“He wants me to meet him again this afternoon.”
“That’s so cute! Little Ena, falling in love,” she said dreamily.
Using the paddle, Ena flung droplets of hot water towards Greya in retaliation.
“Hey!” Greya yelled, dodging the hot water, and laughing.
“Leave me alone,” Ena ordered, but couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her too. “Besides, you’re one to talk. You’ve got Perse following you around like a lost puppy. Want to talk about that?”
“What? No, Perse and I are just friends,” Greya replied, shaking her head and refocusing on the clothes Ena had finished scrubbing.
“Mmhmm, sure,” Ena said skeptically.
“What are you talking about? He’s never shown any interest in me whatsoever. He didn’t even ask me to dance last night.”
“Greya, come on. He’s clearly obsessed with you and is just too shy to do anything. You should make a move.”
Greya rolled her eyes, but Ena could see the blush that crossed her face. “Gaia, fine, just go ahead and go already if you’re gonna give me a hard time. I’ll finish this washing on my own.”
“Seriously?” Ena asked. She’d love to stay and continue to convince Greya to work her shit out with Perse, but she was also really eager to go see Ty. When her sister nodded in the affirmative, she didn’t argue.
“Thanks, Greya! You’re the best!”
Dropping the paddle like it was hot, Ena rushed back inside to change and fix her hair. Ty had said to meet him at midday, and the sun was already past its highest point, so even if he wasn’t there yet, she figured she’d go hang out down by the river until he showed up.
She stripped off her water- and soap-soaked dress and pulled on a clean, light-brown linen dress with a dark-blue bodice on top. She brushed out her hair as best she could and braided it down one shoulder before securing it with a piece of dark-blue ribbon. She still looked sweaty and her hands smelled like lye, but it was the best she could do.
After slipping on her light leather shoes, she practically ran out of the house and then tried to look casual as she walked down the main path through the village and towards the river. When she got to the beach, he was there already, sittingcasually with his back leaning against a tree and using a whetstone to sharpen his surprisingly high-quality knife.
“Hey,” Ena said, hoping she’d be the one to startle him this time.
Looking up at her, definitely not startled, he smiled, and she felt a million butterflies gather in her stomach. “Hi,” he said.
Gaia, he was just as gorgeous as she remembered from last night. Averting her eyes lest she start staring like a fool, she took a quick scan around the beach. There were clearly remnants of a small campfire, along with an apple core, and what looked to be Ty’s discarded shoes by the riverside. He clearly had been here for a while already.
“So, been waiting here for me all day, have you?” she asked, teasing.
“Well, it’s a beautiful spot and you’re…a really beautiful girl,” he said seriously.
Ena blushed. Damn, this boy was charming as fuck.
“So,” she started, changing the subject. “Did you have something in mind for this afternoon?”
Ty stood up and put his knife back in the sheath at his side. “I was hoping you could show me around a bit. The landscape here is…different from what I’m used to back home.”
“Sure, I could do that,” Ena replied, nodding at him. For a brief moment, they locked eyes, and she remembered what it felt like being pressed up against him in the water last night. Her face flushed all over again and she had to look away. “Let’s go this way,” she said, gesturing upriver. “The river becomes a gorge as you get closer to the foothills of the mountains, and there’s a path that leads through the forest and around to the top of a cliff. The view from up there is gorgeous.”
“Okay, that sounds great. Lead the way,” he said, gesturing for her to go first.
Following the bank of the river, they walked side by side, both of them stealing quick glances at the other. Ena was not particularly short, being about average height compared to the other girls her age, but walking beside Ty, she was struck yet again by their height difference, and she all of a sudden felt very small. They’d spent most of their time the night before face to face in the water together, so this was her first time really appreciating his height, and it was…attractive, to say the least.
The land began to slope up the farther they got from the village, and the river lowered gradually below them as the deep gorge formed. They moved in companionable silence for a while, but soon, Ena’s curiosity got the better of her.
“So, you’re here with your uncles, you said?”
“Yeah,” he replied, as if they hadn’t just been walking in silence for fifteen minutes. He was clearly a man of few words and Gaia, he was making her work for them.
“Where are they?” she asked.
