“It’s fine,” Charlie says. “They don’t care.”
“They cared enough to put up a sign,” I say.
“Yeah, but that’s all,” she says. “Trust me, it’s fine. I’ve been here a million times.”
I steal a sideways glance and wonder what sixteen-year-old Daniel would have done with this new information.
Finally, just as the sun is going down and everything is turning blue, she pulls into a clearing, the creek on one side. We’re at the base of the mountains, right where the ground rises from the valley back into the heights, so it’s a rocky creek, dotted with boulders, the water white upstream where it rushes over fallen trees and slabs of granite disgorged from further up.
It’s beautiful. It’s also illegal, a fact that I wouldn’t have cared about ten years ago but that bothers me now. At least my mom’s got Rusty if I spend the night in jail, right?
Charlie stops the car, kills the engine and lights, turns to me. Her eyes are dancing, dark in the twilight, and she leans toward me, one hand on my leg.
“Come on,” she says. “Live a little. You deserve to get wild sometimes.”
“I’m not wild enough for you?” I tease, sliding my hand over hers.
“You’re not wild enough for you,” she says, her eyes sparkling. “You need to get naked in the wilderness and say a whole bunch of curse words sometimes.”
She kisses me, and the heat of it floods my body. I’m insatiable when it comes to her, all the more because all of our encounters are over too soon, hemmed in by the demands of having a seven-year-old and the reality of living with my mom.
I don’t mention that around these parts, people don’t call the police on trespassers, they come out carrying a shotgun. I don’t mention that if we get caught, we could spend the night in jail, get ticketed, worse.
It’s been a long, long time since I did something not perfectly above-board. Too long, and she’s too tempting, wild, impulsive.
She breaks the kiss, winks at me, and then she’s throwing open her car door and I’m doing the same a step behind her as she pulls off her shirt, her bra, tosses them onto a rock. She loses her shorts and panties, her body pale and breathtaking in the fading light as she looks over her shoulder at me, laughing.
“Come on,” she calls. I’m still standing by the car, watching her undress because I’d hate to miss a second of it. “The water’s great!”
Then she puts one foot in and gasps, jerking it back out, and I laugh, tugging my shirt over my head.
“Great, huh?” I say, stepping out of my shoes, my pants.
“I think I forgot how cold it is,” she says, carefully sliding her foot back in. “Holy shit, did I really do this all the time?”
I stand next to her, naked, pretending that I’m not half-erect from the simple act of watching her disrobe, and dip a toe in as well.
It’s cold, but it could be colder.
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna wimp out,” I say.
“I’m not wimping,” she says, making a face as she puts her other foot in, now ankle-deep. “Just… letting myself adjust.”
“You gotta do it all at once,” I tell her. “It’s the only way. We’ll be here until Monday otherwise.”
“You do it all at once and leave me be,” she says.
I’m still on the bank, just watching her. After a moment she turns her head, looks up at me.
I can’t help grinning.
“Daniel, no,” she says, her eyes going wide. “Don’t you dare.”
“I thought you wanted to be wild,” I say. “I thought we were ignoring trespassing signs and being impulsive like a couple of badasses.”
She holds out one hand, pointer finger up, and takes a step backward, even though she’s trying not to laugh.
“No,” she says, like she can ward me off. “Daniel, don’t, it’s fucking freezing, my tits are going to fall off—”
I lunge, grab, lift and Charlie yelps. The water’s cold but I ignore just how cold as I wade in, the pebbles on the bottom smooth under my feet.
“No,” she gasps, upside down over my shoulder. “Nooooooooooooooo!”
“Quit kicking, do you want me to drop you?” I tease, wading deeper.
She kicks one final time, and I grab a handful of ass to steady her, and also because I can. Below my feet, the bottom drops, and suddenly I’m a foot and a half lower, the water up to my waist. We’re ten feet from the shore, and over my shoulder, Charlie just sighs.
“Ready?” I ask. “One…”
“Goddammit,” she sighs.
“Two…”
“Can you at least put me down slowly?”
“Three!” I say, and toss her in, yelping.
Half a second later she comes back up, water dripping from her hair.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT’S COLD,” she gasps, and splashes me. “Goddamnit, Daniel.”
“You’re welcome,” I tell her.
“I,” she says, sending a wave of water my way, soaking me, “Did not,” she does it again, “Say,” splash, “Thank you!”