I couldn’t wait to find out what unknown he had in store for us.
Chase
I held Erica’s hand as I led her around Old Mills and toward the back lake that Mills owned. Max, Greg, Jack, and I found the tree house after a late night our junior year when we had been drunk off our asses and decided to walk back to our place. It was the first time we met Mills and after he found us in the tree house sleeping, he invited us to the restaurant and fed us breakfast.
We were just a bunch of kids, but in that moment, we were family and had found someone else to add to our group. Mills let us come and go from his property, and even though we all didn’t come back as often as we would like to, we always made sure to stop in on Mills’ birthday to catch up on everything that was going on in our lives.
I weaved Erica and me in and out of trees and brush until we came to a clearing in front of the lake, next to the dock. To most people it just looked like a bunch of trees, but in fact it wasn’t. I turned us around and pulled my phone out, shining the flash light on where the trees connected.
“Oh my gosh.” Erica covered her mouth as she gasped and I knew from the sound she loved it as much as I did.
The tree house was massive. It spanned across three trees and housed a couch and a cupboard with board games and puzzles. It was simple, but it kept my mind busy when election time and exams came around. There was always something happening when I was in college, and I was grateful I wasn’t as stressed out now. But this tree house had helped me through so many times and tonight I was hoping it would help give me the courage to make the move I knew I so desperately needed to make.
“Want to go up?”
“Yes!” Erica jumped up and down, clapping her hands in excitement. The smile on my face grew and I leaned forward, kissing her lips ever so slightly. I grabbed her hand again, leading her toward where the wooden stairs were hidden behind the largest tree that connected the tree house.
I didn’t stop to think about the kiss or Erica’s reaction. It had felt natural to do it. To lean down and kiss her, to see her so happy that I couldn’t stop myself, and so I didn’t. I just let us be us for the moment and whatever else was going to happen it would. I pulled her behind me as we climbed up the stairs together and entered a small opening at the bottom of the tree house.
“This is it.” I shined the flashlight on my phone across the vast room and then placed the phone face down so the light shined up to the ceiling and illuminated everything. Erica was standing there in the opening we had come through, but she wasn’t looking around. No, she was staring right at me.
“There are a few board games in here and some puzzles. Do you want to play or just sit?” I pointed over to the couch, one that the guys and I had chipped in to replace for Mills last year after a bad storm came through and ruined the last one we had gotten. Erica said nothing while I still stood there, pointing to the couch like a lunatic. Had I gauged everything wrong? She kept looking at me and I almost regretted the kiss, but a part of me pushed that away fast. Ithadfelt right, I knew that. So then what was wrong?
“The—” Erica coughed. Her voice sounded raspy and then she started again. “The couch is fine.”
She made her way over and sat down into the sinking couch. Her hands went to her thighs and her fingers started to pick at the bottom of her top. I sat next to her, hooking one arm over the back of the couch and using my other to capture her hands in mine. I let my thumb rub over the back of her hand, trying to calm the nervous tick that was taking her over.
I reached up and took a strand of her hair that was covering her face and pushed it out of the way. Her eyes jerked to mine and when they steadied, my heart skipped a beat, or at least that’s what it felt like. The air was pushed out of my lungs and I saw how vulnerable she looked.
I let a finger trail down her jaw and her eyes drifted closed and we both took in the moment of the silence of the night. Crickets chirping and an owl hooting in the distance. You could slightly hear the water moving when a breeze rolled through.
“Did you like it?” The question left me and I wasn’t sure myself if I had asked about the tree house or the kiss I had planted on Erica before coming up here.
Her eyes opened slowly and brought me back to the presence of being here in slight darkness with only a phone light for us to see and the small glass skylight over us that was blocked by a few tree branches. I would have to get with Mills about getting those clipped so we could see the sky the next time I brought her out here.
“I loved it.” Erica leaned closer to me and I brought her hands into my lap as I scooted next to her. My thigh brushed against hers and a spark ignited between us that I hadn’t been ready for. She looked down at where we were touching and then back up at me.
“Would you want to come back again?”
She lifted a hand from mine and placed it on my cheek.
“I would like to do a lot of things again.”
I looked from her lips, where she licked them, back up at her eyes. That same vulnerability from before was still there, but it wasn’t the only thing that lingered. Trust was there also, like she knew what was coming next and the movement of her leaning even closer now was the unspoken words I needed to seal the final deal of this date with her.
“I can make that happen.”
I closed the gap between us and placed my lips against hers, just like I had moments before, but instead of pulling away I reveled in the feeling of her soft lips as they molded against mine.
I placed a hand on her cheek, mimicking the hold she had on me, and brought her closer, deepening the kiss with a swipe of my tongue against her lips. Oh how she opened up for me, not just her lips, but her heart. I felt it in the moment my tongue touched hers and the way she relaxed into my hold. I knew I would never be able to let her go after this moment.
That no matter what conversation I needed to have with her about our past, this kiss right here had sealed our fate, and how it was a fate I looked forward to making a reality.
