Page 121 of Redemption
“Are you going to swim or stare at me all day? I’m fine with either one. I just need to make my plans.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Nah, but I’ll have you recall the last time you didn’t get in the water.”
I shove at his shoulder. “And we will not be repeating that today.”
Hayes grins. “Then get your suit on, and let’s go before I drag you in, clothes and all. I have something I want to show you.”
Curious, I strip off my clothes, throwing them at the cooler. The water is chilly when I dip my foot in, and I almost chicken out, but then Hayes runs past me, grabbing my hand as he goes and dragging me into the water. When we are fully submerged, he turns back to me, a happy grin on his face.
“You can’t tiptoe into situations that scare you, MJ. You have to take the leap and dive in.”
The water is above my shoulders, and my feet barely skim the ground. Letting go of Hayes’s hand, I wrap my arms around hisshoulders and my legs around his waist. He’s significantly taller than me, so the water hits him below his armpits. He’ll keep me afloat—he has always kept me afloat.
“Is that what we are doing here—diving right in?”
One hand wraps around my waist, holding me to him, and the other cups my face. “I hope so, MJ, because I’m tired of toeing the cliff. I’m all in here.”
“Me too.” Leaning close, I brush my lips against his. It’s not even a full kiss, just a whisper of my lips on his, but I feel it all the way to my toes.
I pull back, and his gaze bounces between mine. Then he drops his head and kisses me deeper. If I felt the last one to my toes, this one hits me in my soul. It’s slow and unhurried, and all the things I’ve been missing from my life since the day I left town. I’ve been searching for my place, and all along, it’s been here with him.
Hayes is the one to break the kiss, but when he pulls back, he drops one more peck against my lips like he’s forcing himself to stop.
“I want to show you something, remember? Stop distracting me.”
“Sorry.” I try to school my face to look innocent, but I can’t contain my smile.
“Yeah, you look real sorry,” he says with a chuckle. Grabbing my legs, he spins me until I’m on his back, legs still wrapped around his waist and my arms around his neck. “Hold on tight.”
Tightening my arms, I do as he asks, and he swims us toward the waterfall.
There’s a cave that is tucked into the rocks behind the falls. It’s beautiful to sit behind it and watch the water flow down the rock.
Hayes steers us toward it, dunking under the water when we get to the fall. Disentangling myself from him, I grab onto therocks and pull myself up. His hand finds the back of my thigh, guiding me and ready to catch me if I fall. Once up at the top and inside the cave, he pulls himself up, muscles bulging in his arms.
“Come on,” he says, his face more serious than it has been all day. “It’s toward the back.”
The cave floor is slippery under my bare feet. I put my hand on the wall, letting it guide me in and keep me stable. The back of the cave is maybe five feet from the entrance, shallow, but far enough back that with the waterfall, the light starts to dim.
Hayes stops a foot from the back wall and turns to me.
“Do you remember how you stayed on the bank when we first got here that day with Langston?”
I nod. “Yeah. You guys swam while I tanned.”
“At one point, Langston and I came into the cave and did this.” He steps aside, revealing the smooth wall behind him. Only in one spot, it isn’t smooth.
Three sets of initials are carved into the cave wall.
LH. HM. MJH.
My throat burns as I run my fingers across Langston’s initials.
“Langston and I—we talked that day,” Hayes says, staring at another place where Langston’s name is engraved into stone forever. “He wanted to be remembered for something other than football. He was going to do it too—quit, I mean. He told me that day. Then we left here, and I think he got scared.”
Tears clog my throat, causing it to ache and making it impossible to speak, but I push through, getting out the words I need to. “Scared of what?”
