Page 244 of Releasing 10
“I’M GOING TO GET A JOB HERE WHENI’M OLD ENOUGH,” HUGH ANNOUNCED ONThursday evening as we splashed around in the water.
Back in September, when he suggested we take up swimming on weeknights after school, I thought it was only a fleeting notion rolling around in his head because he loved to swim.
But when he continued to bring it up, I quickly realized he was deadly serious. After convincing my parents of all the ways exercise could benefit my mental health, they’d practically kicked me out the door.
Every weekday evening for the past two months, at 7 p.m. on the dot, Hugh arrived at my house on his faithful yellow slingshot, with his swimming bag slung over his shoulder.
From there, we would cycle to the hotel and private leisure center in town, where both our families were members, and swim until they kicked us out at closing time.
For two whole hours, I got him all to myself, after which he cycled me home, before heading home himself.
Maybe it was the endorphins from swimming or maybe it was Hugh, but I felt a stillness in the water that I didn’t feel anywhere else.
“Seriously.” Hugh gestured to the empty lifeguard chair. “That’s going to be my seat.”
“I believe you,” I replied, wrapping my arms and legs around him. “You’ve accomplished everything you’ve ever set your heart on.”
“Not everything,” he shot back with a flirty wink. “Some things I’ve set my heart on can’t be rushed.”
My heart fluttered in my chest. “Is that so?”
“Uh-huh.” He gripped my thighs and hoisted me closer. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“I’m right here,” I laughed, reaching up to push his drenched hair out of his eyes. “You look adorable with wet hair.” Grinning, I leaned in close and pressed a kiss to his nose. “Like a big, brown-eyed puppy.”
“What every lad wants his girlfriend to say.”
“That’s not what I mean—”
My words were swallowed up by his lips when they crashed against mine. His tongue swiped tentatively against mine, probing a reaction, waiting for approval. Shivering in pleasure, I kissed him back greedily, wanting nothing more than to fuse my mouth to his forever.
When Hugh kissed me, it wasn’t like anything I’d experienced before or since. He was loving me with his mouth. Expressing his feelings with every flick of his tongue. It was deep. It was all-consuming. Like I was the sole recipient of his time, focus, heart, and affection.
The number of kisses we shared had increased drastically since he started secondary school, and even more so since his birthday last month. It was almost like his body had caught up with mine, and we werefinallyon the same frequency. Hugh was always careful to make sure weonlykissed, and I was perfectly content to follow his lead becauseholy crapcould he make me feel things with his kisses.
A part of me had feared Hugh would drift away from me once he started at Tommen and was around other girls, but he seemed more determined than ever to carve out alone time with me.
My boyfriend kept his word and his eyes on me, even though plenty of girls at his new school were determined to turn his head. While Hugh never breathed a word about it, his sister, on the other hand, sang like a canary the second she got the dirty details from his friends.
Apparently, the boy who’d been my best friend since junior infants had become quite the heartbreak prince at Tommen, with an impressive line of admirers vying for his affection. According to Patrick, and to Hugh’s utmost credit, he was mostly oblivious to the attention, keeping his head in the books during class and his eyes on his phone at lunch break. And even when the really bold ones outright propositioned him, he politelyandfirmly declined.
“Okay, we need to stop,” Hugh announced in a panicked tone as he tore his lips from mine.
“Why?” I moaned, peppering his neck with kisses. “I wasn’t finished kissing you.”
“I’m really sorry about this.” With his breathing hard and uneven, he grabbed my waist and tossed me out of his arms. “But I need a minute.”
“Oh, that’s a real nice way to treat your girlfriend,” I cackled, spurting out a mouthful of water as I paddled back to him. “Tossing me away like that.”
“Please stay back,” Hugh warned, holding up one hand while he used the other to swim away from me. “I mean it, Liz.”
“Oh, stop trying to swim away, you big baby,” I laughed, rolling my eyes. “I already know what’s happening in your shorts. It’s been poking me in the back all summer.”
“Thanks, Liz. Say it louder, why don’t ya?” Hugh groaned before disappearing under the water, only to reemerge a full minute later at the opposite end of the pool.
Pulling himself out of the water with effortless ease, he rested on the edge of the pool, with his feet still dangling in the water. “Okay,” he called out, giving me two thumbs up. “I think I have it under control.”
“Have I told you lately how proud I am of you?” Hugh declared after swimming, when we were making the trek through the unlit car park to where we parked our bikes.
