Page 18 of Secretary Crush
The sun has long ago set, and we’ve both kept a cold beer in our hands. Around eight, I look over at her and find the fire lighting up her green eyes. “Are you getting hungry?”
She shrugs one shoulder. “I could eat. What’s on the menu?”
I smile as I get up out of my chair and move to the food cooler. “Hot dogs.”
She laughs as I grab the sticks and move back to my chair. Using my pocket knife, I cut open the package and take out a hot dog. I shove it onto the metal stick and hand it over to her. She looks a little confused when she takes it. With questions written all over her face, she leans forward and holds the stick out over the fire, putting the hot dog in the heat. I put my hot dog on the stick the same way, and I hold mine directly over the flame.
“Am I supposed to put it directly in the fire?” she asks, moving her hot dog down next to mine.
“It just depends on how you like it.”
She laughs. “I don’t know. I’ve never had a hot dog cooked over a fire before.”
I look at her with confusion. “Where did you grow up?”
She laughs. “In the city. The only fire I’ve ever had is in a fireplace in the house or the kind that burns through the glass rocks outside. Never an actual wood-burning fire outside in the middle of the yard.”
I shake my head. “I find it hard to believe that you never camped as a kid.”
She shrugs as she begins to rotate her hot dog. “I went to sleep away camp once.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She nods. “Yeah, it was a church camp, and it was only for a week. I just remember hating it. I was so spoiled. I didn’t like the bugs in the woods, or the spiders that got into the bunks, or the nasty food they tried serving. I only lasted three days before I made my parents come get me.”
I laugh. “Well, I’m glad you’ve grown out of that.”
She smiles. “Maybe I just like my company a lot better now.”
I pull my hot dog back with a smile. “You want a bun, or are you going to eat it right off the stick?”
“How’s it best?”
“I like it right off the stick.”
“Got any ketchup?”
I pull the bottle of ketchup out of the cooler and squirt it down the length of her hot dog. Together, we take our first bites at the same time.
“Mmm,” she says around her chewing. “This is really good.” She takes another bite. “It’s better than the hot dogs you buy off the carts on the side of the street.”
I laugh. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
She’s already killed the hot dog, and she’s motioning for another.
Between the two of us, we eat the entire package of hot dogs for dinner.
“Areyou sure we won’t get into trouble?” she asks as the two of us make our way down to the water.
“Why would we get into trouble? It’s a lake, and there are no signs posted that say we can’t swim in it.” I pull my shirt over my head and drop it to the ground.
“Yeah, I don’t think swimming is the problem. I think it’s the being naked in public part that they’ll have a problem with.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Are you scared?” I challenge, locking my eyes on hers.
She presses her lips together even though the corners begin to turn upward. “I’m not scared,” she says, accepting my challenge.
“Prove it.” I push my jeans and boxers down my legs. Stepping out of them, I head for the water. I don’t turn around and look her way until I’ve made it neck-deep in the warm lake. I turn just in time to see her running in, water splashing up around her as she heads for me. Once she’s deep enough, she dives and swims under the water until her hands wrap around my calves. She pulls herself up out of the water, climbing up my body like a jungle gym.
