Free Untouched: a Cedar Cove Novella by Melody Grace

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 perfect day, and I can tell from the
new tension in Emerson’s body, he feels it too.
    Two weeks.
    How can things change
so completely in two weeks? Or, even less than that. A day, the first
day I met Emerson. The very first moment. We were strangers. I walked
around in this world, not even knowing he existed, and now leaving
the arms currently wrapped around me seems almost unthinkable. I
belong here, I know it, with every instinct in my body.
    It’s too much to
think about right