“Minor setback. The dancing made up for it.”
She laughs, and the sound vibrates through my chest. I could live in this moment forever. Just the two of us, tangled together, the mountains standing guard and the water lapping at the shore and?—
Voices.
I go rigid beneath her.
“—told you this trail was here. My cousin found it last summer?—”
Delaney’s head snaps up, eyes wide. “Is that?—”
“Kayakers.” I’m already moving, grabbing for clothes. “Behind the rocks. Now.”
We scramble off the blanket, snatching up swimsuits and towels in a tangle of limbs and muffled cursing. The voices are getting closer—two, maybe three people, paddles splashing in the water.
“—supposed to be totally private. Nobody ever comes here?—”
I pull Delaney behind the boulder outcropping, pressing her back against the warm stone. She’s clutching her swimsuit to her chest, eyes dancing with barely suppressed laughter.
“Don’t,” I warn.
“I’m not?—”
“You’re about to laugh.”
“I’m not going to—” She clamps a hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking.
I press closer, shielding her body with mine. If anyone comes around these rocks, they’ll see me first. They’ll have to go through me to see an inch of her skin.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice, curious. “Is someone there?”
We hold our breath.
Silence. The lap of the water. A paddle dipping.
“Probably just an animal,” a man says. “Come on, there’s a better spot around the bend.”
The splashing fades. The voices drift away.
Delaney exhales against my chest, her whole body trembling with suppressed giggles. “Oh, my god.”
“That was close.”
“That washilarious.” She grins up at me, cheeks flushed, hair an absolute disaster. “The look on your face?—”
“I was protecting your virtue.”
“I lost my virtue on that blanket about five minutes ago. Pretty sure that ship has sailed.”
I can’t help it. I laugh too; the tension breaking. We both shake with it, mostly naked behind a boulder while strangers paddle past our secret lake.
“Well.” She wipes her eyes. “That’s one way to christen our spot.”
“Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been family.”
“Don’t even joke.” She shudders dramatically. “Can you imagine if Tom had paddled around that bend?”
“I’m choosing not to imagine that. Ever.”
