I suggested. "Then you won't have an arm stretching out of the frame or anything." She handed me the phone, and I took a few.

Teddy laughed when he saw the pictures. "I forgot I was wearing this," he said, pulling the hat off.

"It's so cute," Ruthie said.

"Do you like it?" Teddy asked her.

"I love it," she said, smiling.

He looked at me questioningly, and I nodded vigorously, of course. He put it on her head, pulling the ear flaps down by the tassels. "Then you shall have it, Ruthie Ann Patton, by all means," he said.

"Thank you, so much! And who's she?" she asked shyly, pointing at me.

"She is my girlfriend, people call her Tinker Bell," Teddy told her.

"That's a funny name," Ruthie said, laughing.

"Yes, it's a nickname. You know who Ronan is?" he asked her.