Under the Dusty Sky (Holloway Farms)

week of camping but her shoulders are bright red and burning. I touch them lightly.
    “ Are you okay?” I ask, running my fingers lightly across the skin. It looks painful. But I never get to touch her and I want to more than anything.
    Goosebumps appear on her skin even though it’s hot enough to kill a horse and not a cloud in the sky.
    She tilts her head up to look at me. I can’t tell if her cheeks are burnt or she’s blushing.
    “ It ain’t fair, Asher Holloway.” She says and pushes my chest. She turns away and looks out onto the lake.
    We're alone. We're never alone.
    “ What ain’t fair?” I fight back a smile as she wraps her arms around stomach and holds onto her elbows.
    She glances over her shoulder, the purple strings from her bikini trail down her back. Double knotted like my sister, Gracie, taught her. Gracie says guys are never to be trusted, especially brothers. While it’s true anything to embarrass my sister is fair game, her best friend is different. I want to untie Lacy's strings but for entirely different reasons. Lacy really is the prettiest girl I’ve ever known and I've thought so ever since I can remember.
    “ You,” she says and I can’t stop the smile this time. I step up behind her and turn her carefully by her shoulders and she lets me.
    “ You and those stupid dimples. It ain’t fair that you know how you drive me. You and that ego of yours knows exactly what you do to me, but still you do it. Just to tease me. It ain’t fair that you’re Gracie’s brother. It ain't fair that we have to sneak like this. You know she’d kill me if she knew I was here.”
    The breeze picks up now that we’re close to the shoreline and the smell of standing water and algae sweeps past us. I tilt her chin up with my thumb and tuck a strand of her perfect golden hair behind her ear.
    “ You remember that day when we were nine? After your Grams died and Gracie made you cry?”
    Her eyes widen and she bites her bottom lip, and Good Jesus, I can’t handle it, so I run my finger along the soft pink skin. Just to keep from kissin' her. She’s right. I can't stand the sneaking. I can't hold back anymore. Gracie made it very clear that Lacy was hers and I wasn’t to spoil their friendship by being myself. But I need to make Lacy understand how I feel.
    “ That was six years ago. How do you remember that?”
    “ I remember everything about that day.” It was the day I fell in love for the first time. Sad, boyish puppy love, but love none the less. It was the first time I wanted to sit close to her. To make her feel better because she was sad. It was the first time I kissed her.
    “ Why you bringin' that up now?” she asks but I see it her eyes that she remembers that kiss too. Of course we were nine so I bashed my face into hers like a frightened calf and pretty sure I made her cry worse. But I bet she remembers.
    “ Because you say you have no effect on me, but that’s a lie and you know it.”
    I slide my hands down her arms and take both her hands in mine, lifting them so we are palm to palm. She takes a step closer. I could rest my chin on her head, she’s so tiny.
    I lace my fingers through hers. She’s just trying to hold back a smile. Bitin' on that lip again in the way that makes me crazy.
    “ I think about that day every time I see you, Lacy Pearson. You know why?”
    She shakes her head and her sunshine waves fly out around her burnt shoulders. “Because every time I see you I still want to be close to you. Like that day when we were nine, I want to hold your hand and make you feel better when you’re sad. I want to be the one you cry to. The one you laugh with.”
    I tug on her arms to close the distance between us, and place her hands on the back of my neck. Her chest is rising and falling fast. Her grey-blue eyes hold mine so intently that I feel like nothing around us exists. This is it. Her and me. Even the sand beneath my feet disappears. The moment slows and I'm glad, because after this moment we have to go back home. Back to pretending we're just friends. Back to secret conversations and hidden touches.
    “ I want to kiss you.”
    My hands slide down her arms to her shoulders then continue down her back to her smooth waist. I twirl the long purple bikini stings in my fingers. She swallows hard and I swear she hasn’t blinked in over a minute. She tightens her grip around my neck and leans against me. She’s so soft it makes me ache. She stands on her toes