I swallow. “How do you know that?”
“You’re not subtle.” I can almost hear her roll her eyes.
“Are you going to stop me.”
Anna laughs again. “Girl, no. If I had an option here that was that attractive, I’d be sneaking out too.”
I’m glad that it’s dark and that they can’t see me blushing. “Thanks.”
“You have to tell us how it goes, though,” Lisa says.
“What?”
“You took about three times as long in the bathroom as you normally do,” she says. “Something is obviously happening.”
I push open the window and begin my climb out that I’ve gotten very good at. “You guys pay way too much attention.”
“Good luck!” Anna whispers as I drop to the ground and head toward the lake.
I wonder what Leena would say if she could see me now. Our entire friendship I’ve been the goody-two-shoes. She snuck out of our cabin plenty last summer but I never wanted to go. If she knew just how much time I’d spent out of my bed so far, she’d laugh her ass off.
The moon is nearly full, and the empty campground is bright with the light, even as clouds pass over it now and again. It’s bright off the surface of the lake, and I can see Eric leaning against the trunk of the tree long before I get there. He’s staring out over the water—I’ve never met anyone who loves being around water as much as he does—and he doesn’t notice me walking up.
“Boo,” I whisper, and he’s the one that jumps this time.
“Geeze,” he says, recovering and immediately pressing me back into the trunk of the tree and kissing me. “I guess I deserved that.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Ready to go?” he asks.
I weave my fingers in-between his and let him guide me toward the waterfall path. “I’m ready, but I’m still not sure what you’re up to.”
“No?” His voice pretends innocence I know that he doesn’t have.
“I mean, I have a guess,” I say as he lifts the barrier tape and we walk down the now familiar path.
He squeezes my hand. “Tell me.”
“Nope.”
“Come on, I want to know.”
I press my lips together and shake my head. “Not yet. Later.”
He laughs. “Fine.”
When we come around the corner, all the breath I have leaves my body. The moon is shining down on the waterfall making it sparkle like diamonds in the night, and on top of the giant rock is a blanket, a picnic basket, and a lantern. Eric’s backpack is sitting there too. “Holy shit this is beautiful,” I say.
“I hoped you would say that.”
He helps me up onto the rock, and I settle onto the blanket. It’s never cold in Georgia in the summer, not even at night. But the mist from the waterfall provides a welcome coolness when the breeze pushes it far enough to hit my skin.
“What did you bring us?”
He grins. “Just what I could raid as far as snacks from the kitchen and a few from my parents’ cabin. Popcorn, some chocolate. And…” he pulls an old-fashioned camping thermos out of the picnic basket. “Hot chocolate.”
“Oh my god that’s perfect.” I don’t care that it’s warm, I love hot chocolate. Eric knows that too. It’s one of the things that I told him—that one of my favorite things to do in the wintertime is snuggle up with hot chocolate and a book while watching the snow fall. If we’re lucky enough to get snow. “Thank you,” I say, leaning in to kiss him.
“You’re welcome.” In the dim light of the lantern I think that I can see him blushing.
“So why did you bring me here?”
He grins. “The picnic.”
My heart starts to pound, and my stomach does that flip of nervous anticipation. “Is that the only reason?”
Eric is definitely blushing now. “I’m not expecting anything from you, Seph.”
I move a little closer. “I’m glad.”
“But?”
“But,” I whisper, “I would be okay if there was another reason.”
I watch him swallow. “Only if you’re ready.”
“More than ready.”
Just like our kiss a few weeks ago, this would be a first for both of us. And maybe it is soon, but we’ve spent every day together. It’s how camp works. You get to know people hard and fast and what counts as a day at camp might as well be a week in the normal world.
I take a sip of the hot chocolate, and it’s delicious. Thick and gorgeous and rich. “I’m going to have to have you make hot chocolate for me more often,” I say.
“Secret family recipe.”
“Is that recipe a packet?” I ask, smiling.
He laughs, reaching for his backpack. “It’s actually not.”
“You’re telling me you actually snuck into the kitchen and made hot chocolate from scratch?”
“There are benefits to being friends with the kitchen staff.” He takes the thermos from me and takes a sip of his own. He looks down, not meeting my eyes, and then grabs my hand. “I don’t know how to do this.”
I laugh. “I mean, neither do I. We’ll figure it out.” From his backpack, he pulls out another blanket. “You came prepared.”
When he meets my eyes this time, he’s dead serious. “I’m very prepared. Because I wasn’t joking, I wasn’t expecting anything. But like hell was I going to get you out here and not have everything we needed.”
That’s true. “That would have been disappointing.”
He screws the cap on the thermos and puts it back in the basket, and then puts the basket out of the way near his backpack. And then he scoots closer. I’m so nervous, but I’m ready. I don’t have any hesitation as he leans in to kiss me.
This kiss starts the way that they always do, soft and sweet and slow. But already it feels different, because we both know that we don’t have to stop. I lean back on the blanket, and he follows, kissing me harder. There it is, that heat that appears out of nothing, suddenly consuming me and making me kiss him harder, wrap my arms around his shoulders and pull him closer.
“If you need to stop,” he says, pulling back, “tell me to stop.”
“I will.” I grab the hem of my shirt and pull it over my head, placing it beside me so that I’m in my bra. This isn’t anything that he hasn’t seen before. I’ve been in my bikini with him, and our roaming hands have made sure that he’s touched every inch of me through my clothing. But this will be new.
I take off my bra quickly, and settle back down on the blanket, blushing. I have the urge to cover myself, but I don’t. This is Eric. I want this. I want him to see me. He’s looking down at me with awe. He swallows again. “Can I touch you?”
Reaching for his hand, I bring it to my skin, directly on my breast, and I close my eyes because it feels like so much and not nearly enough. Eric is gentle, but eager. My nipples harden under his fingers, and I want to feel more than that. “I—” I stop, not knowing how to ask the question I’m about to ask.
His head whips back. “Is that okay.”
I laugh, breaking the tension. “Yes. I just—” I swallow. “I don’t know how to ask.”