“You had tits then,” I say back quickly, and she pushes from my chest, splashing me. I grab her fast, though and pull her back in my arms.
I hold her against my body, and she turns so we’re both facing the front of the pool. We wave goodbye to our friends, and Holly holds up her phone.
“I’ll have it posted by morning. I’ll split the profits with you, Will,” she jokes.
“Awesome,” I say back, grunting when I feel Maddy’s elbow in my gut.
“She’s kidding,” I whisper against her ear. My lip brushes the side and I linger there, tracing it once with my tongue before pulling her cool skin between my teeth. Maddy hums and leans her head to the right, welcoming me to taste more of her.
I do. I kiss her neck and shoulder and eventually work her bikini top back off of her body, caressing her breasts until she whimpers and begs me to take her inside.
I do that, too. We don’t make it far, stopping at the small snack-bar nook where we both used to sneak sodas and ice cream pops from the refrigerator. I press her body against the counter, bending her over and untying one side of her bikini bottom, jerking the material to one side so I can slide inside her.
Our sex is hard and fast, and my hand covers her mouth to muffle the whimpers that escape her lips every time I push against her. When the pressure becomes too hard to hold back from, I press my mouth against her bare back and muffle my own moans. Her body is flush against the counter, her arms spread out to the sides and her fingers grip the edges of the granite while I fill her with every inch of me until there’s nothing left but our exhausted bodies and bliss.
I round up her clothes and the bikini top we discarded and lead her upstairs, whispering once inside. I make us a small bed and tug her body in against mine, under an old quilt that we probably used to build forts when we were young.
“Where’d you find that swimsuit, anyhow.” I smile through the words I speak against her ear, and I feel her shiver.
“I haven’t worn it since high school. It was in the supply closet, in an old box,” she says. Her voice is raw and weak, the early morning hours and our love making catching up to her.
“It still fits perfectly,” I grin, ticking her arm with my fingertips.
“It’s kinda tight, actually,” she says.
“Like I said…fits perfectly,” I say, my mouth tugging up on the side near her skin. I kiss the space where her shoulder curves into her neck and she nestles deeper into me.
We lay together, my eyes on the profile of hers, my hand tracing the perfect lines that sculpt her muscles. My mind is calm and my heart is steady. My world, it feels right, and I don’t know what I did to deserve it. I doubt I do, but I’m taking it. I’m not giving any of this back.
“You know you’re going to have to win, right?” Maddy says.
I don’t answer right away, instead just continuing to trace patterns along her skin. I’m not surprised by the thought. Maybe a little at hearing Maddy acknowledge it. It means that her dad has probably said something to her. It makes the hurdles more real. I knew that my role here began and ended with the money, and now that I walked out on an interview securing big-time cash flow, well…
“I know you’re going to think I’m giving up when I say this, or that I’m making excuses before I even try, but honestly…from my heart, Maddy…I’m good with whatever happens. I’m satisfied having come here, having trained here with you—with your dad—in this place that…” I let my palm fall flat along her arm and breathe out, shaking my head slightly. “Maddy, do you know how hard it was to come back here?”
“I can’t even imagine what it’s like for you to be here after everything that’s happened, Will,” she says.
For a minute, I allow her to think that’s where it starts and ends, that the accidents are what kept me away. But the more seconds that pass, the more unsettled it feels not to be raw and honest right now. Losing my family left an enormous emotional scar, one that I will never get rid of completely, but my heart was broken long before that plane went down.
“Do you remember when I left for State?” I ask, my eyes memorizing every freckle on her shoulder blade, every tiny hair along her neck.
I feel her quake with a small giggle against me. I memorize the feel of that, too.
“You didn’t want to go,” she says. “You thought they were just taking you on the team to lure your brother.”
I nuzzle into her hair, hiding my embarrassed smile even though no one can see it.
“Do you remember what you said?” I close my eyes, wondering if these moments are locked away as tightly in her mind as they are mine.
“I told you that you were better than your brother,” she whispers, her voice cracking with the words. I feel her swallow. “I meant it, you know.”