"It's pretty," I say. That's a massive understatement. Out here under the stars in the middle of the country, it's more than pretty. It's peaceful, like we're so far removed from everything else that none of it matters.
"It's quiet," he murmurs. "I used to go out in the fields on the farm when I was a kid. You stand out in the corn and it's ten feet tall. You can get lost in that shit forever. Coming up here is a little bit of a reminder of being back on the farm. I used to drive out here a lot last fall."
"During football season?"
"Yeah. When things would get crazy," he says. "It's hard to get any space, you know? You're pulled in a hundred different directions and everyone wants a piece of you. I know that sounds dumb, but –"
"It doesn't sound dumb at all," I say. "It was loud and crazy all the time when I was growing up. I liked to read more than anything, and it was impossible when my brothers were perpetually horsing around or stealing the heads from my Barbie dolls to use as ammo for their slingshots. There was this place I found when I was ten, following the creek down behind my house – you couldn't see it, this little rock formation, until you were right up on top of it. I never told my brothers about it because I didn't want it to become a boy fort. I'd go there a lot, even when I was a teenager, any time I wanted space to think."
"Hanging out with you has been a lot like that, you know," Colton admits, exhaling heavily. "The calm before the storm."
"Before football season?"
"Before everything," he says. "This year is going to get crazy. Once the season starts, it'll take on a life of its own."
I don't know what it's like, I realize. I don't know at all.
I think it's his way of warning me.
27
Colton
"There's a swimming hole down here." The next morning, I pull her by the hand down a mostly-overgrown trail that winds down the side of the hill.
"Is this your thing?" she asks, her voice light. "You bring girls up here — 'Ooh, look at the lights over the city. Oh, hey, there's a swimming hole down here'?"
"I haven't brought anyone up here," I say, smacking her on the ass. "This place is all mine. Just like your ass."
"Are we going to get eaten by bears?"
"Aw, that's an adorable question."
"Snakes, then?" she asks. "I really don't like snakes."
"You picked the wrong state to go to school in if you don't like snakes," I say.
Cassie clutches at my arm. "Seriously. Are there snakes in the water?"
"Maybe."
She slaps me hard. "That's not funny."
"I'll protect you, little lady," I drawl in my best imitation of a cowboy in an old western. I pull her into me and place her hand against my cock. "That's the only one you have to worry about."
"Oh, so just a little garden snake, then."
"That's not what you called it last night."
She pulls away laughing, and I chase her down the trail until we reach the swimming hole, complete with an overhanging tree branch and a rope dangling from it that looks like it hasn't been used in years.
"Cool," she says, lifting up her t-shirt and tossing it on the ground without a second's hesitation. "No one knows about this place?"
Her panties drop to the ground and she steps out of them, turning around to look at me, grinning broadly with her hands on her hips. She turns her face up to the sky, the early morning sunlight bathing her in a warm glow, and closes her eyes.
And I just stand there watching her, not getting undressed, because I can't stop looking at her.
She opens her eyes. "Why do you still have clothes on?"
I shrug. "Just enjoying the view."
She doesn't even blush. She grins. "Have you gone swimming in here?"
"Yep. It's deep."
She peers into the water and then steps back, running and jumping in before I even have my shorts off. When she comes up, she shrieks loudly. "Fuck, it's colder than I thought it would be."
I cannonball into the water, deluging her, and she tries to splash me for soaking her, but I grab her and pull her against me before she can do it anymore. She's laughing. This is about as far from the uptight Cassie who walked into that first tutoring session with me as it can get.
She floats on her back in the water, her toes sticking up just barely. "This is like your own little private piece of paradise."
I look at her, her hair splayed out in the water. Hell, I'm starting to think it is.
"This water is fucking freezing," she says. "Want to warm me up?"
We make it to the top of the trail, still dripping wet from the water. Cassie wears a bra and sandals and has a towel wrapped around her waist, but not out of a sense of modesty, she clarifies for me. "It's self-protective. If we see a bear, you'll be stuck running naked through the woods with your junk hanging out. I'll at least have this towel."
"It's a good thing you're hot," I say.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, city-slicker."
"I can't believe you walked back through the woods naked," she says, turning toward me when we reach the top of the hill. She looks down. "With a boner."