Forever Changed

“They look great,” he said.

“I love them,” I said, fiddling with them with my fingers. “So, I guess our day came to a halt,” I said, opening my car door.

“Oh, it’s not over,” Maddon said, closing my door back up before I could climb in.

“It’s not?” I asked. “What are we doing now?”

“That’s for me to know, and you…” he started to say, but stopped when I gave him a shove. “Kidding.”

Bringing Kassandra to the springs was the best idea I ever had. Before the little girl had taken the spill in the water, I had enjoyed showing Kass the gentle underwater animals that had always interested me. The fact that Kass seemed equally enthralled with them only made my feelings for her intensify.

“So, what are we doing?” she asked as we headed toward the rental area.

“I thought we could take a canoe ride,” I said, pointing toward the large stack of canoes off to the side of the parking area.

“Seriously? Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

“Dangerous?” I asked, quirking my eyebrow up at her.

“Yeah, with gators and stuff.”

I laughed. “We’ll be in a canoe. It’s not like Jaws is out there,” I teased.

“I know that, goober,” she grumbled. “I meant, what if we tip over? They don’t look very wide or stable,” she added, studying the stack critically.

“Goober?” I asked.

“Yeah, you know, dork, etc,” she said, still eyeing the stack of canoes warily.

“Trust me, Kass, I’m not going to let us capsize,” I said, pulling her toward the rental station.

“What if I make us capsize?” she said, digging her heels in.

“You won’t, but if you do, I’ll flip the canoe back over and help you back in. You swim in the ocean, right?”

She nodded.

“Well, this isn’t much different.”

My words finally convinced her, and a few minutes later we were strapped into life vests and lowering ourselves off the dock, into a waiting canoe.

Kassandra was still nervous, so I picked up the oars and slowly paddled us away from the dock.

After a few minutes, she began to relax and take in the sights around her.

“See, nice, right?” I asked, flashing a grin.

“Just don’t tip us, hot stuff,” she said, admitting her consent.

“Ha, I knew you thought I was hot,” I said, digging the oars in to propel us farther along.

“Do you do this often?” she asked, stretching her feet out in front of her.

“Once a month, except during the summer when it’s wicked hot. I like the peacefulness of it,” I said, setting the oars in the canoe to let the flowing spring carry us along.

“It’s great,” she said, dropping her head back so that she could soak up some rays.

My body responded to the ivory skin of her neck that disappeared beneath the V-neck long-sleeve t-shirt she wore. I tried to focus on something else before I embarrassed myself. I was used to hooking up with girls who were looking for the same thing as me. I was navigating on foreign ground by entering the world of dating that I had so stringently avoided in the past.