First Sight
ELLIOT
The party was already going when I arrived, music playing from someone's truck, the smell of burgers on a portable grill, people scattered across the beach and dock in various stages of swimming and drinking.
I'd spent twenty minutes at the cabin trying to decide if I was actually going.
Then another ten convincing myself it was just a work social. Casual. No pressure.
Then I'd driven here anyway, heart beating harder than it should've been for a simple lake party.
I grabbed a beer from the cooler and scanned the crowd.
SAR team. Seasonal staff. A few admin people I recognized from the base. Everyone looked relaxed, sun-warm, the kind of easy that came from working hard all week and finally getting a break.
I didn't see Pat.
Maybe she wasn't coming. Maybe she'd decided meeting in person wasn't worth the risk of ruining whatever this was.
Then I heard it.
A laugh, low, rich, unmistakable even over the music and conversation.
My head turned before I could stop it.
She was at the end of the dock, barefoot, cutoff shorts and a tank top that showed curves I hadn't let myself imagine but couldn't look away from now. Dark hair pulled back, sunglasses pushed up on her head, skin golden in the late afternoon light.
She was talking to Blaze and another guy I didn't recognize, and even from thirty feet away, I could see the way they leaned in when she spoke. The way she commanded attention without trying.
Beautiful didn't cover it.
Magnetic was closer.
She laughed again, and I felt it in my chest, that same warmth I got from her voice on the phone, only stronger now. Amplified by proximity.
I should walk over. Introduce myself. Be normal about this.
Instead, I stood there like an idiot, holding my beer, watching her move through the world with the kind of confidence that made everyone else look uncertain by comparison.
Then her radio crackled.
She pulled it from her belt and stepped away from the conversation, pressing it to her ear. "Go ahead."
I couldn't hear what was being said, but I heard her response.
"Copy that. I'll relay to team lead. Stay safe out there."
Her voice.
The same voice that had been in my head for three weeks. Three years, if I was honest.
But hearing it in person was different. Richer. More textured.
She clipped the radio back to her belt and turned…
And looked directly at me.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then her expression shifted. Recognition. Surprise. Something that might've been pleasure.
She said something to Blaze, who glanced my way and grinned, then started walking toward me.
I was still frozen.
She stopped maybe ten feet away, head tilted slightly, eyes assessing.
"Burns," she said.
Just my name. But the way she said it, like she'd been waiting to say it in person and was testing how it felt on her tongue.
"Pat," I managed.
"So." She crossed her arms, and I tried very hard not to notice the way it framed her curves. Failed completely. "You're real."
"So are you."
She smiled, slow, genuine, and I felt the impact of it like standing too close to the fire.
"You're taller than I thought," she said.
"You're..." I stopped. Searched for the right word. "More."
"More what?"
"Just more." I took a breath. "Everything I thought, but more."
Her smile widened. "You're better at this in person."
"I'm really not. I'm barely functional right now."
She laughed, and the sound wrapped around me like heat. "Good. I'd hate to be the only one thrown off balance."
"You're thrown off balance?"
"Completely." She stepped closer, and I caught the scent of sunscreen and something floral. "Three years of talking to you, and I never once pictured this."
"This?"
"You. Looking like that." She gestured vaguely. "It's unfair, honestly."
"What's unfair about it?"
"You're supposed to be some faceless voice I flirt with in the morning. Not..." She stopped. Shook her head. "Never mind."
"Not what?"
"Not someone I actually want to touch."
Oh.
The air between us shifted.
I set my beer down on the nearest cooler because my hands needed something to do, and grabbing her wasn't an option yet.
"Pat..."
"I know. Too direct." She didn't look sorry about it. "But I've spent three weeks wondering what you looked like, and now I know, and I'm allowed to be honest about it."
"Be as honest as you want."
"Careful. I might take you up on that."
"I'm counting on it."
She studied me for a long moment, then nodded once. "Okay."
"Okay, what?"
"Okay, I'm staying." She glanced back at the party, then at me. "I wasn't sure I would. Thought maybe meeting you would ruin it."
"Does it?"
"No." She said it simply. Certainly. "It makes it worse."
"Worse how?"
"Worse because now I know what you look like when you smile. And I'm going to think about that every time you call." She moved closer, voice dropping. "And worse because I really, really want to go swimming with you later. When everyone else leaves."
My pulse kicked hard.
"Just swimming?" I asked.
"For now."
"And after?"
"We'll see."
Someone called her name from the grill, and she glanced over, waving acknowledgment.
"I should go be social," she said. "Make the rounds. Pretend I'm here for the burgers and not just to stare at you."
"You're staring at me?"
"Constantly."
"Good."
"Is it?"
"Yeah." I reached out, just barely, fingertips brushing her wrist. "Because I haven't stopped staring at you since I got here."
Her breath caught. Just slightly. But I heard it.
"Elliot," she said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"Don't leave early."
"I won't."
She held my gaze for another beat, then stepped back, breaking the contact but not the tension.
"Later, then," she said.
She walked back toward the party, and I watched her go, watched the way people gravitated toward her, the way she moved through them like water, easy and essential.
She was real. Tangible. Standing barefoot on a dock ten feet away, laughing at something Blaze said, and looking back at me like she knew exactly what I was thinking.
I picked up my beer and took a long drink.
It was going to be a long evening.
But I wasn't leaving early.
Not when she'd just invited me to swim.
I stayed at the edge of the party, talking when people approached, but mostly just watching Pat.
Waiting.
For the sun to set and the crowd to thin and the moment when it would just be us and the lake and whatever came next.