The Tenderness of Thieves by Freitas Donna

Author:Freitas, Donna [Freitas, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-05-10T23:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

“YOU LOOK . . .” HANDEL stopped before he finished the sentence.

It was late, almost midnight.

Handel and I decided to meet up on the docks by the wharf after I left the Ocean Club, way out over the water where the fishermen kept their boats. There was no one around on a Friday night at this hour.

I could barely wait to get there. Here. To see him.

He was all I wanted.

“I look what?” I asked him. “Like someone I’m not?”

I followed Handel to the place where his father’s boat was tied up. My high heels dangled in my right hand. It felt good to be on solid ground again, heading along the boardwalk, that familiar rough wood underfoot, the type you had to know how to walk on so you didn’t get splinters. It was a relief to be with this boy who made me swoon just by standing there and looking at me. Handel got under my skin without having to try, and I think I got under his, too. I could tell, the way the electricity was flowing off him and reaching out to me, wanting me with such intensity, that this was true.

“No,” Handel said, glancing at me. “You look beautiful, and you’re always beautiful, which means that you’re being exactly who you’ve always been.”

My face flushed. I loved what Handel just told me. “You think I’m beautiful?”

“Yes.” His reply was so blatant. So unabashed.

“That’s new for me.”

“What is?”

“Someone saying I’m beautiful like it’s a given. A boy, I mean. Like you.”

Handel held out his hand to help me step onto the boat. “How could that be new?”

I climbed over the bow and hopped to the floor. His fingers were gentle but firm. “I haven’t dated too many people before.” I hesitated, then decided to keep going. “I’ve always flown under the radar, I guess.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

I gave Handel a skeptical look. “You can honestly say you knew of my existence before this year?”

Handel busied himself arranging a place for us to sit on one of the benches that lined the side of the boat, piling lobster crates off to the side so there was more space, pulling out a couple of cushions from a storage cubby. “I might not have known,” he admitted.

“See. I told you.”

When the seat was ready, Handel settled himself onto it, and I settled myself next to him. “But once I did notice you, I couldn’t stop seeing you. Or thinking about you. You have that effect.” He took my hand into his, inspected it, drew his fingers across the lines on my palm.

“I do?”

He raised my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “Yes. It’s like you’re . . . fragile and unbreakable at once.”

“I don’t feel unbreakable. But it’s a nice thought.” Handel’s mouth brushed my skin again. The feel of it stole my breath.

Then he looked up at me with a grin. “So how was your date?”

I laughed. “It wasn’t a date. Not really.”

“How was your group date, then?”

“Fine.

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