Free Forget Me (Hampton Harbor) by Jess Petosa

flopping fish if I tried the same move. He comes
back to the side of the boat and holds his arms out. The water is waist high on
him, which is nearly shoulder deep for me. 
    "I'll help you
down."
    I put my legs over the side
of the boat and jump, not so gracefully, into his arms. He has one arm behind
my back and the other under my knees, and I'm trying not to think about how my
flesh is tingling where his skin touches mine.
    "Aren't you going to
put me down?" I ask.
    "I'm not sure
yet," he responds.
    I roll my eyes and pinch
his arm. "Put me down."
    He sets me on my feet, and
I hurry through the cold water, squealing slightly. I make it up to the sandbar
and turn around to find that Will is still standing in the water. "What,
you don't know how to swim?"
    I laugh and then pause.
"Well, I don't really know."
    Thankfully, Will laughs
too. "There is only one way to find out."
    "I like it up
here," I motion to the small piece of land. 
    One of Will's dark eyebrows
raises and he moves through the water, reaching the dry part of the sandbar
quickly. I try to back away from him, but with no place to hide, he grabs a
hold of me in seconds. He throws me over his shoulder and heads back toward the
water. I slap at his back, laughing, and try to kick with my feet.
    "It's better if you
just get it over with," he says as the water creeps higher and higher.
When the water rises above his belly button he flips me around and drops me.
    I plunge into the cold
water and kick my feet underneath me, pushing myself to a stand. I gasp as my
head clears the water and I push my sunglasses up onto my head. It's a miracle
they stayed on at all. Pieces of my hair have fallen from my ponytail and now
hang over my shoulders.
    "That was so  mean,"
I say through a smile, which I realize doesn't make my words very
convincing. 
    "I'm known to be mean
every once in awhile." He shrugs.
    "I notice that you are
still pretty dry on the top half." I poke his chest.
    He looks down. "I
guess you're right."
    Before he has a chance to
react I pounce on him. I wrap my arms around his neck and bring him down with
me, straight into the water. I release my hold immediately and we both break
through the surface at the same time.
    "Now who's the mean
one?" he asks.
    "I guess I can be mean
every once in awhile, too." I shrug and push away from him, drifting back
into the water.
    He dives beneath the
surface and I stand up, looking around for him. I feel his hands grab my ankles
and I barely get out a scream before I am pulled under the water. We splash
back and forth for a little while, before finally floating peacefully in the
shallow water. I notice that I've finally lost my sunglasses, but I don't even
mind. The water temperature feels warm now, nothing like it was when I first
stepped in. The sun beats down on my skin, and I let the extra warmth wash over
me. I wade back toward the shore and collapse on the sand. Will follows me and
does the same.
    "Did you really just
have a hunch that I would be at home today?" I ask. I lean my head to the
side and look at Will. He's close to me, and if I lean forward just a few
inches our noses would touch.
    He nods. "I stopped by
the cafe for breakfast and didn't see you there. Amy told me you were off until
dinner so I figured this was a good place to start my search."
    "So you came by boat?"
I laugh.
    "It was either that or
horseback. The boat felt faster," he said with a smile.
    "Horseback?" I
say with a laugh.
    "I was trying to be
romantic."
    I turn onto my side and
rest my cheek on the arm stretched above my head. With the other hand I draw
pictures in the small stretch of sand between us.
    "What are we doing,
Will?" I look up and my eyes meet his.
    "I don't know,"
he says softly. "I've argued with myself dozens of times since our talk on
the dock. I know how risky and foolish it would be to date you given your
current situation, but I think that short of leaving for the summer, I'm not
going to be able to avoid you. And