He reached across the table and brushed his thumb across my lower lip before he touched my chin to lift my gaze to his. “You're upset.”
“Not upset. It would be unfair of me to be upset over something you did when we didn't even know each other. It's just the idea of you being intimate with someone makes me jealous.”
“And have you?” He asked.
“No.”
A possessive look moved over his features. He said, in a gruff voice, “If you had been with someone before me, I would have understood, but I would hate that guy because he knew you in a way only I want to know.”
Lowering my head, I struggled to find the right words because they were so foreign on my tongue.
“What are you thinking, Lark?”
Somehow I managed to find and hold his heated gaze. “I want to with you, have sex I mean.”
“I want that too.” His voice had grown thick.
“I think we should wait, though, until after my birthday.”
“Why?”
“I don't really know. Maybe because of your parents and their need to meddle or maybe because it's so close anyway.”
Something dark swept across his face and I suspected my concern over his parents' meddling wasn't crazy after all. He didn't speak of it though and instead asked, “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
He leaned over and kissed me—quick, but full of meaning. “I'll be counting the days.”
“Me too.”
His grin in reply was wicked.
“There's something else I've been wanting to tell you. Ms. Whitney applied for a scholarship for me and I won it.”
“That's awesome, congratulations.” As I watched though his smile at the news suddenly faded. “Are you not going to Columbia?”
“I'm still going to Columbia.”
“Thank God.”
“But, there is a but. It's a full academic scholarship and I also have to mentor with the man who's sponsoring it. Due to some personal reasons for him, I have to move to Harrington, Maine at the end of April.”
He caught on immediately. “No senior prom.”
“I'm afraid not.”
“I won't lie, I really would have liked having the most beautiful girl in the state of New York on my arm for prom, but there's no question you should go to Maine.”
“You're not upset?”
“Upset? No. Disappointed, sure, but I'm so damn proud of you.”
I climbed into his lap and wrapped him in my arms. “Thank you.”
“In fact, since you're going to be gone all summer, I think I'm going to accept an apprenticeship I was offered in Massachusetts working on restoring old homes.”
“That's wonderful.”