Page 19 of The Heart Remembers

8

[Levi]

Two steps into the bathroom and I have my shorts down, jerking off like a teenager on a mission. I am on a mission. Holy fucking shit, I do not want to lose the fantasy, which is now a reality. I just feasted on Katie. I tasted from the forbidden fruit, and I am never going to be the same.

My fist jackhammers. My palm squeezes. My balls tighten, and I spring like a hydrant open on a hot summer day.

Jesus.

I bite my lip to prevent the moan and swallow the howl in my throat as I come like I’ve never come before. Silver dots float before my eyes, and I have to grip the counter to keep from falling over. With a coated hand and a racing heart, I step into the shower and go for round two within minutes.

+ + +

On Wednesday, a beach day is planned, followed by dinner at the weekly street fair called Riverwalk, and then a volleyball match at a private beach only the locals know about. It isn’t really a secret, it’s just that most people prefer the public beach while the other one is tucked beside a dam. In the center of town runs a river with small rapids that empties into the larger lake, and people love to float on inner tubes down the passage to Lake Michigan.

At the beach, Tricia suggests I take AJ on a float ride, and Lys volunteers to come with me. However, Tricia pushes that Katie go with us as well since we have three tubes up for grabs after the teens dumped them near us. The teenagers are too cool to be seen near their parents at the beach, and I totally get that. What I don’t get is the silence between Katie and myself. She’s hardly looked at me today, and I don’t know how to bring up what happened last night.

Maybe it was too much. I definitely reacted quickly after reading that dirty novel passage. Maybe she didn’t like what we’d done. However, the mewls and purrs that happily haunted my dreams last night told me otherwise. She loved it, and so did I.

While Lys and I are in our thirties, and Katie is twenty-seven, we walk along the riverbank like chastised children, forced to do something we don’t want to do.

“I can hold AJ, if you want,” Katie offers as he needs to sit in someone’s lap while we travel downriver. Thankfully, she’s been carrying him. It’s been a strange day for me. I’m not wearing my prosthetic, and the airing of my leg feels amazing while I also sense the stares of those around us. This is my hometown, yet I don’t recognize anyone. Still, I feel the weight of the whispers. I’ve been on my crutches when I’ve needed to stand, but hobbling to the rapids has not been easy. I’m crotchety and grumbly by the time we get there, wondering why I’m doing this.

“I got him. Just hold him until I’m settled.” The command is harsher than it needs to be, and Lys offers an arm until I’m in the tube. Katie hands AJ down to me, and I settle him on my belly.

“I’ll take your crutches,” Lys offers, and I’m grateful for both their help even though I’m not acting like it.

“Thank you,” I mumble, watching Lys enter a tube and place the crutches over her lap, keeping them out of the water. She pushes off the riverbank and begins to float lazily down the waterway. Katie plops herself into the final tube and waves at AJ, cooing and chattering to him as he looks around in wonder at the trees to the side of us and the river gently pushing us toward the lake. We’ll empty onto a shallow sandbar before hitting the larger body of water, but for now, we float.

Quiet falls between Katie and myself as Lys has gone ahead. I tap my foot in the water while one hand steers me and the other holds onto AJ’s back.

“You okay?” Katie asks, eyes on AJ.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” I snap, again harsher than I should be. Katie licks her lips, chewing at the corner. Dammit. “Hey.” I try to tamper my irritation. Extending my arm, I reach for her inner tube and swivel to hook my foot under her leg.

“I’m sorry,” I say, and then admit, “I’m crabby today.”

“Why?” she asks, tipping her head.

“The beach is difficult for me. The sand isn’t good for my leg, and I hate using my crutches on uneven turf, not to mention, I feel like people are staring at me.” Normally, I would not give two shits. Let them stare has always been my attitude, but something about being here makes me self-conscious. Maybe it’s that people know me, even if I don’t recognize them.

“No one is staring,” Katie tries to assure me, and she wraps her other leg over mine, locking my ankle between her own.

“It’s like they all know my history, though, and I don’t know them.”

“What history?” Katie asks, and I stare at her.

“You mean you don’t remember my dad as the town drunk? Or that my brother killed himself in our backwoods?” The words are bitter on my tongue, and I’m lashing out at her again when my past is not her fault.

“I have a different story I remember about you. The summer Emily arrived, I’d been riding my bike up and down the street. My foot slipped off the pedal and my ankle caught in the chain. I lost my balance, and the bike skidded in the loose gravel. I went down, scraping my knee.

“I was with my older cousins, Meghan and Madison that day, and they’d ditched me for some boys down the street playing basketball in a driveway. I sat in the street, holding my knee, crying when one of the boys came over to me.

“’That’s quite a cut,’ he said. ‘But you’re very brave.’”

“I didn’t feel brave, Levi. I felt stupid. I fell. I hurt my leg. I wasn’t speaking to anyone in the world at that time. That boy asked me if I could stand, and he held out a hand to me, offering to help me up. I was too afraid to move, and he blew over the cut, soothing the sting before lifting me. He was still holding my hand when another kid shouted, ‘Quit being a hero and come back to the game.’ But he didn’t go back. He squatted there, holding my hand, and introduced himself. ‘I’m Levi, princess.’”

“Jesus,” I hiss, staring at her, wondering how she remembers such a thing.