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“You make it look so easy,” she said, paddling my second kayak that, until today, had yet to be used. I never did understand why I had bought two kayaks, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Now I was doing the couple thing… odd, but I liked it.
“You’ll get the hang of it,” I said. “It’s not like a canoe where you have to worry about tipping over.”
“I feel like I could,” she said, looking at the crystal-clear water of Devil’s Bluff Lake. “And it looks freezing.”
“Even strokes,” I coached as I positioned my kayak next to hers and matched her pace.
“I actually really like this,” she said. “It’s pretty here. I’ve never been.”
I found that to be shocking. “You live in Black Mountain but have never been to Devil’s Bluff Lake. This is a landmark. How is that?”
“You’ve never met my mother. We didn’t do nature.” She paddled in silence for a few moments. “We didn’t do much.”
“You traveled a lot together, right? So, you must have done some things.”
She huffed. “I traveled with a nanny and her team of staff. I maybe saw her an hour a day. Maybe. And she was notorious for arriving someplace, meeting up with old friends or lovers and disappearing for days. Her staff knew they just needed to watch over me, and she would someday return.”
“Sounds lonely,” I said.
“I don’t know what it feels like to not feel alone.”
“Well, you aren’t alone anymore. I’m here to help you get through all this.”
She stopped paddling as we reached the middle of the lake and then looked at me. “Am I a burden to you, Mr. D?”
The way her eyes looked as she asked the question, I instantly regretted being in the kayaks and separate. I wanted to hold her, stroke her hair and give her loving kisses of affection. This poor girl. She needed love. It was so obvious to see, and my heart longed to be the man to give it.
“First of all, you are far from a burden. Second, I think you can stop calling me Mr. D when we aren’t in school.”
“I like Mr. D,” she said with a giggle. “It’s catchy.” She looked around at the trees, the huge rock structure known as Devil’s Tooth and took a deep breath. “I didn’t even know what your real name was until I heard that woman in your room call you Drew. But it doesn’t suit you. I think you’ll always be Mr. D to me.”
“How about we just keep it D then? Cut the mister part.”
She nodded. “D.” With a big smile, she said. “I like that… D.”
“And, Corrine, you will never be a burden to me. You never need to feel that way. It saddens me to think you were brought up to think that way.”
“I know I threw myself on you.”
“You couldn’t control the situation that brought us together. And who cares at this point? If you haven’t noticed, I like you.”
“Because we had sex?” she asked with narrowed eyes as she nibbled her lip.
I chuckled. “As great as our sex was, there’s more to us than that. I’ve had lots of sex with women I don’t really care for. It’s easy, no hassle, and just the way I am usually. But you’re refreshing. I actually like spending time with you outside of the bedroom.”
She smiled and the tops of her cheeks pinkened. “Do you have a lot of women in your life?”
“I’m far from a playboy if that’s what you’re asking. I tend to keep to myself. But are there women…” I laughed. “I think you saw for yourself.”
“Shelly right?”
“Yeah, Shelly. And before you ask, no, there’s nothing between us. Maybe she would like there to be, but she’s not my type.”
“What is your type?”
“Clearly I like damsels in distress.”
“Does my age bother you?”
I really liked how straightforward and to the point this woman was. She said what she thought, and I appreciated her boldness. If she thought it, she asked it.
“Not your age… not really. I would rather you not be a student at Black Mountain Academy. It weirds me out. It’s risky as hell. But I also know that had we met at a bar or something—” She wasn’t even twenty-one. Idiot. “Well, if we met under different circumstances, I’m not sure I wouldn’t pursue you simply because of age. What about you? Does my age bother you?”
“I find maturity sexy,” she said. “The men I’ve been interested in in the past tended to be older too. Have you met the boys at Black Mountain Academy? I would rather stay clear of them. I’m not saying I’m more mature—”
“But you are,” I interrupted. “You most certainly are more worldly. Hell, you are more traveled and experienced with real adventure than I am.”
“If you call being holed up as a near orphan in every five-star hotel in the world as adventure, then yes, I got that on you.”
