Page 84 of Promise Me Sunshine

He shrugs and shucks his shirt off. Our wolf howls from his back and I get the momentary urge to wrap my arms around his sturdy rib cage, to keep him from doing what I know he’s about to do. But then his feet are at the edge of the mini cliff, turning to face me. He bends, and his arms go up-around and carry the rest with him. He spins into the air, hangs there, rotates cleanly, andwhooshthe splash reaches the canopy.

And Rica.

“Show-off!” she calls in a friendly way, sloughing water off her toned legs.

“Itoldyou Jeep was a lifestyle!” I shout down to him again as he treads water and grins.

I grab his shirt, climb down the sane way, and go about stripping myself nude. Well, not nude. But bra and undies. Good thing I wore a sports bra today. Good thing my undies are black. I hobble into the water and ascend gorgeously into a transcendent doggie paddle.

Jeffy and Jericho are laughing hysterically at me, and Miles is shaking his head. “How you’ve managed to survive the last three decades is a real mystery to me.”

“What?” I demand, my mouth and eyebrows pretty much the only part of me managing to stay afloat.

“You call this swimming? This is called slowly perishing.” He swims fiercely across the swimming hole and plants a knee under my butt, his palm between my shoulder blades. “At least back float, okay?”

I follow directions while he treads next to me, his brow furrowed. When I’m tired, I reach out to him and he plants my two hands onto his two shoulders, swimming me to the edge of the drop-off. His shoulder muscles whisper secret things to the palms of my hands. I try very hard not to listen.

“Stay on shore,” he instructs me.

The afternoon tumbles on. There’s more swimming, a little bit of drinking, kayakers who slice down the river with a shout and a wave. The boys engage in water games. It devolves quickly into Jericho and Jeffy doing everything they can to dunk Miles, and Miles finally succumbing gruesomely. Later, Jericho, Rica, and I amble down the shoreline and back, finding pretty rocks and shells and talking about nothing at all. When we get back, Miles is lying on his back, two arms behind his head. I like his armpit hair, but that’s not really something you mention aloud. I plunk down next to him. “Are you sleeping?” I stage-whisper.

“Not anymore,” he stage-whispers back, and opens one eye.

“Oh! Great!” I cock my head and warily eye his naked chest. Water droplets and chest hair and shadows and ribs and flushed skin and—

“You know, you’re pretty hot without clothes on.”

He’s got his head tipped up toward the sun. He answers without opening his eyes. “Thanks.”

“Hey, here’s an idea.” I fold up my legs and turn to him. “How about we have a super passionate affair for like two years. And then a really horrific breakup. Oooh! I know, we’ll make our friends and family choose sides!”

He still hasn’t opened his eyes. “Sure. Sounds good.”

“What? Why would you agree to that?”

He finally opens his eyes. “Why would you suggest it?”

“Because I just discovered how hot you look with no clothes on. Duh.”

He yawns. “I need a nap.”

“How about some of that ice cream from the cooler instead? I’ll smear it in my cleavage and you can forgo the cone.”

He laughs. “My abs broke you, huh?”

My eyes drop down against my will. “It’s the happy trail for me, actually.”

He snaps his fingers up near his eyeline and I reluctantly return to the world of eye contact. “One of these days I’m going to take you at your word for one of the utterly absurd things that you say.”

“And then what?”

“Then I’ll just be someone who’s eaten ice cream from between your boobs.”

“What are you two chatting about?” Rica asks, sauntering over and wagging two beers in our direction.

“Abs,” I say. We gratefully take the beers and they pop and foam, briefly catapulting us into a Coors Light commercial circa 1998.

“A favored topic of mine, that’s for sure.” Rica sits down on Miles’s other side with a sigh. She tips her head back and her long black hair starts drying in beachy waves. “No sirens, no horns, no garbage trucks.”

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