Clementine frowns for a split second, but it’s too late.I grab her under the shoulders and behind the knees and lift her off the ground.Her arms go around my neck automatically, but she kicks her feet as I walk her further into the pool.
“No no no no no no no,” she squeals.“Hunter.No.No no no, I swear toGod?—”
“What’s that?Put you down?”I ask, grinning.
“I’m going tokillyou when I get out of here,” she says.
I take a deep breath.Clementine screws up her face.
I plunge us both into the deepest part of the pond, and Jesus pogo-sticking Christ it’s cold.So cold it knocks the wind out of me and for a moment Iactuallypanic.
Then I stand up, because it’s four feet deep.
We surface at the same time, and Clementine is already shouting, but it’s just a string of curse words, mostly directed at me.I think my balls have retreatedinside my body, but I grin at her anyway, trying to look like I don’t mind.
“I am actually going to kill you,” she says, gasping for air as she shoves her hair off her face.“Jesus, it’s so cold I can’t even think.I think my brain went numb.I think you killed my brain cells.”
She takes a step toward the edge, but I grab her around the waist.
“NOOOoooooo — oh,” she says, as I pull her in, her head against my chest.She puts her arms around me, her nipples hard as diamonds against my chest.
I just kiss her on top of her head, laughing into her hair.
“You’re the world’s worst boyfriend,” she mutters.
That word,boyfriend, makes my heart skip a beat.Or maybe it’s the cold.
“There’s no way that’s true,” I say.
“You’re not even warm,” she says, burrowing harder into me.
“Just give it a minute, it starts to feel warmer,” I say.
“That’s because your skin is going numb.”
“Still feels warmer, though,” I say.“I’m gonna go in again.”
Clementine lets me go and backs away quickly, like she’s afraid I’m going to grab her and take her with me, but I don’t this time.Dunking her once was all I wanted.
After a few minutes we both warm up a little, though I think she’s right and our skin is just going numb.We splash around for a while, dare each other to go through the trickle of the waterfall.Clementine tries to dunk me but it doesn’t work until I finally let her, and then we float on our backs for a few minutes, just looking up at the sky.
“Okay, I’m getting cold again now,” she says, and looks at one hand.“And my fingernails are turning blue.”
She walks out and I watch her as she wrings water out of her hair, then lays back on a big, flat, gray rock in the sun.I wait until I think her eyes are closed to follow, because I’ve been in barely-melted ice water and I think my dick is the size of a gummi worm right now.
“I didn’t bring a towel,” she murmurs as I sit next to her.“We’ll have to lay here in the sun until we dry off.”
She’s got her arms over her head and her eyes closed, her whole naked body stretched out on a rock.I swear it looks like a pinup calendar one of my buddies had in Afghanistan, except it’sreal.And spectacular.
I glance over at the column of smoke.It looks the same.Maybea little bigger, but it’s hard to tell.
“I hope that fire staysexactlythe same size for another couple of days and then goes out,” Clementine says.“There’s plenty of supplies in the lookout, and I could use a vacation.”
“They’d call me back before that,” I say, lying down on the rock next to her.“Utah’s on fire, and if we’re not needed here we’re going down there.”
She opens her eyes and looks over at me, her expression unreadable, like she’d forgotten I was going to have to leave.
“When’s fire season usually over for you guys?”she asks.
