Chapter 21
“Oh! Look at this one!” I motioned to Max.
He headed my way, humoring me. The morning had been far too gorgeous to even think of spending it indoors. We’d decided to go for a walk. We headed north, making our way over the rocky areas that broke up the sandier beaches. We passed the resort and continued on.
And on.
I’d spent hours crouched down, checking out the tide pools among the rock formations we hiked over. They were fascinating, each its own little world. As I knelt down, inspecting each one, Max had been wandering around, finding the most interesting ones and pointing them out to me. We were like two little kids on our first fieldtrip. We were having a blast and totally oblivious to our surroundings.
We’d found a few more sand dollars, live crabs and even a starfish that we decided not to bring home on the off chance that it was still alive. Max assured me it wasn’t but I was stubbornly optimistic so I’d scooted it back into the water. Just in case.
“Now what did you find?” he asked.
I was rubbing my finger across the sticky surface of the anemone. I knew you really shouldn’t touch them. But I was a bad little tourist and I couldn’t help myself. I was as gentle as I could be, gliding my finger softly over the surface of the bright green creature.
“Nice one,” he said as he knelt down next to me.
Neither of us had paid any attention to the sky. I looked upward when I felt a raindrop land on my bare shoulder.
“Uh-oh,” I said as I pointed out toward the water. The sky seemed to be darkening by the second.
Max muttered an expletive and tugged me to my feet. “We better get going. I don’t think we’re going to beat this storm,” he said. “We’re a long way from the beach house.”
He was right. It was nothing more than a tiny speck off in the distance.
I followed him as we tried to hurry along. The raindrops, when they began, were nothing more than mist. But even that was enough to change the surface of the rocks into a slick obstacle course. The closer we got to home, the slower we were able to move. The mist changed into drizzle, the drizzle turned into rain, and the rain turned into a deluge.
If Max had been on his own, he could’ve hurried along. But my flip-flops were slippery as I tried to traverse the rocks. If I tried to go any faster, I was likely to not just land on my butt but to also crack my head open. So Max held my hand, helping me stay steady as we slowly made our way home.
Running across the sand wasn’t easy either.
By the time the beach house was in sight the wind had picked up. My teeth were chattering and my body was covered in chill bumps. My limbs were shaking with shivers. Max and I were both squinting into the downpour.
We were freezing and laughing and so drenched I felt it down to my bones.
“That was the longest walk of my life!” Max proclaimed as he threw the door open. We stumbled in out of the rain, only to be met with an arctic blast.
My teeth were clattering together so harshly I couldn’t even speak. I walked, dripping my way to the kitchen sink where I wrung out my hair.
“Cold enough in here for you?” Max exclaimed. He went straight to the humming air conditioner and shut it off. “Apparently someone doesn’t care as much about their carbon imprint as they should.”
“S-sorry,” I said around my chattering teeth.
“Come on, we need to get out of these wet clothes and into a hot shower,” Max said. He grabbed my hand once more, tugging me along.
There was only one bathroom and he led me to it. Once inside, he immediately turned the shower on. I pulled some towels out of the closet.
“This should warm you up in no time,” he said.
“You’re lips are b-blue,” I managed to get out.
“Yeah?” he asked around a half laugh. “You’re not the only one that’s cold.”
“Then maybe you should take a shower first.”
“Uh-uh,” he said as he shook his head. “I’m taking one with you.”
He reached for me, gripping me by my hips as he pulled me closer. I felt his fingers slide across the waistband of my shorts. When they started fumbling with my button I glanced up at his face. He had a mischievous glint in his eye.
My shorts dropped to the floor with a watery splat. His hands skimmed along my sides, sliding my drenched tank top up, over my head. That landed with another wet thunk. I was left standing in my soaking wet bikini.
Right, I thought to myself, I have a swimsuit on. I had forgotten
I watched Max as he peeled his own drenched t-shirt off.
The heat my body had lost reappeared in a few unsuspecting places. My cheeks were the only innocent location of the bunch.
He reached inside, checking the water temp and then he held the shower curtain open for me. “Hop in,” he said.
The room was cold, thanks to the air conditioning, so the steam poured out of the shower as I stepped inside. Max followed, his hands sliding down the slippery skin of my arms. My hands slid up his chest, around his neck as his hands moved to my backside. He pulled me into him as his mouth came down to meet mine. Between the heat of the water pelting down and the nearness to Max, I suddenly wasn’t cold at all.
***
My mother refused to text. In fact, she refused to learn how. She also hated e mail. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when Max sorted through the mail that evening and handed me an envelope. It had my parents’ address label neatly attached to the corner. Not that I needed to see that to know where it had come from. I would recognize her flowery script anywhere.
I tore it open, expecting a letter but found something else instead.
“It’s an airline ticket.” I placed it on the counter. The flight was scheduled for the last Saturday of the month. Just days before classes began. I realized she had given me almost every last day she could, yet holding the ticket did painful things to my insides.
Max picked it up, skimmed it over, most likely checking out the flight date. It was two weeks away. His expression hardened as he walked over to the bulletin board near the fridge. He jabbed it on with a pin and left the room.
I gave him a second and then I followed. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring out the window. I crawled onto the bed, positioning myself so that I was behind him. I settled my hands on his shoulders. They were so tense they felt like granite under my palms.
“I want to do something special next weekend,” I said. I was futilely attempting to massage his shoulders. He was so tense he wasn’t loosening up in the least.
He sounded distracted when he said, “What do you have in mind?”
“I was thinking that Saturday morning we could drive up the coast, spend the night at a bed and breakfast somewhere in Oregon. You could show me a few of those lighthouses and waterfalls you were telling me about.” He relaxed minutely. I assumed it had to do more with the kisses I’d started placing on the side of his neck than it did with my unpracticed massage technique.
“I don’t know. A romantic getaway with my girl? I might have to think about that.” He made a teasing face. As if the thought were kind of perplexing. I smacked his shoulder.
“Would it hurry your thought process along if I say…please?”
“Maybe,” he said. He grabbed my hands and pulled them around his neck so that I was giving him a tight backwards hug.
“Would it help if I promised I will make the weekend worth your time?” I teased. I had important plans for next weekend. I’d been planning it for a little while now. I’d researched the bed and breakfasts in the area. I’d made reservations at a highly rated ocean side restaurant. There was something I wanted to surprise him with. I was having a hard time keeping it to myself but I didn’t have all of the details worked out yet.
“Hmmm,” he said and he relaxed completely against me, “if you put it that way, I really don’t think I can say no.” He let go of one of my hands and tugged on the other one as he scooted backward on the bed. He flopped down and pulled me with him. I rested my head on his chest and he began twirling a strand of my hair around his finger. “So, where do you want to go?”
I took his free hand and laced my fingers around his. “Don’t you worry about that. I have it all taken care of.”
He moved backward so he could look me in the eye. “Are you serious?”
I smiled at his surprise. “Yes.”
His surprise turned into a smile. “Where are we going? What are we doing?”
I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “It’s a secret. No more questions.”
He ran his hand up and down my arm as he said, “I’m not complaining but what brought this on?” Any trace of a smile fell from his face and his hand stopped its soothing motion and he squeezed my elbow instead. “Oh. I get it. It’s because it’ll be your last weekend here.”
“Actually, it’s because I wanted to do something nice for you. Ever since we’ve met, you’ve always done nice things for me. I’ve never really done anything for you. And I want to,” I told him as I moved closer again.
“That’s not true.” I was going to argue but he cut me off. “It’s a great idea though. I wish I would’ve thought of it.”
“You’ve been busy,” I pointed out.
He ran the back of his fingers over my cheek and I closed my eyes, leaning into his hand. “I can’t believe the summer is almost over.”
“I know,” I said with a sigh. “It went way too fast.”
He didn’t say anything at first. He just pulled me into his chest and held me so tightly it nearly squeezed the air right out of me. I didn’t mind. I knew how he was feeling. I felt him place a few kisses on the top of my head. Then he worked his way down my temple across my cheek and finally found my lips. He pulled me on top of him and kissed me until his worries took over again.
When he released me, his face was far too serious.
“I have something I want to ask you,” he said. He took my hand in his and kissed the back of it.
“Alright?” I finally said when it appeared that he was going to need a bit of prompting.
He scooted me off of him and sat up, pulling me with him.
“It’s just, there’s something I want you to think about.”
My stomach flipped around, he sounded so serious. His expression was so serious.
I nodded and waited for him to continue.
“I know this is maybe crazy and maybe it’s a terrible idea but,” he took a breath and cringed as if he was afraid I wouldn’t like what he had to say, “what would you think of a long-distance relationship?”
I blinked at him in surprise. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting him to ask. I just knew it wasn’t that. He must’ve read my confusion as apprehension.
He shook his head slightly. “I know. It’s crazy but just hear me out. I was looking at my academic calendar. There are plenty of breaks and I don’t have classes on Fridays. I know it’ll get expensive but my parents cover tuition and books, my grandparents are letting me live here rent-free. And I get paid for working at the winery. Yeah, I have a few expenses but not many. So, I realized, there’s nothing else I’d rather spend my paychecks on.”
“Max,” I said, bursting into his monologue. “That is so incredibly sweet. But I couldn’t let you do that. You’re right. It would get really expensive.”
He shook his head. “I don’t care about the cost of it, Holly. I think I could swing coming back to Chamberlain every couple of months during the school year, maybe more. I could come back over holidays for sure.” I knew he hadn’t planned on coming back over Thanksgiving so my heart melted a little bit over his change of plan. “There are some holidays and of course winter break. Maybe you could come back out here for spring break? I looked up Chamberlain U’s break and it coincides with ours. And maybe you could come back next summer?”
My mouth may have fallen open just a bit. It was clear that I hadn’t been the only busy one the last few weeks. We’d hardly talked about my leaving because the few times either of us brought it up, it just made things worse. It made it even more real. But it was obvious we’d both been thinking about it plenty.
“Wow.” I breathed out the word.
He grimaced. “Unless…you’ve never thought past this summer. And this is nothing more than a summer fling. Something you plan on walking away from in,” he cringed, “two weeks. Two weeks from today.”
“No. That’s not it at all,” I assured him. “You have, from the very start, meant way more to me than just a fling. But what you said, it’s all so—”
“I know, it’s messy. It’s not ideal,” he said. “And it’s a big commitment. One I am definitely willing to make,” he clarified. He studied my face and I wanted to curl into him and tell him I never wanted to leave. He sighed. “I just want you to think about it. You don’t have to answer me yet. In fact, I don’t want an answer yet. I want you to take some time to really think things over.”
“I think—”
He put his fingers over my lips. His tone had taken a downward plunge since the start of the conversation. “Just take some time to think about it. Please.”
I was going to tell him I didn’t need to think about it. I already had my answer.
“What I want right now? Is for you to kiss me again,” he said. He leaned over to take what he wanted and all thoughts of my answer just flitted away.