Page 87 of Promise Me Sunshine

I shake my head and back up.

He’s beckoning with his whole hand.Lenny,he mouths.Come here.

Yeah, right. I can spot a wolf in Grandma’s clothes from ten miles away.

He takes one tiny step toward me and I’m off like a shot. But I’ve run in the wrong direction like an absolute fool. Astrong arm catches me around the waist as I’m halfway down the path toward the river. I’m a rag doll over the barrel of a shoulder and there’s a very familiar ass in my face.

“No! Sore loser! You can’t manhandle me just because you’re bad at Hearts!”

He grunts and speeds up toward the river. “Bad at Hearts?”

Considering we’re only fifteen feet from a racing band of ice-cold water, I have a sudden change of heart. “Never mind! Forget I said that! You’re gifted at Hearts. You were robbed!”

“You can’t take it back now,” he growls.

The docile babble of the river threatens me.

It’s getting closer and closer with every step. “No!” I beg and wiggle. “No! Miles, don’t do it! I’ll quit teasing you, I swear!”

We’re ten steps away. “Oh, now you’re remorseful?” he asks, striding with purpose toward my punishment.

“Yes! So remorseful! Don’t do it!” I’m full-body wiggling now, kicking my feet and stiff-arming his back. Anything to not get tossed in the river.

There’s no way he’ll do it, right? He wouldn’t toss me into a dark, fast river after sunset—he ignores the riverbank and steps directly into the water, wading in to his knees.

Shit. He’s gonna dunk me, there’s no stopping him. “No! NOooooooo!” I shriek, and now instead of trying to get away from him, my strategy changes to clinging bodily to him.

He peels me off his back and holds me princess style, readying himself for retribution.

“Don’t do it, Miles,” I beg. I’ve got my arms around his neck, my forehead pressed to his throat. I’m even gripping one of his arms with the backs of my knees. “I’m sorry!” I shout.

He pauses. “You’re sorry for teasing me?”

“I’m so sorry! You’re the king of Hearts! The best Heartsplayer. I should never have teased you.” I tip my head back and make big doe eyes at him, my bottom lip caught in my teeth. I make my voice extra breathy. “Nobody plays Hearts like you.” His muscles are still tense; he’s holding me away from him.

He’s about to do it. I go for broke.

I give myself Bambi eyes and fold my hands under my chin. “Please?”

If this doesn’t work, I’m going to have to pull my very last card and call him Daddy. Chips fall where they may.

He’s either very beguiled or very disturbed by me, at his mercy, begging, because he sighs and shakes his head, eyes pinched closed.

Then he turns back toward the shore.

When he steps back onto the riverbank, our three friends all boo from the trail. “Come on! Dunk her!” Jericho pouts.

“Traitor!” I shout, and point. Now that I’m not going to get dunked, I’m kind of enjoying my placement in Miles’s arms. I rest my head on his shoulder. “To the campsite!”

“She’s about to get dunked and instead she gets carried back to the campsite?” Jeffy gripes. “How’d that happen?”

“Is it really such a mystery?” Rica asks.

We arrive back at the campsite and Miles dumps me into a camp chair. “Who wants dinner?”

Half an hour later there’s a crackling campfire and a hot dog in my hands. He also produces a big potato salad and slices up some fruit. It might be the best meal I’ve ever eaten. I wiggle my toes at the fire and reposition Miles’s upside-down sneakers, drying out in the heat.

“We all need gorgeous lovers,” Jericho decides, leaning back on his hands and looking up through the canopy at the stars. “There’s too much natural beauty here to waste it onfriends.”

---