Untouched A Cedar Cove Novella

clear in the sun. A tree juts out over the water, with a tire hanging from a rope. Sunlight dapples through the branches, falling in bright patches on the grassy banks.
    “It’s beautiful!” I exclaim.
    “You really like it?” Emerson looks bashful. “I know it’s not fancy or anything—“
    “Are you kidding? It’s perfect!” I hug him. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
    He kisses my forehead then pulls away. “Last one in the water pays for it!” he calls, stripping off his shirt and kicking his flip-flops aside as he races for the pool.
    “No fair!” I protest, hurrying to pull off my dress.
    Emerson charges into the water with a whoop and a splash. I follow a moment later, shrieking as the cold water hits my skin. I pause in the shallows. “It’s freezing!” I call.
    “Scaredy-cat!” Emerson wades back and scoops me up, spinning me out into the deep side of the pool. I fall in with a splash. My feet find the bottom and I push back up, surfacing with a splutter.
    “I’m going to get you for that!” I yell, splashing wildly at him. Emerson dives under and grabs my legs, lifting me up as I struggle, helpless.
    “Oh yeah?” he teases, “What are you going to do about it?”
    “Hmm,” I pretend to think about it. “Maybe, this!” I grab a handful of floating moss and algae, and shove it down on his hair. Emerson laughs and falls back, arms locked tight around my waist so we both plunge back into the cool, clear water.
    We splash around until my fingertips start to pucker, then lay out on the blanket, talking quietly and basking in the midday sun. I curl against Emerson’s chest, lazily tracing the outline of his tattoos.
    “I wish we could stay here forever,” I breathe, gazing up at the sun-drenched green canopy overhead. “It’s so peaceful, away from everything.”
    And everyone.
    Emerson turns his head to look at me. He reaches over, and gently brushes a lock of damp hair from my cheek. “Me too.” he sighs.
    “You ever think, what you’d be doing if you didn’t have to stay here?” I ask, curious. He’s told me about Brit and Ray Jay, about being the only one who can hold down a steady job – or three – to make ends meet for rent and bills.
    Emerson shrugs. “I don’t know.”
    “Think,” I encourage him.“Anything, anywhere. Whatever you want.”
    Emerson exhales in a long sigh. “I don’t know,” he says again, “Maybe, go to the city. Atlanta, or Charlotte. Somewhere they don’t know anything about me. Or my mom.” He trails off, thinking. “I like it at the bar,” he adds. “Jimmy’s a good guy, but we could do more, to bring in business. Maybe I’d like to have my own place someday. Something that’s all my own.”
    “You will.” I lean over and kiss him on the shoulder.
    He shrugs again. “It’s stupid, I probably shouldn’t even think about it.”
    “What did I tell you?” I sit up now, looking down at him. I place my hand on his chest, above his heart, feel the steady beat, strong and true. “Well?” I prompt, waiting.
    His lips curve in a soft grin. “It’s never stupid to hope,” he repeats my words back at me, but there’s still a reluctance there, like he doesn’t really believe it.
    My heart aches for him. Sometimes hope is all that gets me through, hope that one day, I can make a life for myself without the coldness, and rejection, and insecurity I’ve lived with ever since I was old enough to notice it. Hope’s been my constant friend, the light at the end of the tunnel. But Emerson gave up on hope, a long time ago. He doesn’t even think he has the right, anymore.
    I’ll just have to hope enough for the both of us.
    “You can do it, one day.” I lean down, and gently drop a kiss on his eyelids, his nose, along the line of his jaw. “I believe in you.”
    Emerson tightens his arms around me, holding me against his chest for a moment.
    “What about you?” I feel the question as a rumble. “College in California, right?”
    “Right.”
    There’s silence. Suddenly, the future is a loaded gun, waiting for someone to pull the trigger.
    I lay there, feeling the rise and fall of his chest. Funny, how just a couple of weeks ago, California was all I could think about. Finally getting away and putting the whole country between me and my past.
    But now, that distance would divide me from Emerson, too. Thousands of miles away from his kisses, hours from his heartbeat.
    I feel a chill cut through the warm haze of this