“Are you undressing me with your eyes?” he asks with a sly grin as I wring out my hair with the towel.
“Maybe.” I smile and he places a kiss on my shoulder as he brushes past me into the bathroom.
Once I dry off, I crawl back into his bed, listening to him hum in the shower. I’m almost asleep when the water turns off. I don’t pretend to be asleep, but I don’t make any move to show I am awake either. Instead, I watch him walk out with a towel slung low around his waist. That trail of hair below his belly button shouldn’t be as provocative as it is but I can’t take my eyes off it.
“You’re naked,” he points out smoothing down his mustache as he gazes down at me.
“My dress is full of sand and dirt still.”
He curses under his breath.
“Come on,” I beckon him this time. “Get back in bed for a bit.”
And with little fight, he crawls in next to me, his arms find their way around my waist and pull me into him.
“You know.” He kisses my neck. “I still have those handcuffs.”
I don’t answer him. I just let the pulsing heat in my body answer for me.
“Good morning.” Tanner stretches next to me in bed.
I check the little analog clock on his dresser and see that it’s seven in the evening and we have slept all afternoon. Sitting up, I rest my arms across my knees and take in the softly lit room around me. The evening light glows in soft patches, catching the dancing dust particles as they float by.
“Let me make you dinner,” he says, trailing his fingers up the curve of my spine.
“I’ll help you.”
“Absolutely not. Let me take care of you. Please.”
“I don’t deserve you.”
He scoffs and props himself up onto his elbow. “After that performance? I’d say you deserve someone making you dinner at the very least.”
I lean down to kiss him and pull off the bed with a wink and slip one of his shirts on. “Oh, I was willing to offer my services in payment for dinner, but you insist we’re even…”
“Wait, you can still offer your services!” he says hurriedly and reaches for me, narrowly catching me by my hips.
He sits up and pulls me to stand between his legs.
“Dinner.” I smile down at him, resting my hands on his shoulders, playing with the ends of his hair. It has dried a complete mess at the fault of my hands. I smooth down his mustache as his hands grasp at my butt under his shirt.
He drops his forehead against my chest. “Fine.”
Kissing the top of his head, I drag him out of bed and sit at the kitchen table while he flips on the radio in the windowsill. Once that dish towel is tossed over his shoulder, he gets to work.
This is the life I had dreamed of from the beginning. Warm summer evenings with open windows, creaking wood floors, a kind man cooking me dinner. The smell of earth, bug spray and sunscreen. Spending our days at the creek and our nights listening to crackling old radios. Maybe it’s not too late to still have it. The only thing missing is Winnie.
When we finish eating, just like the other night at his parents’ house, we don’t rush to clean up. Instead, we sit before our almost cleared plates and just talk. In the glow of the candles, and under his gaze, this weekend settles into my bones, I push away the fear that this little world we have found ourselves in will rear its pumpkin head at midnight.
“Oh, this song.” Tanner tilts his head to listen better. “So good.”
I don’t know the song, but it doesn’t stop me from getting swept up with Tanner as he tugs me out of my seat. He wraps me in his arms and sways me about the kitchen as he sings softly along with the music. It’s a crooning country song about love and we dance around his worn kitchen floors. Soon his singing goes from soft and sweet, to downright ridiculous as he belts out the words that don’t make much sense. Something about the guy telling the girl to leave because they both know they just can’t help themselves. I am laughing too hard to care and by the time the song ends, we are breathless in a messy kitchen.
“We should do the dishes,” I groan as he kisses me.
“I’ll wash. You dry and put away.”
“I don’t know where anything goes,” I point out but he shrugs and tosses the rag over my shoulder.
