Chapter 9
Nine
Tweetie’s Journal Entry
Twelve years ago
Florida
To my teenage self,
You’d be so proud of me, man. We’ve got a girlfriend. Yeah, I asked Tedi to be my girlfriend, which sounds really juvenile now that I’m in my twenties. Things are coming around for us, though. She’s different than the other girls. She’s like us. Crazy, wild, and spontaneous. But let me tell you how it all went down…
Our season ended, so I booked us a flight to stay in one of those huts over the ocean. The water was so clear, the sand so white, and the sky so blue. It was the perfect place for us to decompress after all the traveling during the season. (We’ve come a long way.)
She changed into a bikini right after the bellhop left our private hut. Damn, she looked so good. She already had a bronze glow since we live in Florida, but somehow under the sun there, she was even hotter.
Tedi walked up to me and slid her hands under my shirt and up my chest. I love her hands on me. “Come on. The water is begging for us.”
I let her push up my T-shirt, and I helped her shed it from my body. She cast small kisses along my collarbone as her fingers manipulated the button of my shorts.
“This is amazing, Tweetie.”
I just watched her, still amazed that she was mine. I rested my hands on her waist, wanting so badly to pull the strings at her hips and watch the flimsy fabric float to the wooden floor. “You like it?”
“What’s not to love?”
We hadn’t said the words yet. The three words I’ve never told anyone because of my fear of abandonment. (Yeah, we still have that problem.) Even though I haven’t said them, that doesn’t mean I don’t feel them. I do. She’s changed me, and all I see and want is her.
“Aren’t you hungry?” I asked.
She pushed my shorts down, leaving me in my boxer briefs. “I’m not hungry for food. What I want is to jump into the ocean with you. Don’t you want to feel me all wet?”
Fuck yeah, I did. “Give me a minute.”
She rose on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on my lips. “Hurry.”
I placed my hand on the back of her head to keep her with me, and she slid her tongue into my mouth. I’d never grow tired of her forwardness and the way she took what she wanted from me. The trust she gave me was addicting.
I patted her ass after we closed the kiss, and she gave me one quick peck before sauntering over to the water’s edge.
Not wanting to be away from her, I hurriedly changed into my swim trunks. When I reached the deck, she was still standing at the edge, looking down at the water. I was surprised she wasn’t already neck deep.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her and nuzzling my head into the crook of her neck. It was my favorite position with her, feeling as though I was offering her shelter and protection. Plus, she smelled so damn good.
“I thought if a shark came and ate me, you’d think I ran away with another man. So, I figured I’d wait.”
I laughed and tightened my arms around her. “I think I would have noticed the bloody water, and I’m hoping you would have screamed so I could be your hero.”
“What if he just swallowed me whole and you spent the rest of your life without me, thinking I’d found some man who swept me away? That’d be sad.”
I kissed the nape of her neck, and she put her hands over my arms. “Want to tell me the real reason?”
She sighed. We were so alike, always trying to hide our real fears. “What if there really is a shark and you weren’t here to save me?”
“I’d sacrifice myself so you could live.”
“But what if the shark only wanted me because I’m cute?”
“Are you saying I’m not cute?”
She circled in my arms, and I clung to her tighter. “You’re the cutest, but you’re hairy, and maybe the shark doesn’t want hair in its teeth.”
I lowered my hands to her ass. “Let’s get in the water, babe.”
She rested her head on my chest. “The sun feels good.”
“The water will feel better.” I wasn’t about to let her not enjoy the water because she was scared of sharks.
“Maybe I’m in the mood for that food you promised me now.” Her hand wedged between our bodies, and she ran her palm over my dick.
“Hey.” I placed my finger under her chin and raised her head to look at me. “You trust me?”
She nodded.
So I walked us to the edge, picked her up, and jumped toward the water.
“Tweetie!” Her scream was quickly garbled from the water.
When we emerged, she wrapped her body around mine, her eyes frantically searching the water.
I laughed. “I swear I would never imagine you’d be scared of sharks.”
She reared her head back. “Have you never seen Shark Week? Or Jaws?”
I laughed harder. “I figured you were more the kind to learn exactly where to punch the shark to make it go away. That you’d be protecting me.”
She pushed my hair away from my face. My face was clean-shaven since the season had ended, and she seemed to enjoy my clean face. “I would. I’d put myself in harm’s way for you.”
I kissed her. “I know, but then we’d be wrestling one another to see who could save the other.”
She giggled, and her legs tightened around my waist. “And we’d both be eaten.”
“Or the shark would think we weren’t worth the trouble.” I kissed her shoulder. I didn’t ever want to leave this water, and I feared every day I might lose her. I didn’t want this to end.
She came into my life on a whim. It was supposed to be one night. I was supposed to be a checkmark off her fuck-it bucket list that she better have retired now, otherwise, I might morph into that asshole kid I was when I was younger and beat the shit out of every person she propositioned.
She tilted her head back, and I admired the way the sun soaked her skin. She was so beautiful, I could stare at her all day.
“Be my girlfriend?” The question came from the fear of losing her, but it was what I wanted.
Her head sprang up, and she stared at me. I opened my mouth to explain that I knew I was changing the game, but…
A small smile formed on her lips, then it grew. “You want to be my boyfriend?”
I drew in a deep breath. “Yeah.”
“Okay,” she said and went back to laying her head back, feeling the sun on her skin.
A moment I was so scared of was over, and we were officially a couple.
She made it so easy, but that was Tedi. She didn’t dissect situations or scenarios, she lived her life in the moment.
She laughed in my arms.
“What?”
Picking up her head, she looked into my eyes. “It’s just funny. You’re my fuck-it bucket list turned boyfriend.” She shrugged. “It’s funny.” Her face grew serious. “But also amazing.”
I captured her lips with mine, and we didn’t end up swimming for long before we tried out the bed.