Page 79 of Best Year Ever
“Is this bikini too much?” I ask with a flirty tone.
He has gone still. His eyes dart around, taking in the exposed cleavage up top and the small bottoms. I make it more torturous by twisting around a little so he can see the thong style of the back.
“Holy shit, woman,” Landon says when he finally speaks. “Fuck sunbathing. I’m going to do unspeakable things to you on this boat now. Right now.”
“I vote for that option too,” I say with a laugh.
He steps towards me, grabbing my ass with one hand and one mound of barely covered boob with the other and then bringing our lips together. His tongue invades my mouth as his hands start delivering on his promise of ‘unspeakable things.’
About ninety minutes later, having worn each other out for the moment, we jump into the water. With a little persuading, Grover joins us. The quick swim is refreshing, and after climbing back into the boat, I’m truly ready for some sunbathing. Landon doesn’t object, just makes sure we both reapply sunscreen.
We finally settle into our beach chairs as originally planned, slipping on sunglasses. We lie in an easy silence for about fifteen minutes, broken up only by the waves and a yawn from Grover. Suddenly, I feel a touch on my hand and it’s Landon reaching over, dragging his fingertips over my palm lightly.
“Hey, are you trying to take a nap?” he asks in a soft tone that matches the lull of the water.
I give a small shake of my head. “No, just relaxing. And loving how chill this is.”
He smiles at my response. “For real. Nothing like it.”
He shifts over so he’s facing me on his side, and he takes off his sunglasses. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. A good thing, not a bad thing. I think.”
I match his movement so I’m facing him. “Okay, what is it?”
“So, as you know, our schedules are going to be harder to match up in the coming months. Which has gotten me thinking about us, the future, how that’ll even work,” Landon says.
So far, this isn’t sounding great. But I stay quiet so I can see where he’s going.
“I know that we said we’d keep this going when our schedules match up, but that’s going to be difficult if we don’t plan ahead. The thought of not seeing you for longer than we already have dealt with this summer drives me crazy, Rori.”Landon pauses while continuing to run his fingertips over my hand.
“I know, honestly I’ve been thinking the same thing,” I confess. “It’s going to be so hard to keep up these long times apart, but that’s only because everything’s working with us. If we need to be more purposeful in planning, I’m fine with that, Landon.”
He nods and looks a bit more relaxed but clearly has more on his mind. After a moment of staring where he’s running his fingers over my hand, he starts again. “About the ‘no labels’ thing, Rori…”
The expression in his eyes intensifies, and he continues. “I don’t think I want that.”
My mind starts whirling. I thought Landon didn’t do commitment? How did I not know already that he felt this way, with everything else we talk about?
“What do you mean?” I ask. “You aren’t into relationships, I thought? Girlfriends?”
His hand stills. “Rori, do you really not think that something bigger is happening between us? That we aren’t alreadyina relationship?”
Not breaking eye contact, I stay quiet, but my insides tingle at his words, emotions starting to swirl.
“I feel things towards you that I never thought I’d feel towards a woman after what happened with my parents. What they did to each other, to us kids, fucked up my head so bad. So yeah, I’ve avoided situations where I might be exposed emotionally. Not let anything get too deep.”
His fingers squeeze my hand. “But this is starting to get deep. For me, anyway.”
“Oh, Landon,” I say, the only words I can manage to get out. This is a lot, and not what I was expecting today.
“We can delay this conversation until later, since I’m headed off to training camp and everything. I just want to be honest where I’m at. Our friendship, the trust I have for you—it’snothing I have ever experienced. I don’t feel the same about the ‘no labels’ thing. I’m ready to embrace a label when you are,” he says, eyes bright with sincerity.
I feel an overwhelming pressure on my chest, and I’m trying not to cry. I can’t believe he feels this way about me. Something about his words has cracked open my own awareness.
“Landon, you’re the first person I want to talk to in the morning and the last person I want to speak with at night, wherever we are. I feel so lucky we found each other,” I confess.
His face breaks into a grin. “Same, beautiful.”
“We’re talking boyfriend—girlfriend stuff, right? That’s what you mean?”
