Wild Ride - The Alternative Version (Book 2)

Chapter 32~Christmas Day

Elise's POV

My eyes slowly opened to a bright room and I reached up to rub the grogginess from my eyes. It was then that I noticed I was laying on top of something, or more like someone, and that someone was very warm. I lifted my head slightly and looked up to see Jimmy staring back down at me with a smile on his face. I smiled back at him and he whispered, 

"Merry Christmas." 

I laid my head back on his chest and replied happily, "Merry Christmas. I'm surprised Abbie hasn't already woken up and launched herself onto the bed to wake us up." 

"Mm, I know. I half expected her to while waiting for you to wake up. But, y'know, after that big plan of hers last night she was pretty exhausted." He said.

I laughed. "What a little devious runt that kid is. Who knew she could pull such a thing off." 

"You have to expect the unexpected with her, but I'm very glad that she did pull it off." Jimmy pointed out. "If she hadn't, we wouldn't be together most likely, because the whole reason she did that was because I was too chicken to tell you how I felt." 

"I felt the same way towards you. That guy that I liked, who liked someone else, was you. I never once thought that it might've been possible that the girl you were in love with was me." I told him.

"Well, you've been that girl for two years and three months now." He informed me, and my head shot up off his chest in shock as I stared at him. He laughed a little at my sudden surprise. "Well, actually, longer than that. Eight years and nine months is more like it." 

I sat up. "What?" 

Jimmy sat up with me and nodded. "The night we slept together, the first one, in which Abbie was conceived, I had spotted you at the bar and thought that you were absolutely beautiful in every way, but there was not a chance in hell that I could ever end up with you. So, seeing that you were sad looking, I decided to talk to you and see if I couldn't get somewhere with you. Now, I don't want you to think that I slept with you because I wanted to prove something to myself, because that's not what happened. My first thought wasn't to sleep with you. I wanted to befriend you and then go further from there, but we'd been drinking, and I don't remember how we ended up kissing but we did, and it escalated, quite obviously. The problem was, I never saw you again afterward, and I was with a lot of girls after you, but none of them were like you." 

He paused and smiled at me, running his fingers through my hair and tucking it behind my ear. "But when I saw you, I fell in love, so when you came back, I did what I'd originally set out to do at the bar that night without intentionally trying, and befriended you. Then, it didn't take me long after you took care of me just after Jasmine's death to fall hard for you all over again, without even knowing it until we slept together again. When you told me about Abbie's theory about us being in love, that was when it hit me. Ever since, I've been longing to tell you but I just didn't know how because I was so afraid you'd tell me you didn't feel the same way and just label me as that guy you have a kid with, and nothing more." 

Blushing, I smiled back at him before hugging him tightly. "Aw, Jimmy! I don't know how you could possibly think that you wouldn't have a shot with me, you act like I'm out of your league and that's definitely not true. It's more like I'm out of yours if anything. And, you're too special to be labeled that way, nor would I ever label you that. But that's why you could never get Mike's name right, wasn't it?"

He chuckled and smiled shyly. "Um, yeah. You could say I was jealous of the lucky guy."  

"Well, there's good news, I'm all yours."  I said. 

His hand came up and rested on my cheek gently, his thumb caressing my skin. He rested his forehead against mine and said, "Good, because you're all I want." He closed the space between our lips, sending shocks through my body.