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Still a dozen yards away from the trees, the ground growing rockier and sloping down, Sawyer stopped and turned to face Josie.
“Listen,” he said, saying nothing else and holding a finger up so that maybe Josie would also be quiet for a long enough time to hear it.
She pursed her lips and gave him a halfhearted glare, but she stopped talking, which seemed to take some visible effort on her part. They listened, and Sawyer watched as her glare turned into a frown of confusion.
“Water?” she asked, perplexed.
“Come on,” he said, leading her through the gaps in the wall of trees and into a hidden oasis that had been his secret hiding place for years on end. It still was, apparently.
There was a creek that ran through the back corner of the property, on land deemed useless by most everyone else, so it had laid here forgotten until Sawyer had stumbled upon it purely by chance when he’d gone for hours-long walks after their mom had died. Large smooth stones lined the embankment as fresh water trickled past with the faintest of sounds, like wind chimes from a great distance. It was only a couple of yards wide and a few feet deep, running off through the trees and disappearing into land that didn’t belong to the Butlers. The water was so clear you could see the stony bottom of the creek, the sun catching thesurface of the water and reflecting spangles of light onto every surrounding surface, including Josie and Sawyer as they stood there, taking it in. Josie’s mouth was hanging open at this new discovery, and Sawyer was sorely tempted to tell her she was going to catch flies but didn’t want to sound like his dad.
“Since when has there been a creek here?” Josie said, blunt as ever.
“Since always. Like I said, I used to come here all the time. Especially after Mom died. It was someplace that no one else knew about. I don’t know if Luke’s ever seen it or not.”
There was nothing much else to say, so they just stood there for a while, the only sounds around them the bubbling of the creek and the birdsong and insects that made their home here.
“You know what,” Josie said, suddenly all conviction. “I’m going swimming.”
“What, now?”
“Yep. It’s hot, we’ve worked our butts off and my skin is all sticky and gross.”
Without further warning, she started pulling off her boots and stripping off her clothes until she was wearing nothing but her underwear. Sawyer froze, like something out of a cartoon. He didn’t think he could move; it was impossible. He was frozen like a statue. He wasn’t even sure his heart was beating anymore.
Josie looked over her shoulder as she was walking through the grass and flat river stones to the edge of the creek.
“You okay?”
Sawyer had forgotten how to speak. How did talking even happen? He wasn’t even entirely sure that this wasn’t some dream that his heat-addled brain had cooked up.
Josie grinned. Usually her smiles were bright, sweet things. But this one was downright wicked.
“Don’t you want to come swimming with me?”
The mischievous air that had overtaken her finally snapped Sawyer out of it and he cleared his throat. “Uh, maybe. Should I? Is that okay?”
“Going swimming with a friend? I’d say it’s okay.”
She was just plain old teasing him now, and Sawyer desperately tried to play it cool.
“Just wasn’t expecting…” His words failed him again as he waved a hand in her general direction, his eyes firmly on her face.
“Oh, the no-clothes situation, you mean?” she said, obviously enjoying herself immensely.
“Yeah, the no-clothes situation.”
“I did say I wanted to go swimming.”
“Just figured you had a bathing suit or something, you know?”
“I don’t carry a bathing suit around the ranch with me, especially since I only learned about this place about three minutes ago. Besides, this is no different than a bathing suit,” she said, looking at him bemused.
“Uh, yeah, no. Right, you’re absolutely right.”
Sawyer didn’t think it was possible, but her grin grew even wider.
“What?” he asked.
