Sierra Nevada (XXX)

36

People were taking pictures of us as we sat close to each other in the booth and talked quietly about what the coming weeks would look like for us. My phone rang right about the same time his did. I looked at mine and showed it to him. It was Jonna. He looked at his and showed it to me. It was his father. He sat up straight and answered it immediately. The first words out of his mouth were rushed. "Is mom okay?" I was so tempted to answer the phone, but I didn't want to talk over him. I told my phone to tell Jonna that I would call her back then sent her a text to let her know we were out to dinner, that he was on the phone and that he asked me if I wanted to go public. Her response was a brief "you are" followed by two links to twitter threads. I checked out the links and looked up to find the source of the images. I found the teenage girl from the campsite and instantly saw red.

"Babe, you might want to wipe that expression off your pretty face," his voice softly said to me as his hand touched my shoulder. I turned away from the nosy little bitch and gave him my attention. He was still on the phone, but he leaned down and kissed me gently. I watched his eyes close for the few seconds that he let the kiss linger. He closed it audibly. "I love you." He whispered and smoothed my hair back. "Was that not Jonna?" I looked at him like he was being awfully rude to his father. "I'm on hold he is walking to the other room to take the phone to my mom." I could hear his phone beep in his ear. He pulled it away and looked at it. "Esther. I just need Josh to call and that will be all of us." His mother's soft voice came over the phone. "Mom. Esther is calling. No, I haven't seen them. I am talking to you and can't look at my phone." I held up my phone for him to see. He set it on the table between us and sifted through the tweets. "She has her phone. Yes, I see. Yes, I know. Well, the cat is out of the bag now, isn't it? Not that I am trying to keep it in. I know. Yes we are being cautious aren't we dear?" He looked at me with wide and beautiful eyes.

"I don't think that is what she is talking about, Avriel. But yes, we are."

"She can't come to LA for a couple of weeks yet mom. Yes, she'll be at my first show. I know. I know. I was going to facetime you when we got back to the cabin and introduce you that way. I am not going to do that now. Mom. Esther is calling again. I should just add you to the call. Hello?" He was positively in command and grinning from one of his ears to the next. He was honestly enjoying this. Brat. "No, Esther. It's not a joke. No, I am not angry at all. Yes actually I am still with her, that's not going to change before tomorrow and maybe if I'm lucky it won't change at all. Anyway, listen. We are eating dinner. I love you guys, but I need to finish this dinner and I am being horribly rude to my girlfriend. "We'll Facetime you when we get back to a private place. Love you. Tell dad I love him and Josh too if you talk to him." He was shaking his head when he got off the phone.

He looked over at the young girl taking photos of us. "Excuse me, Love." He slipped out of the seat and walked over to the table where the girl and her family sat. I don't know what he said, but he took a selfie with the girl, hugged her and returned to me. I looked over and she was paying attention to her family again and not us.

"What did you say to her?"

He smiled a very radiant smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He laughed to himself then looked at my unamused face and laughed even more. I couldn't help it. I joined him. He stopped just as suddenly as he started and leaned in to kiss my cheek.

"Isn't she the one that took the video?"

"Yes. She apologized to both of us." 

I looked at him skeptically. "What did you say?"

"I asked her what she was hoping to catch a picture of. She was kinda shy about it but she told me that she was hoping to catch me kissing you. I asked if I could just kiss you on the cheek because that was about as PDA as I'll ever be except maybe holding hands." He smiled that wonderful beautiful smile of his and I about came undone right there. I wondered if I would ever not lose it when I was with him. "So if you don't mind. I am going to kiss your cheek and she is going to take a picture of that and likely post it all over social media. If you don't want that, then I won't kiss you here. I'll just wait until we get back to the cabin and then I will kiss you until you beg me to stop."

"Well, then your lips will fall off because I don't ever want you to stop kissing me. How about option 3" I smiled and watched him squirm. I hoped I made him feel that way forever.

"What is that?"

"You kiss my cheek here and she gets her picture and you kiss me until I beg you to stop once we get to the cabin."

He turned a little red at that but smiled happily. "Okay."

"I don't mind if you don't. Did you tell her my name?"

"No." He smiled. His eyes said that he really wanted to. It wasn't anything that he hadn't done before. I nodded. He waved the girl over and wrapped both his arms around me. I put my hands on his arm as it crossed my chest and smiled. I closed my eyes when he kissed my cheek. I also looked up directly into the camera and gave it my sexiest smolder. It was warm and comforting to have him so close. It was also very arousing. The girl was still all shy and giddy when she approached the table and introduced herself. She showed me the pictures first and Avi leaned over and looked at them. He liked them both very much and asked what I thought. Since I liked them, he asked her to wait until after he posted tomorrow to post it and to DM them to him. She nodded and skipped off to join her family.

He turned and he smiled at me. "I better come up with a good one. She won't be able to wait long to announce you to the world. Everyone already has their eyes on her. She said she was sorry about the video. Did I tell you that already?"

"You did."

"Good." He stole a quick kiss and looked at the check.