Page 51 of Defend Me

Von mimes zipping her lips.

The driver lets us off and I follow Von into the park. There are winding narrow paths that weave through stretches of grass and enormous boulders sunk into the earth. There are people everywhere—sunbathing, setting up picnics, jogging, biking. But there are so many trees, and I gratefully inhale their deep, familiar scent. I’ve missed nature.

I figure out my surprise as the path we’re on emerges out at a large lake. It’s dotted with people in tiny rowboats. “We’re renting rowboats?” I yelp, my eyes catching on a green-roofed building, all awkwardness melting away with my excitement. This was on my list!

“Ta da,” Von says, taking off her sunglasses. Her cinnamon eyes sparkle in the sunlight. “I thought…I asked Charlotte if there was anything you wanted to do in New York and she said this.”

For a moment, I’m speechless.

“Von…” I can’t find the words.

“I’m not giving you the crown jewels,” she says, her ears turning pink. “They’re just rowboats.”

I’m feeling a bit like I’ve been clubbed over the head. Von reached out to Charlotte. About me. Von planned something thoughtful. For me.

She talks to the guy running the rentals and before I know it, I’m stepping into a small pink rowboat. I turn and see Von hovering on the dock.

“Come on in,” I say.

She chews her lip. “I don’t…this isn’t really my thing.”

“It may not be a yacht,” I tease her, “but I think you’ll survive.” Her gaze darts to the prow of the tiny boat swaying gently with the movement of the water. I realize she’s not being snobby—she’s nervous.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Von nervous. It makes my ribs go oddly soft.

“Here,” I say, holding out my hand. “I’ll help you.”

She narrows her eyes. “You’re not going to dump me in the water, are you?”

“No,” I promise.

“Because you did dump me in the water that one time we went to Jones Beach when we were kids.”

“As I am no longer a ten-year-old boy, I swear I will not dump you in the water.”

“Promise?”

I hold up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

She rolls her eyes and mutters, “Of course you were a Boy Scout.”

She reaches out and takes my hand. Hers is so small and delicate, her nails perfectly manicured. I feel a bit like an oaf with my callouses and rough palms. As I help her into the boat, it pitches beneath us, and she tumbles into me.

“Oh!” she cries as I catch her in my arms. Blood rushes through me in a disorienting way, making my skin crackle where Von’s body presses against mine. One of my hands splays across her lower back, the other wrapping around her shoulder. She’s so soft, her skin supple beneath my palms. The scent of her is everywhere and as she looks up at me, she presses her top teeth softly into her lower lip and the ache inside me grows. I have the sudden urge to run my thumb across that lip, to dip my mouth to hers and suck it between my teeth.

“Sorry,” Von says, disentangling herself as I flush because wow, those thoughts are inappropriate. Von wobbles to take a seat on one of the benches that cross the boat.

“It’s fine,” I say, but my voice comes out a bit strangled. She quickly puts her giant sunglasses back on and I put the oars in the water, trying to calm my racing pulse.

I pull us away from the dock and out onto the lake. Von keeps her gaze trained on the shore, her eyes hidden. I wish she’d take the sunglasses off. I want to see her whole face. I try to focus onthe smooth feel of wood in my hands, the tension created as I pull the oars through the water. It’s a beautiful day, a handful of fleecy clouds dotting the cerulean sky, the sun casting golden ripples across the water. I can see some buildings poking their tall heads up in the distance over the tops of the trees, some square, some pointy. But it’s quieter out here. That’s something I’ve always loved about being on the water. The sense of peace it imbues.

Von seems to relax a bit too. Her shoulders lose some of their tension. “Good surprise?” she asks.

“The best,” I say. “I can’t believe Charlotte told you about it.”

“Should she not have?” Von asks, sounding worried. “I didn’t mean to pry, if it’s like, a private thing between you two.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that,” I say, grinning. “I’m just surprised she remembered my list at all.”

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