I’ll catch one first,” Seth hollered up from below.
“You won’t!” Tori hollered back. She licked a line of mustard off the side of her sandwich and shook her hair back, giving me a great view of her tanned shoulders and the constellation of freckles along them.
Tori peeled off a piece of salami that hung out of her sandwich and put it in her mouth. It shouldn’t have been as seductive as it was—especially because it wasn’t intentional—but watching her lick her thumb made me readjust my pants.
Catching my movement, a slow smile overtook her face. She looked from my lap to my face and back again. I should have been embarrassed of getting a hard on while watching her eat a damn sandwich, but everything she did sucked me in, made my body and brain come awake in ways it hadn’t for so long.
“Do we have plans tonight?” she asked softly.
I shook my head.
Her eyes sparkled knowingly. “We do now.” Her hand found my knee and she leaned forward, eyes open and locked on mine as she pressed her lips to mine.
Perhaps she’d intended it to be brief, but I wouldn’t let her slip through my fingers that easily. I caught her chin in my hand and kissed her a bit more thoroughly. I was hungry for her, amazed that we had held off of doing anything more physical than just kissing since meeting. When I kissed her, there was that immediate desire for more. But it battled with the feeling of savoring her. Our time would come to an end soon—whenever ‘soon’ was—and I was in no hurry to rush.
She scooted closer, wrapping her arms around me like a hug as we kissed. The wind whipped her hair around my head, cocooning us together. Warmth spread through me from just being in her embrace, and I knew with absolute dread that watching her leave was going to be a very, very difficult thing.
“Why do you look so sad,” she asked, pulling away and looking at me.
Did I tell her the truth? That despite reminding myself that she would be leaving soon, I was feeling things for her that would not be nearly as temporary as her physical presence in my life?
I thought of how she’d pulled away, physically and emotionally after I’d told her how much she soothed me. I only had a couple more days with her and I didn’t want to spend any more hours scaring her away.
“I’m not sad,” I told her, because in this moment, with Tori in my arms, how could I be anything but absolutely content?
We went nearly the whole day not catching a single fish. Vince bitched about it at length, each time he reeled his line in after a tug and there proved to be no fish on the other end. “This is bullshit,” he said more than once.
As much as I liked being out on the water with everyone, I was craving some alone time with Tori. Despite sharing a hotel room, we’d had little time just with each other. She had welcomed my friends like they were hers, had been such a good sport about seeing them every day since Sunday, but I was eager to call it a night.
Judging by Seth’s mood, I wasn’t the only one. He and I put up our reels for the day and joined Naomi and Chad at the front of the boat while Nicole, Tori, and Vince chatted on the deck off the back of the boat.
“You got a little pink,” Chad said, rubbing sunblock lotion on Naomi’s shoulders. “Did you forget to put sunscreen on?”
“I did put some on,” she said, her eyes closing as Chad rubbed it on her back. “But remember, I jumped into the water after lunch and didn’t reapply when I got back.” She turned toward us, bending over so Chad could apply the lotion to her lower back. “Don’t stare at my stomach,” she mumbled to Seth and me, though neither of us were.
“Naomi,” Chad admonished gently. “No one is staring.”
Nevertheless, she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her body after Chad had finished. “Sorry,” she said with a rueful smile. “I’m self-conscious of it.”
“You shouldn’t be. You had twins. You look great, Naomi.”
Naomi smiled gratefully at me. “Thanks, Liam. It’s weird, isn’t it? How much has changed but how other things stay the same? Being here, it’s like no time has passed.” She sighed, wrapping the towel more tightly. “It feels weird that he’s