Page 24 of The Fall
“Time to eat!” Erin sets out a platter of buns and burger toppings on the patio table, and Hayes is on the way with a tray of burgers.
Blair helps Erin lay out the plates while Lily clambers out of the pool, drenched. There’s a stack of towels folded in a basket near me, and I snag one and unfurl it for her. She walks right into my arms, lets me wrap her tight in the cotton-candy-colored towel.
Dinner is a boisterous affair, full of laughs and chatter and the clink of glasses. There’s no alcohol. It’s iced tea, water, soda, and Gatorade. Blair’s hand finds mine under the table. I lean into him, soaking up his warmth, his steadiness.
After dinner, it’s back to the pool. Lily endures the mandatory thirty-minute wait to digest, bouncing on her toes for the final five minutes like she’s taken five for fighting in the bin.
Finally, when it’s time, Hayes sweeps her into his arms and pretends to gobble at her stomach. “I think it’s time for the dunking!”
She screams, her legs pumping, her arms reaching over Hayes’s shoulder toward me.
Hayes gives her a second to pinch her nose closed and then leaps with her into the water. They come up in a wall of waves and sound, splashing and laughing and calling out to Erin and Blair and me to join them.
The pool is a shock against my sun-warmed skin. I slip under the surface, let the water close over my head. The muffled sounds of splashing seem distant, dreamlike. Here I’m alone, cocooned, separated from the world. For a moment, I’m suspended in time—it’s too much, suddenly, and I rise to the surface.
Blair’s there, waiting for me. He wraps his arms around my waist as I stand. He gives me a whistle, cocks his eyebrows up and down. “Hey, handsome. What’s a hunk like you doing in a place like this?”
I snort. He buries a laugh in my throat as I wrap my arms around his waist.
We stand there, holding on to each other, Lily’s laughter and the splash of water fading away. It’s like falling in love again, all at once. I don’t know how I got here and I don’t know what I’ve forgotten, but I know I want this.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he says. His words tickle my skin behind my ear. I lean into him, feel his heart beating against my back.
“I was thinking about how lucky I am,” I whisper. I turn and face him, loop my arms around his neck. We are forehead-to-forehead, sharing the same breath.
The setting sun has softened him, cast shadows across the strong line of his jaw and the curve of his lips. He’s more than handsome or attractive; he’s breathtakingly beautiful. He’s exactly the type of man I was too scared to let myself want for more than a single second. I was so certain I could never, ever have this kind of life or brush against a future this dazzling.
I lean in, closing the distance. Our lips meet. It’s not Blair’s first kiss, but it is mine, and it’s perfect. It’s fireworks and lazy mornings and gentle midnights, promises and declarations and silent, secret glances, all at once. It’s a tidal wave, pulling me under, and I’m not even close to fighting it. I’ve dreamed of this moment, but reality issomuch better.
I want to lose myself in Blair, in the strength of his arms and the heat of his body. I want to know him with my hands, to map out every inch of his skin. I want his taste to be the only thing I ever taste again. I want one kiss to stretch into infinity, an eternity of Blair’s lips against mine.
Lily splashes over, kicking half the pool into our faces and breaking us apart. “Torey, Torey! Watch this!”
She ducks under the water and tries to execute a wobbly handstand, and nearly brains Hayes with her heel.
Blair keeps one of his hands tangled in mine beneath the water. It’s nowhere near enough, but that kiss was a pretty good start.
Blair, Hayes, and I start a game of monkey in the middle, bouncing a pink beach ball over Lily’s head as she lunges and belly flops for it. Eventually, Blair lets her climb onto his shoulders, and then he declares he’s switching sides, the two of them against us.
“Torey is on our side!” Lily has her hands plastered to Blair’s forehead, her feet dug hard into his armpits. He might lose an eye to her finger.
Hayes feigns getting shot in the heart. “My own flesh and blood has turned against me.” He falls back dramatically, the water splashing over him as he sinks into the deep.
Lily doesn’t seem to mind her dad’s demise. She thrusts out her hands toward me. Blair helps Lily move to my shoulders, where she stays until it feels like my sockets are separating and my spine is collapsing. Erin saves me with Fudgsicles, but evenout of the pool, Lily plants herself on my lap when we shift to the deck chairs.
Happiness is everywhere, wrapping me up, pulling me under. The citronella candles flickering on the table, the pool toys bobbing in the water, the music drifting from Hayes’s speakers. Blair’s knee pushed against my thigh, Erin and Hayes cuddling in a single chaise lounge, eyeing Blair and me and Lily and trying to hide their smiles.
Twilight descends while we’re too busy laughing to notice the day slipping away. The stars are out in full force, and the air is pleasant and cool, the humidity gentle. A soft, saltwater breeze drifts in off the Gulf.
Lily, still perched on my lap, traces the inside of my arm with a damp finger, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. She twists and burrows into my side. Her face is sticky from the Fudgsicle.
“Lilybean,” Erin says, standing. “It’s time to get ready for bed.”
Lily scowls. “But he just got here!”
Hayes and Blair look down, hiding their smiles. Erin holds out her hand. “Torey has been here for two hours, not two minutes. He’s played with you nonstop. I’m sure he’s tired, too.”
I give her my best exaggerated yawn. Halfway through, it turns into a real yawn, and my jaw cracks. Both Blair and Hayes laugh.
