Five
LOGAN
“BINGO!” Renée hollered, leaping to her feet and waving her card around in the air. “BINGO! BINGO! BINGO!”
Laughing at her enthusiasm, I watched her skip across the floor to the man running the music bingo game, all proud of herself.
Though, to be totally fair, this was entirely a game of chance.
It was all about which songs were played, and which ones you had on your card.
It wasn’t like the DJ was playing obscure, unknown bands only a handful of people would know.
He played the classics, from Zeppelin to Sinatra, Pink Floyd to The Backstreet Boys.
There was no genre of music untouched, besides maybe opera and shit like Slipknot.
“And we have a winner,” the DJ confirmed. “Renée Brewster has won herself a free beer and entrée from The Thatch Pub.”
“Whoohoo!” Renée cheered, doing a fist pump in the air and beaming like the beautiful blonde goddess she was.
She brought back that same enthusiasm to the table where our nearly demolished platter of nachos and basket of yam fries sat.
I was picking away at both of them, but was honestly too full and needed the server to come and take them away.
“We’re going to take a quick ten-minute break, then we’ll be back for round three,” the DJ announced, before Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” started to play over the speakers.
“Date number two?” she asked, her gray eyes glittering as she slapped the voucher on the table.
Chuckling, I sipped my second beer. “Does that mean you’re buying?”
“Sure does.” She grinned.
We’d been at the pub for nearly two hours and while I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my date, I was ready to ditch the crowd and find a place we could get to know each other better where we didn’t have to yell over the other conversations and music.
“Should we head out?” she asked.
“Y-you want to go home?”
Her shoulder lifted. “Not necessarily home. But now that I’ve won, I’m good to leave. I’m so full and I’m tired of yelling at you over the music and other people.”
It was like we were of one mind. Grinning, I caught the server’s attention, and he came over with the bill a moment later. Once we were all paid up, I instructed her to wait at the front door while I ran through the deluge to get the car. No sense getting both of us soaked if we didn’t have to.
So far, I thought the date was going great. After we got over that bit of initial awkwardness in the car—awkward still didn’t sound like a word with meaning to me yet—the conversation between us flowed free and easy.
However, as I climbed behind the wheel of Chloe’s sedan, my nerves started to take over again.
Where should we go now? What should we do?
It was raining, blowing and dark as fuck.
Besides hunkering down and watching a movie or something, there wasn’t a ton to do.
And I couldn’t even bring her back to my place, because my place was Clint’s place and an eight-year-old lived there.
Pulling up to the front door, I was about to get out and run around the car to open the door for her, but she sprinted to the car before I could even get out of my side, heaved the door open and launched herself in. “Let’s go watch a movie at my house.”
Phew! Dilemma solved.
“So did you get a degree from that prestigious college your parents weren’t proud of you for attending?” she asked as we navigated the dark and windy roads back toward the apiary.
“No. I hated college. I dropped out.”
I was glad I couldn’t really see her reaction because the cab of the car was dark and I had to watch the road. Her silence said a lot, though. Or was I over-thinking things?
“I did something really stupid. Dropped out and went traveling,” I said, deciding that it was better to just keep talking.
“I got loads of certifications while abroad. I became a yoga teacher, a dive master, a surfing instructor. I took a month-long vow of silence at an ashram in Tibet. I volunteered at a wildlife refuge center in Laos, and another one in South Africa. I worked, I volunteered, I meditated, and I met people. I think it’s weird to expect eighteen-year-olds to know exactly what they want to do with their lives.
Why not let them live first, so they know what possibilities are out there? ”
A quick glance at her during a straight stretch eased a lot of the tension inside me.
She was smiling. “That’s exactly how I feel.
I went traveling abroad and working right after I graduated from high school.
I had no fucking clue what I wanted to do, and my parents and sisters couldn’t understand that. They said I had no drive.”
I scoffed. “You have so much fucking drive.”
“Right! So much fucking drive.”
We grinned wide at each other, and when another corner came and I was forced to put my eyes back on the road, I made the impulsive decision to turn right instead of left.
“Where are we going?” she asked, no worry in her tone.
“Let’s do something crazy,” I said.
“Like …”
“I dunno. But I’m driving in this direction. So what’s in this direction?”
Snorting a laugh, she nibbled on her lip in thought. “Heaven’s Leap cliffs are this way.”
“I’m not going cliff jumping in the middle of a storm. I want to do something crazy, not fatal.”
She snorted again. “They’re not cliffs you can jump off. But I’ve got an idea. Head there.”
“All right then. Heaven’s Leap cliffs for not cliff jumping it is.”
It wasn’t a long drive to the cliffs, but I had to turn on my high beams, since the dense trees lining the road only amplified the darkness.
The sign for the park came into view, and I slowed my roll as I entered the parking lot.
If it were daylight, I’m sure the view would be lovely, but since it was winter, dark and gross out, all that stared back at us was an endless void of nothingness.
I put the car in parked and shut off the engine. “I don’t really feel comfortable having sex in Chloe’s car, just so you know,” I said, tossing a cheeky smile at her.
She rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t anyway. Not unless we folded you like a pretzel. And even then, I’m all about foreplay and I don’t know how easy that would be in here.” She slapped my shoulder. “Come on, pretzel boy.” Then she climbed out of the car, pulling her hood up over her head.
I turned the high beams back on and got out of the car as well. “Are you crazy?” I yelled over the wild crashing of the waves below, mixed with the howling wind.
She wasn’t too close to the cliff’s edge, but the wind was wicked, so I grabbed her arm and hauled her back a bit.
Giggling, she blinked up at me with spiked lashes. “Relax, pretzel boy, I’m not going to jump.” Then she tossed her head back, faced the sky, and let out a loud, and primal, “Aaahoooooooooo!”
“You really are crazy,” I said, laughing.
She smiled, beautiful, straight white teeth at me. “Try it. Be a wolf with me, Logan. It’s freeing.”
“I thought we were black sheep?”
“Sheep follow, even the black ones. Let’s be wolves.
Wolves are fierce and smart. They don’t follow.
They lead.” She tipped her head back again and howled.
Her face was already soaked and when she tipped her head back that second time, her hood fell off, but she didn’t seem to care.
Glancing at me again, she took my hands. “Howl with me.”
She did it again, her long wail competing with the wind and waves.
Oh, what the hell. I lifted my chin to the clouds and let out a loud, low, “Aaaahoooooooo.” Her giggle warmed me right before she joined me in another one.
We went back and forth, howling at and with each other a half dozen times before dropping our chins and blinking through the raindrops, our chests heaving.
She’d never looked more beautiful than she did in that moment. And I’d never felt more … accepted.
Sure, she had anxiety over the date, but she didn’t let that stop her from being her wonderful, quirky self in the end. And in turn, that eased my anxiety too.
My pants were drenched, and I’m sure my rain jacket, as good as it was, was getting ready to give up the waterproof fight too. But I didn’t care.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been on a date that went as well as this one, and it wasn’t even over yet.
“Are you going to kiss me, or what?” she asked, still holding my hands.
Grinning, I nodded and let go of her hand, cupping her jaw.
“Yeah, I’m going to kiss you.” Tilting my head to the side, I brushed my lips against hers, softly at first, the raindrops warming as our mouths met.
Gently, patiently, like we had all the time in the world and weren’t getting soaked in the middle of a winter storm, I deepened the kiss.
Her lips opened a little more, and I slid my tongue along the seam, teasing, exploring, and savoring.
Her tongue met mine, and they took off into a dance as she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself against me.
I slid my free hand around her back and cradled her there as I bent her backward a little.
My cock pulsed in my soggy jeans as she moaned into my mouth. “Let’s go back to my place.”
Nodding, we parted and ran back to the car, climbing in and chuckling as I started the ignition and drove back down the pitch black road toward the apiary.
I didn’t want things to get awkward just when they were getting amazing, so I reached for her hand where it rested on her thigh and laced our fingers together. She glanced at me and smiled.
Even though we drove the rest of the way in silence, it wasn’t awkward silence. It was companionable. Pleasant. Easy.
We reached the apiary again, and I flicked on my high beams to navigate the grassy laneway that led to Renée’s treehouse.
Her place was really fucking cool, and the fact that she fixed it up so much herself was seriously impressive.
If anything, I felt inadequate next to her.
I could build a computer and change a lightbulb, but I sure as hell couldn’t install a capsule shower or a composting toilet.