Mark tried to get me to tell him about the fourth video as we walked barefoot along the beach. He kept guessing as to it’s contents and I kept shooting down his attempts.

“Were you saving a child from being run over by a truck?”

No.

“Single-handedly turning back the rising oceans of global warming?”

Nope.

“Holding up falling building so that everyone could get out?”

That’s Superman you’re thinking of.

“Getting a cat out of a tree?”

I did that once. No video of that though.

We continued our slow walk, and somewhere along the way, Mark took my hand again and held it. Somewhere along the way in the sense that I didn’t know where we were exactly, not in the sense that I didn’t realize it when it happened. I was hyper aware of it and it felt like my heart starting beating at twice its normal rate.

I glanced over at him and he acted like taking my hand was a perfectly normal, everyday, thing. Like he’d done it thousands of times before. At that point, I couldn’t help myself and I slapped a field around him. His heart was beating almost as fast as mine was! This was a big deal for him too.

I was so focused on what the field was telling me that his next words stunned me. Although, to be honest, even without the field distracting me, his words would have been just as shocking.

“I think we should have our honeymoon in Hawaii. I hear the beaches there are spectacular.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Barely managing to get my heart out of my mouth to speak, I answered him as nonchalantly as I was able to. “Don’t you think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself, Mark? We haven’t even gone on a first date.”

“Abby Smith! Are you asking me out on a date? If so, I accept. Where will you be taking me?”

I gave him the face-palm that he so richly deserved and said, “Smoothly done.”

We walked a few more steps before I asked him. “What’s going on here Mark?” I brought up our interlocked hands for reference. “I thought that we were just friends.”

“Your words, Abby. Not mine. I never said that.”

“At Jake’s place, when he teased us. You said it then.”

“No. You did. I was going to tell him that it was too soon.”

“Oh. If you felt that way back then, what’s changed?”

“A few things. You’ll be turning eighteen next week and you’ll officially be an adult in the eyes of the law. A twenty-year-old man going out with a sixteen-year-old girl would have been suspect. More importantly though, I needed the time to explore my feelings for you. You ran into a burning building to save my life. I wasn’t sure if my feelings for you were genuine attraction or hero-worship.”

“What finally made you decide?”

“I didn’t. I just realized that I could feel both simultaneously. You’re a hero and I’m attracted to you. You’ve continued to amaze me since the day we met and I can’t separate you from the your actions. Your actions reflect your decisions and your decisions reflect who you are. A caring and courageous force of nature, with a blindingly fast reverse side kick.”

I laughed at that, while my eyes got all shiny, and a horrible thought occurred to me. “Oh shit! Eva is going to be insufferable about this. She’s been saying that you like me for over a year now and I told her she was crazy.”

“We can’t have that. If you want to rescind your offer of taking me out on a date, I’ll accept your decision.”

“How come there’s never a pudding cup around to throw at you?”

“Because a pudding cup isn’t enough with your appetite. You’d need a pudding bowl.”

Taking advantage of the fact that I was already holding his hand, I pushed him off-balance and stuck my leg behind his to trip him. He went down gently, as I hadn’t let go of his hand as he fell and I was able to slow his fall. Despite his soft landing on sand, he groaned as if I’d kicked him and broken his legs. Smiling at his antics, I dropped down and straddled his stomach, leaned over and kissed him to shut him up. It worked very well. He didn’t say anything for quite some time.