Chapter 7
We walked along the waterfront after dinner, Scout's arm threaded through mine. The marina was a shadowy forest of masts swaying gently in the breeze. Lights from the boats cast rippling reflections across the harbor. A bell clanged somewhere in the distance, a bright sound in the dark.
We stopped at the end of the pier and leaned against the railing. Scout tilted her head back to look at the sky.
"Cygnus," she pointed. "And Deneb. The tail of the swan."
I followed her finger to a bright star almost directly overhead.
"Do you know the story of Orpheus?" she asked.
"I don't think so."
"Orpheus the musician. His wife Eurydice died and he was so consumed by grief that he traveled to the underworld to bring her back. Hades agreed to release her on one condition. Orpheus had to walk out of the underworld without looking back. If he looked, she would be lost forever."
"I think I know how this ends."
"He made it almost all the way. But at the last moment, just before they reached the light, he turned to look at her.
And she was gone." Scout's voice was quiet.
"Orpheus spent the rest of his life wandering the earth, playing such sorrowful music that even the rocks and trees wept to hear it.
When he finally died, Zeus placed him in the sky as Cygnus, the swan, with his lyre beside him. "
I watched the star, thinking about Orpheus. About grief and about looking back when you shouldn't.
"There's another version," Scout said. "Some say Orpheus didn't fail. Some say he turned around on purpose. He knew Eurydice belonged in the underworld and he couldn't bear to take her from where she was meant to be. So he looked back to set her free."
"Which version do you believe?"
She was quiet for a moment. "I think love makes us do both things. We hold on too tight and we let go too easily. Sometimes at the same time."
I turned to look at her. The starlight caught her hair, her profile sharp against the dark water behind her.
"You know something?" I said. "I love when you do this."
"Do what?"
"Show me things that have been around me my whole life. Things I never noticed or knew about. I've looked at that sky a thousand times. I never knew it was full of stories."
"The world is full of such tales."
"We should spend another night at your secret place," I continued. "The one overlooking Chasten Cove. You can tell me about all the stars. Every single one."
"I would like that."
The wind picked up, carrying the smell of the sea. Scout shivered slightly and I pulled her closer.
"We should start back," I said. "Long drive home. You can pick the music. I'm starting to understand the appeal of K-Pop."
She didn't laugh. Didn't respond at all.
"Scout? What are you thinking?"
She was quiet for a long moment, staring out at the water.
"This has been the best night of my life. I don't want it to end." She turned to look at me. "I don't want to go home, Thomas."
"Your father will worry."
"My father knows I'm with you. He knows I'm safe." She stepped closer and placed her hands on my chest. "I want to stay with you, here. For the rest of this night. I want to make love and fall asleep beside you. I want to wake up to your face in the morning."
Her eyes were very bright in the starlight. I thought about all the reasons this was complicated. The age difference. Her inexperience. The tangled web of my feelings for her and Claire and my own unfinished past.
Scout and I had been intimate, but we hadn't crossed that threshold yet. I knew she wanted it, but I wasn't sure. I was old enough to be her father. Scout was self-reliant, but she also felt things so deeply. Was it right to entwine our lives together like this?
Then I thought about Orpheus, looking back because he couldn't help himself. Or because he knew it was the right thing to do. Or both.
And then I looked into Scout's eyes and saw the desire there and knew the same was mirrored in my own eyes.
"Okay," I said. "Stay with me, Scout."
She kissed me then, there on the pier with the boats rocking in the darkness and Deneb burning overhead.
An hour later we stood in a hotel room on the second floor, a corner room with large windows overlooking the marina. The view was like what we'd seen from the pier, but elevated now, the pattern of lights spreading out below us.
I opened the bottle of wine I'd bought from the little shop next to Vivi's. It was a red blend. The woman behind the counter had recommended it with an assured nod. That had been good enough for me.
I poured two glasses and handed one to Scout. She took it, held it up to the light, watched the color.
"To first times," I said.
We clinked glasses and sipped our wine. We looked at each other over the rims.
Scout was smiling. It was that open unguarded smile I'd first seen at the pond, when she'd surfaced from the water and found me watching. The beginning of everything between us.
Scout set her glass down and came to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me slow and deep, tasting of wine.
I pulled her close, one hand on the small of her back, the other tangled in her hair. We swayed together, our bodies pressed tight, moving to music that wasn't there.
"Wait," I said. I reached for my phone on the nightstand. "This time I get to pick the music."
"Do you want K-pop?"
"Not tonight." I scrolled through my apps. "Phone, play John Coltrane ballads."
The first notes spilled from the speaker. A saxophone, slow and sultry, curling through the room like wood smoke.
I set the phone down and held out my hand.
"May I have this dance, Liberty Scout Flint?"
"You may, Thomas Harmon."
She took my hand and stepped into my arms.
We held each other in the dim light, barely moving, just swaying. The saxaphone wove around us, unhurried and searching. I could feel her heartbeat against my chest. The warmth of her through her clothes. The way her breath caught when I pulled her closer.
Scout pressed herself against me, her head against my shoulder, her hips moving in slow circles that made my breath come faster.
I kissed her neck. She made a soft sound. I kissed her jaw, her cheek, the corner of her mouth. She turned her head and our lips met and the kiss went deep, tongues sliding together, her fingers digging into my shoulders.
When we finally pulled apart, she was breathing hard. Her cheeks were flushed.
"I've had so many firsts tonight," she said. "I think I am ready for another."
I hesitated. My hands were still on her waist, feeling the warmth of her skin through the thin fabric of her shirt.
"Scout. I worry about this. I'm so much older than you."
"That doesn't matter to me."
"Your first time should be special. You never forget your first time."
She looked up at me. Her blue eyes were very steady.
"I will never forget you, Thomas. No matter what happens after tonight."
She kissed me again. Softer this time, but with certainty underneath it. A decision made.
She took my hand and led me to the bed.
I undressed her slowly, in the light washing in from the marina.
Unbuttoned her shirt and slid it off her shoulders.
Unclasped her plain cotton bra. Her breasts were full and perfect, the nipples hardening in the cool air.
I traced my fingers down her stomach, feeling her muscles flutter, and unfastened her canvas pants, tugging down her panties.
She stood before me naked, completely unashamed. Her body was lean and strong from years of living in the woods. A faded scar on her hip. Calluses on her palms. Her blonde hair falling loose around her shoulders.
"You said I was beautiful," she whispered. "Did you mean that?"
"Of course I did. Why would you question that?"
"It's just... I've never considered that of myself."
"You're beautiful," I said. "Maybe you can't see it through your own eyes."
"But I can see it through yours. The way you look at me."
We kissed again. She reached for my shirt and pulled it over my head. She ran her hands across my chest, exploring my muscles, muscles no longer buried under a layer of suburban flab, muscles that had strengthened over these last months in the woods.
She kissed my chest, her lips warm on my skin. Then her hands went to my belt.
She freed my cock, already hard, and wrapped her fingers around it. Stroked slowly, tracing the shape of me. Her touch was still inexpert but eager, her grip maybe a little too tight. I didn't care.
I laid her on the bed and pushed her legs apart and kneeled between her thighs. Kissed her breasts, took each nipple in my mouth, felt her back arch beneath me. My hand trailed down her stomach, through the soft lush tangle of blonde hair between her thighs.
She was wet. I could smell her arousal before I even touched her.
I kissed down her stomach. I'd learned what Scout liked, what made her squirm with pleasure, what made her quiver, what made her cum.
I kissed the inside of her thigh. She shivered. I kissed higher, breathing in the musky scent of her.
When my tongue found her clit, she gasped.
I licked her slowly at first, knowing what she responded to. Her clit swelling under my tongue. The taste of her pussy on my lips. She grabbed my hair, pulling me closer, her hips starting to move.
"Thomas." Her voice was strained. "Thomas, it feels so good."
I sucked her clit gently and pressed my thumb firmly against her anus, just the way she liked. She cried out, her whole body going rigid, her thighs clamping around my head. I kept licking, kept stroking, massaging her pussy and anus, feeling her spasm under my mouth as she came.
When she finally released me, I kissed my way back up her body. She was flushed from her cheeks to her chest, her eyes glazed, her hands shaking as she reached for me.
"That was..."
She couldn't finish the sentence. Just pulled me down and kissed me, tasting herself on my lips.
I reached for the nightstand and the condom I'd bought at the drugstore a block away. I tore the packet open.
"Let me do it," Scout said. "So I know how."