“Okay,” I respond, doing what he asked. I leave my bigger bag with my clothes and towel inside it, grabbing the smaller sling one that in terms of other words is a fanny pack, except I wear it more like a crossbody. Yes, all my sisters-in-law look at me like I have three eyes instead of two, but it really is perfect for vacations. I secretly think they’re just jealous they didn’t buy it first.
“Ready?” My eyes never leave his form as he makes his way around the bright yellow Jeep. When we walked towards the covered awning, I about died laughing. Never in a million years could I see Decker in something that was canary yellow. He just shook his head, laughed it off, and opened my door for me.
“Yep, I sure am.” When he put his shirt on after breakfast, I swear all the women of creation would mourn, had they seen him with all of his skin on display.
“Do you have shorts you can slide on? I didn’t plan for something like this. A skirt might not be a great idea.”
“Crap, I wasn’t either, but yeah, I have shorts in my bag. I wasn’t really sure what we’re doing, so I packed a couple of things.” I bend in my seat, rifling through my bag, finding the loose cut-off jean shorts to put on if we went in the water and walked around town afterwards.
“We can come back another day,” Decker offers as I pull out my shorts.
“Nope, you’ll have to cover me while I change, though,” I tease. Seriously, women have been changing in and out of clothes without an inkling of coverage for eons now; it’s not like I couldn’t slide my shorts on without making a fuss. I’m not going to tell Decker that, though, not after he walked around, helped me finish making breakfast, and ate without a shirt. Payback is a bitch, so to speak.
“Babe, I’ll cover you any fucking day of the week.” I slip my seatbelt off and pull down my skirt. Decker’s eyes are alert, darting from the parking lot back to me. Probably not the best place to do it, but there isn’t a whole lot of activity either.
“You’re not helping, you know,” I tease him as I shimmy out of my bottoms. My panties start to slide down with them, totally not part of the plan, and when Decker groans low in his throat, I right my mistake and pull them up, my skirt down, and then grab my shorts. That’s when I feel the tip of Decker’s finger glide along the hem of my panties.
“Fuck, we should have just stayed at my place.” I’d love nothing more than to agree with him. Honestly, I don’t know what’s holding me back from saying screw the zipline and just go back now.
“You know what they say. Distance makes the heart grow fonder. In this case, maybe it’ll make us even more desperate for one another.” My shorts are up, zipped, and buttoned. Of course, in this strategic position, breathing isn’t easy, which is why I’m out of breath now, after propping my legs up, chin to my chest; it’s not flattering in the least, but it got the job done.
“If I grow any fonder of you, Leena, I’ll be poking a hole through my damn shorts.” Decker holds his hand out for me. My light canvas flat-soled shoes were easy to keep on while I changed and are definitely coming in handy for today.
“Decker, you can’t say stuff like that to me right now, honey.” My other hand moves to his chest, above his heart. His lips kiss my forehead, and a sigh leaves me.
“Alright, I’ll keep my comments to myself, for now.” We move away from the Jeep, Decker locks the doors, and then we’re walking towards the entrance.
“Hi, welcome to Belize Aerial Zipline,” the man at the desk greets us.
“Hello, we’d like to see what you have to offer,” Decker replies. I wave my hello, cozying up to Decker’s side to read the pamphlet he is handed.
“Tubing or ziplining?” I ask him, after seeing what all this place has to offer.
“Ziplining. We can come back to go tubing if you want.” His arm goes around my shoulder, pulling me in closer to his body.
“I’m good with that, as long as we also get some kind of snorkeling in. It’s my absolute favorite thing anytime I’m somewhere tropical.” Okay, it’s not very adventurous, even I can admit that, but there’s something about being in the water, all the outside noise is gone, and it’s nothing but you and the water, well, along with fish, turtles, coral reef, and the occasional shark.
“I promise. We’ll do that tomorrow.” That bottom lip of his, the way his teeth nip at it, it does so much to me.