Watching You

by Shannon Greenland

  Hours later, I’m enrolled for second semester, and with my transfer credits I still have enough to graduate on time. I also have a folder full of college applications for grants and scholarships and loans. I may get turned down because of the disciplinary letter, but I’m still going to try. And if nothing comes through, well then, I’ll just work my way through my dream of a higher education.

  Forge on and don’t sit idle. More of Momma’s words. It’s funny how now that I’m away from her and independent I recall more and more her sayings, and the wisdom behind them. To think I spent so many years discounting them. She knew exactly what she was talking about.

  By four o’clock, I’ve picked Riel and Mar back up and we’re all standing outside of my cabin. My very first place. With my phone I snap a quick picture of it and text it to Levi: ALL MINE :) And then I stand for a second and just take it in.

  Tiny and painted red, the cabin has a screen porch and shrubs that line the front and side. Whoever lived here before me stuck halogen lights in the ground, and I decide I really like them.

  Riel steps up beside me. “Ready?”

  With a nod, I lead the way across the porch, unlock and open the front door, and cringe. “Ugh.” I crinkle my nose. “Moth balls.”

  Mar slips past me and straight to the windows to open them, and as the fresh air slowly seeps in, I look around the tiny place.

  A love seat sits centered under a window with a TV right beside it. Thin, stained, beige carpet spreads throughout all the rooms. There’s a small kitchenette with rusted, rundown appliances. A skinny hallway leads into a bedroom big enough to hold a double bed and one dresser. And in the bathroom I find a stand-up shower, a porcelain sink, and a toilet with discolored water.

  Riel puts my stuff down on top the bed. “Last person who lived here was the campground’s maintenance man.”

  “Cute from the outside.” I try for positive.

  “I’ll give you clean sheets, towels, blankets, and all that. I’ve got some spare dishes and stuff. Whatever you need. Help yourself.”

  “Thanks. First thing I need to do is clean.”

  “Put Mar to work while I’m gone to the Windbreaker. Place is small. Won’t take you long.”

  “Sure!” Mar agrees, a little too excited for someone who’s about to help me clean.

  LOVE! Levi texts me back.

  DIRTY, I respond. SCRUBBING NOW .

  Mar and I spend the next few hours cleaning my new place from top to bottom. We make about a bazillion trips back and forth between the cabin and the fifth wheel getting extra stuff I need. I owe Riel a huge thanks—otherwise I’d be coughing up money I don’t have for basic necessities.

  Mar falls asleep on my newly clean love seat and I dial my momma.

  “Hey, sweet girl,” she answers. “I’m just getting to the club.”

  I smile at her familiar voice. “Momma, I’ve had a run of bad luck. I lost my scholarship.” I don’t tell her all the circumstances surrounding it.

  “I’m sorry, darling girl. You coming home?”

  “No, I found a job and got a place to stay. I went over to the local high school and enrolled for next semester. With all my credits, I’ll still be able to graduate on time.”

  “And MIT?”

  I try not to get depressed at that question. “I don’t know, Momma. I’ll try, but I may have to lay that dream aside for now.”

  “That’s okay. You forge ahead. I hope you know how proud I am of you.”

  I smile. “I know, Momma.”

  “Let’s talk later. I’m fixin’ to be late if I don’t get in there.”

  “Love you. Kiss the twins for me.”

  Riel knocks on my screen, and I jump. With a laugh, he lets himself in. “Talking to home?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Everything okay? Your mom’s good with the changes?”

  “My momma’s proud of me.”

  Riel smiles. “Bet that feels good.”

  It occurs to me that he probably has no clue what that feels like. I bet his dad, whenever he does show up, never says those words to him. “It does. It’s the best. You’ve never heard that from your dad?”

  “Not for a very long time.”

  “I’m sorry, Riel.”

  “Me, too.”

  I can’t imagine never hearing that from my momma.

  He looks around. “Much better. Get everything you need?”

  I nod. “Thank you very much. How can I repay you?”

  He gets a sneaky smile. “We’ll think of something.”

  Awareness buzzes across my skin. “Still want to christen the place?”

  Simultaneously, we both look down to Mar, then Riel comes straight toward me and pulls me in for a very long and delicious kiss. “Give me some time to get her settled in her own bed, and then I’ll be back.”

  I lower my voice. “I bought condoms when I was out today.”

  He slides his hand down to my butt as he takes a couple of love nibbles from my neck. “I did, too.”

  Mar stirs and yawns, and sleepily she gets up and trudges out of my cabin. “I’m going to bed,” she mumbles.

  Riel doesn’t take his eyes off me. “Let me walk her over, tell her I’ll be here, lock her in, all that good stuff. Fifteen minutes. No, ten. No, five tops.”

  Playfully, I shove his chest. “Go. I’ll be here.”

  He gives me one last soft kiss. “I’m so happy you stayed,” he whispers.

  “Me, too,” I whisper back. Very happy indeed.

  I see them out, and as I stand on my porch, watching them walk across the campground, the smell of pot floats past me.

  Immediately, I recall that time I was helping Gillian unload her car and there was the smell of pot in the air. Just like then, I’m sieged with the unnerving sensation someone is watching me.

  But that’s impossible. Manny’s in jail. That part of my life is over with. This is what I tell myself, but just like when I was on the boat, something tucked away in my brain has me questioning.

  I look back at Riel as he opens the door to their fifth wheel and Mar steps up inside. “No,” I say to myself. “Everything is okay.”

  Riel turns then, and his face is lit by the light spilling out of the RV. He smiles, and I smile back. He holds up five fingers, reminding me he’ll be right back. My smile gets even bigger, and I nod. Yes, everything is okay.

  Chapter Sixty

  Riel’s back in twenty, and I note his damp hair and change of clothes. “Shower?”

  “I smelled like the Windbreaker.”

  “I did a quick one, too,” I admit. “I smelled like cleaning supplies.” And I wanted to put on a sundress. Something sexier than my baggy shorts and tee.

  Slowly, he comes toward me. “Well now that we both smell good.”

  I take his hand, my nerves excitedly skipping and hopping, and start walking back toward the bedroom.

  “Viola, I want you to know that boyfriend/girlfriend question Mar asked?”

  My heart skips a beat. “Yes?”

  “I very much consider you my girl. No ‘friend with benefits’ as Gillian would say.”

  I didn’t think it was possible for me to fall any harder for this guy. I moved here to get a fresh start and refocus my life. I never imagined Riel would step into it.

  “My God, I love you. Like completely, utterly, head-over-heels love. Like the kind of love I would write a poem about.” I smile. “That is if I liked poetry and knew how to write it.”

  Laughing, Riel follows me the last few feet into my bedroom. “That’s okay. I’ll take your crappy poetry anytime.” He pulls me in, and holding me close, he gazes into my eyes. I feel the muscles in his body tremor, and I tighten my arms around his middle. “Sorry,” he says. “I’m nervous.”

  “Me, too,” I tell him.

  His gaze takes a few seconds to roam over my face, like he’s gathering his thoughts. “I think I quite possibly fell in love with you the first time I saw you. You were under that desk
, that fine ass of yours up in the air, and then you scooted out and looked up at me from behind your glasses. Your big blue eyes blinked, and I lost it. I knew I was in trouble.”

  Warmth flows through my body, salving every emotional wound I’ve ever had, and leaning up on my tiptoes, I kiss him. “I love being in love. I didn’t think it’d feel this way.”

  He traces a finger down my nose. “How so?”

  “Like I have to share the same air with you. I have to see you. Touch you. Hear you.”

  His finger trails across my forehead. “Watching that sexy brain of yours figure something out is what does it for me. Oh, and your smell.” He inhales. “You have the best smell, all sweet and edible.”

  No, he has the best smell. Reaching up, I run my fingers through his dark hair and touch the ends. “Right here it curls when it starts to grow out, did you know that?”

  “Mm.” He trails his nose along my hairline.

  “And your eyes—they are the most incredible eyes I’ve ever seen. That was the first thing I noticed on you.” Leaning back, I look up into them. “Right now they’re glowing amber and have tiny flecks of green in them.” I touch the crease in his cheek. “By the way, your dimples drive me insane.”

  He flashes them, and my stomach whirls.

  Riel leans forward, stopping a hair’s distance from my lips, and we study each other for a couple of long seconds. “I didn’t think fantasies came true,” he whispers, sliding my glasses off. “I can’t believe you’re in love with me, Viola Burnett.”

  He presses a slow kiss to my right cheek and then my left, and then taking my hand, he places it on his chest. “My heart’s racing. Can you feel it?”

  I put his hand on mine. “Mine, too.”

  He slides his fingers up and grasps the back of my neck and inching closer, he molds our bodies together. He takes my bottom lip between his teeth and slowly releases it.

  Sitting back on the bed, I draw him down with me. “Condoms are in the drawer.”

  He stretches out on top of me and runs his hand along my outer thigh and up under my sun dress.

  “What did you say to me the other night on the boat?” I whisper. “When you spoke in Spanish?”

  Riel looks me in the eyes. “I said that you are the most incredible woman in the world and one day I hope you’ll be my wife.”

  “Oh,” I breathe.

  He loops his fingers in my bikini panties and lowers them down my legs. “Pink.” He tosses them to the side. “Que rico.” He crawls the rest of the way up my body and buries his mouth in the curve of my neck.

  I undo his jeans and slide them over his hips, using my feet to work them down his legs. “You’re not wearing any underwear.”

  “Nope.”

  I reach into the drawer and pull out a handful of condoms. Riel laughs as he takes one. “Expecting multiple, are you?”

  “A girl can dream.”

  Together we put the condom on him, more than ready.

  He pushes my dress up over my hips, and I wrap my legs around his lower back as he caresses his fingers through my wetness. I draw in a breath. That feels so good.

  Riel grips my hips and looks me so deep in the eyes I feel him in my soul. “Te quiero mucho, mi amor.”

  I smile. “I love you, too.”

  Then he enters me, slowly, and for a few seconds neither one of us moves. I close my eyes, and my heart bangs my chest as I tune into our connection. It feels so warm and full, and not at all raw like it did with Manny. It feels right. So very right.

  I hear Riel swallow, and I pull back to look up at his face. “You okay?”

  A smile quivers across his lips. “Yes. I’m taking a second to just feel. Doesn’t it feel amazing? Please tell me it feels amazing to you, too.”

  I return his smile, wrapping my legs tighter around him and kissing him. “Yes, it does.”

  Then we start to move, and like when he went down on me, it’s awkward at first, but it doesn’t take us long to find a rhythm that works.

  Afterward, we lie limp, his body sprawled wonderfully heavy over mine with him still inside of me. He mumbles into my neck, “I’m glad I lasted longer this time.”

  Smiling, I run my fingers up under his shirt and along his spine. “We haven’t even undressed.”

  He leans up on his elbows. “It’s never too late.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “Be right back.”

  He pulls out of me, and the loss of him inside of me brings a shiver. He walks to the bathroom, stripping the rest of his clothes as he goes. Lord he’s got a great ass. Great everything.

  One day I hope you’ll be my wife. I smile at the thought.

  The mattress gives under his weight as he crawls toward me. “What are you smiling at?” He pulls my sundress the rest of the way off.

  “Oh, just some private thoughts.”

  “Hm, very mysterious.” He tosses my dress over his head and stretches out on top of me. “You’re not wearing a bra.”

  “Nope.”

  “Not complaining.” He trails his gaze over my body. “Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?”

  He loves me the way I am, and just the thought has me stretching comfortably underneath him. “Thank you for saying that.”

  “Hey.” He lifts his head. “You never responded.”

  I push him onto his back and straddle him. “Respond?”

  “One day I hope you’ll be my wife?”

  I kiss his chest before shimmying down his body to nibble his abs, and when he gently tugs my hair, I look up at him.

  “Does that scare you?” he asks.

  Smiling, I come back up his body. I kiss his mouth, his chin, his nose, his ear. “Scares me a little. But a good scare. We’re so young.”

  He grabs my face and gives me a long, thorough, passionate kiss. “For now, a promise for the future.”

  I sit up and shake my hair back. “A promise for the future.”

  Riel runs his hands over my breasts, down my stomach, and around to cup my butt. “Good thing we’ve got more condoms.”

  “Good thing.” Laughing, we both reach for the foiled packages.

  Chapter Sixty-One

  The next afternoon, Mar knocks on my screen door, and I wave her in. “Hey,” she says. “Riel’s busy, and I want to go to the beach before the sun goes down. Interested?”

  “Sure.” I grab my grant and loan applications. “Mind if I do this while you play?”

  She shakes her head, and we head out.

  Minutes later, she’s digging into the sand building a castle, and I’m settled in with my paperwork.

  She pats the side of the sandcastle and presses a shell into the wall to decorate it. “Are you mad Riel got your scholarship?”

  “No,” I honestly tell her. “Absolutely not.”

  She lets out a breath as if that question had been weighing heavy on her mind. “Good. Because I don’t want you mad at Riel or me.”

  “Mar, I don’t think I can ever be mad at you.”

  She makes a face. “Riel can.”

  I laugh. “What’s he been mad at you for?”

  “Last week I didn’t make my bed three mornings in a row. This week he got upset because I left dishes in the sink.” She sticks another shell in her castle. “He’s a little too neat and tidy.”

  “But he’s a great big brother. That counts for a whole lot.”

  Playfully, she rolls her eyes. “I suppose.”

  I go back to my paperwork.

  “I think I like a boy, too,” she hesitantly admits.

  I cough. “What?”

  “Don’t tell Riel,” she pleads.

  “Mar,” I sigh. “You’re only eleven.” But then I remember I liked boys at that age. I had my first kiss at twelve. Given that, she’s on track in the boy department. But this is Mar, not me.

  “We’ve held hands,” she tells me. “But that’s it. He wanted to kiss me, but I said no.”

  “Good girl. Keep saying no. If you don’t want him to do
something, then you say no.”

  “You won’t tell Riel, right?”

  I give her a gentle look. “I can’t promise that. If he asks, I won’t lie.”

  She plops another clump of sand on top the castle. “Maybe I should just tell him.”

  “I think that’s wise.”

  We lapse into silence, and I go back to my applications.

  “Riel really likes you.”

  I close my folder. Clearly, I’m not getting work done. “Yeah? How do you know that?”

  Mar’s eyes take on an intelligent twinkle. “I can tell.”

  With a laugh, I get up. “As much as I’m having fun, we really need to go back. I love you to death, kid, but I’m getting no work done.”

  She gets up, too. “That’s what Riel says.”

  I bet.

  As we walk up the beach, Mar rambles on and on about this boy she held hands with. I try to have a patient ear but really just want to get my stuff done. The quicker I get these turned in, the quicker I get money and college figured out.

  We near the parking lot that separates the beach and the campground, and I see Abbie leaning up against a dark SUV. My steps falter as I realize—a dark SUV.

  She smiles, but there’s nothing pleasant about it. “Hello.”

  I grab Mar’s hand and take a step back.

  She glances at Mar. “You’re a bit inconvenient.”

  Tightening my hold on Mar’s hand, I square my shoulders. “Get out of our way.”

  She sneers. “I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

  I go completely still.

  I’ve been waiting for this moment…been watching you…give you what you’ve been asking for…prick tease…

  She smirks. “Pretty convenient with that ex of yours taking the fall.”

  Images of that night flash through my mind, and I flinch. My attacker had a garbled voice. Abbie must have been wearing something to mask it. Otherwise, I would’ve recognized it.

  “What a tough little bitch you are.” She rakes her gaze over me. “Makes no difference to me. I’m still going to get what I want.”