Page 52 of Barefoot Lake

We get to the second floor, and the hallway feels narrower than it ever has in my house, even though the two layouts are identical. She reaches into the doorway of the master bedroom and flicks the light switch on the wall.

I step forward to enter the room right as she decides to slide through the doorway, and we find ourselves chest to chest in the rapidly shrinking space. I look down as she looks up.

“Oh! Sorry…”

Her words are breathy as she seems to gulp air into her lungs. I shift back so she can go in first.

“No, my bad.”

God, give me strength.

I look around Alice’s bedroom slowly. Her bed is made with decorative pillows in various shades of blues and greens carefully arranged against the headboard, and the carpet has lines from recent vacuuming, but the top of her dresser is a mountain of pictures, books, jewelry, water bottles, and anything else she could fit on the surface without causing an avalanche. There’s a squashy chair with an ottoman on one side of the bed, a throw blanket balled up, and art and pictures on the walls. The space is warm, lived in.

I find Alice standing near the closet, with its sliding mirrored door clearly hanging lopsided. She looks at me like she’s waiting for my evaluation of her space.

“I really like your room,” I say honestly. It feels juvenile to say, but it’s the truth. I like the space and everything else about her.

She visibly sighs with relief and blushes when she murmurs her thanks. Maybe it’s not so juvenile after all to just tell the nice girl when you like something about her.

“Hopefully, this won’t taint your opinion of the space.” Alice moves aside to give me access to the door. I take a flashlight from the toolbox and click it on to get a better look at what’s happening on the tracks overhead. The inside door seems to have gotten jammed half on the track for the outside door. I give the door a firm shake, but neither one will budge and there’s only a narrow opening where you can get into the closet right now.

“I’ve basically been squeezing in there and finding my clothes by flashlight,” Alice explains.

“Would you mind standing in there now and supporting the door from the inside? I’m going to have to angle the door pretty far to try to dislodge it, and I don’t want it to fall in and crack the mirror.”

Alice nods and presses herself into the narrow opening. “All set!” she calls from within.

I quickly unscrew the guide on the floor to give me more freedom to move the doors before lifting and angling the inside door, trying to get it to fall back into its own track. It takes some heaving and having Alice push and lift from inside the closet, but it eventually gives and thuds into place. I lower the base of the door so it hangs on its own and tentatively slide it open.

It moves with ease, revealing Alice squished between hangers in the dark space. I feel like I tower over her. Again, I find myself looking down as she’s looking up, and I swear her eyes darken at the sight of me even though the light is now washing over her from the room behind me.

The collar of my shirt feels too tight, the scratch of the denim of my jeans too rough. I don’t hear the heater going, but it must have just kicked on because I swear the temperature in the room is shooting up.

It’s just a second, but her eyes flit from mine to my lips and back. Like earlier, she pulls her bottom lip into her mouth. I swear she’s actively trying to test me. She moves to take a step back, seemingly forgetting she’s in a closet, and her heel catches on a shoe.

She stumbles, the hangers clanging together noisily around her shoulders. My hands dart out, gripping her elbows and pulling her forward until she instead falls against me, her hands on my biceps.

The air rushes out of her in a soft “oh.”

Time slows and, unlike in the doorway a few minutes ago, neither of us pulls back. My hands are still on her elbows, with my fingers pinned against her ribcage, and I swear I can feel her heart hammering inside her chest. I hesitantly rub one thumb back and forth on her arm and feel her shudder in response. I release one of her arms and place a finger under her chin, lifting until she looks up at me.

She blinks twice.

Then, her hands are in my hair, and she’s pulling me down to meet her lips.

Thank fuck.

CHAPTER 24

Jake

It feels like my soul falls into her as we crash together, the smell of her drowning my senses when I breathe in sharply through my nose. She inches forward, ushering me back. I gladly relent, taking her with me until the back of my knees hit the bed, and she pushes against my chest harder. I sit roughly, pulling her down with me, and one of her knees comes to rest on each side of my hips.

She rolls her hips against me, long and slow. My fingertips press into her soft thigh and the hard muscle beneath. My other hand moves to her waist and slides up her side, bunching the material of her shirt as I go.

Alice breaks our kiss, throwing her head back as she arches into me, and her hands find my shoulders. She’s ticklish. I run my thumb against her ribs just beneath her breast, and she bucks against me, eyes like fire.

“Quit stalling,” she hisses, and I grin.