serenity
18 YEARS OLD
My day began with Adam at the cabin door, holding a bag from the bakery and a latte. Not only did I accept his peace offering for ditching me yesterday but I followed him on a hike.
I gasp as we walk through a clearing that opens up to a gorgeous waterfall. “Oh, this gorgeous.”
“How is this for a place to have coffee and eat donuts?”
“I think it’ll work.” When nibbling our pastries turns into a food fight, he suggests a swim to clean off.
“Come on, Sugar!” Adam calls out from the water. After tossing my shirt and shorts onto the grass, I take off in a hard run and then leap off the wooden dock. “Whoo!” Adam cheers.
I dive under the lukewarm water and then swim back up to the surface. “You’re sure nobody comes out here this time of day?”
“Positive.”
“I’m serious, Adam. I’m in my underwear!”
“What’s the difference between that and a bikini?”
“Thicker material, for one.”
“Oh yeah.” Adam circles me like a shark. Heat pools in my belly as I anticipate his next move. He’s older than me, more experienced, and twice my size. Everything about him excites me. We both know this is probably only a summer fling. But maybe it doesn’t have to be. It’s still early in our relationship, but there’s something here. I can’t stop my heart from racing and my mind from thinking what if. Maybe I could transfer to a university or community college closer to him. Or he could come back with me. He hasn’t found anything he wants to do here, so maybe he needs to branch out. We could both get degrees and explore the world. Then come back here. Build a cottage by the water. Raise a family. Is this love? My body is tingling, and my heart is racing while visions of all the processibilities are clear as day in my mind. I’ve never been in love, and a part of me knows it’s too soon to label what we have, but what if it is and I allow it to slip through my fingers?
I shriek as Adam grabs me and pulls my back against his solid frame. “What was going through that pretty head of yours?”
I giggle. “Sorry. I zoned out for a minute.”
“Am I boring you so much that you’re getting distracted by the birds?”
“Maybe you were the one in my thoughts.”
He turns me around to face him as his hands cup my bottom. “Do tell.”
“I was thinking maybe you’d like to come back with me to California. Go to school together.” His body stiffens. I lick the water droplets from my lips and search his eyes in the hope he might be feeling the same way. “Then after we finish, we can come back here. Not trying to get ahead of myself, but we could start a future. I think I’d like to live here, like my aunt.”
His nostrils flare and his eyebrows pull together, but then his face relaxes. A mischievous smile spreads across his face, and he pulls me tighter against him. “You want to be with me? For real?”
“Of course. Yes! Look around, it’s gorgeous.”
Adam seems to be honestly puzzled by all this. “As in… live together? Start a family? Make babies?”
“Why not?”
He makes a noise of pleasure at the back of his throat. Then he places an open-mouth kiss on my neck that sends goose bumps along my skin. “You’d be mine?”
“Technically, we’d be each other’s.”
“Have you ever been with anyone?’
Heat creeps into my cheeks. Not feeling very confident in speaking, I shake my head. Adam gives me a shy smile. “What all have you let anyone do to you?”
“What all have you done?”
He chuckles as he wraps my legs around him. I keep waiting for him to answer me, but he doesn’t. Our bodies lightly sway in the water. It’s such a romantic setting, but I’m annoyed because he hardly ever gives direct answers or simply avoids the question all together.
“I like the idea of you being mine. Us having a house.” He waggles his eyebrows and gives me a mischievous smile. “Would you call me Daddy?”