This is Chapter 9 from my novel . . . in a love song. (Available for e-readers only.)
Nine
The blue blazed in front of them as she maneuvered the pickup through the parking area where other vehicles were scattered. She aimed for a particular path which veered away from the lake, rounded several large pines, and came to the edge of a drop off about fifteen feet above the lake, shoved it in park and reached behind her seat for a towel. He climbed out with his rolled up towel and walked to the edge. Below him the water shone in blue-green clarity revealing its bottom of sand, small rocks, and occasional tendrils of green plants. The sun baked him through his T-shirt.
He looked toward her and watched her pull off her T-shirt, shoes, and shorts to reveal a black one-piece bathing suit. It didn’t give away much, but it gripped what it covered. She looked lovely, and he regretted again what he’d said.
“You can slip into whatever you brought to wear in the truck. Your stuff’ll be safe in there. No one comes to this spot. I’ll be in the water.” She turned and dove off the edge.
He watched in fascination at her great dive, waited till she surfaced and shook her wet hair from her face. He stepped over to the side of the truck and pulled off his shorts and underwear, slipping on his old cutoffs. Not wanting to be outdone, he measured his approach and dove into the water. The temperature was brisk, but the sun shone hot. He looked around for her and finally spotted her swimming toward a large rock about a hundred yards away. It would certainly test his air to follow her, but he set out anyway.
She sat on the flat part of the hump of rock leaning back on her hands, her wet body drying quickly in the heat. He climbed out of the water feeling muscles he hadn’t used in some time. She smiled at his approach, and he hoped his doghouse dilemma might be over.
“Refreshing, huh?”
“That it is. You must do this often.”
“Once it gets hot I try to come out here every Sunday.”
The wetness of her dark hair clung to her face, her bangs pointing into her eyes. Those lips continued to draw him, and he turned to stare at the lake. He wanted to apologize again, but it felt wrong. The words expended, there was no recovering them. Gone like the breath before them. Damage control probably out of the question.
“Have you even considered loving someone?”
He was clearly out of his element on this subject. Before he could answer, she insisted, “Tell me the truth. I want to know how you think.”
The truth. She said she wanted the truth. He didn’t doubt she did. It seemed most of the women he’d known fabricated a truth they could live with while being with him. She demanded it before she allowed any advancement.
“I could tell you how I think, but I’m not sure it’ll be true tomorrow.” He heard the slightest edge toward defensiveness in his voice. This girl was doing a number on him.
She stared at him and then adjusted her seat on the rock to face him. “Okay. Tell me what you think today. And why you won’t want to end it after today since I don’t plan on sleepin’ with you anytime soon.”
He studied her expression and found only serious intent. No anger. “You sure about that?”
“Fairly sure, yes.”
He began to talk, looking straight ahead across the glimmering water. “Alright. To state the obvious: I’m attracted to you. You’re pretty, you’ve got spunk, and you don’t play games which I especially like. I’ve got no idea what love is supposed to feel like probably because mostly I’ve been with women I liked alright but who didn’t get me past the sex part. So when that got to be . . . uh, all we really had goin’ on, I moved on.” He felt stupid. And shallow. It sounded crass even to him. “Anyway, I don’t know anything about ‘relationships’. They’ve always started with sex for me and gone downhill from there.” He turned back to face her, but now she was staring across the lake.
“And that’s enough for you for the rest of your life?” Her tone earnest and her gaze returned to him.
It was a good question, one he had just begun to contemplate he supposed. “I guess it’s never really been ‘enough’.”
“I’m not in it for the short term, Dale Rivers. So you decide.”
No minced words. All her cards on the table, and all he could see were aces. Something about her—no doubt she was “different”.
“Tell me about you and Keith.”
She searched his expression with a slight smile. “I will but why?”
“Because I need to know how you felt about him and if he’s still holdin’ on to something with you. I gotta work with the guy, you know? What little I’ve known of him he’s never talked about anything or anyone like he did when he said those few things about you. Makes me think he’s still carryin’ a torch.”
“And if he is, you’ll back off?” This time her voice wielded some sharpness.
“Hell, no. I just like to know what I’m up against.”
She laughed. From her sitting position she reached over and kissed him. “You’re irresistible, you know that?”
“I’m countin’ on it.” He kissed her back.
“I’m not teasing you.”
“Yes you are.”
She sat back. “No. I’m not trying to.”
“Don’t matter. You are.”
“So we have a problem?”
“Kinda do.”
She watched him, speechless. He watched her shoulders slump as she sat back. “Keith was like the guy all the girls wanted to date. ‘Built and Beautiful’ was his secret nickname. It was easy to get a date with him—if you were good looking and had a decent body, Keith would take you out. I didn’t consider myself to have either of those ‘qualifications’ so when he showed real interest in me, I was surprised and flattered. And he had a great reputation of being a cool guy—charming, polite, fun to the max—but he wanted to be rewarded for all his magnificence, and most of the time he got what he wanted.”
“But not from you.”
She sat quiet for a few moments. “He got more than I intended to give, and I think that’s why he stayed around so long. I was a challenge. Couldn’t add Pet to his collection and he needed to, to prove his manhood. It became the focal point of our time together, and we started to fight a lot. I broke up with him after finding out the hard way he was having his needs met on the side.”
“The ‘hard way’?”
She paused, looked down, and flicked a bug off her leg. “I used to come out here by myself on summer nights. Rode my bike. This little town has always been safe, so I’d just sneak out here when I couldn’t sleep. The water seemed warm at night and I’d swim ‘til I was tired. It relaxed me, and I loved the silence of no people, just the critters and sounds of the night. The bigness of it all made me feel small, and somehow that comforted me.
“So I came out here on a Tuesday night in late July. Probably around 1 A.M. I was walking the bike over the dirt to a far corner of the parking area when I saw Keith’s car. I knew instantly he’d be with some girl and I wanted to find out who so I left my bike and tiptoed over there.” She brushed some loose rocks from the surface beside her. “Only time I ever saw anyone actually having sex.”
Dale looked across the lake. Nothing to say. Finally, he said, “He tell you he loved you?”
A mirthless laugh. “Of course. Isn’t that what all high school boys tell the girls they want to sleep with?”
“Not this one.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Appreciation clear in her quiet tone.
“So was it love for you?”
“No. Well, maybe. I guess as much as I was capable of ‘love’, yeah. But that wasn’t much in hindsight. And Keith? Huh-uh. For Keith it’s always been about lust. That’s not to say he didn’t have feelings for me or any of his other girls. It’s just that they didn’t run very deep and were easily . . . distracted.”
The temperature on the rock elevated, and sweat beaded on Dale’s chest. His mind absorbed the description of Keith, the application to himself uncomfortable.
“Race ya back,” she taunted and was instantly in the water.
He was no match for her, but he pushed himself to finish a length behind her and totally out of air, his leg muscles almost to a cramp. He followed her as she maneuvered along the edge to a diagonal path up the side of the short rock cliff. Climbing up onto the path behind her gave him a sensuous view he couldn’t resist.
They spread out their towels and dried in the sun. Her hand on his chest woke him. “I need to get back,” she said.
He forced himself up to a sitting position. “Dinner?” he asked.
“Sure. What time?”
“Anytime.”
“Pick me up at my house around six, okay?”
“Okay.” He reached over and pulled her gently to him so he could kiss her. She put her arms around his neck and he felt her need as much as he felt his own. It wasn’t a tease.
Father, any good that comes from me is of you. Apart from you, I can do nothing. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
