Page 8 of Reckless Youth
“Yes, I guess I should go.” I tried to convince myself to leave, but instead, raised myself up on tiptoe and took his mouth with mine again.
Cam chuckled into my mouth but was silenced just as quickly.
The kiss wasn’t long, but it was wholly satisfying and left me reeling from the emotional consequences that this would certainly have on us going forward.
I turned to swim back to the bank but was stopped abruptly as his hand snatched my wrist and yanked me back to him. Water surged and pooled between us but didn’t stop him from kissing me one last time. A lingering kiss to let me know he was mine. And I, his.
“London,” he muttered, his voice more raspy than usual. “I’ve wanted to do that for a really long time.”
My eyes formed wide circles from his confession. I’ve never even considered it before now. Cam has always been my best friend. The one I told all my secrets to and shared all my hopes and dreams.
Now I was left with confusion over what would happen next. How would this kiss change us? Would we remain friends? Would we keep this a secret from Sage? Would we kiss again soon?
Sage.
There he was again, always on my mind even when being consumed by Cam, his name at the tip of my tongue.
Surely, Cam and I wouldn’t let this happen again, because I couldn’t stand hurting Sage. We were family to him and he needed us, just like I needed him.
I’m not sure how Cam felt about any of that, but we’d have to talk about it at some point.
My mother’s voice now a little more irritated, came again, and I jumped out of the water and wrapped myself in the towel I’d brought with me earlier in the day.
When I looked back down at Cam, he was still wading in the water with a tight-lipped smile and his eyes were glazed over with a tortured look.
“Are you getting out?” I asked, curious as to why he was just standing there.
Cam waved me along. “You go on. I’ll call you later.”
I lifted a shoulder with a ‘suit yourself’shrug and tucked the towel flap in between my breasts. My nipples were distended from the excitement that coursed through me. I nearly floated across the backyard and poppy-filled field to my back door where momma was waiting for me.
Waiting for her little girl that at seventeen had just received her first kiss and was on the verge of womanhood.
A young woman now uncertain about where she stood with her best friend. And what it would all mean to her other best friend.
Chapter 5
Over the next three weeks, Cam and I never had another opportunity to be alone together. As we waited out the heat of July and moved into the hot, sticky August nights, it was always the three of us together.
In fact, it was as if the kiss between us had never even happened. Either that or Cam hadn’t enjoyed it at all, because he made it perfectly clear that he’d rather be anywhere else but alone with me. Anytime that Sage was busy, Cam chose to stay away and made excuses to avoid being alone with me.
It filled me with confusion and made me regret that moment in the river with Cam.
You shouldn’t have done it.
Although it stung, I wasn’t going to press Cam and embarrass myself any further, so I became good at avoiding the topic and left well enough alone. Everything else remained the same; we regularly texted, but only discussing random things and safe topics.
One starry-night in August, Sage and I had gone to one of the latest hero blockbusters in town. Cam was out of town with his parents on a college scouting trip.
Sage and I walked home from the theater hand in hand, talking about the movie and our rating of the performances of the very hot list of actors when he stopped and stared at me with a very serious expression.
“How come you never go out with anyone other than me and Cam?” he’d asked, surprising me by the topic of conversation.
“What do you mean? Like date? I don’t know. Why don’t you? You could date anyone you wanted.”
He scoffed, kicking at a rock in the dirt road where we stood, only a quarter-mile from my house.
“What about Daniella Delgado? She was always looking at you and flirting with you in Chemistry last year. I know for a fact she has a crush on you because Lottie Harrison told me.”
