I shut him up by kissing him.
He hesitates, like he isn’t sure what to do, before laughing into my mouth and kissing me back. It’s the kind of kiss where one of our hands is on each other and the other is holding on to our ice creams. Where he grabs my hip and I grab his neck, and he tastes like sweet vanilla and I taste like spicy rum. The kind of kiss where the world stands still and the beach doesn’t exist and a million words are spoken though not a single one of them said.
It is unexpected and abrupt and as perfectly placed as an old table in a new house.
When I pull back, he says nothing, staring at me while touching his mouth.
“You asked what I would do if I wasn’t engaged.” I roll my shoulders and lift my chin. “I would do the other stuff, but I would do that first.”
I turn away from him just as a slow-to-grow smile creeps across his lips but before he can see the same one on mine.
On my towel next to Cap, my insides fly like a kite in the ocean breeze as I take the very first bite of the very first ice cream sandwich given to me by my dad.
I’ll never forget the taste of it or the way the ice cream gives me brain freeze and the cookie wafer sticks to the roof of my mouth. I hope some memories are strong enough to transcend space and time and live in our tissue and bones, no matter how much time passes.
I hope this is one of them.
I grin at Cap; I want so many more moments like this with him. Now that I know him, we will. I’ll keep a box of ice cream sandwiches in my freezer for us to eat every time he visits.
When Nash settles next to me, Sunny’s three boys look at me like I’m a new life-form.
“Boys,” Sunny snips. “This ya Auntie Rue.”
I look at her, shocked at her use ofAuntie, but the purse of her lips tells me to keep my trap shut.
“Auntie Rue, this is Jayden, Justin, and JJ.”
“Hi.” I smile at them. “How’s the ice cream?”
With tongues in various stages of licks, they say some version of good, making us laugh.
“Auntie Rue is a pain in the ass, but we gonna put up with her for Nash, ya hear?”
Her and I exchange another look.
“You live here?” Justin asks.
“No,” I say. “Just visiting.”
“You have kids?”
“I do.”
“How old?”
“Mind ya business!” Sunny barks. “Go play and leave the questions to the grown folks. You drown and I’ll kill ya then your daddy will kill ya again when you get to the other side.”
They’re as scared of their mother as I am because they obey instantly. I tuck my chin to my shoulder, looking at Nash. “Hello.”
Sunglasses perched on the top of his head, his eyes squint, lips taking a playful shape as he licks his ice cream. “You kissed me.”
Butterflies are everywhere.
“I did.”
“And you aren’t engaged.”
“I’m married actually.”
