“You didn’t have to. I, for better or for worse, can read your mind.”
He narrows his eyes at me at the same time I feel his stomach rumble. “What am I thinkingnowthen, Telepathy Tammy?” he asks.
I narrow my eyes right back at him. “You’re thinking about how you’re going to light a campfire so we can get those wieners roasting. You’re also patting yourself on the back for that nickname—which was cringey, by the way.”
He smirks, then turns to Caleb. “She’s goddamn good at that, I’ll tell you what. You better watch yourself.”
“Noted,” Caleb signs back at him, then addresses me. “Any idea what I’m thinking about right now?” he asks, waggling his eyebrows.
I squint at him. “I’m picking up some vibes that you’d like to take me for a walk, show me where the bathhouse is in this campground, and then when I least expect it, you pin me up against a tree and make out with yourgirlfriend.”
Caleb’s eyes widen, and Marcus cackles. “I tried to warn you, bud. She’s fuckin’good. You two kids go on and have fun now. I’ll get a fire started. Have her home by dinnertime though.” Marcus winks at Caleb.
Caleb does not, in fact, have me back by dinnertime, but, believe it or not, the blame is all on me. And no, it wasn’t all pinning me up against trees either, though, thatdidactually happen. Come to find out, the bathhouse isn’t terribly far from our campsite, so we continued walking around the campground, just exploring our surroundings and chatting about how to approach the boys with the news tomorrow.
“So, I can call you my girlfriend now? Officially, I mean.” Caleb asks. “I’ve got to say, in my head, I’ve been doing it for a while…”
I giggle. “It doesn’t seem too middle school coded? To call each other boyfriend and girlfriend?”
He whirls on me, fixing me with anotherverypassionate kiss. One that leaves my core, once again, heated and needy. When we break apart, my lips stinging from being kiss-swollen, he asks, “I don’t know. Did that kiss seem very middle school coded to you, girlfriend?”
I shake my head. “Definitely a few grades higher than that, at least.”
He gives me a droll look. “Babe, that had better be post-graduate or I’m not doing my job right. Do I need to try again?”
I smother a smirk. “I got the memo. Hell,my pantiesgot the memo.”
He arches a brow at me. “Little damp, are they?”
I giggle again. “Love that you didn’t say the M-word. Even signing it?Gew.”
“What M-word? Moist? What’s so bad about the word moist? M-O-I-S-T.”
I fake gag. “Oh my god, stop,” I squabble, covering my eyes. “I can’t see you, la la la!”
He wraps me in a hug, and I can feel the laughter in his chest. He presses a kiss in my hair. Suddenly, on my back, I can feel his hand morph into a sign that I wouldn’t have to be an interpreter to know the meaning of: his ring and middle fingers tucked in with his thumb, index, and pinky splayed out, pressing into my spine.
I pull back and blink at him, stunned. “Was that—Did you…?” I stammer, unable to form a coherent sentence.
“Too soon?” he asks, peering at me nervously. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but—I don’t know, forget it, I guess…”
I shake my head, and he starts to back away, putting even more distance between us. “No, no! I’m not shaking my head at that,” I balk, as he starts to turn to walk away.
He gains a few steps ahead of me before I finally call out, “Please don’t go!”
He turns back, hands in his pockets, looking defeatedly back at me. Gosh, he looks so heartbroken right now. I hate that he totally misunderstood me in my state of shock.
“I—I think I love you too, Caleb. I was just stunned is all. I honestly never thought I’d feel the same way back so quickly.”
He pulls his hands back up. “You feel the same way? Then why—”
I cut him off, grasping his hands, pressing them between mine. “I shook my head because you said it was okay if I didn’t feel the same way. Idofeel the same, but you didn’t let me tell you that before you started walking away.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,oh. You remember back when I accidentally kneed you in the balls? How that felt for you when I got spooked and took off, thinking I’d fucked up everything? We promised each other then thatwe’d hear each other out, always, right? That road goes both ways, Caleb.”
He nods. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m so sorry. I just thought—well, I don’t know what I thought. I just figured that I’d said it too soon. Like, how can I know already, right? I don’t have an explanation for that—I truly don’t—other than that life is fleeting and when you love someone, you should tell them as much and as often as possible…”
