Free Seasons by Katrina Alba Page B

my legs around his waist. He catches me, keeping us from falling, and I kiss him like he’s a soldier just coming home from war. In reality, I haven’t seen him in about twenty-four hours. He slowly lowers me down his body, back to the ground, and smirks at me. “Miss me?” he teases.
    “Nope, that’s how I say hello to everyone now,” I tease back.
    “Better not be,” he says in mock sternness and then swats my bottom. “You have all your stuff packed?”
    “Yep, I’ll be right back,” I reply before running inside to grab my bag and to say goodbye to Mom. We are going camping for the weekend with a big group of friends, sort of a last hoorah before a lot of the gang goes off to college in a week. Melanie is riding with Austin, and some of the others are meeting us at the campground. She and Austin have been pretty hot and heavy all summer, but she says it’s just an amazing booty call that will end when he goes off to school. I’m not sure I believe that, but I go with it anyway. I’m just glad to be able to spend a lot of time with my best friend since she’s seeing one of Charlie’s closest friends.
    I throw my bag in the back of the pick-up with all the gear for the trip. I hop onto the passenger seat. Before I can turn and pull my legs into the truck, Charlie sneaks in between them. I spread my thighs apart enough to allow him in. He’s at eye level with all of our parts perfectly aligned since I’m sitting high up on the truck seat. Charlie presses his full body against me. He gives me the gentlest kiss briefly before turning, leaving me wanting more, when he goes to get in the truck. I sigh, pull my legs in, and close the door before we reverse out of the driveway.
    The drive to the campgrounds takes about an hour. When we pull into the facilities, we’re driving through some of the most gorgeous scenery I have ever seen. We take a winding road to our campsite. Our group has paid for two campsites next to each other. Two tents are allotted per site. The rest of the group is already there when we arrive, and Austin and Melanie look like they are attempting to erect their tent while screaming at each other as we get out of the truck.
    “I told you, you have to put the poles through before you connect them all!” Mel is yelling at Austin who looks frustrated.
    “I know what I’m doing, okay?” Austin says although he clearly does not know what he’s doing. Charlie jumps out of the truck and goes over to help Austin finish putting the tent together. Melanie brightens when she sees me and comes bounding over to say hi.
    “Bout time you guys got here. Can you believe this jackass can’t put a tent together?” I laugh at her.
    “Well, they can’t all be perfect.” I wink at her. She helps me take the other tent and equipment out of the truck bed while the boys finish putting up the first tent. The boys start on the second tent that Charlie and I will be staying in while Melanie and I start blowing up the air mattresses. Yep, I know, totally roughing it on our air mattresses. In our defense, we have to walk a block to the nearest bathroom. There are nine of us—the four from our campsite, another couple, and three guys sharing the fourth tent.
    Charlie and I lock eyes a few times while we’re setting up. I find my eyes drawn to him constantly. The past two months have been nothing short of perfection. I want to be near him, touching him whenever possible. He’s in my thoughts at all times, and I can’t imagine ever getting tired of the sight of him. On our first actual date, he picked me up, and being the gentleman he is he, of course, brought me flowers. They were unique roses. I had never seen anything like them before. Charlie said they represented us. “Yellow roses are for friendship, red represent love, but confetti roses are yellow and fade into red,” he told me when he gave them to me. The recent months have been like some sort of fairy tale. I never knew I could be this happy. I