AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When they arrived at the lake all was quiet. Sam supposed that was the glory of owning your own private beach.
“Did your family make this lake or is it natural?”
“It’s man made, but not from us. We’ve expanded over the years. Our property line’s slowly grown and we’ve accumulated quite a few of other people’s plots. This belonged to our neighbors. They headed farther north and gave us first dibs at their spread. We’d always swum here as children so it just seemed right that we own it. Who knew if other buyers would’ve let us continue to swim here?” He placed their chairs on the sand and leaned in to kiss her quickly on the mouth.
She pulled away and looked around. “Colin, someone might see.”
“There’s nobody here, Sammy. It’s just us.”
“But you told your mom to tell Braydon to come down when he returned.”
“Yes, and if I know my father and the rest of them, that won’t be until dinner. You can relax. No one will sneak up on us.”
She relented and spread her towel over her chair. Colin took off his shirt and sat in the chair beside hers. He spread lotion over his arms and shoulders. She was so mesmerized by his body, she may have stopped breathing for a moment. Feeling suddenly brazen, she pulled off her own t-shirt and dropped it into the bag.
“You better make sure you put some block on. The sun’s—” He stuttered when he looked up at her and Sam fought a smile at having such an effect on him. She held her hand out for the lotion and he handed it to her as if he were a wooden puppet with only his arm tied to a string. “I didn’t expect you to own a suit like that.”
She laughed. “I don’t own anything like this,” she said looking down at the narrow blue patches held together with floss. “This is Sheilagh’s.”
“I have to have a talk with that girl.”
She looked up from rubbing lotion on her chest. “Why? You don’t like it?”
“I like it very much. On you. On my baby sister…not so much.”
“Well, that’s a double standard.”
“If you knew what I was thinking right now you would understand.”
She smiled and then let the topic drop as she applied block to her legs and feet. They sat for a couple hours just talking. Every once in a while they’d simply sit in silence. Colin’s hand would find hers and their fingers would link between the arms of their chairs. It was silly to get such a rush from such simple contact, but to Sam it was one of the most intimate experiences of her life.
When the sun became unbearably hot she considered suggesting they head back, but bit her tongue because she didn’t want the day to end. Once they were back at the house there’d be no holding hands or personal talk.
“Come on,” Colin said, standing from his chair. His skin glistened with perspiration.
She looked up at him and squinted. He was so tall his body faded into a silhouette blurring with the backdrop of the blazing white sun.
“Where are we going?”
“We’re going to walk down and put our feet in the water.”
Colin looked downat Sammy shading her eyes from his view and hoped he was doing the right thing. He didn’t want to push her too fast or too hard. They’d been at the lake for quite a while so she had some time to adjust. He hoped she was ready to take this step.
“Just our toes, Sammy. You don’t even have to get your ankles wet.”
He followed her gaze toward the lake. It was calm, mirroring the trees and mountains like a second escape into a beautiful underground world. He waited.
He knew she was warring with herself and her fears as well as her desire to not let him down, but this wasn’t about him. This was about her letting go of the pain associated with losing her sister Meghan.
He glanced around to try to see the world the way she saw it. To him, the land was beautiful, breathtaking, serene, but to her it was likely frightening, powerful, and superior in an intimidating way.
He pointed to a scrubby patch of trees forming a hedgerow at the edge of the beach. “Let’s walk over to those trees and back.”
She followed his finger to where he pointed, actually having to turn her head in the opposite direction of the water because the trees were that far from the bank. He saw the moment her flaccid confidence grew into unthreatened surety.
“Okay.”
He helped her up. Her skin was warm and slightly pinker then when they first arrived. They strolled along the beach with slow steps and watched as their feet kicked up little grains of sand.
