I jerk my gaze away. I can only play this flirting game so long – I’m not very good at it.
His eyes linger on me, and he reaches for the bottle of sunblock. I watch him intently as he squeezes a large drop on his fingers. He reaches for my face. “Your nose is getting red,” he says with a mischievous smile. If this is flirting, we’re both not very good at it. He’s probably a lot better at it with other women. He rubs my nose gently and I laugh. Then he reaches for my rogue curl and pulls at it – the man just can’t help himself.
“You’re annoying,” I say.
He laughs. “I know. I annoy you on purpose.”
His gaze clings to me, and his laughter fades. As he slowly leans in to me and closes the distance between us, my heart pounds, anticipating his kiss, his touch. I think about the kids who aren’t far, yet I still want him to kiss me. I stare at his sensual full lips… kissable lips.
His mouth brushes my cheek as he reaches his arm around my back and slides his hand down to my ass. What in the heavens is he doing?
He grabs my phone, and with that cocky grin of his, he says, “We need another picture,” he says. “Gotta keep driving the ex-fiancé insanely jealous. That’s the plan right? You gotta keep on top of this, Freckles.”
I smile. What a tease. I tear the phone from his hands, and take a selfie of the two of us. I study the photo – this might be my favorite one of us. His hair is a matted mess, and his beard is getting really scruffy. I look fresh-faced without makeup, and my hair looks wild. It always looks pretty nice when I swim in the lake, and the freezing water probably helped seal the follicles. Maybe Blake is right. Perhaps I should wear my hair natural more often.
My heart skips a beat when the kids make a sudden reappearance. “Check out this cool stick,” Jake says. “Can I keep it?”
I study the stick. It’s grey driftwood, and gnarled like an old man’s hands. It’s covered with markings, which I recognize as the work of some kind of tree insect. “Sure, why not.”
He smiles wide, over the moon. That’s what I love about children – they find pleasure in such small things. As adults, most of us forget to do that.
“We’ll get going soon, kids,” Blake tells them.
Jake and Maddie pout, and my heart sinks a little. I want to stay here all day too.
As Blake and the kids get the canoe ready to go, I stay back and pee in the woods. I can’t remember the last time I did that, but when nature calls... I’m crouching, in a not so ladylike fashion, and I don’t have toilet paper, so I grab a large red leaf. If Peter could see me now he’d probably be thinking that he dodged a bullet.
I run back to the canoe, put on my life jacket, and we’re off, back to our little home on wheels. We enjoy the scenery again on the way back, and the kids are ecstatic when we spot an otter. I try to snap a photo with my phone, but it just looks like an indistinguishable blob in the water.
