Page 54 of Pretend You Love Me
“Yeah. It really is.”
“I have a job where I can’t say bad words, so I try not to in my everyday life. It’s hard to turn off and on, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t fucking know,” he says.
I splash water at him.
“You’re really beautiful,” he says.
“So are you,” I respond. The intensity of his gaze is lighting my body on fire despite floating in this outdoor ice bath.
“Am I going to regret this?” I ask.
“Swimming?”
“No. You.”
He doesn’t respond for a moment and then says, “I can’t tell you that, Ginger.”
We float around for twenty minutes, and he says, “You’re officially turning blue.”
As we make our way back to the dock, I say, “Oh god, did you bring a towel?”
“I brought two,” he says.
“Two. Were you expecting me to join you?”
“No, the other was for Blue.”
I laugh. “Is he going to be mad at me?”
“No, he’ll thank you. He hates it when I dry him off.”
He climbs out first, and I unabashedly stare at him. He wraps a towel around his waist and then helps me up the ladder and wraps me in a towel too.He whistles for Blue who is clear across the lake.
I’m shivering.
“We’ve got to get you warmed up, Ginger,” he says. “You really have turned blue.’
I grab my clothes. Blue jumps onto the dock and shakes off. We both follow Kip toward the house.
“Go take a shower,” he says once we’re on the patio. “I’ll make you some tea.”
I nod. I’m too cold to talk.
After a long hot shower, I slip into a big hoodie and sweatpants. When I walk into the kitchen, I see him, waiting for me with tea. He’s changed into sweats too.
“I made a fire,” he says, nodding outside.
I follow him to the patio. He sits down in front of the fire pit and pats for me to sit beside him. Once I sit down, he grabs a blanket from the back of the seat and wraps it around my shoulders.
“Better?”
“Yeah,” I say, taking a sip of my tea. “Thanks.”
We watch the fire dance for a moment.
“It’s really beautiful here,” I say.
