Page 57 of Keepsake
She rolled her eyes. “So park behind the bunkhouse. We can run in for a change of clothes. Nobody will notice.”
The girl made an excellent point. So I dropped the truck’s key onto the towels and shed my T-shirt.
She watched with a guilty little smile on her face, too. Rolling up the hem of my shorts, I waded in very slowly, mindful of the slippery rocks. Wiping out like a loser while she watched wasn’t part of my plan. The water felt great. It was cold but not punishing.
“This was the best idea ever, Zach.” She kicked her feet and swam the short distance that the small pool allowed. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said as she swam by again, her silky arms glistening in the water.
“Is this a public spot?” she asked. “I probably should have asked that before getting half naked.”
I laughed. “It’s Isaac and Leah’s property.”
“Oh, good.”
We lasted ten minutes or so in the cold water. “Your lips are blue,” she teased.
And, damn it. That made me focus on her lips. It was all too easy to remember how they tasted against mine. “Yours, too.” I got out first, taking the tattered little towel and wiping myself down as best I could. I held the better one out for her and tried to avert my eyes as she emerged dripping wet, the tank molded to perfect breasts, her nipples pointing straight at me.
Lord save me,but it was hard to look away.
She wrapped the towel around her midsection, which helped. “Avert your eyes,” she said after we tiptoed back to the truck on wet feet. I looked away while she stripped off her soaking tank and put on the sweatshirt she’d been wearing this morning.
“Well, that was refreshing!” she said once she’d climbed back into the truck, still wearing the towel around her waist.
“Uh-huh,” I agreed.
But now I was heated up in different ways than I’d been before.
The next coupleof weeks I spent a lot of time trying not to kiss Lark.
I didn’t kiss her at the Montpelier market, even when she brought me a sandwich and laughed at my terrible jokes. I didn’t kiss her when we were kneeling very close together, sanding the baseboards in the bungalow kitchen. Alone.
And I certainly didn’t kiss her when we beat May and Dylan at cards. Twice.
I had never had more fun than sitting around the coffee table during a downpour, eating popcorn and playing euchre. It was a Sunday afternoon, and for once in my life I took a real break.
Most Sundays Griffin worked just as hard as the other six days of the week. As a paid employee, technically I had most of Sunday off. But I never took the free hours. I couldn’t sit around watching a movie or reading a book if Griff was in the cider house pressing apples. It just didn’t feel right.
Usually.
But the pull of Lark’s company was strong. She was a card shark. Euchre was a partners’ game, and there was nothing better than looking across the table at her regal face, wondering what secrets those glittering eyes held.
“Spades,” she said slowly, as if weighing a grave decision. “And Zach, put your cards down. I’m going it alone.”
“You don’t have to!” May pointed out. “You guys only need one point to win again.”
“But I’m a glory hog,” Lark said. “And it’s your lead.”
“Oh, man,” Dylan complained to his sister. “This won’t go well for us.”
It didn’t, either. Lark’s victory was swift. When she laid down her fifth winning card she let out a whoop and leapt to her feet. She leaned in to hug me over the coffee table, and I hoisted her over it and into the air.
Victory was sweet, and so was the scent of her hair.
I might have kissed her then, in front of God and everybody. I was that far gone for her. But I was saved by the distraction of a bolt of lightning which somehow shone brighter than my lust. It was followed immediately by a clap of thunder so loud that May screamed, and Lark’s body spasmed in my arms.
“It’s okay,” I said immediately. My subconscious was always ready to soothe her. I set her down carefully.
