Chapter 12 Without a Cue
Without a Cue
The second bag was the tell.
Lucy came around the corner of the main lodge with a practical navy duffel over one shoulder and a canvas tote hanging from her other hand that looked prepared to survive the collapse of civilization.
She'd dressed for the road in white sneakers, cutoff shorts, and a fitted blue tank over her swimsuit.
Her dark hair was pulled into a high ponytail.
Her attention moved from me to the Jeep, the cooler behind the passenger seat, and the thin clouds over the lake before she made it halfway across the lot.
Then her eyes returned to me and everything else lost priority.
She let both bags hit the gravel, took my face in her hands, and kissed me like she had no reason to hide who I was to her. Her mouth was warm and mint-sweet, her body pressed against mine, and the little sound she made when I pulled her closer went straight through my shorts.
"Morning, Ace."
"Morning, Brew."
She kissed me once more, slower, then glanced toward the back seat. "Is that the only cooler?"
"It's the only one we need."
"I brought water, electrolyte packets, protein bars, two kinds of sunscreen, after-sun lotion, a portable charger, blister pads, rain ponchos, and a small first-aid kit."
I looked at the tote. "Small."
"The kit is small. The rest required organization."
"Color-coded?"
"Obviously."
Vina's laugh carried across the lot before she appeared behind Lucy in cutoff shorts and an oversized Delta tank, red hair piled on top of her head and an iced coffee in her hand.
"Smoke Show, step away from the emergency response vehicle." She set her coffee on the Jeep's hood and hooked both hands around the tote. "This stays with me."
Lucy tightened her grip. "It has useful things in it."
"So does Brewster Bay. We have water, food, sunscreen, electricity, and at least three men who know how to change a tire." Vina tugged once. "Let go before I tell everyone you packed a tourniquet for date night."
"I did not pack a tourniquet."
"That pause says you considered it."
Lucy tried to hold on for another second. Then she laughed under her breath and released the handle. Vina hugged the tote to her chest like she'd won custody.
"Your reasonable bag can go," Vina said. "The apocalypse bag is spending Friday with me."
Lucy looked at the duffel, then at me. "You have sunscreen?"
"Sport fifty. Water resistant."
"Phone charger?"
"In the glove box. The Jeep has gas, the tires have air, and Brewster Bay is covered until tomorrow."
Her shoulders eased, though her eyes still wanted one more item to solve.
"And the Riverlight reservation is cancelable," I said. "We can use the room, sleep in it, or never walk through the door. The date still counts."
She held my gaze while the exit settled into place.
"Good," she said. "I asked you to choose."
Vina's humor softened. She put the tote down long enough to wrap Lucy in a quick, tight hug and kiss her cheek. "Go have fun. I'll protect the protein bars with my life."
"You'll eat them before lunch."
"Then I'll protect the wrappers."
Lucy smiled and squeezed Vina's arm. Vina answered with one quick squeeze before taking the tote again. The exchange lasted a second and said enough.
Vina picked up the tote and started back toward the lodge. "Try not to organize traffic, captain."
"No promises."
I loaded Lucy's duffel beside mine and opened the passenger door.
Her phone appeared in her hand for one quick glance.
She could've checked the route, the Riverlight, or any of the six weather apps I suspected she kept installed.
Instead, she slid it into the duffel's side pocket and zipped it closed.
"I'm keeping it with me," she said.
"Of course you are."
"I'm also not checking your work."
That cost her more than leaving the second bag. I heard it in the care she gave every word.
Lucy climbed in, buckled up, and waited until I pulled onto the lake road before resting her hand on my thigh. Her thumb moved once over the fabric, slow enough to make my cock stir and casual enough that she could pretend she hadn't noticed.
She noticed everything.
I glanced at her. She tipped her sunglasses down and pointed at the windshield.
"Eyes on the road, Brewster."
Her hand stayed exactly where it was.
***
Lucy figured it out when the blue fiberglass slides rose above the trees.
She leaned toward the windshield, read the giant wave-shaped sign, and turned to me with a grin that arrived before she could organize it.
"A waterpark?"
"Highwater Springs."
"You brought me an hour away from everybody we know so I could race you down slides?"
"I brought you somewhere nobody cares who wins."
Her grin sharpened. "I'm still going to win."
"There she is."
"She never left."
That was the answer I wanted.
We changed in separate locker rooms and met beneath the entrance clock.
Lucy stepped through the women's door in a blue bikini that turned every thought in my head physical.
The top hugged her full breasts. The bottoms sat high over her hips and showed every hard-earned line in her stomach and thighs.
She'd rebuilt her ponytail, but damp strands already clung to her neck.
She caught me looking and walked straight into my space.
"Say it."
"You're fucking gorgeous."
"Better."
She kissed me, quick and pleased, then held out the sunscreen.
We found a narrow strip of shade beside the lockers.
Lucy turned her back and lifted her ponytail while I worked lotion over her shoulders.
My palms followed the athletic lines beside her spine, down to the small of her back, then along her sides where the bikini ties disappeared around her ribs. She relaxed by degrees under my hands.
"You missed my waist."
"I was saving it."
I spread sunscreen over her warm skin and let my thumbs meet above the waistband. Her breath changed. Not much. Enough.
"Your turn," she said.
She took longer with me. She covered my shoulders, back, ears, and the bridge of my nose, standing between my knees to inspect her work. When she rubbed lotion over my chest, her fingers slowed across my pecs and traced the ridges of my stomach.
"Thorough," I said.
"You knew that when you invited me."
"It's one of the reasons I invited you."
She pressed her lips to mine and left a white streak on my cheek. "Race you to the blue slide."
She took off before I agreed.
Lucy beat me down the first speed slide by less than a second and celebrated like she'd won a national title. I hit the splash pool behind her, came up to both fists in the air, and tackled her around the waist.
She wrapped her legs around me beneath the water and laughed into my mouth when I kissed her.
"Winner's privilege," she said.
"Pretty sure the loser gets consoled."
"Then lose again."
We raced twice more. She won one clean. I won the other while she accused the attendant of releasing me early. By the time we reached the wave pool, the score had become a moving target and neither of us cared.
The warning horn sounded. Lucy put her arms around my neck before the first wave arrived. The water lifted us, dropped us, and shoved her breasts against my chest. She tightened her thighs around my waist and stayed there after the wave passed.
"Convenient position," I said.
"Safety first."
The next swell hit harder. Lucy screamed beside my ear, loud and completely surprised, then buried her face in my neck while she laughed at herself.
"It's water," she said between breaths. "Why did I scream?"
"Because it tried to kill you."
"It moved six inches."
"A vicious six inches."
She pulled back and kissed me with chlorine on her lips, still laughing. Nobody around us cared. A family floated past. Two college guys argued about a beach ball. A lifeguard watched the pool instead of the Hartwell cheer captain hanging off her boyfriend.
Lucy looked around once, noticed the absence of recognition, and kissed me again.
By lunch, she was starving. She finished half a turkey wrap before I opened my burger, then stole three fries from my tray and dipped them in my ketchup.
"You have food."
"Yours tastes better."
"It's the same fryer."
"Then it must be the theft."
She got ketchup on her chin and kept eating until I wiped it away with my thumb. Her eyes tracked my hand. She sucked the ketchup off my thumb before letting me go.
That bought her the rest of my fries.
She noticed the surf simulator from the table and went quiet in the way she did when a challenge had already become personal.
"Don't," I said.
"I haven't said anything."
"Your shoulders did."
"My shoulders think I can beat it."
Her shoulders were wrong.
Lucy lasted four seconds on her first attempt. The artificial wave caught the board, kicked it sideways, and sent her into the padded wash with both legs in the air. She surfaced with her ponytail half gone and water running down her face.
For one beat, she stared at the machine like it had violated a contract.
Then she laughed so hard she had to brace both hands on her knees.
"Again," she called.
She lasted five seconds the second time and three the third.
Each fall made her laugh harder. She didn't straighten her bikini before climbing back onto the board.
She didn't check who had seen. She just attacked the next run with the same captain concentration and accepted the wipeout when it came.
My turn lasted six seconds.
Lucy greeted me at the bottom with both arms wide. "You looked like a folding chair."
"You looked like somebody threw a cheerleader into a washing machine."
"Mine was athletic."
"Naturally."
We tried once more together and went down in a knot of limbs before either of us established balance. Lucy came up underneath my arm, choking on laughter, and pulled me into a wet kiss while the operator told us to clear the landing zone.
Later, she took two photographs. One caught the wave pool from the top of a slide. The other caught me coming out of the surf wash with my hair over my eyes and my dignity somewhere behind me.
She studied that one with deep satisfaction.