Finally after about a twenty minute ride, he pulls the truck off the highway at the entrance to a trailhead. He reaches behind his seat and pulls out a backpack that appears to be pretty full. “We're going hiking?” I ask. We'd done that quite a bit when we were younger. Usually closer to home and when the weather had cooled off some. I just love being outdoors, so it sounds like a good idea to me.
“We'll hike for a little bit, but there's more,” he assures me as we lock the truck up and put our backpacks on. “The bugs will walk away with us in there, so first, this,” he says as he holds up a can of bug repellent. He's right; the bugs in the woods around here are downright ridiculous.
Chase holds the can up, waiting for me to turn around so that he can spray the backs of my arms and legs. I do as he wishes and turn around, lifting my arms out to my sides. The spray is cool on my skin and I jump a bit when he finishes spraying and put his hands on my legs down near my ankles. I look over my shoulder to see what he is doing and he is grinning up at me as he uses his hands to spread the repellent around my skin. I'm warm suddenly and it has nothing to do with the temperature. I'm awfully glad I shaved my legs this morning. I notice his hands are warm and slightly rough with calluses as he rubs farther up my thighs. The heat of his palms at the bottom of my ass surprises me. I suck in a breath and am tempted to close my eyes, but it's over too soon as he stands up and runs his hands along my arms and up onto my shoulders and neck as well. I'm pretty sure I'd never been so thoroughly protected from bug bites before.
He's smiling like he knows exactly what that little display has just done to me. I can't bring myself to complain though. He sprays himself with the repellent then and sticks the can back in his pack.
“Ready?” he asks, holding his hand out to me again.
Ok, I'd be lying if I said I'm not copping a feel of Haylee's legs when I spread the bug repellent around with my hands. I feel her muscles flinch at first at my touch, but I think she kinda likes it. Maybe not quite as much as I do, but that's okay. I hold onto her little hand as we start out on the trail. After we are a couple hundred feet away from the truck, the trees begin to really thicken up and the sunlight that makes it through the canopy is very well filtered. It's fairly warm and muggy today, but it's better being in the shade, and I have really missed the smell of the forest.
We're quiet for a while, just holding hands and stepping carefully over the rocks that jut up and branches that stick out randomly across the well worn trail. “What are you thinking about?” I ask her as I glance over my shoulder at her. She smiles up at me and I feel my heart warm instantly at the sight of her beautiful smile.
“Just wondering what it is you have up your sleeve, Chase,” she replies and I laugh out loud a bit.
“Why would you think that about me?” I feign being hurt by her assumption, but I know she would know that I am joking.
“Because the boy I knew was always up to something!” she giggles and I like that she has referred to me as a boy in the past tense. “Whether it was playing pranks on people or helping me get back at the girls at dance for their latest insults against me.”
“I guess you're right, but I really just wanted to spend the day with you away from all the interruptions and just. . . have a good time,” I reply. I wander off the path for a second and pick a pretty blue wildflower and hand it to Haylee. She smiles at me and looks at the flower as though no one has ever given her one before. If that's the case, I plan to change that immediately. She's ahead of me now as we continue to walk and I like the view a hell of a lot better back here. The shorts she's wearing can hardly be considered shorts at all. They're so tiny and every once in a while as she steps up a bit, I can see the edge of her bottom just beneath them. I'm quickly learning that hiking with a hard on is not too comfortable.
“You should probably lead the way since you know where we're going,” she finally speaks up again.
“That's okay, I like the view better from back here. I'll tell you when we get to where we're going,” I tell her.
“What does that mean?” she asks me with a glance over her shoulder. I'm not sure if she really doesn't know or if she's fishing to hear me say it, but I can certainly oblige.
“Those shorts you're wearing are enough to cause bodily harm.”
She immediately reaches her hands back to touch her shorts and I smile at the sight. “What's wrong with them?” she asks, her hands still feeling along the denim barely covering her ass. She is so adorable and clueless.
“They are so short, I can't keep my eyes off of them as you walk, and I'm liable to smack right into a tree or something,” I explain and she stops just ahead of me. She spins around and strikes my chest with her little fist and then she can't keep the smile from her face any longer.
“You're such a pig,” she tells me. “How is that for bodily harm?”
I rub my palm over my shirt where her fist had connected with my chest. It doesn't hurt, but I'm not above milking the situation. “I brought a first aid kit with me. I think you're gonna have to rub some ointment on it.” She rolls her eyes at me and tries to hide the way her cheeks flush by turning back around and continuing on up the trail. I'm thinking she is starting to get the idea that we are more than just friends. Mission almost accomplished.
It ends up being about a forty-minute hike until the trees begin to thin out a bit and more of the hot sun makes its way down to us. “Is that Falls River still?” Haylee asks when we can see the water up ahead.
“Yup, we're just downstream a little farther than we used to go. I asked around in town this morning for a good, secluded hiking spot that ended at the river,” I explain and we stop once we get to the edge of the water. It flows slowly past us and is probably close to twenty feet across at this spot.
“It's so pretty,” she murmurs as she takes in the scenery around us. Yup, this is pretty much the perfect spot for a picnic. I sat my pack down and pull out a big red blanket and spread it over the tall grass beside the river. “A picnic?” she asks as I begin taking out containers of food. She's smiling as she sits down on the blanket beside me, so that's a good sign. Not all girls would be too happy about a surprise hike and picnic, but Haylee's different than most girls and that's one of the many things I love about her. We're warm from the hike and now the sun is beating down, but I've picked a spot that is pretty well shaded by a few nearby trees.
“So what's for lunch?” she asks as she looks around at the spread of food. I've probably packed enough for four guys to eat their fill, but I wanted to make sure there is plenty of food that she likes and I wonder if her tastes have changed over the last few years.
“I made turkey hoagies, potato salad, fresh fruit salad, and brought some apple juice,” I reply, and her face lighrs up at the mention of apple juice. She'd loved it when we were kids and, by the look on her face, she still does now.
“You actually made this stuff?” she asks with an expression of doubt.
I clasp my hands over my heart dramatically. “Man, Hayles, do you really think so low of me?” I'm just messing with her because it's so much fun. “I did make all this stuff. With a little help from Mrs. Michaels,” I admit with a grin. She smiles back and holds my gaze for a moment. I feel something pass between us and I want to hang onto the moment somehow.
“Well, pass the food already. I'm starving,” she exclaims and reaches for the big container of fruit. We sit and eat our lunch for a while, talking about what a perfect day it has turned out to be.
“You did bring your swimsuit, right?” I ask. “I'm planning on going for a swim in the river when we're finished here.”
“What if I didn't?” she cocks her head to the side in a challenge. The way she looks then is just so damn adorable.
“No worries if you didn't. It's pretty isolated here. We can just go skinny dipping,” I throw back at her. Little does she know I wouldn't mind that one bit. She smirks up at me and then without any warning she reaches down and grabbing the hem of her tank top, pulls it right over her head. She's definitely been messing with me because she's wearing a little, red bikini top. I can't tear my eyes away from the smooth swell of her breasts and her sun-bronzed skin now on display for me. She reaches for another berry as though nothing has changed. That river had better be shockingly cold to keep my arousal from becoming downright painful.
“Oh, I brought something to show you,” she says then and reaches over for her backpack. Many images spring into my mind then as I watch her unzip her pack, none of which are realistic of course. She finally pulls out what looks like an envelope and hands it to me with a tentative smile on her perfect lips.
“What's this?” I ask, my brows pulled together as I take the envelope and flip it over. Realization washes over me as I look at the writing on the front--my writing. Has she been messing with me about not having gotten my letters? I look up at her with a confused expression.
“I just found it this morning. All of them actually,” she starts. “I had this nagging feeling ever since you told me about them. I mean, how could that many letters just disappear? So after dance this morning, I went into my mom's room and started looking around for anything out of the ordinary. I found a shoebox under her bed with all of your letters in it.”
I look from her to the envelope in my hand again. I still don't understand. What were my letters doing in her mom's room and why had she never read them?
“I only had a chance to read that first one this morning,” her voice is quiet now. “Mom caught me in her room and I demanded to know why she'd done it. I mean, why would she keep your letters from me?”
This is something I am wondering myself. “She explained that she'd kept the first couple because I was still so upset about your leaving. She was afraid they would upset me all over again. Then she didn't know how to explain that she'd kept them at first, and then when Dad died, she basically forgot all about them. She kept telling me that she is so sorry and that she hadn't meant to hurt me. That she'd been trying to protect to me. But I yelled at her and stormed out of the room. I am so mad, Chase. I just never even imagined my mom doing something like that.”
My mind is swirling like a tornado right now. She said that she'd read this one. The first one that I'd written to her. I am wracking my brain trying to remember exactly what I had said in that first letter. I'm fairly certain that I had told her how I felt. She says that she'd read it, so that means that she knows. . .
“I'm so sorry, Chase,” she says quietly and I can see that her eyes have filled with tears. What is she sorry for? My heart is thundering inside my chest. Is she telling me that she's sorry that she doesn't feel the same way?
“What are you sorry for?” I ask and I swear my voice trembles. For years now I had believed that she didn't feel the same way about me. Then when I got back here, I found out that I still don't know because she'd never gotten my letters and didn't know how I felt. Now she knows, and I'm afraid to get my heart broken all over again.
“For what my mom did. She had no right to keep your letters and I'm so sorry, because if I had gotten them. . .I would have written you back,” she explains.
I let out a long breath, finally able to breathe again. She isn't telling me that she's sorry that she doesn't feel something for me. But then she also hasn't said that she does. . .
“You don't need to be sorry about that, Hayles. It's not your fault,” I tell her, and I can't hold it in any longer. I'm gonna put my heart out there for real this time. “But I'm dying here, Hayles. If you read this, then you know how I felt about you.”
Her eyes were full of unshed tears and I can't read the expression on her face as my heart races. Is she sad? Scared? Happy? I know that I had told her she didn't need to say anything back to me in the letter, but now that we are face to face and I am back in Wake Forest, I have to know.
Finally she nods her head, still keeping her eyes locked with mine. “Yes, I know that you were in love with me back then. . .”
“And I still am, Hayles. I never stopped loving you. I just thought you didn't feel the same,” I throw out there like the crazed man I have become. How the hell have we gotten to this place? Why couldn't I have just stayed here and avoided all the heartache for both of us? But it doesn't do any good to wonder why.
“I've been in love you with since before you left too. When I didn't hear from you, I just assumed that you were over our friendship. . .” I shake my head and feel tears stinging in my eyes now too. She loves me! It had been a horrible few years of misunderstandings but we are here now. . .
I reach my hand over and brush my knuckles across her cheekbone. Her eyes are wide with expectation and I can feel the warmth of her skin. “You don't know how happy hearing that makes me,” I tell her and her cheeks pull up in a smile. I let the palm of my hand settle just beneath her ear and I lean forward to touch my lips to hers. I can feel her inhalation before she presses her lips against mine. They're so soft and warm, I feel like I'm drowning in her. I move my lips gently against hers and feel it as she moves forward just a bit to deepen the kiss. I bring my other hand up the opposite side of her face and pull her more tightly against me. Tentatively I drag my tongue along her bottom lip and am rewarded as she opens up to me. Without hesitation now, I slide my tongue inside her mouth and she flicks her tongue out to meet mine. She moans softly into my mouth and that just spurs me on. I use my hands to tilt her head to the side a bit more to get better access, and then I devour her mouth, nipping and sucking on her bottom lip while our tongues frantically dance together.
I've spent the better part of six years or so waiting for this moment and it does not disappoint. Her mouth is soft and warm just like her skin and she tastes like strawberries. I know then that I could never get enough of her. She is my girl, now and forever.
We finally break away from each other and I love the way she looks at that moment. Her eyes are so wide and her pupils are so dark I feel like they are drawing me back into them. Her cheeks are flushed and those perfect lips of hers are partly open and already looking swollen. The caveman in me wants to shove her back on the blanket and take my time tasting every inch of her skin before I bury myself inside of her, but this is Haylee. I need to rein it in and take my time.
“Maybe it's time to cool off now?” I suggest while my heart rate attempts to return to normal. She nods with a smile that I know I'd never forget and stands up in front of me. She pulls down those should-be-illegal denim shorts revealing a matching red bikini bottom covering her slender, curvy hips. If I hadn't already been head over heels for this girl, I would be now.
She holds her hand out to me, inviting me to stand up along with her and she reaches right out for the hem of my t-shirt to pull it over my head. Damn, I am so in love! She tosses my t-shirt onto the blanket beneath us and I see her eyes slowly travel down my throat and over my chest. The way she's looking at me has me going crazy inside. I've never felt this kind of flaming lust before, and knowing that I can't act on it the way that I want to is down right painful. I reach down and unbutton my cargo shorts and her gaze follows my hands, her blue eyes somehow growing even darker. Holy shit, I'm in trouble! I pull down my cargo shorts, revealing my board shorts beneath them. It pains me physically but I step away from her. I need to get my body into that cool water before I go right up in flames. I toss my hat down then, onto the pile of our clothes.