Page 67 of The Progressions

“Everyone said that it’s pretty there in the spring,” he noted, which made all kinds of questions enter my mind. Would he still be here in Michigan in the spring? Did he mean that he’d stay after the season was over? And if we went together on a trip, would it be like a separate-room kind of deal? No, he would think we would be together. I pictured that and everything inside me clenched briefly in anticipation of pleasure.

“Your dad would probably like it,” he continued. “So would my mom.”

“A family vacation,” I interpreted, and he nodded. No more clenching.

“Even though I don’t like the water, I can appreciate that it’s beautiful here.” He stopped and looked across the lake.

“When it’s warmer, we can come back and go in. We don’t have to go deep,” I added. “You could get used to it and float around.”

He literally shuddered. “Yeah,” he answered, but it sounded much less than enthusiastic.

“Want to put your feet in now?” I asked again. “It’s calm.” It was pitch black, like a big expanse of rolling ink, touched with silver from the light of the waxing moon.

“Uh, ok.” He looked more and didn’t move, not until I reached down and tugged his hand to pull him closer. Then he took a while as he bent to remove his shoes and his socks, and then roll his pants. “What kind of fish are in there?” he asked.

“There’s nothing as big as you. There’s nothing nearly as big as you in the shallows. The worst thing you’ll encounter is a pointy rock.” I took his hand again. “Ready?”

The wet sand was cold and the water was more so. The shock of that made him focus less on the fear, though, so it was a good thing when he yelped, “Fuck! People go in here on purpose?”

“Lots of people,” I agreed, leading him out. “You can dive and swim—”

“Kasia, don’t go so deep!”

The water hadn’t reached my knees. “Ok, I’ll come back,” I said, and stepped to his side so that the waves only lapped our ankles. “See? This isn’t so bad.”

“It’s all right,” he answered, but as close as I was, I could feel his heart beating. He really, really didn’t like this.

“Tyler?”

He looked down at me. “What?”

“You were going to kiss me before, when we were on my comfortable bed. Want to do it now?”

And he broke into a smile. “Yes,” he told me, and he did.

Good grief. It was just his mouth on mine, pressing firmly and then, when I parted my lips, it was also his tongue carefully stroking. It shouldn’t have made me feel like I was on fire, all through my body. He put his arm around me to hold me closer and his palm cupped the back of my neck, and he kissed me deeper. I forgot that we were standing in the cool water and that maybe it was a little cold outside, because this was so…

Tyler pulled back, and I fell forward like I was boneless, gasping. “Your neck ok?” he asked me. “Does it hurt?”

“No.”

“Are you ok, in general?”

It made sense that he would ask, since I had flopped on him, had struggled to breathe, and was now shaking and clinging to his arms to stay upright. “I’m great,” I answered. “Very.”

His fingers rubbed my neck. “We should get out of this water.”

“Oh, your ankle!” I jerked myself upright. “The cold can’t be good for it.”

“I feel great, too,” he said. “I thought we could sit in the sand and I could kiss you more.”

He did.

Chapter 14

“Kasia, what do you think?”

Well, I was thinking that light pink would be nice. Miss Gail had a name for the color…what was it? Blush! Blush pink would be very pretty, because who said you had to wear white? Although, it was hard to argue with millions of beautiful brides.

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