“I do. I remember every word you said, even the way you smiled at me. My heart knows you, Dakota, it belongs to you.”
“Don’t make this any harder than it has to be. Please, forget me, Reece. I can’t give you what you need.”
“Feel the way my heart beats.” He presses my hand further to his chest. “It only beats for you. No one else holds it in their hand the way you do.”
“Reece.”
“Don’t! Don’t tell me you don’t feel anything for me because I know you do. I also know it may take you years to feel free with me, but I’m willing to wait because of this.” He taps his hand on mine. “This will never belong to anyone else. Ever.” I look into his intense brown eyes. They hold a promise, an abundance of hope that everything will work out. “Have enough faith in me to get you through this until you find your strength again.”
I can’t believe it, but more damn tears spill as I step into Reece’s space and hug him. “I’ll try,” I say, finally admitting how I feel about him.
His lips brush against my forehead and he whispers, “You, Dakota, put a spell on me when I was nine years old. Now, you damn well own me.”
“I never knew you felt like this about me.”
“You’re the girl every guy wants. And when you started dating Levi, I was never going to say anything because he was my best friend and I thought you two were happy. I’d never come between you and your happiness. You mean way too much to me for that.”
“Reece, you have a very high opinion of me. You shouldn’t.”
“And you have to stop this. What happened to you is not who you are. What happened is a major hurdle, one we have to overcome. But it doesn’t define you unless you let it.”
“How can you still want me after everything I’ve told you? Someone forced themselves inside me, he took something that I can never give to anyone again; he stole it. But you’re standing here, holding me and telling me I’ve been in your heart since we were kids.”
“Because, Dakota, you’ve captured my heart. No one else has ever been able to do that, and no one has ever kept it captive for as long as you have. It’s been seven years, and I still l . . .” he stops, catching himself before he says something he may regret, or isn’t ready to say. He regroups and says, “It’s always been you.”
“I don’t know what to say. Where do we go from here?”
“From here? We go and play with my brother, who will say things that will embarrass me and may even be awkward enough to make you cringe.”
I can’t help but chuckle. “Oh no, what else is he going to say?”
“No one knows with Luke. He says what he thinks.”
I take a few seconds to regroup. “You know what I mean, Reece. Where do we go from here?”
“We take one day at a time, be completely honest with each other, and talk about everything.”
Normal teenage guys don’t want to talk, or take one day at a time. They’d be ready and happy to make me Miss Right Now, but Reece is so different from anyone else I know. “I really like this, and I’m pretty sure I really like you,” I tease him.
“Pretty sure?” He moves his hand down to my waist and applies gentle pressure while snaking his other hand down my lower back and gripping onto me. “Do you want to change that?” He playfully digs his fingers into my side, tickling while supporting me.
“No, I think I’ll stick to ‘pretty sure.’”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I gave you a chance, Dakota.” His moves his fingers, tickling me in earnest now. Giggling, I wriggle around in his grip, but he has a firm hold on me so I won’t fall, or get away.
“Stop, stop,” I beg through laughter.
“Not until you say you like me.” He digs in further, and I can’t help but double over and try to curl into a ball so he stops tickling me.
“You’re alright,” I push him, teasing further.
“What? This is going backward, not in the direction it’s supposed to.” He mercilessly jabs my side with his long fingers.
“Alright, alright. Stop tickling me.”
Reece lets up enough for me to catch my breath and stand straight. My cheeks are hurting from laughing so much, and a few tears fall out of my eyes from all the laughter. “So, tell me you like me.”
“Ilikeyou,” I mumble in a low voice all in one long word.
“Oh no, that’s so not good enough.” He brings me in tight to him, and his fingers move quickly to start tickling me again.
“Okay, okay. I like you.” God, he’s a pain in the butt. A fun pain in the butt.
His hands loosen around my waist and he smiles at me. “See, that wasn’t too bad, was it?’
“’Spose not.” I scrunch my nose and look away, pretending I’m disgusted with him.
“Do I need to tickle you again?”
“No!” I shriek. “Yeah, I like you.”
Reece’s face lights up as he proudly smiles at me. “Let’s make it official. I want you to be my girlfriend.”
“Are you asking me? Because that doesn’t sound like a question, more like a statement.”
He shrugs, links our fingers and starts walking over to Luke. “Whatever.”
“You have to ask me then wait for my answer before you can make it a statement.”
He flicks his wrist dismissively at me. “Semantics, that’s all it is. If you say no today, you’ll say yes next time.” He’s playing with me, hiding his fear of a negative response.
“Huh, interesting.” My lips turn down and I nod my head. “And here I thought I had a choice.”
“You’ll always have a choice, Dakota. If your answer is no, then I’ll keep asking until it’s a yes. See, choice. I’m a very giving guy.” He squeezes my hand.
“Giving, huh?”
“Yeah, really giving. You say no, and I’ll give you another chance to say yes. Keep saying no, I’ll keep giving you chances to say yes.”
“What if I never say yes?”
“Pfft, that’s crazy people talk. There’s no reason for you to not say yes. I’m great boyfriend material.” I start laughing so hard, I begin to cough. He pats me on the back, helping me settle my coughing fit. “See, I can make you laugh. One tick for excellent boyfriend material.”
We reach Luke, who’s talking to one of his new friends and Reece offers to push him on the swing. Luke happily leaves the conversation he was having, and hops up on the swing waiting for Reece to push him again.
“See? Good boyfriend material.”
“What’s happening?” Luke asks.
“I’m trying to convince Dakota to be my girlfriend. Can you help me out, buddy?’
“Sure. Reece told Mommy he thinks he loves you.”
My eyes widen and my mouth gapes open while I stare at Reece. His face is exactly a reflection of mine. “Buddy, that’s not really helping. What did we talk about?” Reece’s face changes to a very red hue.
“Hey, we’re not supposed to lie.”
“No we’re not, but we don’t have to repeat everything we hear, either.”
“Oh. Um, sorry.” Luke looks at me and adds, “He thinks you’re really pretty. And he didn’t tell Mommy he thinks he loves you. He also didn’t tell Miles how he thinks you’re the girl for him.”
“Buddy, stop talking now.”
I crack up. I start laughing hard. Reece’s face is beyond humiliated, and Luke truly has no idea what he’s said.
A few minutes pass and the only one who’s having fun is Luke, being pushed higher and higher on the swing. When I stop laughing, and Reece can look me in the eyes again, I walk around to where he’s pushing Luke. “I like you too,” I whisper.
His face is still a pretty shade of horrified pink, but at least he smiles when I tell him.
Smiling to myself, a tiny part of me feels like a normal sixteen-year-old teenaged girl. Some might even say, happy.
The last few weeks have flown by. It’s the second to last week before the new school year starts, and panic has begun to set in.
Sam told me Mom gave her the same talk, considering Taylor’s been hanging around here at home with her. Sam said she cringed when Mom brought up sex, which in turn, made me laugh at Sam.
Today we’re all here. We’ve had lunch and we’re hanging in the pool. Reece is here with Luke, Taylor’s here and so is Sophie.
“Your parent’s are the best to let us all hang out here,” Reece says while he keeps an eye on Luke, who’s paddling around like a champion.
“Mom and Dad put the pool in because they said they’d rather have all our friends hanging here, than us being somewhere where we may not be so safe.” I cringe at those words, because all their efforts have been in vain. Even they couldn’t protect me.
Reece notices my shift in moods and swims over to me, embracing me in a hug. We haven’t kissed yet, unless you count Reece giving me a peck on the cheek, or on the forehead. I’m nowhere near being ready to become that intimate with him. Suddenly the mood shifts even lower, and now I feel horrible for not being able to give Reece a kiss and for Mom and Dad not being able to protect me. “Stop it, Dakota,” Reece responds to my plummeting mood.
“I can’t help it.” I look up into his eyes and he gives me the sweetest smile. “I can’t even kiss you yet.”
“Remember.” He taps me on the nose. “My heart is yours. And it can wait until you’re ready.”
Suddenly, I get hit in the back of the head with something soft and wet. “What twas that?” I shriek, turning around to see Sam laughing hard, and the evidence of what was a water bomb. “You did not!”
“I so did.” She wobbles her head from side to side, and lifts her finger to make a sassy ‘Z’ before snapping her fingers together.
“That’s it.”
“Come on, buddy. Let’s go get the girls,” Reece says to Luke.
“Yeah, water booooommmbs,” Luke eagerly replies.
Sam and Taylor have been busy, because there are literally hundreds of small water bombs in a huge bucket on the patio. “You’re so gonna get it,” I say to my sister and her devious boyfriend, who are using the side of the house as a shield.
I look over to the pool where Sophie is sitting on the steps, laughing and shaking her head. “I’ll sit this one out,” she yells at us.
“Party pooper.” I poke my tongue out at her in jest.
Picking up some water bombs, I sneak quietly around and lob three at my sister, who ducks down, dodging every single one I throw. Instead I get Taylor, who then chases me, throwing his bombs at my back. Laughing I try to get away, but I’m met with Reece and Luke, who are both armed and ready to attack.
“Hey, Luke?”
Luke throws one bomb from hand to hand, standing tall with a huge smile on his face. “Yeah,” he responds.
Sneaking a look over my shoulder, both Sam and Taylor are hiding while Reece and Luke are ganging up against me. “You like my pool?”
Reece’s mouth drops open and he playfully glares at me. “Don’t listen to her, buddy. She’s going to try to get me, and she’s going to use you to do it.”
“Nah, she won’t. She’s nice.”
“If you like using my pool, you can come over every day and use it if you help me get your brother and my sister.”
Luke’s little eyes smile mischievously and I know he’s on my side now.
“Don’t listen to her, buddy,” Reece reiterates, desperate to hold onto his little brother.
I give him a small nod, and with both of my hands fully loaded with water bombs, and Luke’s little hands holding a bomb each, we attack Reece.
Reece starts laughing, and makes a beeline straight for me. He grabs me around the waist, and calls to his brother, “Now, buddy.”
Luke pelts me with water bombs. I’m laughing so hard I have happy tears streaming down my face. “Let me go,” I try to say between the laughter.
Reece leans in and whispers, “Let’s go get your sister.” He then lightly pecks me on the cheek. I nod my head enthusiastically and stop struggling. “Luke, come here.” Luke comes over and Reece leans down to whisper to Luke how we’re going to get my sister and Taylor.
“Ready,” Luke announces proudly, sticking his little chest out.
The three of us sneak around the side of the house, however we don’t find Sam or Taylor. As we turn back, we’re ambushed by them. “It’s a trap!” I yell and start throwing with my eyes closed, hoping I hit either of them and not Reece or Luke.
There’s a lot of yelling, laughing and water flying around.
Reece, Luke, and I start taking charge and keep moving forward, making Sam and Taylor retreat toward the back slider. We’re encroaching and they’re looking around, trying to find something to shield themselves.
“Right,” I say while throwing a water bomb up and catching it, taunting them.
“Right,” Luke’s little voice echoes mine.
“Right. This is war,” Reece announces.
Sam’s eyes are frantically moving, searching for something she can use as cover while Taylor’s gaze is focusing on our three water bombs versus their two.
“Ready?” I ask my two soldiers.
“Ready,” they respond, synchronized.
“Set.”
They both take aim, and Sam bursts into laughter before the water balloons even leave our hands.
Then, the absolute worst thing that could happen does, just as I scream out, “Fire!”
Sam and Taylor duck at the same time that Mom comes through the slider carrying a pitcher of lemonade, and all three water balloons miss Taylor and Sam and get Mom. One in the face, one in the head, and one knocks the pitcher off the serving tray.
It’s so quiet, all I can hear is everyone breathing. Mom gasps and looks down at her completely drenched sundress. Her hair is all wet, and stuck to her face. Water is hanging on her cheek, big droplets falling to land on her chest.
“Did I just get hit by three water balloons?” she asks in an eerily quiet voice.
I look to Reece and then Sam. We’ve all got our lips pursed as tightly as possible, holding in gales of laughter, bursting to rip out of our mouths.
Taylor looks like he’s going to be sick. And although Luke has his little hand over his mouth, the giggles are escaping.
“Even you, Luke?” Mom asks when she lifts her head to look at us all.
“I’m sorry.” Luke answers, though his tone really says ‘this is the funniest thing ever, Mrs. B.’
“That was fresh homemade lemonade,” Mom says looking at the huge puddle at her feet in dismay.
“Or pee,” Luke cheekily says.
“Damn,” Sophie mumbles from over at the pool, then claps her hand over her mouth to hide her laughter.
Mom turns her head slowly, her eyes narrow and a menacing smile tugs at her lips. She looks sideways, seeing exactly where we’re all positioned and then at the bucket which has only a few water balloons left down the bottom.
We’re all watching her, ready to have her rip us a new one because we made her spill her lemonade.
Oh crap.
Mom dives to the bucket and grabs the last few water bombs, attacking us while laughing hard.
We all duck for cover, but not before she pitches some pretty decent throws at us. She gets us all, at least once.
“Right. I’m going inside to get cleaned up, and to have the last little bit of the lemonade I made. You can all have water,” she calls from over her shoulder.
We’re all laughing, tears streaming down our faces. Reece picks Luke up, and throws him in the pool then jumps in to join him. “Come on, it’s so nice in here,” he calls to us when
he comes up from under the water.
Sam’s already running toward the pool, and I head over to get the hose so I can clean the patio where Mom dropped the pitcher of lemonade.
Once I’ve cleaned up, I go and join the rest of them in the pool.
“I can do a handstand, wanna see?” Luke asks me as I sit on the step of the pool.
“No you can’t.”
“I so can. Look.” He’s in the shallow end and ducks under the water. He barely makes it down to touch the bottom before he swims up with a huge smile on his face. “See?”
“Did you even touch the bottom?” I ask.
“Yeah, look!” He dives back in and no quicker than he’s gone under, he’s back up again.
“Luke is such a confident swimmer,” I say to Reece.
“He’s a water baby. Mom had him in lessons from when he was six months old. He loves it.”
The back slider door slams open and we all look to the commotion of what’s happening. Dad’s home from work early and he has the angriest look I’ve ever seen on his face. He steps through, his hands on his hips, his back straight and his chest puffed out. His wild eyes look everywhere, taking in everyone who’s out here in the pool.
Mom stumbles out behind him, with a dry dress on and a towel in her hands as she wrings the water out of her hair.
“Honey, what’s going on?” she asks, placing a calming hand on Dad’s shoulder.
Dad looks at Mom, his jaw tight and body stiff from sheer rage. He looks back to us, where we’re all still from the attention he acquired with his overwhelmingly angry presence. “Unless you’re either of my two daughters, get out.”
Double crap.
“Um.” Reece looks over to me, his face etched with worry.
“It’s okay. Just go, I’ll call you later.”
“Come on, buddy, we gotta get home to help Mom with some chores.”
Luke swims over to Reece and the two get out of the pool. “Hey, Reece can you give me a lift home please?” Sophie asks.
“Sure. Do you need a lift too, Taylor?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
We all get out of the pool, and they all leave with a promise to call us later on tonight.
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