Page 31 of Reckless Youth
Yet it still only offered me a small taste of what I was really looking forward to later.
My birthday present.
Chapter 16
Hours later, we’d long since dried off and replaced our swimwear with our shorts and T-shirts. The boys had a fire going in a fire pit we formed out of stones and rocks, where we roasted hot dogs and took swigs of the Schnapps Cam had pilfered from his parents’ bar.
Cam had taken his first bite of my momma’s homemade pie and nearly died from a food orgasm.
“Holy shit, this is so good.”
Sage and I both eyed each other before erupting in laughter. When Cam loved something, hereallyloved it. Like when the firstAvengerscame out, he went to see it in the theater at least six times. He was obsessed with the movie.
I, personally, was more obsessed with reading my favoriteHarry Potterbooks. I loved to read and get lost in the pages of fiction over seeing something on the big screen. Sage wasn’t much of a reader or a movie buff but preferred finding new music and bands for us to listen to.
Sage loved most kinds of music, where Cam was a country music fan and loved Dierks Bentley and Sugarland. I listened mostly to Taylor Swift and pop music much to the boys’ dismay. Between the three of us, we covered the gamut of music preferences.
“Hey London, can I give you your present now?” Sage had asked, stuffing the final remnants of his third hot dog in his mouth.
“I told you boys not to buy me anything.”
I’d meant it, too. I didn’t want anything store bought. What I preferred was something physical from each of them, something we’d discussed only once before but had never spoken about since.
I’d initially suggested wanting to lose my virginity on prom night, but as we got closer to the date, it looked like it wasn’t going to work out because Sage wasn’t interested in going to prom and said he had to work. So, this camping trip was my idea for the perfect setting and alone time with my boys.
And how could they say no to that?
Sage licked his lips with his tongue, flicking away the crumbs from the bun and then bent behind him to pick up his guitar case.
“I didn’t buy you a damn thing, just like you asked.”
Sage tuned up the guitar, his fingers deftly strumming and fingering the strings, the melodic sounds filling the quiet around us. Dusk had just begun to descend, the crescent moon just a sliver up in the graying sky, the twinkling of lights shining down on our little campsite.
It was magnificent and perfect.
Cam returned from the forest where he’d gone to relieve himself and picked up some more wood for the fire. He smiled at me, a heart-stopping grin, full of the secret acknowledgment of his feelings for me. I smiled back, feeling adored and loved.
Sage cleared his throat and then began to hum for a few minutes to the music until he stopped and looked over the campfire at me, his eyes sparkling with affection.
“I wrote you a song for your birthday. Can I play it for you?”
My hand landed on my chest to cover the wildly beating rhythm of my heart and the pang of adoration that settled and spread there.
“Oh, Sage. Yes, please.”
When Sage began to play, the melody enveloped me like an embrace, the beautiful lyrics entwining around my heart like a ribbon.
The day we met,
Was so long ago.
When shadows wrenched,
My heart and soul.
And through the years
You’ve kept me here
