Impossible (23 page)

He looked a bit more like his old self, dressed in skinny black jeans and a t-shirt that said
The Clash
—was that the name of a movie or something? My eyes lingered on the shirt as I admired the way it fitted snugly on him, showing off his broad shoulders and lean waist. There was a light growth of stubble on his chin that made him look downright sexy. His eyes twinkled, like he knew what I was thinking, and he flashed me a white smile that made me weak at the knees.

I considered pinching myself so that I’d snap out of it and stop staring at him, but I didn’t want to make it any more obvious that I was checking him out. “So, where are we going?” I asked instead.

The smile on his face widened and, I swear, the bottom of my stomach dropped out. “You’ll see soon enough,” he said with a wink.

Luca

Why did she have to be so damn distracting?

My palms were sweaty on the steering wheel, my voice kept hitting these weird notes that I hadn’t heard since I hit puberty, and my heart was thumping so loud beneath my shirt that there was no way Ashton couldn’t hear it.

I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and swallowed the lump that was building in my throat. My eyes shot back to the road in front of me as I tried to make small talk. “So, uh, how’d things go with your mom this morning? She see you?”

Ashton shifted around in her seat, so she was looking right at me. “It was alright.”

Damn. I didn’t want to make her feel awkward. I really needed to keep my big mouth shut. It was the nerves. They were getting to me. I felt like I needed to fill the silence with conversation. My method clearly wasn’t working. Maybe I should keep quiet like she was.

We continued the rest of the way in silence until I took a sharp left at the faded sign that read ‘Willow Creek’. Ashton gasped and pressed her head against the window like she was a kid at a candy store. “We’re going up to the creek? I haven’t been here in years, not since…” Her voice trailed off and she went quiet again.

She didn’t need to finish the sentence. I already knew what she’d wanted to say. She hadn’t been here since Dad had passed away. Since we’d stopped being friends. Since we’d started acting like strangers. The last time the three of us had been here was sometime in the spring of 2005 when we’d set up camp overnight, further up from the creek.

We’d sat around the campfire toasting marshmallows and hotdogs, and telling ghost stories late into the night. Ashton had been a natural at making up her own stories, but I’d sucked at it so I’d started retelling scenes from horror movies. It wasn’t until I’d launched into a summary of
The Grudge
that Dad and Ashton finally figured out what I was doing.

Since Dad’s death, I’d been up to the creek a few times to fish, but it was never the same without him and Ash with me. There were just some things you couldn’t do alone, regardless of the great memories it brought back. I couldn’t take Eddie, Stace or Riley up with me because we hadn’t been friends back when Dad was alive. Ash was the only one who could understand what that place meant to me because it was just as important to her.

I pulled into the small parking lot and killed the engine. The silence dragged out as I tapped a thumb against the steering wheel wondering if this had been a bad idea. Just because I was ready to share this place with her again didn’t mean that she was ready to do the same.

“We don’t have to do this,” I finally said when the silence became unbearable. “We could always go back to my place and watch a movie.”

Ash shook her head. “No, this is exactly what I need. I want to do this.” She fixed her determined blue eyes on me. “Come on, let’s go.”

We got out and Ash waited for me as I grabbed the picnic basket from the trunk. When she caught sight of it, she raised an eyebrow but, thankfully, didn’t say anything. I’d put so much thought into its contents that I didn’t think I could take the criticism or snarky remark from her. God, I really hoped she didn’t think it was lame that we were going on a picnic.

“Are we going up to the creek?” she asked as we took our first steps into the woods.

“Downstream, actually. To the rock pool. Unless you’d rather go somewhere else. I don’t really mind.”

“No, the rock pool is fine. Just don’t get lost because, as embarrassing as it is to admit this, I don’t remember the way back to the car.

“Then you better stick close, baby,” I said, pulling her to my side with my free hand. My fingers grazed her waist as I leaned over. “Don’t worry, I won’t mind.”

Ash’s face went bright red and she mumbled something that didn’t quite reach my ears. Had I just affected her the way she’d been affecting me this entire time? The thought brought a smile to my lips and I turned my head, pretending to concentrate on the path so she wouldn’t see the stupid grin I had.

A few seconds later, her hand slipped into mine. I tried not to let the excitement show on my face because then I would look like a total moron. I was trying to impress her, not come across like an idiot. Still, Ashton—who’d sworn that she wouldn’t come near me with a ten-foot pole—was voluntarily holding my hand. I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but it had to be something good.

Girls didn’t show affection unless they meant it. At least that’s what I liked to tell myself.

The dry crunch of leaves and the snap of twigs could be heard as we headed deeper into the tangle of trees. We were taking the most direct route to the pool that I remembered from memory. I hadn’t been here in about a year, but the surroundings were still familiar to me. I wouldn’t risk coming here at night though. I wasn’t
that
sure of myself.

Pretty soon, we heard the sound of rushing water nearby. The creek was on a slope, so the water ran downstream for several miles to form a large rock pool. Depending on where you entered the woods, or which route you took, it could take you thirty minutes to get to the pool, or a good few hours.

Luckily, it wasn’t going to take us that long.

We broke into the clearing, which was really just the encircling bank of the pool. The sunlight streamed through the large opening in the canopy of the trees making it seem as though someone was shining a large spotlight onto the surface of the pool.

Ash looked around excitedly as I put the picnic basket down against a tree. “This place hasn’t changed one bit.” She looked like a kid at an amusement park the way her eyes were darting back and forth as they absorbed every little detail. I noticed her eyes land on the tire swing that dad had put up many years ago.

In the meantime, I’d taken out the blanket and laid it on the ground along with some sandwiches, banana muffins that Momma had made a couple days ago, and two bottles of apple juice. Ashton walked back towards me and her eyes widened as she took in my little set up.

“This is cute, Luca,” she said and then nodded at the sandwiches. “What’s in them?”

“Tuna fish with onion, pickles, olives, and mayo.” The combination sounded gross, but it was Ashton’s favorite. Or it had been when she was younger. At first I’d found it disgusting, but she’d always force fed me until my taste buds had become immune to the pungent flavors. Now, I had to admit, I kinda liked it.

“You still remember my favorite sandwich?” There was surprise in her voice as she stared at me. The look on her face was enough to make me want to grab her, pull her onto the blanket and squash those damn sandwiches. But I didn’t want to come across as a complete sleaze.

Instead, I just shrugged and acted like it wasn’t a big deal. “There’s a lot I remember about you. And besides, I like them too.”

Amusement lit up her features and she shook her head, laughing. “No way. I distinctly recall having to tackle you, climb on top of you, and hold you down so I could stuff them in your mouth. You hated it!”

God damn. I wouldn’t mind having her on top of me and holding me down right now. There was no way I’d hate it.

I shook my head, trying to shake the dirty thoughts away. Man, I had such a one track mind sometimes. “I liked them eventually. So, you ready to eat?”

Ashton bit the inside of her cheek and wistfully glanced out across the pool. “I kind of want to go for a swim. If you’d told me where we were going I would’ve brought my bikini or something.”

I mentally kicked myself for not telling her. Seeing her in a bikini would’ve made my whole day. No, my whole year.

“Why don’t you just take your clothes off?” Oh no. That’d come out wrong. “I mean, you could just go swimming in your bra.”

I sounded like the biggest pervert of the century. Now she probably thought I wanted to see her naked. I
did
want to see her naked, but that wasn’t the point. She didn’t need to know every dirty thought that crossed my mind. If she ran away screaming, I wouldn’t blame her.

Ashton looked me straight in the eye. “I guess that would work
if
I was wearing a bra.”

Oh. Shit. She couldn’t be serious, could she? Naturally, my eyes fell to her t-shirt, and I finally noticed the faint outline of her nipples through the material.

“Oh,” was the only word my mouth managed to form. My mind was a complete blank of racing hormones.

“I’m wearing underwear though, so I could go topless.” She tilted her head to the side. “As long as you promise not to sneak a peek.”

“I’m not going to make promises I can’t keep,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. To hell with sounding like a pervert, I just wanted to get in the water with her.

“At least you’re honest,” she remarked as she watched me kick off my shoes and pull off my jeans to reveal my boxers. When I proceeded to take off my t-shirt, Ashton’s eyes planted smack in the middle of my chest.

This time I definitely wasn’t imagining things. She really was checking me out. Even though she’d called me a freak numerous times, she was attracted to me.

“You want a closer look?” I teased as I threw all my clothes into one pile.

She sniffed and turned her body away. “I wasn’t…it’s not. Ugh. Just get in the water and don’t turn around until I get in.”

I shrugged my shoulders and purposely brushed past her on my way. She shivered against my skin, and I bit back a smile as I sat down by the edge of the pool. The sun had heated the water to a nice warm temperature when I stuck my foot in. The water felt amazing against my skin and I happily slid the rest of the way in.

I ducked my head underwater and swam a few meters out into the middle of the pool, trying not to turn around. The water was so crystal clear that you could almost see right through it. If Ashton thought she could hide herself in here, she had another thing coming. I was going to see everything, whether she wanted me to or not. I could be a gentleman if I wanted to, but I wasn’t blind.

I began treading water, still careful not to turn around. I didn’t want to freak Ash out by overtly hitting on her, but I was going to make my intentions clear today. That had been the whole point of this trek. By the end of the day, Ashton was going to know exactly how I felt about her.

“You can turn around now,” she said from somewhere behind me. I hadn’t even heard her get into the water.

I turned, disturbing the water around me and stopped. My jaw dropped. What. The. Hell. I stared and stared, and then stared some more, because this was obviously a dream and I was going to wake up soon with a huge boner.

The reason why I hadn’t heard Ash getting into the water was because she
hadn’t
. She stood in her black underwear with her perky breasts on display for me to see. She wanted me to see her. She was trying to drive me insane.

Ashton put her arms together in front of her and dove into the water. Oh, shit. My erection pushed against my boxers, wanting to get out. I started feeling uneasy as I watched Ash swim towards me. I wanted her so bad, but I didn’t want her to take this the wrong way.

Her golden head broke the surface of the water and she grinned at me. “I figured you were going to see everything anyway,” she said in answer to the shell-shocked expression that was probably on my face.

It wasn’t like I’d never been with a girl before, seen one naked or had sex, but Ashton made me feel like I was inexperienced. Some small, miserable part of me felt inadequate, like I wasn’t good enough to be with someone like her. Someone who looked like the all-American golden girl, while I was the freak next door.

Screw it. I was over thinking that I wasn’t good enough for her. I wanted her and I wasn’t going to let this moment pass us by. I refused to let myself act like a complete loser in front of her. I had to get myself under control.

“I think it’s only fair that if I’m shirtless then you should be too.”

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t been expecting me to say that, but from the way she was eying me up I could tell it excited her. Or maybe me being half naked excited her. Either way, something was working.

“Is that what you think about? Topless girls?” Her tone was light and playful, so I knew she wasn’t annoyed with me.

“No,” I shook my head. “The only girl I think about topless is you.”

Her cheeks went the deepest shade of red imaginable. I moved closer to her and looked down to where her breasts were clearly visible through the crystalline water. She didn’t move away, only waited for me to make the first move.