Page 86 of Any Second Now
“Atticus! Get your hands out of there and help me get down.” Raleigh’s cheeks pinken and I think I could convince her to carry on, but I’m not going to push her with this kind of thing, because I’m not an asshole.
I mean, I am an asshole, but not with this.
“Alright.” I withdraw my hands. “But I told you, we’ll be fi?—”
Then her neighbor’s RV door slams shut. Raleigh startles, the movement causing the hammock to abruptly swing, shifting Raleigh’s weight from on top of me to next to me and then?—
“Fuck!” I manage to hold her against my chest as we twist around and off of the hammock, flying into the air and falling the (luckily) very short distance to the ground.
We land with a hard thump on my back, her hands on either side of my head. I’m lucky there’s no rocks or hard tree roots around the hammock. But between the impact and the gorgeous woman on top of me, the air whooshes out of my body and I can’t breathe.
It wouldn’t be a bad way to die, I suppose.
“Holy shit, are you okay?” She shoots up until she’s sitting up straddling me, head touching the bottom of the hammock. She pats my chest and then my neck as if to check for cracks. “Did I just break you??? I’m going to get in so much trouble!”
I wiggle my shoulders, then my legs, then push my groin gently up into her. She huffs and puts her hands on her hips.
“I think I’m just fine. I was sacrificing myself for you, did you see that?”
“I did,” Raleigh chuckles, then starts to laugh, and I catch it next.
Both of us are cracking up and she tries to hop off me, but the hammock gets in the way and I hold her in place by her hips.
“Atticus.” Raleigh’s posed on top of me, her wispy hair like a halo around her head. Sun beams in between the leafy green trees, illuminating the air around her.
“But I like this view.” I take my hands off her hips anyway.
She sighs and leans down to kiss me, a smile still on her lips.
“You’re going to have to help me cross-stitch, you know. I have no hope of catching up on these orders.”
“Or, and hear me out—” I kiss her. “—we make another video and get a shit ton more orders.”
“No way!” Raleigh rolls off and sits up, and I do the same next to her. She turns to me and sighs. “You have grass and dirt all over you.” Raleigh wipes my back and picks a large leaf out of my curls.
I am fully smitten with Raleigh Hayes.
And that might be a problem.
Monday she announced she’s halfway through her eight-week sabbatical. And while that aligns pretty well with when I’ll have tobe back in hockey mode starting with the Skate for Kids charity tournament next month in New York City, it feels like the summer will be gone in the blink of one of Megghen’s creepy chicken eyes.
And then I’ll immerse myself in hockey, like I always do.
And she goes back to Connecticut and her old life, as has been her plan all along.
Hopefully notallof her old life.
Earlier this week she told me how her ex-husband continues to text and email her. She told him she needs space, and that they’re not getting back together.
Still, I can’t fully read her on that.
Yeah, she’s sleeping with me. Spending all her time with me. But we’re temporary.
He was her permanent.
I hope it stays in the past tense.
I hop up and reach my hand down to Raleigh to help her up.
