Read One Hundred Candles [2] for Free Online Page A

could protest, he was peeling it off and wrapping it around my shoulders. It was soft and smelled faintly woodsy. His cologne, I thought. Or maybe an aftershave.
    “Thanks,” I murmured. It was the first time a guy had ever done something for me that was so…chivalrous. I couldn’t help but smile.
    “Ready to go back in?” He was dressed only in a thin white T-shirt, which allowed me a good look at his sculpted arms and broad chest. Obviously, all those football practices had paid off.
    “Do we have to?” I wanted a few more moments of sitting outside, next to Harris, without having to scream in order to be heard.
    He leaned back and stretched his legs out. “Nah. We can stay out here for a while.” He looked up at the black sky. “On one condition, though.”
    “What’s that?”
    “You have to stare at the stars with me.”
    I smiled. “I think I can do that.”
    We spent the next half hour gazing upward. Harris pointed out different constellations to me. I only knew the Big Dipper, but he knew many more.
    “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” I asked at one point. “I mean, you could be making these up.”
    “I could.” He looked at me. “Guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
    I tried to wrap his sweatshirt around me more tightly, but it was difficult to do with only one usable hand. “Here,” Harris said. “Let me help you.” He moved forward, putting his arm around me, and began to pull me toward him. As he wrapped the shirt around my shoulders, I breathed in the scent of his neck. He definitely wore cologne, but it was light. I immediately loved it. Harris didn’t sit back after he had secured his shirt around me. Instead, he moved a little closer. Now I didn’t need the sweatshirt—I was growing warmer by the second just sitting with him, wondering if he would try to kiss me. When I looked at him, our faces were almost touching.
    “Harris!” The French doors swung open and one of the football players stepped onto the deck. “We’re out of ice!” he hollered.
    Harris sighed. “I guess hosting-duty calls.” He stood up. “There’s more in the basement freezer,” he told the guy. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
    He turned back to me. “Sorry about that. You ready to go inside?”
    “I guess.” I wasn’t really ready to endure the onslaught of people and noise. I just wasn’t used to it. My life had consisted mainly of traveling with my family and Shane and exploring empty buildings at night. Silence was a familiar friend.
    “You know, there’s another party across the street,” Harris said as we walked across the deck. “It’s not nearly as crowded.”
    I was surprised. “Really?”
    “Yeah. Well, the thing is, it’s kind of, um…weird?”
    I paused. “What kind of weird?”
    Harris opened the French doors and I was hit by a blast of warm air, intense lights and raucous music. “Actually, I think you might like it.”
    While Harris searched for ice I caught up with Noah and Avery, who were back in the kitchen. The stereo was not quite as loud as it had been earlier, and the crowd was not so densely packed.
    “Nice shirt,” Noah muttered when he saw me.
    Avery grinned. “I saw you go outside with Harris. You’ve been gone awhile.”
    I knew I was blushing. “We weren’t gone that long. He was just being nice.”
    “Right,” Avery teased. “Nice.”
    It felt strange to talk about it with Noah standing right there, but I wasn’t sure why. I definitely wanted to tell Avery everything, but later, when we were alone. I told her and Noah about the party across the street. “What do you think? You want to check it out?”
    Avery shrugged. “I guess. But I thought everyone from school was here. I haven’t heard anyone mention another party.”
    “I’m in,” Noah said, but he didn’t sound enthusiastic about it.
    After Harris returned, Avery, Noah and I followed him through the living room and out the front door. As we crossed the street, which