“Of course.” Levi moves a bit closer, his arm brushing mine. It sends goosebumps up my side, because it’s oddly more intimate than when he was on his knees for me, fingers deep inside my pussy.
I’ll combust by the end of the week.
He leads me past the numerous lounge areas to the wooden-planked path down to the beach. Instead of heading left towards the cabanas, we go right and walk through the sand.
It’s cool on the toes but fluffy, with the power to scrub away the past. For that reason alone, I kick off my flip-flops and jog towards the black water. Since vacations are all about letting go, I release my normal stoicism and joy takes hold. My arms stretch wide to welcome it inside, and I twirl, my dress lifting from momentum, similar to when Hunter had the material in his grasp.
I keep running until water meets my toes. Cool at first without the sun, but the temperature quickly warms. I walk untilI’m ankle deep, my toes curling into the wet sand beneath. It shapes to the curves of my feet and my toes.
“How is this real, Levi? How do people in the world live like this?”
My head falls back, hair brushing my lower back as I scan the blanket of black and glitter above. As a child, I’d stare out my window at the stars and envision a better life, one without a hateful father who constantly yelled and hit me.
The thought of wishes—a better future—so close sends me deeper into the water, until it reaches my knee. Cold or warm, I don’t care. None of it registers beyond the absolute pleasure.
For the first time, I’m eternally grateful for Levi in both his forms, how he’s saved me countless times from taking my self-harm to more dangerous levels. If I killed myself, I wouldn’t be here.
“Levi?” Realizing he never responded, I turn halfway to check on him.
Instead, a wave splashes up as his body crashes through the water. The same strong arms that held me in the restaurant wrap around my waist, and then I’m flying through the air—first, closer to the stars I reach for, then immediately brought down by gravity and into the water.
“Levi!” As I try to sit up, he drops to his knees in front of me. “You’re an ass! I’m not dressed for water.”
“You walked in here first.” He jerks his head, water flinging from the tips of his hair that’s lost some of his beach boy vibes without the daylight. That’s when I really look at him; at how his shirt is plastered to his hard chest and his shorts leave little to the imagination. My core clenches at the knowledge that soon, I’ll feel him as Hunter.
Shaking off the thought, I counter, “Yeah, tostand. My phone will get ruined.”
“It’s waterproof.” He dips beneath the waves to root around in my dress pockets. He pulls out the device after some struggle, presses the side button to prove it still functions, then tosses it overhead onto the dry sand. “There. Safe.”
“You’re an ass.” Hand to his chest, I push against hard muscle, only for it to go nowhere. I try again, and his stomach flexes.
“I’ve always imagined you wet, darling.”
If only I could let myself truly believe that. That beyond our game, he’d go against his family. That I could hear him speak like this always, outside his Hunter personality.
“Oddly enough,” he continues, missing my inability to remain still, “we’ve never actually gone swimming together.”
“Hilarious.” I play it off with a nervous laugh, then shuffle backwards into the shallower water where our friendship won’t end in a crash.
Levi drops beside me, the water coming up to our waists. We sit so our hips touch, our thighs brushing. We’ve sat like this many times, yet something feels charged after having him practically on top of me, something different than when he had me against the bathroom wall.
He stretches his arms, angling up to the moon. The pale light makes him seem brighter—but that’s also just Levi. “I’ve been here many times growing up, yet I have so few memories of this place. Having you with me makes the trip something to enjoy. Maybe we can make it an annual thing. Dad would be thrilled if I take that initiative.”
“I’m sure he would. Maybe not with me coming every year, though.”
Instead of laughing it off, he props himself on one arm to lean closer. “I’ve explicitly told them to stop saying shit about you, that you’re not going anywhere. We’re a package deal. They’re coming around.”
At a snail’s speed, I’m sure.Not wanting to crush the faith he has in his family I merely smile it off and return to gazing up at the sky. There’s too much peace in the world to fight about this.
Minutes pass in comfortable silence—until Levi makes it less comfortable.
“I mean it, Summer. You’re the most important thing in my life. I don’t actually give two fucks about my parents’ opinions. Chasing after you that day”—his dark eyes flick to my wrists, indicating what he’s talking about—“was the best thing I could have done. If only I saved you from the torture he put you through.”
My fingers slide over the marks that are much slimmer, smaller, and faded but will remain for years to come. “Why’d you care? You went from hating me to wanting to be my friend and then wondered why I was cautious to get too close too fast.”
I half-expect him to laugh it off, to nudge me. Instead, he stares through the water. “I never hated you. I was an asshole, I’ll admit?—”
“You broke my science project so that the cool kids accepted you.”