AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Less than an hour later, we were heading west, on our way to New Mexico. It was about a five-hour drive, and I snagged a BnB in Alamogordo, the nearest city outside of the dunes. I rearranged my schedule for tomorrow while we drove, moving some meetings to next week, which I was sure I’d hate later. But for now, it felt worth it.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t anticipated it, but August started calling that night.
West glanced at the name on the phone and pursed his lips. “Are you going to answer that?”
“No,” I said automatically.
In fact, I put the phone on silent and didn’t look at it the rest of the night. We made use of the double bed, unable to hold back our laughter at the loud creaking noises it made. And then woke up bright and early the next morning, taking his Subaru to the entrance of the park.
We bought sleds and wax at the visitors center and drove into the sea of white dunes. It wasn’t actually sand even though it looked like it. The sand was gypsum, which was used commercially in drywall. Thankfully, the gypsum here hadn’t been stripped clear, and it was still a beautiful nature preserve. As if we were standing in an endless desert in the middle of New Mexico.
We took our sleds up to the top of an empty dune, waxed it to high heaven, and then proceeded to flop around uselessly.
I laughed myself into hysterics when West made it halfway down and then rolled through the sand face-first. “Oh my God, do that again!”
“I don’t know how you’re doing it,” he grumbled.
“The trick is to lay on your back, so there’s more surface area. Your butt just digs into the sand and slows you down.”
He eyed me warily as we trudged back up the dune. “Are you calling my butt fat?”
I snorted. “Hardly.” I slapped my own ass. “I’ve got junk in my trunk.”
He threw his sled to the ground and picked me up by my ass. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and giggled. We spun in circles until we were dizzy and collapsed into the sand.
West leaned over me, brushing sand off my cheek. “I love this freckle,” he said, touching a spot next to my lips.
“Yeah?”
“It’s my favorite. Well, you have one right here,” he said, pointing to my pelvis. “I like to taste that one right before I taste you.”
“Filthy.”
He didn’t respond; he just kissed me.
Our tongues met and twined, drawing out the gesture until we were both breathing heavy—and not from trekking up the dunes. Eventually, a family came near us, and we broke apart.
“Let’s try again,” I said. “You’re going to get this.”
We set up our sleds on the pathways we’d made, and then together, we pushed off. Both of us flew down the slopes, screaming and whooping as we went.
West crashed at the end, going tumbling. But then he jumped up, holding his sled above his head. “I did it! Let’s go again!”
I laughed but couldn’t resist his enthusiasm. We ran up and slid down that mountain over and over until we were exhausted and everyone had left us alone again.
Then, we lay side by side at the top of the dune, our fingers interlocked, staring up at the sun. I knew that we had to go back soon. It was a five-hour drive back to Lubbock, and I couldn’t play hooky twice this week. But I wasn’t ready to let this feeling go.
I wanted to hold on to it gently, like carrying an egg on a spoon.
“It is like touching the stars,” West said.
“Like there’s no one else in the whole world.”
“Just one.”
He brought my hand to his and kissed it. My stomach did a somersault. Apple had said we were young love. That it was all too complicated for her. But here, out in the open, it felt so simple.
“West,” I said, turning to face him.
His eyes swept to mine. “Yeah?”
I wanted to tell him what I’d been feeling for a long time. That this wasn’t just a fling, that it was so much more to me. That I wanted everything with him. Every silent moment, every stolen star.
But when I looked at him, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth like peanut butter. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t break the spell.
Instead, I kissed him and let him roll me onto my back. The words unspoken as I gave myself to him.
