Page 153 of Heartbeat

“The water is so still,” he said, standing next to me and taking hold of my hand.

“Wanna go in?” I turned to face him.

“It must be freezing, babe. We’ll die,” he deadpanned.

“I’ll keep you warm.”

He smiled. “Are you sure you want to? I mean…” He cleared his throat. “Are you ready?”

“I think I am, yeah.”

I didn’t want to talk about how being there was like going back in time. How I could almost see it all happening again, easily losing myself in the memory had I wished, even though he was the only thing keeping me there in the first place.

“So, you’re not just trying to get me naked?” he asked, raising a single brow.

“Well, you could keep some of your clothes on, but then I’d just do the same.”

He looked at me for a few seconds before letting go of my hand, then unbuttoned his jacket while I took off my hoodie and unzipped my pants. We took off the rest of our clothes slowly, watching each other without saying a word until we were both completely naked. I walked backward, extending my hand for him to grab as I did. Once I had his fingers interlocked with mine, I turned and led the way to the water.

“Holy hell, this is freezing,” he said, squeezing my hand.

I smiled but kept on, wading in. When the water reached my chest, I stopped and turned to him. He’d wrapped his arms around himself and gazed at me, waiting. I couldn’t help but admire him for a beat, taking a mental picture of how beautiful he looked with most of his chest still untouched by the lake.

“It is a bit chilly,” I finally admitted, to which he snickered.

“Y-yeah. A tad.”

I grinned. “The trick is to not wait; you know that. The longer you wait, the worse it gets.” I took a deep breath and sank underwater.

And immediately regretted it, of course.

“Fuck me running, I was wrong,” I gasped. “I was s-so wrong. D-don’t d-do that.”

He chuckled, doing just what I’d told him not to do and coming back up without even flinching.

“S-show off,” I said.

He swam closer and wrapped his arms around my waist as I kept my own close to my chest, clenching both fists. “You are such a nut, babe.” He smiled.

He’d stopped shaking; I, however, couldn’t even speak properly.

“Do you want to go back?” he asked.

“N-no,” I said, shaking my head.

“But you can barely breathe.”

“I’m r-rusty. But I—I want to d-do this. W-with you. My last memory of this p-place is just… I need a new one. A s-stronger one.”

He looked at me and pushed aside some of the hair I had glued to my face, so carefully.

“N-no p-pressure,” I amended, almost whispering.

“Yeah, I was going to point that out,” he said calmly, tightening his grip.

We went a little farther out so that the water covered Ethan’s chest and a bit of his neck. I, however, was on the tips of my toes and still had water up to my bottom lip.

“I k-know,” I said. “I think I got it.”

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