She turned her head and watched my hand on her skin. “Maybe you should listen to me more. You know, since I’m always right.”
I kissed her shoulder and pulled her out of the truck. “You know, no one likes a know-it-all, girlie.”
“Really? You can’t seem to get enough of me.” I swatted her on the behind and she laughed, that bright, clear sound that made my heart seize up in my chest.
We tripped over the big rocks jutting out of the path and tramped along the grass, crushing it under our shoes until it let out the smell of summertime; sweet, clean, and full of all kinds of twisting possibilities.
We finally got to the edge of a rocky kind of cliff, and I helped her down until we were by a little hidden grove with a waterfall.
Alright, it wasn’t Niagara Falls, but it was pretty cool. It was a creek fall, so it was mostly this slide of water over a high rock incline. The areas next to the creek were all smooth stones, like maybe the creek used to be higher and ran over the stones for years until it cut back. All above and around were these huge old trees that seemed to pick up the wind and funnel the moans and rushes of the air through their branches, and straight up was the sky, so far away it felt like being at the bottom of a deep well.
Brenna and I didn’t talk much at all as I unzipped the duffel bag and unrolled my old sleeping bag, laying it flat so the soft, worn blue flannel side was up. Brenna slid her sandals off, cuffed her jeans, and waded into the water, walking carefully over the uneven, rounded stones.
When I was done spreading the blanket out, I kicked off my boots and socks and cuffed my jeans up so I could wade out next to her. The water was so cold it bit at my skin, and the rocks made it hard to keep balance. Bren tucked her arms around me as soon as I got close.
“What is this place?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“Saxon and I stumbled on it back when we were kids, back when we both raced. There’s an old track about a half mile away. Saxon almost killed himself because we didn’t realize there was this drop. His bike was pretty wrecked.” I laughed at the memory of Saxon’s screams, the crush of the bike, and then our little-kid excitement when we found this place. We were so excited, Saxon forgot all about the bloody gashes and his mangled bike. We didn’t find out until later that he’d fractured his arm, and he never bitched because we were so excited to be down in this little magical place we discovered, the pain just didn’t register.
“We planned all kinds of crazy shit. We were gonna build a clubhouse or a fort here, you know? Camp out all the time. We did actually sleep here once in a while, but I haven’t been here in five or six years probably. It’s still exactly the same.”
Brenna linked her arms so tight around me, I could feel the pulse of her heart right through my skin. “Isn’t that weird?”
“What?” I dragged my lips over the impossibly smooth skin on her neck.
“That five years can change so much. It can change anything, everything, for us. And then there are these places that feel like time doesn’t even affect them.” She rubbed her head on my chest. “In five years, I’ll be almost twenty-two and you’ll be almost twenty-three. We’ll be adults. We’ll be ready to have jobs and apartments and all that stuff. I wonder if this place will still be here.”
“This place will always be here. And we’ll come back. In five years.” For a second everything magnified; the creek roared, the water stung like ice, the wind groaned through the trees, the incredible, intoxicating smell of Brenna’s hair, like a flowers in the rain, all crashed over me. Then every single thing fell away, and it felt like the entire world was just me and Bren, just the two of us in this forever place.
“Five years from today, we’ll come back here.” She ran her hands along my back. “Right here to this place that never changes.”
“Deal.” I kissed her.
“But, Jake, what if this place--”
I put a finger over her lips and shook my head. “Don’t even think it.”
She talked around my finger. “But what if we…” Her voice trailed off and I dropped my finger form her lips. She craned her neck and took in everything. “Never mind. Come with me.”
We walked back through the creek water, and she sat on the soft sleeping bag, patting a place next to her.
I sat next to her and she tugged at the bottom of my shirt, pulling it slowly over my head. She pulled a hand over my shoulder and down to the center of my chest, where my heart was drumming so hard, I felt like I might be having a heart attack.
Brenna kept her eyes on my face as she slid her tank top over her head, flipped the button and slid the zipper down on her jeans, and gave me an expectant look.
“This is happening? Now?” My voice grated out, harsh with nerves.
“That’s why we’re here.” She said it like this whole romantic adventure had been her idea instead of mine. She held her hands out in the air between our bodies, and we looked down at them. “They’re shaking.” Her voice barely registered over a whisper.
“They shouldn’t be. You don’t have to feel nervous. I’m here.” I pressed her back gently and pulled her jeans down her hips, then off her long, perfect legs. I breathed slowly and consistently to keep from passing out.
She held her arms out to me, and I lay next to her, letting her body and mine rub and meet at all the right places.
I knew why I took her to this place that never changed. I knew exactly why. I wanted us to change, right here, and then I wanted to lock that change up so it could never undo itself. Like black magic. Like stupid hope. Like a wish you’d never unwish, no matter how much people warned you that you’d live to regret it. Like a chance, a risk, a leap, an undivided love too gorgeous to let a little thing like the reality of gravity’s hard knocks stop you from just diving, headfirst, right in.
Chapter Sixteen
Brenna
There was no going back. This place might not change in five years or fifty or five hundred, but I would and so would Jake. We had come to this strange, almost-magic place one way, and we would leave completely different. Different because we’d be truly together.
I was ready.
Ready, and so scared I couldn’t stop the shivers that ran over my body.
Jake kissed me softly, only the barest brush of his lips on my lips and mouth and neck, over and over until he calmed my skin and it stopped jumping erratically at every slight touch to its surface. I pulled my hands up and down over his back, so strong and smooth. Even though Jake was young, his back felt like a man’s back, bunchy with muscles from doing too much work for too long a time so many days a year. He was propped on his elbows, and his arms tensed solidly next to me, walling me in and making me feel protected.
I tried to squirm out of my bra, but Jake reached around my back and unclasped it calmly. I wiggled out of my underwear, and was completely naked, outside in the cool, sweet summer wind, under Jake Kelly, who I loved so much and so hard, my heart punched with the severity of it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been naked outside before. I mean, not since I was little.” I ran my hands over his hair as he smiled that sweet, shy smile I couldn’t ever see enough and kissed up and down my arms. “I wish we could skinny-dip in the creek.”
“We could.” His voice brushed against my ears with a rough slide. “If you want to die from hypothermia.”
“Can’t you think of any way to warm me up before I die?” I pulled my legs up and wrapped them around his waist.
“Yep. But we better swim now if you want to, because I’m just about to get to the warming up part.” His words made me shiver and he chuckled softly. “See? You need to get warm. It’s my duty as your boyfriend to protect you from the elements.” He rubbed his big, calloused hands up and down my arms, his skin scratching against mine. “You have the world’s softest skin.”