He needed no further enticement. His lips crushed down on mine with an urgency that matched my own. Obviously he wanted it as badly as I had. His lips were rough but tender at the same time. They pressed against mine firm and unyielding for a moment before becoming a soft caress. Every nerve in my body, from my head to my toes, felt completely charged. Any doubts I had about whether kissing Josh would be different had been completely squashed.
After a moment he pulled away. I had to knot my hand at my side to fight the urge to draw him back for another round.
"See, we're already one step closer to knowing each other," he said, placing his lips briefly back on mine. They were gone before I could sink into the kiss, and I found myself missing their softness instantly.
I took a step back to gather my bearings. The way he had me feeling, things could escalate in the blink of an eye.
We didn't say much on the drive back to my house. I hugged the passenger side door, trying to maintain a little distance between us even though I was acutely aware of his hand on the seat, taunting me to reach for it.
Butch and Buttercup sat on the front porch, drinking one of their jugs of homemade wine when we pulled up. Even as late as it was, I shouldn't have been surprised. They had just met Josh that day.
"Your parents are cool," Josh commented as they enthusiastically waved at us.
"Oh please. We already discussed this. It's okay if you think they're weird," I said, beating him to any slam he might be aiming their way. Call it a defense mechanism.
"You shouldn't be so hard on them. Some of us would give an arm to have parents who obviously care so much. "
His words were like a quick jab to the gut.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Nothing. I'm just saying they're cooler than you think. I'll see you tomorrow."
I wanted to say more, but his jaw was set and his eyes were focused straight ahead. I shook my head, climbing from his truck. This hot-and-cold thing was enough to give me whiplash.
***
The following morning I felt even more in the dark than ever. Would Josh acknowledge our kiss? Would he still be annoyed like he seemed to be when he dropped me off? Maybe he would do neither and just keep things professional in front of the others at work. I had no idea what to expect and suddenly had butterflies in my stomach as Butch drove me to the patrol station. Much to my surprise, Josh greeted me in the one way I hadn't considered. He was practically jumping with excitement when I arrived.
"We're hanging out at the station today. The storm has built up to a category one hurricane and may get stronger as it reaches shore, so all hands are going to be needed to fill sandbags," he said, smiling.
"Wow, really?" I asked as we headed around back. "Shouldn't we be evacuating?" The only hurricane I knew anything about was Katrina, and it practically destroyed New Orleans. If that was what we were in for here, Turtle Bay would be in for some serious trouble.
"We'll probably see an announcement for the evacuation of low-lying areas. It all depends what course the storm stays on. At the moment, the models are showing it barely kissing the coast before heading north."
"That's good, right?" I asked, wondering why the need for sandbags if the storm was going to head north.
"Well, the outer bands of the storm still produce high winds, but more importantly, a ton of rain and big waves. There will probably be some flooding in low-lying areas, which is why they'll evacuate there. Your house will be fine since it sits a little higher. You might get flooding in the backyard, depending on your drainage," he said, opening the back door of the building for me.
He sounded as knowledgeable as the weather people on TV. I guess if you lived here long enough you became an expert on tropical storms and hurricanes.
"Holy smokes, that's one big pile of dirt," I whistled as we stepped outside. We could set the record and build the world's biggest sand castle with the amount of sand that sat behind the patrol building.
"That's nothing. By this time tomorrow we'll get at least three more truckloads. All the residents in Turtle Bay will be coming here for these sandbags," he said, handing me a small burlap sack.
I held on to it while he grabbed one of the shovels leaning against the wall. "Um, I'm not trying to sound dense, but why don't they just use all that sand?" I asked, pointing toward the beach.
Josh shook his head. "That would be the worst thing ever and counterproductive. It would cause beach erosion, which would cause all kinds of other problems. Not to mention the impact it would have on the wildlife."
"Sorry," I mumbled.
"Hey, don't be sorry. How are you supposed to know if you don't ask, right? I just get overzealous with my responses." He moved to the other side of the large mound of sand, away from the other guys, to give us more privacy.
I held the bag open as he dumped a shovelful of sand into the bag. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Why do you care so much? You're what, seventeen years old? Shouldn't you be thinking about other things? Why all this?"