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He smiled, but it was full of sadness. His hands caressed the small of her back.
“I miss the everyday moments the most,” she rasped. “Like him singing in the car or listening to Minnesota Public Radio while he made his coffee in the kitchen. Or seeing the way he looked at Mom. I hate that she’s so lonely now.”
“I hate that you were lonely,” he muttered.
She kept playing with his hair. “I’m not lonely anymore.”
He kissed her shoulder, then pulled her in for a tight hug.
She buried her face in his neck. “What do you miss about him?” she asked.
He pecked her shoulder a couple more times. She realized he was kissing her freckles. “My dad spent his summers so busy with the resort that we never had time to do things together, like fishing or water skiing or sailing. But Gareth always had the time. He treated me like his son and taught me everything.” He looked up at her. “Do you remember his lake showers?”
She groaned. “Oh god, don’t remind me.”
Archer grinned. “He refused to take a real shower and only wanted to wash in the lake. I thought he was so cool.”
“You used to join him a lot.”
“I did. Until I realized what his soap was doing for the environment.”
She closed her eyes. “He kept doing them though.”
“I should have known something was up that last summer. He didn’t do a lake shower once.”
“It’s okay. I wasn’t paying attention either. I was too preoccupied with…other things.”
“Like your secret crush?”
“Shove it.”
He chuckled. “Did you know Gareth was the first one to teach me how to make a cocktail?”
Her eyes blew wide. “Really?”
Archer grinned. “Yeah. He taught me how to make a margarita. Then we snuck out to the dock and drank them. He kept saying how good mine was.”
“How old were you?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She shook her head and snickered. “Why does this not even surprise me?”
He laughed with her, then kissed her on the lips. “How was that? Talking about it?”
“Awful,” she admitted. Because it was. It was awful to remember her father and how much she missed him. But it was also wonderful to live through happy memories. Remind herself that he may be gone, but he would never be forgotten. “You’re the only person I want to open up to.”
He scanned her face. “Why’s that?”
She cupped his cheeks. “Even after years of no contact, you still know exactly what to say.”
“Okay, well, at this moment, I have nothing to say.” He reached for his bedside table and switched off his lamp. “Only things I’d like to do.”
He kissed her and she melted into it, ready to strip off the limited amount of clothes they had on. She wanted to feel every part of his skin on hers again. She wanted his heavy breathing in her neck and his stubble scraping her skin and the weight of his large body pressing into her.
A low growl bellowed from outside the open window.
They both froze.
