Page 38 of Years in the Making

“Careful, LG, that sounds like a euphemism.”

She moves her hands from my shoulders to cup my face. “Answer the question, Enviro Guy.”

I slide my hands up and down her sides, my eyes still on hers. “It’s sufficiently wet,” I answer.

“Good.” She releases my face and waist and pushes off the wall, rocketing away from me. After a couple of deep breaths, I follow her across the pool.

We spend the next half an hour lazily swimming, never touching for more than a couple of seconds at a time.

“If we hadn’t met, what would you be doing this summer?” I ask as we float on our backs.

“Working, mostly. Basically, all of my high school friends moved away for school and spend the summer wherever they went or they travel,” she says, looking over at me.

“Glad I could break up your summer between jobs.”

“What about you?” Her hand brushes mine briefly and I feel it to my toes.

“Probably drinking more, partying, more hungover mornings, and arguments with my brother.”

I hear a thoughtful little hum come from beside me. “So having me around is good for your liver and relationship with your brother.”

Having you around,I think,is better for every part of my life.“It would seem that way.” I smile over at her.

Eventually, Nellie swims to the edge and hoists herself up. But she doesn’t stand and walk away like I expect her to. She turns and sits with her legs dangling in the water, watching me with a flirty little smile. As I swim closer, the smile grows, and when I set my feet down and stand so her knees are framing my sides, she’s got a full-blown grin.

She brushes the hair off my forehead, and I watch her eyes sweep across my face as if she’s mapping every inch. “Hey,”she finally says.

“Hey.” I smile back just as I make a decision. Planting my hands on either side of her hips, I raise myself out of the pool so our faces are level. “I’m going to kiss you now, LG,” I say.

“Yes, please.”

It’s a wonder how I manage to keep myself upright as our lips meet. This woman unbalances me in the best way. Her fingers slide through my hair, her nails scraping deliciously across my scalp. I want to stay like this forever, but my arms betray me, unlocking so I fall away from Nellie and back into the water. Seconds later, she slips back in and closes the space between us. She wraps her entire body around me before her smiling lips meet mine again. I keep my hands at her waist, wanting to slide them lower but knowing that will only lead to frustration later on.

Slow down, slow down, slow down, I chant to myself. Every molecule in my body wants to blow right through taking things slow. It feels almost unnatural, which is why I slow our pace and eventually pull away.

She doesn’t vocalize her question, but I hear it anyway. Why?

I lean forward and peck the tip of her nose. “If we keep that up, going slow is not going to happen.”

“Maybe going slow is overrated,” she says, as if in a trance. She licks her lips, her eyes on where they had just been.

“It’s what you wanted, Nell. It’s what I agreed to, happily. And I’m not going to let this”—I gesture between us—“happen for the first time in a pool.”

She wraps her legs tighter around my hips, causing me to suck in a breath. “We can get out of the pool, you know.” Her smile is a bit wicked as she says it like she’s thinking of all the things we can do once we hit the deck.

I stare at her for a moment, trying to read her expression. It doesn’t take me long before I find what I’m looking for:a touch of doubt sitting at the corner of her lips. I’ve seen it before, I’m realizing. When she told me she had a boyfriend, and when she winked at me in the bookstore. My Library Girl may like the idea of blowing through the yellow light, but she’s still going to treat it like a red.

I reach up and trace those telling lips with my thumb, stopping right where her doubt lives. “I don’t want to rush a single thing with you, Nellie,” I say when her eyes meet mine. “I’ve never wanted to savor anything more.” I watch her lips turn up and the doubt disappears.

“You're very romantic, EG. What twenty-two-year-old guy is this romantic?”

I shrug. “I told you, I’m an old soul.”

“I suppose one of us needs to be the mature one.” Then without warning, she’s pressing down on my shoulders, dunking me, and swimming off towards the side.

I can hear her laughter underwater and don’t give a second thought before I push off the bottom and rocket after her.

We spend the next fifteen minutes acting like children, dunking and splashing before Nellie admits to being exhausted. On the deck, I reach for her towel first and wrap her in it, pulling her towards me as I do. She looks up at me with those big blue eyes before reaching up for a kiss that leaves my legs feeling a bit like my arms. There are promises of things to come in each kiss, and I cannot wait to find out what they are. An involuntary shiver runs through me as the breeze picks up, and she breaks away, reaching for the other towel, which she throws around my shoulders.

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