Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
SCOTTIE
“Wilder, you have to stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” he asks, still grinning. He hasn’t stopped grinning since we left the lake.
“Like you’re going to take me back to that spot at the lake and do…things.”
“Yeah, well, don’t fucking tempt me. You made me a man back there.”
I let out a laugh. “You were already a man.”
“I thought I was until you started pressing things on my body, places I didn’t even know existed.” He leans in close as we lie on a blanket at camp, under a large oak tree. “How did you even know about that…spot?”
I smirk and take a bite of a pepperoni. “I read it in a book. I tried doing it to Matt once, and he swatted my hand away.”
“That man is a fucking fool. Hell, I’m tempted to bend over and pull my pants down right now so you can play with me some more.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and I push at his forehead.
“You’re so horny.”
“You made me this way. I was fine living a life of celibacy, the occasional hookup here and there just to feed the beast, until you came along and awoke something I don’t think is ever going to go away. Seriously, if I bend over, will you do it again?”
“Oh my God, Wilder.” I shake my head in mirth, causing him to laugh.
“I’m going to take that as a maybe.”
“What you need to do is keep your voice down, because you and I both know if Sanders gets wind of the fact that we”—I look around and whisper—“fornicated, then he very well might separate us for the rest of the camp.”
“First of all, way to use the word ‘fornicate.’ I approve. Second, he can try to keep me away, but I’d sniff you out so fast, I’d undo you from whatever chains he has you tied up in.” He pauses for a moment and then says, “And then maybe take the chains back to our sex cabin so I could use them on you properly.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
He grins. “You like it.”
“I kind of do.” I wince. “What does that say about me?”
“It’s all right. You can have mixed feelings about it. It takes a second to get used to the idea that you could possibly like someone like me after being with such a bore for several years.”
“He was a bore, that’s for sure.”
“Sad, especially when he had someone like you he could play with.” I roll my eyes, but he places his hand on my thigh and says, “I’m not just speaking sex. I mean in general. One of the reasons you’re in a marriage is to have a partner in life that you can do things with, that you can experience things with, you know? And if you don’t take the time to have those experiences, then what’s the goddamn point?”
I nod, thinking back to all the things that I wish Matt had done with me.
“I can see you thinking of those things. You know what? We should make a bucket list of things you want to do now that you’re no longer with an actual ball and chain.” He reaches into the bag of activities that we were given for our picnic, and he pulls out a pad of paper and a pen.
“Was that really in there?”
“Yup,” he says and then flips open to a blank page and writes Scottie’s Ball and Chain–Free Bucket List at the top.
“Quite the title,” I say.
“A necessary one.” He poises the pen. “Okay, what are we putting on here?”
I glance at his hand, the bracelet I made him still fastened around his wrist. “Um, I mean, I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do,” he encourages. “Don’t be shy about it. Tell me what’s on that list.”
I lean back on my hand and look up toward the sky. “Umm, well, he never wanted to do anything outside the house, said it was a waste of money. There was a cooking class I wanted to go to, and he would never go.”
“Great. Cooking class.” He writes it on the paper.
“And he never took me to the movies because he said we should just wait until it was on a streaming service, but I always thought that seeing a movie in the theaters was so much better.”
“I could not agree more. See a movie in the theaters.” He jots it down.
“With popcorn and the movie theater candy. Like go all out. No sneaking anything in.”
“Spend fifty dollars at concessions, noted.”
I think about it some more. “You know, we were once on a kiss cam, and he drank his beer rather than kiss me. So I want to be on a kiss cam and kiss someone, even if it’s myself.”
“He drank his beer?” Wilder shakes his head. “What a douche.”
“Yes, that would be an accurate description.”
Wilder jots down the note, but I can see the irritation in his expression.
“Go skinny-dipping,” I say, thinking about the time we were at his parents’ house, alone with a pool, and he didn’t want to go skinny-dipping with me. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
“Easy. Okay, keep going.”
A smirk crosses over my lips. “Watch porn.”
Wilder’s lips turn up as he directs his attention at me. “That’s an easy one, Pips. We can hammer that out tonight.”
“He always made it like…a bad thing.”
“He only said that because he was watching it like crazy, probably.”
“You think?”
Wilder nods his head. “Oh yeah, babe. There is not a guy on this earth who’s not watching. And if they’re telling you they’re not, they’re liars. Probably had a ton of subscriptions.”
“Well then, I want to watch. I want to see what all the fuss is about.”
“You got it, babe. It’s on the list. Anything else?”
“Hmmm.” I tap my chin.
“There has to be more. From what you’ve told me, Matt is a wet blanket. Were there things you wanted to do that he thought were stupid? Was he ever romantic with you?”
That makes me snort. “Never. Well, I mean, maybe when we first started dating, but that romance quickly wore off, especially after we got married. He didn’t know romance.”
“So then maybe there’s something romantic you want to do that he never did with you.”
I give it some thought, and then when it hits me, I slowly start to smile. “Okay, this is going to sound maybe a touch childish and possibly cheesy, but there is this thing I always wanted to do when living in New York, something I know Matt would never do.”
“What is it?”
“He would totally scoff at this, but I think it would be fun to take a paddleboat through Central Park.”
A genuine smile passes over his mouth. “Nothing cheesy about that. It’s really sweet actually,” he says, writing it on the paper. Then he takes a look at the list. “This is pretty solid, Pips.”
“Let me see.” He hands me the list, and I look it over. “I think it’s a pretty good start.”
“I think so too. And I know one we can check off tonight.” He wiggles his brows. “Not to mention what I did to you only moments ago, which I’m sure Matt the Douche never would have done.”
“Fingered me in a public place?” I ask.
He slyly nods.
“Yeah, never, nor would he have let me blow him in a public place either.”
“Well, frankly, I’m glad you divorced him and that I earned that experience over him.” He lies back on the blanket and stares up at the sky. “Now come over here and try to find dirty-shaped clouds with me.”
Chuckling, I slide in next to him, rest my head on his shoulder, and stare up at the sky, feeling carefree, like nothing could change my mood. Never have I felt so valued— so seen —as I do in this moment.
“I can’t show you.” I shake my head, humiliated by my lack of creative skills.
“The deal was you paint me, and I paint you, then we show each other.” Wilder gestures around to the other couples near us. “They’re doing it.”
“But theirs are nowhere near as bad as mine.”
He leans in and whispers. “Pips, did you take a look at Finky’s? I can’t tell if his wife has three eyes or if that thing in the middle of her face is supposed to be a nose.” I snort and cover my mouth. “Trust me, it’s not going to be as bad as that.”
“Oh, it’s bad. Plus, you’re good at drawing. This isn’t fair.”
“I’m not good at using paint. This isn’t my medium, so I struggled quite a bit.”
That eases my worry. “You promise?”
“Yeah, I mean frankly, when I show you this, I’m going to ask for forgiveness, because I don’t want you thinking that this is how I truly see you. You’re so much prettier than what I have on this canvas.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Pips.” He tugs on his hair. “Actually, maybe we should try again.”
“No,” I say, holding out my arm. “We said we would show each other. So we have to show each other.”
“Okay. You go first.”
I stare down at the ten-by-ten canvas in front of me and then back up at Wilder. His eyes are too far apart and way too wide, his nostrils are way too prominent, and I used black paint to outline each individual tooth, which was a bad mistake. But his lip ring, that looks pretty good. And I think I did a decent job on his hair.
Maybe it’s not too bad.
I lift the canvas and turn it toward him. I watch his expression as he takes it all in, his eyes curious, his lip quivering.
“Are you about to laugh?” I ask.
“What? No…” His lip tilts up.
“Wilder,” I admonish.
“What? I’m not laughing. I’m…I’m observing.”
“You’re going to laugh.”
“No, I’m just…” He sits back and folds his arms. “I’m trying to decide if you took creative freedom with my nostrils or not.”
I place the canvas back on my mini easel and fold my arms. “If you think you’re that much better, show me what you have.”
He looks at his picture, winces, and then picks it up. Ready to bust out in laughter at what he painted, I steel myself, only for him to turn the canvas around, revealing a very real caricature painting of me.
And sure, it’s a cartoon, but it very much resembles every piece of me…even hard nipples.
My mouth falls open as he says, “I know, could be better. I don’t think I captured just how soft your lips are, and I probably should have added more volume to your hair, but that ass and those tits, I think I nailed them.”
I stare at the picture, mesmerized by his talent. He actually did that. Drew that. It looks just like me.
“Wilder, you lied to me.”
“What?” His brow genuinely creases. “No, I didn’t. I told you you’re more beautiful than this, and you are. I haven’t done caricature art in a long time, so I struggled a bit with it. I think I could have done a much better job if I was using charcoal or even a pencil. This paint, it was hard to work with.”
“Hard to work with. You added shading. You mixed colors so you could do shading.”
“I had to make sure people knew I included your hard nipples. That’s a very important feature of yours.”
I shake my head. “You tricked me.”
“What? No. Babe, yours is way better.”
“Wilder, if you ever want to be inside me again, I suggest you don’t lie.”
He winces and then runs his teeth over his lip ring. “Shit, when you say it like that.” He leans in close and whispers. “Pips, I can’t be certain if you put a nose on my face or a mini golf course with two holes.”
I gasp, but he keeps going.
“The eyebrows look like leeches. The eyes have zero dimension. And the hair looks like a dead raccoon.”
“Hey, I thought I did a good job on the hair.”
He shakes his head. “Terrible, Pips. Real bad. The only redeeming quality about the entire thing is my lip ring.”
I sit taller, because I thought the same thing. I smirk and say, “I did do a good job on the lip ring, didn’t I?”
“Very. Honestly, brings the whole thing together.”
“Yikes, who is that supposed to be?” Chad asks from behind me.
I look over my shoulder and stare up at him. “Your mother. Did I not capture her correctly?”
His face falls flat, and Wilder lets out a bark of a laugh while I sit there stunned, because where the hell did that come from? I don’t think I’ve ever been that quick on my feet.
Ever.
Yet I oddly feel really proud.
“Cute,” Chad says, moving away from me.
“Let me know her address so I can send it to her.”
He ignores me and walks over to where his wife is sitting while Wilder still laughs, trying to catch his breath.
“Oh fuck, that was good. Did you see the look on his smarmy face? Shit.” He wipes under his eyes. “I think you’re finally coming into your own, Scottie.”
I smile. Yeah, I think I am.