SIX
Rayne
Is it normal to be so smitten with someone you just met?
Asking for a friend, I don’t get smitten. The closest I’ve been was with this absolutely delectable cinnamon raisin bagel. It’s discontinued now but when we were still seeing each other, it was a match made in heaven.
Cade is my cinnamon raisin bagel. He’s funny and smart, rugged yet refined, interesting in a way that makes me want to get my doctorate in him.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s strong and handsome and smells like he sleeps in a cedar closet.
He’s sweet and considerate. But I think what draws me to him more than anything else is the fact that he’s misunderstood and underappreciated.
I’ve never really fit in anywhere and if I did, it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be.
But right here, snuggled up against his arm, I fit perfectly.
I’ve always been a square peg trying to fit in a round hole.
Except I’m less of a square and more of a dodecahedron and I swear Cade already sees all the different sides of me.
I’ve been the weird one. The smart one. The funny one.
The fat one. The skinny one. I’m not a yo-yo dieter, it just depends which group of friends I’m around.
I’ve been labeled so many things, most of them true, but most people only see one of them at a time.
How could I not want to be around someone who sees all of them at once?
He doesn’t bat an eye when I make comments considered by some to be off the wall.
Cade just goes along with it. He doesn’t look at me like I’m nothing more than a goofball, I know because sometimes I catch him checking me out.
It makes me feel like an ice cream cone on a hot day, about to dribble down his hand, so he eyes me intently before darting out his tongue and swiping it along…
What were we talking about? Right, somehow, even when he’s staring, he still catches every absurd thing that comes out of my mouth.
“Is that sunlight on the horizon?” he asks in that sexy voice of his, melted butter being poured over an amethyst geode.
“Oh my god, did we just spend the whole night talking on the pier?”
“I want to say no, it’s only been an hour, tops, but my tailbone says otherwise. The lines from this bench will be permanently tattooed on my ass. Do you think George noticed you were gone?”
“He knew I wasn’t coming back tonight. Last night I had to go to his tent because everyone was around the campfire late, not only did he try to seduce me, he farted while doing it. Yep, lifted his leg and ripped one while explaining in intimate detail how he could rock my world.”
“And they wondered how I could possibly think his fiancée was imaginary. You didn’t slap him, did you? Because he’s been known to pay ladies of the night to do that.”
“Why am I not surprised? No, I tried to fart back but it’s not a skill I can call upon on demand, so I just made a strained grunty face and left.
But when I emptied the trash, I found a nice big fresh turd from Sir Charles the Fourth, I dropped that off outside his tent door in the night.
Don’t worry, Charles is a raccoon, not royalty, it’s not as weird as it sounds. ”
“That’s perfect.” His laugh is comfortable and inviting, so sincere I can’t help but join in. “George hates animals.”
“He what?” I squeal, nearly choking on the words.
“Yep, he hates ’em all and everything about them. Especially when they poop in inconvenient locations, like his windshield. I once saw him try to strangle a blue jay for unloading on his freshly washed car. I’m sure he was fuming.”
Laughing with Cade feels like walking on a cloud in moonshoes. I don’t want tonight to end but I guess if the sun’s coming up, it’s too late to find a shooting star to wish on.
“We should probably get back before someone notices we’re gone.” The lament in his voice makes me feel like the most important person in the world. “Can I walk you to the campground?”
“Uh huh,” I nod, eager to spend any second I can with him, even though it’ll be somewhat inconvenient when I have to turn around and march back to the pier to get my car. I drove here when I realized how late I was, hoping he didn’t give up on me.
Walking hand in hand down the dock is dangerous, anyone could see us, anyone insane enough to be up at this ungodly hour, but it feels too right to let go. We’ll wait for it to happen naturally, when my palm gets so clammy he slips right out of it.
My brain isn’t nervous around Cade but my body’s climbing an electrical fence in a thunderstorm with a kite tied around each nipple.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with these feelings.
Is this what my teacher friends mean when they say they need to get laid and let off some steam?
If so then I’m a nuclear reactor ready to blow.
His hand is monstrous around mine, and so strong I catch him releasing his grip gently from time to time so he doesn’t turn my hand into the dust at the bottom of a box of Mini Wheats.
The muscles in his arm flex beneath his tight t-shirt, and I swear every time our arms swing his pecs jump like they’re dancing to my elevated heartbeat.
I want him to manhandle me, spread me like soft butter on a hot biscuit and melt into me. How am I supposed to think about anything other than letting Cade defile me in ways my body will never recover from?
Does my pulse always sound so loud in my ears? Are they vibrating? And my saliva, good lord, it’s like someone won’t lay off the button at the water fountain. I may as well be swallowing water balloons.
Crap, he asked me something and I couldn’t hear him over all the horny. And now I’m just staring at him blankly, hoping my throat cooperates so I don’t drool when I finally figure out what to say.
He knows I wasn’t paying attention. I can see it in his lust-filled eyes. Or is that just extra splashing over from mine?
“Have you given any thought to teaching here in Cedar Spring?”
Oh thank god he repeated it, my answer was going to be way off. I should have known he wasn’t asking me if I’ve ever experimented with Nutella in the bedroom.
“I haven’t. It seems messy but I’d be willing to experiment.
I mean, that’s not…” Shit! How did I answer the wrong question?
And why am I winking at him? Teaching in Cedar Spring is what he asked, not the whole Nutella thing.
Is it too late to salvage it? “Teaching kids when I know all their parents could get messy. If I can save the camp I might expand into other areas my parents never did. Make it more than just a summer business. Cade, do you think your cousin will actually pay me if this whole ruse works?”
Why is a part of me hoping he says no? I need the money to save the campground but my lady parts want this charade to be over so they can get better acquainted with the man I would have sworn was a myth had I not met him.
He really is a dragon, I know because he lit my clit on fire, sending the villagers running for cover.
That analogy fell apart at some point but I’m too turned on to rectify it.
“George is the least reliable person I’ve ever met. But, he’s also the worst with money, hence the trust fund stipulations. I’ve seen him pay up on bets he didn’t remember making just to feed his need to throw money around. As untrustworthy as he is, don’t worry, he’ll pay you.”
“In that case, no more babysitting the little hellions for me. Eight years was enough. When I first started, seeing children always brought a genuine smile to my face. Now, I wince like I’m about to poop a horned melon.
I thought teaching was for me, and maybe it would have been once upon a time, but it’s really just me trying to monitor their screen time.
I’d rather be here, making my own decisions instead of upholding someone else’s.
I just heard the words and boy do I sound selfish. ”
“Not at all.” He sighs like he’s breathing in the sunrise, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“The family thought I was selfish for not building run of the mill decks anymore, like we’d been doing for two generations.
It’s not that I wasn’t good at it, I was just better at something else.
So we pivoted a little, I didn’t think it was a big deal but you’d assume it was the end of the world based on their response.
Rayne, I’m sure you were a fantastic teacher, but I also know you’ll be an even better…
Campologist? Campground overlord? Is there a name for your kind? ”
Cade’s stamp of approval causes my smile to swallow my face whole, I’ve essentially become a neck with lips.
“We accept either, but there should be an evil cackle involved if you use the overlord option, as if you’re going to boil the campers in a stew.
Which isn’t recommended, not good for repeat business.
Thank you for saying that, I was feeling guilty about leaving teaching, especially after all the loans I had to take out just to pay for my degree.
Only to turn around and fall back into the family business I didn’t need to go to college for.
Should the fact that my parents were right make me want to dry heave? ”
“Ya know, I met one half of your parental unit, not entirely sure she’s going to remember that conversation ever taking place.
Sometimes you just need to branch out on your own, see what the world has to offer.
You’re one of a kind, Rayne, and I’d never want to see you doing anything that dulled your shine. ”
He stops walking as we make our way down the dirt road between campsites, taking both my hands in his.
“I’m sure you were a bright spot for all the kids in your class, but I don’t doubt for a second that running this campground will make you sparkle like never before.”
“The way your eyes do every time you look at me?”
“Is it that obvious?” he whispers in a raspy tone that makes my panties feel like I just took them for a dip in the lake.
“More wishful thinking on my part, but I’m okay with wishes coming true. So I’m really not imagining it?”
“Spending the entire night not kissing you is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I worked with your fake fiancé five days a week for over a decade.”
“What if I told you you’re trying too hard?”
“Rayne,” he groans, shrinking at least four inches when his knees tremble against mine. “What are you doing to me? I can’t risk my family seeing and you not getting the money to save this place.”
“Their sites are all on the other side of the campground.”
I didn’t mean to moan it in such a throaty tone but it’s got him shrinking even more, until his mouth is level with mine.
“I’ve never felt like this about anyone, and it’s got me thinking one kiss might be worth losing the campground for.”
His forehead presses against mine, putting his lips so close it’d be harder not to let mine saunter even closer until fireworks burst prematurely between us.
Not as in he’s going to burst prematurely, though there’s a strong possibility I might, but the fireworks.
The Fourth isn’t for a couple days. But that eruptive display has nothing on what’s about to happen right now.
“Dude! What the hell are you doing to my fiancée?”