Ch.9 - Kiss the Girl
The sky wasn’t dark enough for fireworks until 9:45. Having had enough of Kyle’s knowing smirk, Jared left the bar and scanned the fair to see if he could find Sunny and Melanie heading down to the beach. Just as he was about to give up his search, he heard a retching noise coming from behind one of the basketball games. Reluctantly he turned the corner to see who it was. Something about the retching noise sounded familiar. He hoped he wasn’t right, but he suspected he was.
He was.
Shoulder-length, silky, black hair that was pinned back with a silver band, and large white sunglasses that were about to fall into the trashcan she was leaning over; glitter glinted off her eye shadow and manicured nail polish on the fingernails that clutched at the sides of the can. A chic red clutch hung from her wrist on a golden chain.
“Summer?” he asked, during a brief interlude when there was no bile coming up out of her throat. Something about her in a fragile, vulnerable state always made him instinctively drop her nickname.
“Jared.” She smiled slightly in relief, and then promptly puked again.
Without hesitation, he went over to her, plucked the sunglasses off her head, dropped them into her half-unzipped open purse, and held her hair back till she was finished.
Sunny was as much a sister to him as she was to Kyle. He had babysat her a few times during his high school years, got her through geometry, chemistry, and social studies; he showed her the importance of cash and debit cards, as oppose to credit cards that would easily get her into debt (with her shopping tendencies especially). Her inability to hold her liquor frustrated and tortured him because he could hold his own so well, and she was much more prone to drinking excessively than he was. As much as it hurt him to see her like this, he knew it hurt Kyle more. His best friend knew the real reason behind his sister’s constant drunkenness. It had nothing to do with an addiction to alcohol and the fact that she liked to party.
“Thanks,” she muttered when Jared handed over a handkerchief for her to wipe her mouth with. Then he pulled out a box of altoids, popped the snap lid, and waited till she snatched three of the mints before snapping it shut.
“You okay?” he asked and she nodded.
“Where’s Kyle?”
“At the bar. Come on.” He gently maneuvered her away from the trashcan and towards where he’d left his best friend serving drinks.
“I need sleep,” she muttered. “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
Jared was about to comment when the loudspeaker came on, announcing the fireworks. Sunny stopped suddenly.
“Oh god,” she groaned. “The fireworks. Melanie. She’s—Jared, I can’t let her see me like this. I can’t. She won’t understand it. She won’t.”
Jared gripped her shoulders tightly.
“Hey, hey—she won’t , okay?” He stared into her wide eyes till she nodded and let him guide her back to Kyle.
Jared doubted very much that Melanie would judge Sunny for getting drunk again. From what he’d learned about her, it took a lot to make her get judgy. But he understood where Sunny was coming from. There were a lot of painful secrets Kyle, Sunny, and himself kept under lock and key. Two days alone in Sunny’s company was not enough time to bombard Melanie with family tragedies that explained why her new friends act the way they do. Even him.
He knew if Melanie asked about him now, he would give her the revised version. It was akin to taking her from the city to the farm. You didn’t trade homework for work in the fields; you didn’t trade chaotic city life for tragic, dark, small town secrets. Besides, Melanie had seen fun!drunk Sunny, not the sad one.
He wondered if she’d succumbed to any drinking tonight like she had the last time. He guessed not, given her speech on the way into town that morning when she’d proclaimed she would stay up all night to see the sunrise. She was well aware, she’d informed him, that alcohol tended to induce drowsiness, not prevent it. He smiled slightly at the memory, finally allowing himself to accept that he’d found her rambling absolutely adorable.
“You’re a good guy, Jared,” Sunny said, sounding closer to sleep. “No wonder Melanie likes you.”
Jared stopped instantly, as if his eyes widening also controlled his feet moving.
“What did you s—?”
“Uh oh.”
Jared turned to see what had caused her fact to pale, though he could guess the cause. They were almost to the bar but Kyle had spotted them already. He didn’t look mad, which would have explained Sunny’s sudden panic. Instead Kyle looked disappointed. Jared recognized the weariness lightly veiled in the depths of his eyes. The not again was as clear as day. He likely had expected this would happen, but like a fool had thought if he didn’t think about it too much, it wouldn’t happen. Jared knew that because he had thought it many times himself in recent years.
Any thought of Melanie vanished as Jared continued to steer Sunny towards the bar. Kyle whispered something to the other guy tending the bar with him. The guy nodded and Kyle took his apron off, coming around the side to meet them.
“I’ve got her,” Kyle said, sliding his arm around his sister’s waist on the other side with the intent to guide her to the parking lot and his waiting jeep. Jared released her.
“Sorry, Kyle,” Sunny murmured, unable to meet her brother’s gaze.
Instead of addressing his sister, Kyle continued to address Jared.
“I think I saw Melanie head down to the beach for the fireworks,” he said, giving him a meaningful look.
It said thank you for being a good friend, a good step-in brother for my sister. Thanks for being a good guy in general, for being someone I can count on. Now go be with your girl. Because my sister’s well-being means more to me than anything, I won’t tease you. This time.
Jared nodded once, heading off towards the beach. He heard only pieces of the beginning of Kyle and Sunny’s conversation.
“You taking me home, Kyle?”
“Not yet, Sun. We’ve got to see the fireworks…”
……
The beach was cluttered with hundreds of people. It would be a miracle if he found Melanie. But just as he was about to abandon the search to sit from afar to catch the fireworks, and then just hunt her down after everyone was nearly gone, he spotted a figure leaning against the great oak tree crouched halfway into the water. It was a miracle the old thing hadn’t fallen in yet. Presumably it’d been teetering on that angle for the last twenty years.
The figure turned toward him when he was about twenty feet away and he knew it was her. Melanie’s smile lit up her whole face when she saw him, and his heart beat faster. He recognized the feeling for what it was now. Something definitely more than like, not love yet, but calling it a crush sounded very…high school. Infatuation maybe, but he didn’t like that either. Infatuation was temporary and often superficial. He realized he wanted this feeling to last, and to be deeper than just a gorgeous body and a beautiful smile.
It was probably foolish, thinking in the long term, since she was leaving at the end of the summer and there was no guarantee she’d return again, let alone on a regular basis. In fact, this feeling would likely torture him all summer long because he had no intention of acting on it. He couldn’t justify it at all for obvious reasons; reasons that her Uncle Jeb would not hesitate to remind him.
Maybe that was the real reasons he’d let himself stay so stubbornly in denial. His subconscious had known before he did that if he let himself, he would probably like Melanie Stryder. Really like her. He would like her so much that he might even fall in love with her. And then she would leave and he would be the almost thirty-year-old hung up on a teenager. The next time he would see her she’d likely have a degree under her belt, a husband her own age and children that were practically clones of them that she would adore more than anything. Jealousy rose up in him over the fictional future he’d just created for her. He tried to shake himself out of it.
Maybe it would’ve been better to stay in denial.
“Hey!” Melanie said cheerfully, pushing herself off of the tree and meeting him halfway. Maybe he was mistaken, but Jared thought she’d been about to throw her arms around him. He found himself really wishing she had.
“Hey,” he said, smiling warmly instead of voicing his request.
“I thought I wasn’t going to see you for another half-hour. You know, post-fireworks.” She giggled a little and he smiled so wide he was certain he looked like an idiot.
“I found myself unoccupied, so—”
“Wow…” she said, expressing what he hoped was mock disappointment and not the real thing. “So, I was your last resort.”
“What? No! Of course not!” He was horrified, despite the fact that his mind was screaming at him that she was joking.
“You came to find me because you were bored.” She shook her head at him. “Maybe you weren’t even looking for me. Maybe you were just wandering and suddenly there I was right in front of you, interrupting your alone time.” She sighed mournfully but her lips twitched in amusement. “What girl doesn’t love to hear that?”
“Melanie—” But he didn’t say anything word because her lips were spreading into a grin and now he was mentally kicking himself for overreacting.
“Yes, I’m teasing you,” she said. Then she grabbed his hand and weaved him through the crowd till they reached what she had likely deemed was the perfect spot for firework-watching.
“I don’t know what happened to Sunny,” she said, letting go of his hand and sitting down on the blanket she’d set out. “But I think I can guess.”
Slowly Jared sat down beside her, wondering how much he should reveal about that situation.
“Based on the fact that you’re no longer in Kyle’s company though, I’m not too worried.”
He merely nodded, relieved at the conclusions she’d come to. He made no attempt to comment though, afraid he’d accidentally spill something he didn’t want to. He could feel her watching his profile, but before she was able her own mouth to address his silence, the sky exploded in color and they were both instantly distracted.
Melanie’s eyes stayed fixated on the fireworks. Jared, however, found himself lured to watch her face and its many expressions and sounds of awe responding from the crackling colors in the sky.
She’s so beautiful, he thought, as awed by her as she was by the fireworks. The little invisible Kyle on his shoulder cackled silently and swung his legs. Annoyed for even conjuring him up, Jared inwardly glared at the imagined, non-existent mini-Kyle.
Yes, yes, I know. He tried very hard not to grumble out loud. I’m in serious trouble.
………..
At 3am, Melanie yawned – not for the first time – and Jared held out his hand. Wordlessly she put her empty porcelain mug into his hand and he poured more of the coffee into it from his heat-infused thermal. Before he could bring out the cream and sugar again though, she took it back and downed two large gulps of it.
He looked at her, shocked, and then amused as she rapidly blinked from the bitter, sharp taste of it. Then she cleared her throat in the matter of a gasping, croaking toad.
“Bad?”
“Disgusting.” She made a face and mouthed for water. He took a bottle of water out of the cooler he’d brought and handed it over to her. She promptly drank the whole thing down.
“Better?”
She swallowed, but could still taste remnants of the black coffee in her mouth.
“Not nearly.
“I did advise against that after the first time you tried it.”
“True. But I needed a jolt.”
“The sugar wasn’t giving you the jolt you needed?”
“No. It wasn’t. It threw me into the air and then promptly stood back as I fell into the gaping chasm of drowsiness.”
He chuckled. “I see.”
“What about you?” She turned to look at him suspiciously. “You haven’t had any coffee and I hate yet to hear so much as the start of a yawn out of you.”
He shrugged. “I don’t tire easily.”
She sighed. “You don’t tire easily…you hold your liquor well—Sunny told me,” she explained when he looked at her curiously. “You can handle just about any chore that’s thrown at you on the farm…is there anything you can’t do?”
He smirked. “I can’t dance.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head once. “I’m a country boy. In my opinion, square dancing and line dances are stupid. I’m not even overly fond of farm animals.”
“Haven’t you had a girlfriend before?” she asked, dumbfounded somehow about his claim he couldn’t dance.
“Well…”
“And didn’t she demand you dance with her at some point or another?” she asked, determined to push past the images flitting through her head of him in love with another girl – or several other girls. “Wait, don’t tell me.” She cracked a grin. “Before I came along, you were a bad boy. Dropped all those lucky ladies like a hot potato when they got too complicated.”
He leaned towards her and wiggled his eyebrows.
“What makes you think you changed things?” He teased.
She flushed, embarrassed. What had made her assume that?
“Come on,” he said, getting to his feet and holding out his hand to her. He knew he could apologize for making her squirm, but that might cause more awkwardness. This was better.
She eyed him skeptically.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
“Not far,” he said, gesturing again for her to take his hand. “Trust me,” he persuaded.
Finally she sighed and took his hand. He didn’t let go when he started to walk away from their perching spot of the last five hours. It relaxed her, and by the time they reached the dock where the fireworks had been set off, she was completely at ease again.
“Now what?” she asked when he came to a stop.
“Listen.”
She did, but all she could hear was the soft lapping of water against the shore and the legs of the dock.
“There’s nothing,” she said. “I don’t hear anything but the water.
He turned her so she was facing the shore and pointed to some of the shining pebbles that sprinkled in the water.
“See those pebbles?” She nodded. “Be real still, and wait.”
She was quiet as she could be, so much so that she was starting to get leg cramps and was about to give it all up when there was suddenly movement. Her eyes were pinned to the pebbles and her jaw dropped in awe as they floated to the top of the water and floated out past the dock. When Jared and Melanie had to move slightly to follow them, little heads popped out followed by feet.
“Oh my god,” Melanie whispered, awestruck. “Baby turtles.”
Jared shook his head. “Too small to be regular baby turtles.”
“Then?”
“They’re called neenyas. Midget silver turtles that only come out at night. All day long they sleep in the sand. Easily squashed as I’m sure you can imagine from when people come running into the water, but somehow they’ve never died out.”
“They’re so cute,” she squealed and instantly the neenyas mere feet away from them curled up and looked like only pebbles again floating on the water.
Jared smiled but put a finger over his mouth to shush her. She pursed her lips together slightly, and slowly the mini-turtles popped out of their shells and paddled farther out into the lake, looking like nothing more than shiny specks the farther away they went.
“Amazing,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“They’re only native to Lakeland Valley as far as I know. I haven’t seen even a similar description of them in any textbook, at any zoo, or in any documentary.”
She looked up at him and smiled softly.
“A special breed.”
He nodded. “Indeed.”
“Much like you, Mister I-can-do-everything-but-dance.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure are things you can’t do too,” he deadpanned.
She laughed, oblivious to the neenyas floating far away now.
“Oh yes, lots of things. In fact, education is about the only thing I can do.”
“Your uncle says you were quite the climber of trees in your younger days.”
“Notice the use of the word ‘were’. As you know from recent experience…that skill has long since gone away.”
He got very serious suddenly and talked quietly when he did speak.
“That scared the hell out of me.”
She swallowed. “Me falling?”
He nodded. “I didn’t really like you, or I didn’t know what to make of you yet at least, but even the thought of you falling from so high up…you might have broken something, or worse. It just…” he shook his head. “Scared the hell out of me.”
“I won’t do it again.”
He turned to look at her. “I know you won’t. Because I’m going to make you a treehouse,” he declared.
She could barely find her voice, and when she did, she laughed again.
“A what?”
“A treehouse.”
“I know you didn’t have one as a kid because there isn’t any remnant of one here and you lived in the city, so there couldn’t possibly be one there. Am I wrong?”
“B-b-but,” she sputtered. “You have so much work to do. You’re already teaching me to ride a bike and drive a car. There’s the house and…wait, did Uncle Jeb put you up to this? Is this more Project Melanie crap?”
He chuckled. “Actually, I came up with this all on my own. And don’t worry, I’m sure your Uncle will have no problem with me taking it on.”
She shook her head smiling, but didn’t make any more arguments. After awhile, they sat on the dock and waited for the sun to rise.
“We made it,” she yawned at precisely 5:30am.
He made some smacking noises with his mouth and nodded.
“We did,” he agreed.
“Jared. Howe. Are you sleeping on me? What happened to not tiring easily?”
“What happened to you being so energizing?”
She laughed and smiled and he shared it. The sun came over the distant trees just as the neenyas paddled back to their sandy nests beneath the water on the shore. Starlets – birds apparently also native to Lakeland Valley, called Starlets, that looked like a cross between a dove and a seagull that were surprisingly beautiful with the one blue stripe across their wings and the purple patch beneath their beak – flew across the lake.
“Such a beautiful morning. I’m glad we stayed up for it.”
“Me too,” he said, slightly more energized but not really.
“Thank-you, Jared,” she said. “You didn’t have to do this, but it means a lot to me that you did. The last few days have been incredible. I just…I feel so lucky to have met you. This is going to be a great summer.” She smiled slightly. “I can feel it.”
He just looked at her for awhile, appearing to be battling with a decision. Then, a few moments later, he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand. He ran his thumb just under her lower lip and she shivered, her eyes closing for a moment at the intimate contact. She could hear her heart beating in her ears, louder than thunder.
When she opened her eyes he was staring at her with an intensity that should’ve frightened her but only enthralled her. There was a hunger there she would never let him deny, because she felt it as strongly in her own.
He started to lean towards her, his eyes on her lips, his breathing a little ragged as he inched closer. Melanie realized this was the moment she’d been waiting for all her life. She could almost taste him, and his fingers on her face was life-threatening in the most glorious way.
“Ah! You pushed me!”
Both Jared and Melanie’s eyes flashed open and they turned towards the sound. Two children playing at the next dock, a mother figure close behind them as they attempted to dunk each other while in regular clothes. The mother looked disapproving but made no move to stop it.
When Jared and Melanie looked back at each other, there was an awkwardness that had not been there before. Jared inched slightly away and cleared his throat.
“Shall I take you home?” he asked, just as Melanie had been about to propose breakfast at the 24-hour diner in the center of town.
Instead she nodded and tried to squash the pain that had tightened her chest.
“Sure. Yeah. I should get some sleep.”
He stood to his feet and held out his hand to her, but this time she refused it, saying something about being able to handle it on her own. After gathering up their coffee supplies and ambling back to his truck, they were on their way back to the Stryder farm, a tension between them that they both decided to blame on lack of sleep. Because really, what else could it be?
He was.
Shoulder-length, silky, black hair that was pinned back with a silver band, and large white sunglasses that were about to fall into the trashcan she was leaning over; glitter glinted off her eye shadow and manicured nail polish on the fingernails that clutched at the sides of the can. A chic red clutch hung from her wrist on a golden chain.
“Summer?” he asked, during a brief interlude when there was no bile coming up out of her throat. Something about her in a fragile, vulnerable state always made him instinctively drop her nickname.
“Jared.” She smiled slightly in relief, and then promptly puked again.
Without hesitation, he went over to her, plucked the sunglasses off her head, dropped them into her half-unzipped open purse, and held her hair back till she was finished.
Sunny was as much a sister to him as she was to Kyle. He had babysat her a few times during his high school years, got her through geometry, chemistry, and social studies; he showed her the importance of cash and debit cards, as oppose to credit cards that would easily get her into debt (with her shopping tendencies especially). Her inability to hold her liquor frustrated and tortured him because he could hold his own so well, and she was much more prone to drinking excessively than he was. As much as it hurt him to see her like this, he knew it hurt Kyle more. His best friend knew the real reason behind his sister’s constant drunkenness. It had nothing to do with an addiction to alcohol and the fact that she liked to party.
“Thanks,” she muttered when Jared handed over a handkerchief for her to wipe her mouth with. Then he pulled out a box of altoids, popped the snap lid, and waited till she snatched three of the mints before snapping it shut.
“You okay?” he asked and she nodded.
“Where’s Kyle?”
“At the bar. Come on.” He gently maneuvered her away from the trashcan and towards where he’d left his best friend serving drinks.
“I need sleep,” she muttered. “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
Jared was about to comment when the loudspeaker came on, announcing the fireworks. Sunny stopped suddenly.
“Oh god,” she groaned. “The fireworks. Melanie. She’s—Jared, I can’t let her see me like this. I can’t. She won’t understand it. She won’t.”
Jared gripped her shoulders tightly.
“Hey, hey—she won’t , okay?” He stared into her wide eyes till she nodded and let him guide her back to Kyle.
Jared doubted very much that Melanie would judge Sunny for getting drunk again. From what he’d learned about her, it took a lot to make her get judgy. But he understood where Sunny was coming from. There were a lot of painful secrets Kyle, Sunny, and himself kept under lock and key. Two days alone in Sunny’s company was not enough time to bombard Melanie with family tragedies that explained why her new friends act the way they do. Even him.
He knew if Melanie asked about him now, he would give her the revised version. It was akin to taking her from the city to the farm. You didn’t trade homework for work in the fields; you didn’t trade chaotic city life for tragic, dark, small town secrets. Besides, Melanie had seen fun!drunk Sunny, not the sad one.
He wondered if she’d succumbed to any drinking tonight like she had the last time. He guessed not, given her speech on the way into town that morning when she’d proclaimed she would stay up all night to see the sunrise. She was well aware, she’d informed him, that alcohol tended to induce drowsiness, not prevent it. He smiled slightly at the memory, finally allowing himself to accept that he’d found her rambling absolutely adorable.
“You’re a good guy, Jared,” Sunny said, sounding closer to sleep. “No wonder Melanie likes you.”
Jared stopped instantly, as if his eyes widening also controlled his feet moving.
“What did you s—?”
“Uh oh.”
Jared turned to see what had caused her fact to pale, though he could guess the cause. They were almost to the bar but Kyle had spotted them already. He didn’t look mad, which would have explained Sunny’s sudden panic. Instead Kyle looked disappointed. Jared recognized the weariness lightly veiled in the depths of his eyes. The not again was as clear as day. He likely had expected this would happen, but like a fool had thought if he didn’t think about it too much, it wouldn’t happen. Jared knew that because he had thought it many times himself in recent years.
Any thought of Melanie vanished as Jared continued to steer Sunny towards the bar. Kyle whispered something to the other guy tending the bar with him. The guy nodded and Kyle took his apron off, coming around the side to meet them.
“I’ve got her,” Kyle said, sliding his arm around his sister’s waist on the other side with the intent to guide her to the parking lot and his waiting jeep. Jared released her.
“Sorry, Kyle,” Sunny murmured, unable to meet her brother’s gaze.
Instead of addressing his sister, Kyle continued to address Jared.
“I think I saw Melanie head down to the beach for the fireworks,” he said, giving him a meaningful look.
It said thank you for being a good friend, a good step-in brother for my sister. Thanks for being a good guy in general, for being someone I can count on. Now go be with your girl. Because my sister’s well-being means more to me than anything, I won’t tease you. This time.
Jared nodded once, heading off towards the beach. He heard only pieces of the beginning of Kyle and Sunny’s conversation.
“You taking me home, Kyle?”
“Not yet, Sun. We’ve got to see the fireworks…”
……
The beach was cluttered with hundreds of people. It would be a miracle if he found Melanie. But just as he was about to abandon the search to sit from afar to catch the fireworks, and then just hunt her down after everyone was nearly gone, he spotted a figure leaning against the great oak tree crouched halfway into the water. It was a miracle the old thing hadn’t fallen in yet. Presumably it’d been teetering on that angle for the last twenty years.
The figure turned toward him when he was about twenty feet away and he knew it was her. Melanie’s smile lit up her whole face when she saw him, and his heart beat faster. He recognized the feeling for what it was now. Something definitely more than like, not love yet, but calling it a crush sounded very…high school. Infatuation maybe, but he didn’t like that either. Infatuation was temporary and often superficial. He realized he wanted this feeling to last, and to be deeper than just a gorgeous body and a beautiful smile.
It was probably foolish, thinking in the long term, since she was leaving at the end of the summer and there was no guarantee she’d return again, let alone on a regular basis. In fact, this feeling would likely torture him all summer long because he had no intention of acting on it. He couldn’t justify it at all for obvious reasons; reasons that her Uncle Jeb would not hesitate to remind him.
Maybe that was the real reasons he’d let himself stay so stubbornly in denial. His subconscious had known before he did that if he let himself, he would probably like Melanie Stryder. Really like her. He would like her so much that he might even fall in love with her. And then she would leave and he would be the almost thirty-year-old hung up on a teenager. The next time he would see her she’d likely have a degree under her belt, a husband her own age and children that were practically clones of them that she would adore more than anything. Jealousy rose up in him over the fictional future he’d just created for her. He tried to shake himself out of it.
Maybe it would’ve been better to stay in denial.
“Hey!” Melanie said cheerfully, pushing herself off of the tree and meeting him halfway. Maybe he was mistaken, but Jared thought she’d been about to throw her arms around him. He found himself really wishing she had.
“Hey,” he said, smiling warmly instead of voicing his request.
“I thought I wasn’t going to see you for another half-hour. You know, post-fireworks.” She giggled a little and he smiled so wide he was certain he looked like an idiot.
“I found myself unoccupied, so—”
“Wow…” she said, expressing what he hoped was mock disappointment and not the real thing. “So, I was your last resort.”
“What? No! Of course not!” He was horrified, despite the fact that his mind was screaming at him that she was joking.
“You came to find me because you were bored.” She shook her head at him. “Maybe you weren’t even looking for me. Maybe you were just wandering and suddenly there I was right in front of you, interrupting your alone time.” She sighed mournfully but her lips twitched in amusement. “What girl doesn’t love to hear that?”
“Melanie—” But he didn’t say anything word because her lips were spreading into a grin and now he was mentally kicking himself for overreacting.
“Yes, I’m teasing you,” she said. Then she grabbed his hand and weaved him through the crowd till they reached what she had likely deemed was the perfect spot for firework-watching.
“I don’t know what happened to Sunny,” she said, letting go of his hand and sitting down on the blanket she’d set out. “But I think I can guess.”
Slowly Jared sat down beside her, wondering how much he should reveal about that situation.
“Based on the fact that you’re no longer in Kyle’s company though, I’m not too worried.”
He merely nodded, relieved at the conclusions she’d come to. He made no attempt to comment though, afraid he’d accidentally spill something he didn’t want to. He could feel her watching his profile, but before she was able her own mouth to address his silence, the sky exploded in color and they were both instantly distracted.
Melanie’s eyes stayed fixated on the fireworks. Jared, however, found himself lured to watch her face and its many expressions and sounds of awe responding from the crackling colors in the sky.
She’s so beautiful, he thought, as awed by her as she was by the fireworks. The little invisible Kyle on his shoulder cackled silently and swung his legs. Annoyed for even conjuring him up, Jared inwardly glared at the imagined, non-existent mini-Kyle.
Yes, yes, I know. He tried very hard not to grumble out loud. I’m in serious trouble.
………..
At 3am, Melanie yawned – not for the first time – and Jared held out his hand. Wordlessly she put her empty porcelain mug into his hand and he poured more of the coffee into it from his heat-infused thermal. Before he could bring out the cream and sugar again though, she took it back and downed two large gulps of it.
He looked at her, shocked, and then amused as she rapidly blinked from the bitter, sharp taste of it. Then she cleared her throat in the matter of a gasping, croaking toad.
“Bad?”
“Disgusting.” She made a face and mouthed for water. He took a bottle of water out of the cooler he’d brought and handed it over to her. She promptly drank the whole thing down.
“Better?”
She swallowed, but could still taste remnants of the black coffee in her mouth.
“Not nearly.
“I did advise against that after the first time you tried it.”
“True. But I needed a jolt.”
“The sugar wasn’t giving you the jolt you needed?”
“No. It wasn’t. It threw me into the air and then promptly stood back as I fell into the gaping chasm of drowsiness.”
He chuckled. “I see.”
“What about you?” She turned to look at him suspiciously. “You haven’t had any coffee and I hate yet to hear so much as the start of a yawn out of you.”
He shrugged. “I don’t tire easily.”
She sighed. “You don’t tire easily…you hold your liquor well—Sunny told me,” she explained when he looked at her curiously. “You can handle just about any chore that’s thrown at you on the farm…is there anything you can’t do?”
He smirked. “I can’t dance.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head once. “I’m a country boy. In my opinion, square dancing and line dances are stupid. I’m not even overly fond of farm animals.”
“Haven’t you had a girlfriend before?” she asked, dumbfounded somehow about his claim he couldn’t dance.
“Well…”
“And didn’t she demand you dance with her at some point or another?” she asked, determined to push past the images flitting through her head of him in love with another girl – or several other girls. “Wait, don’t tell me.” She cracked a grin. “Before I came along, you were a bad boy. Dropped all those lucky ladies like a hot potato when they got too complicated.”
He leaned towards her and wiggled his eyebrows.
“What makes you think you changed things?” He teased.
She flushed, embarrassed. What had made her assume that?
“Come on,” he said, getting to his feet and holding out his hand to her. He knew he could apologize for making her squirm, but that might cause more awkwardness. This was better.
She eyed him skeptically.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
“Not far,” he said, gesturing again for her to take his hand. “Trust me,” he persuaded.
Finally she sighed and took his hand. He didn’t let go when he started to walk away from their perching spot of the last five hours. It relaxed her, and by the time they reached the dock where the fireworks had been set off, she was completely at ease again.
“Now what?” she asked when he came to a stop.
“Listen.”
She did, but all she could hear was the soft lapping of water against the shore and the legs of the dock.
“There’s nothing,” she said. “I don’t hear anything but the water.
He turned her so she was facing the shore and pointed to some of the shining pebbles that sprinkled in the water.
“See those pebbles?” She nodded. “Be real still, and wait.”
She was quiet as she could be, so much so that she was starting to get leg cramps and was about to give it all up when there was suddenly movement. Her eyes were pinned to the pebbles and her jaw dropped in awe as they floated to the top of the water and floated out past the dock. When Jared and Melanie had to move slightly to follow them, little heads popped out followed by feet.
“Oh my god,” Melanie whispered, awestruck. “Baby turtles.”
Jared shook his head. “Too small to be regular baby turtles.”
“Then?”
“They’re called neenyas. Midget silver turtles that only come out at night. All day long they sleep in the sand. Easily squashed as I’m sure you can imagine from when people come running into the water, but somehow they’ve never died out.”
“They’re so cute,” she squealed and instantly the neenyas mere feet away from them curled up and looked like only pebbles again floating on the water.
Jared smiled but put a finger over his mouth to shush her. She pursed her lips together slightly, and slowly the mini-turtles popped out of their shells and paddled farther out into the lake, looking like nothing more than shiny specks the farther away they went.
“Amazing,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“They’re only native to Lakeland Valley as far as I know. I haven’t seen even a similar description of them in any textbook, at any zoo, or in any documentary.”
She looked up at him and smiled softly.
“A special breed.”
He nodded. “Indeed.”
“Much like you, Mister I-can-do-everything-but-dance.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure are things you can’t do too,” he deadpanned.
She laughed, oblivious to the neenyas floating far away now.
“Oh yes, lots of things. In fact, education is about the only thing I can do.”
“Your uncle says you were quite the climber of trees in your younger days.”
“Notice the use of the word ‘were’. As you know from recent experience…that skill has long since gone away.”
He got very serious suddenly and talked quietly when he did speak.
“That scared the hell out of me.”
She swallowed. “Me falling?”
He nodded. “I didn’t really like you, or I didn’t know what to make of you yet at least, but even the thought of you falling from so high up…you might have broken something, or worse. It just…” he shook his head. “Scared the hell out of me.”
“I won’t do it again.”
He turned to look at her. “I know you won’t. Because I’m going to make you a treehouse,” he declared.
She could barely find her voice, and when she did, she laughed again.
“A what?”
“A treehouse.”
“I know you didn’t have one as a kid because there isn’t any remnant of one here and you lived in the city, so there couldn’t possibly be one there. Am I wrong?”
“B-b-but,” she sputtered. “You have so much work to do. You’re already teaching me to ride a bike and drive a car. There’s the house and…wait, did Uncle Jeb put you up to this? Is this more Project Melanie crap?”
He chuckled. “Actually, I came up with this all on my own. And don’t worry, I’m sure your Uncle will have no problem with me taking it on.”
She shook her head smiling, but didn’t make any more arguments. After awhile, they sat on the dock and waited for the sun to rise.
“We made it,” she yawned at precisely 5:30am.
He made some smacking noises with his mouth and nodded.
“We did,” he agreed.
“Jared. Howe. Are you sleeping on me? What happened to not tiring easily?”
“What happened to you being so energizing?”
She laughed and smiled and he shared it. The sun came over the distant trees just as the neenyas paddled back to their sandy nests beneath the water on the shore. Starlets – birds apparently also native to Lakeland Valley, called Starlets, that looked like a cross between a dove and a seagull that were surprisingly beautiful with the one blue stripe across their wings and the purple patch beneath their beak – flew across the lake.
“Such a beautiful morning. I’m glad we stayed up for it.”
“Me too,” he said, slightly more energized but not really.
“Thank-you, Jared,” she said. “You didn’t have to do this, but it means a lot to me that you did. The last few days have been incredible. I just…I feel so lucky to have met you. This is going to be a great summer.” She smiled slightly. “I can feel it.”
He just looked at her for awhile, appearing to be battling with a decision. Then, a few moments later, he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand. He ran his thumb just under her lower lip and she shivered, her eyes closing for a moment at the intimate contact. She could hear her heart beating in her ears, louder than thunder.
When she opened her eyes he was staring at her with an intensity that should’ve frightened her but only enthralled her. There was a hunger there she would never let him deny, because she felt it as strongly in her own.
He started to lean towards her, his eyes on her lips, his breathing a little ragged as he inched closer. Melanie realized this was the moment she’d been waiting for all her life. She could almost taste him, and his fingers on her face was life-threatening in the most glorious way.
“Ah! You pushed me!”
Both Jared and Melanie’s eyes flashed open and they turned towards the sound. Two children playing at the next dock, a mother figure close behind them as they attempted to dunk each other while in regular clothes. The mother looked disapproving but made no move to stop it.
When Jared and Melanie looked back at each other, there was an awkwardness that had not been there before. Jared inched slightly away and cleared his throat.
“Shall I take you home?” he asked, just as Melanie had been about to propose breakfast at the 24-hour diner in the center of town.
Instead she nodded and tried to squash the pain that had tightened her chest.
“Sure. Yeah. I should get some sleep.”
He stood to his feet and held out his hand to her, but this time she refused it, saying something about being able to handle it on her own. After gathering up their coffee supplies and ambling back to his truck, they were on their way back to the Stryder farm, a tension between them that they both decided to blame on lack of sleep. Because really, what else could it be?
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