Page 5 of Reckless Youth
The summer between our Junior and Senior year was one of the best, and the worst summers, I’d ever known. It had brought friction, jealousy, and desire into our friendship.
And made me long for things that I knew were impossible.
While things changed ever-so-slightly as we entered our sophomore year in high school, those two remained my constants. There wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t see them, speak with one of them or spend time with them in some capacity.
That fall, if Cam was off at football practice, I was studying with Sage – who, for the record, was the world’s worst studier. He hadn’t been diagnosed, but I was fairly certain he had ADHD or ADD because that boy would never sit still. Not for a single minute.
He was always tapping a pen, drumming his fingernails on the table or playing video games instead of focusing on his homework. It always made me curious about what was going on inside that mind of his and what made him tick.
And when Sage was working a shift at the grocery store or writing music on his guitar, I could be found hanging with Cam. We’d kick the soccer ball out in the backyard, watch movies or go for horseback rides along the many trails on our property. And if I was busy with dance, the boys could likely be found at Cam’s house playing video games.
When the three of us had downtime and were all together, we were at my house on the farm, swimming in the river or hiking in the woods near my property. It was an idyllic childhood that swiftly and without warning blended into young adulthood; fraught with new and turbulent feelings.
And no matter how innocent our bond was, no one could seem to comprehend how the three of us could be as close as we were and not be more than just friends.
That changed the summer I turned seventeen. I finally noticed what all the other girls in our class saw when they looked at either Cam or Sage. Especially after their growth spurts that year.
“What are you waiting for? Are you chicken?” Sage’s voice rang out from the river below me where he kicked and circled in the water like a barracuda in wait.
I was standing on the high river bank, my feet sunk low in the mossy, cool grass, hanging on to the rope for dear life. The strong, twisted fibers of the swing rope were tethered to the large tree limb overlooking the river bank on the edge of my parents’ property.
The boys dragged the old, tattered rope from my barn a few weeks earlier and today was the first time we’d had an opportunity to use it. Having two older brothers to pick on me in all manner of ways and being best friends with Cam and Sage my entire life, there were very few things I was actually scared of or that terrified me.
Snakes?Nope.
Frogs and insects?Not even.
Gunshots and hunting rifles?No fear.
But heights?No thank you, ma’am.
I’d kept my fear of heights successfully hidden from Cam and Sage for years. When we’d gone to the carnival a few years earlier and while they went on all the tall, looping rides, I feigned a headache and stuck to the carrousel. The only person that knew about my stomach-clenching fear was my momma.
My palms were clammy as I held tightly to the rope, fist-over-fist, as I slowly shuffled to the lip of the overhang. Sage waved from down below, smiling that smile he reserved for me and Cam and no one else, giving me the encouragement I needed to jump.
“Come on, London! Get your ass down here now.”
I swallowed the boulder that stuck in my throat, panic lodged deep in my belly. My willowy figure trembled in trepidation as I took a few steps backwards, only to find something blocking my way.
Startling, I jolted and let go of the rope, which through the laws of physics and gravity swung like a pendulum out over the river. The solid mass behind me wrapped an arm around my waist, reaching with his other arm to grab the rope as it made its return journey toward us.
“I’ve gotchya, London,” Cam’s deep voice whispered in my ear as my hand landed on the thick, sinewy arm that held me close. “We can do it together if you want.”
I stood immobilized and unable to move, my body firing off strange signals to my brain for the first time ever. A different and new kind of energy sizzled and heated between us. Maybe it was a combination of my fear, his sweet gesture, or the warm masculine scent of Cam that seemed to envelop me, but I was caught in an electrifying thought.
It wasn’t just comfort I felt in his arms. Against Cam’s chest.
It was the beginnings of desire and it shook me to the core. My breasts heaved in a heavy inhale, my brain muddled from the dizzying effects of his voice and his broad, naked chest pressed against my back. My tummy did somersaults, and I felt tingles in the V between my legs where I’d never felt them before around Cam.
Leaning my bikini-clad body against his towering mass, I relaxed. Cameron was my rock. He was my protector. If there was anyone I trusted with my life outside of my family to have my back, it was Cameron Lucas.
His tall frame had bulked up and filled out over the last year as he left boyhood on the cusp of manhood. His broad shoulders and lean, trim waist were a sight to behold. Cam’s blond hair was always a tousled mess that was made only worse by the way he constantly worried his fingers through it. The girls at school giggled and blushed when he’d walk by in the hallways, casting his ‘come hither’gaze at them, at the same time he’d lazily run his hand through his shaggy do.
And then there were Cam’s eyes. When his eyes connected with you, it was near impossible to look away. His deep-set blue eyes could melt you on the spot with their warmth and character. They held a deep well of compassion and reverence for such a big boy. Most of the time Cam was all business; raised to take life seriously, just like his father, a retired Air Force officer.
His arm tightened around my belly, making it difficult to breathe.
“Are you ready for this?”
