Bring Me Back

We step into the water and Ryder hands me a pole. I immediately say, “Don’t even think about handing me a worm to put on the end of this thing.”

“Aw, don’t be so skittish, Blaire,” he jokes, rifling through the bag. He pulls out a worm and throws it at me.

I scream, like the little girl that I am, and flail. I lose my balance on a rock and slip into the water.

“Oh. My. God,” I say. Ryder is laughing uproariously at me. I can’t really blame him. It is pretty funny even if I can’t see the humor at the moment.

“I didn’t even throw it,” he chortles, holding out the worm.

“I hate you so much right now,” I say. I haven’t bothered getting up. What’s the point? I’m already soaking wet. Instead, I kick out at Ryder and splash him with water. He holds out his hands against the spray and drops the stupid worm in the water.

“Oh, you’ve done it now.” He laughs and splashes me with water. He ends up slipping in the process—seriously, those rocks are slippery—and goes down in front of me.

I bust out laughing. Now this is funny.

“Oh, so it’s funny when I fall?” he jokes.

I can’t answer because I’m too busy laughing. He splashes me, just a light spray, and I send a whole wall of water at him.

I can’t stop laughing and neither can he. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.

We both completely forget about the objective of fishing. This, living in the moment, is too much fun.

Minutes later, and out of breath, I gasp, “We’re a mess.”

We’re both completely soaked. My hair drips onto my shoulders and I’m sure my mascara is streaked across my cheeks. I can’t bring myself to care, though. Not when I’m having this much fun.

Ryder sits beside me in the water—it’s not very deep where we are—and neither of us makes a move to get out.

He shakes his wet hair like a dog and droplets of water spray across me.

“Hey.” I laugh and hold up my hands to protect against the onslaught.

He laughs and glances over at me. A droplet of water drips from the end of his nose, to his chin, where it gets lost in other sluices of water.

“Some date, huh?” He chuckles and stands up, holding his hand down for me. I slip a bit on the rocks as he pulls me up and he holds me tight against his chest. Despite the cool temperature of the water, his body is warm and I’m instantly heated.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” I tell him.

“So much for fishing, though.” He holds my hands and we cross the few feet back to the grassy shore. “We better change our clothes.”

I look down at my soaking wet dress and shiver. “Yeah, good idea,” I agree.

We grab everything and head back to his car. While he loads everything inside I try to squeeze as much water as I can from my dress so I don’t completely soak his car. When he has the trunk packed he hooks his thumbs in the back of his shirt and pulls it over his head.

Time slows and I stare as his stomach is exposed. It’s smooth and tan with dark hair disappearing into the band of his boxer-briefs that peek out of the top of his shorts. He’s muscled, but not overly so. It’s clear he works out and stays in shape, but he’s not the body builder type. He’s real, and I like that.

He tosses the shirt in the trunk before closing it. The sound of it slamming closed snaps me out of my reverie.

“Ready?” he asks, hands settling on his narrow hips.

“Mhm.” I nod, trying not to stare. My skin prickles with awareness, tightening all over. I hurry into the car before I do something stupid.

Inside the car, Ryder turns the heat on despite the fact that it’s nearly ninety degrees today. We need it, though, thanks to the chill from the water.

“I’m sorry we have to cut our date short,” he says a few minutes later.

I look away from the window. “I don’t want it to be over,” I admit.