Lyrics of a Small Town by Abbi Glines

Twenty-Two

Rio was sitting on the massive sectional sofa with a bag of chips and the television remote in his hand when we walked into the living area. He looked up at us and then grinned. I returned his smile and Saul’s hand touched my lower back. I wasn’t sure if it was some sign of possession or warning to Rio. I had thought after the information about us possibly being siblings, Saul understood our relationship.

“You want something to drink?” Saul asked me.

“Water is fine,” I told him, wanting any reason to stall from getting changed into my bathing suit.

“I’ll take a beer,” Rio said, flashing his dimpled grin at Saul now.

“You got a problem with your legs?” he shot back.

Rio stretched them out and groaned. “Yeah, they’re killing me.”

“Sure they are,” Saul replied and left my side to walk over to the bar.

“I’m fucking serious! Do you know how many boxes of produce I had to unload the past two days? Pops is trying to kill me through manual labor. You’re at the bar already. You can get me a beer,” Rio told him.

“If you’re serving drinks, I want a Jack,” Drake called out as he walked into the room from a doorway I hadn’t been through and had no idea where it led.

“His legs work fine,” Rio said.

“What? Something’s got to be wrong with my legs for him to get me a drink? He’s at the bar already,” Drake replied. “Hey, Henley,” he added when he saw me.

I lifted a hand in a small wave.

His drink request forgotten, he walked over to the stairs leading up to the second level of the room and leaned on the rail. “You know you can always bring that hot little redhead that works with you at the shop when you come over. I won’t complain and I’ll share with Rio.”

“Jesus, Drake,” Saul said as he walked back my way with a bottle of water in his hand and nothing else.

I thought of the fact that Rio might just be related to Emily and knew I was going to have to deal with that very soon. “I don’t want to share with you, Drake,” Rio called out. “You didn’t get me a beer? Seriously? What has our friendship come to?”

Saul ignored him and his hand returned to my back. “Come on, I’ll show you where you can get changed.”

“So I can’t ask her to hook me up with the redhead?” Drake called out as Saul led me away from the room and to the door that went back to where the stairs were.

“Ignore him. That’s what we do,” Saul said.

“He’s very…” I wasn’t sure the right word to use for him.

“Fucking annoying,” Saul finished for me.

I laughed. “I wasn’t going to say that.”

He led me up the stairs and I saw he was smiling. It wasn’t a big smile, but it was something. I liked to see him smile. He seemed younger and less burdened. He didn’t smile enough.

“You’ll learn soon enough and that is exactly what you will be saying,” Saul informed me.

“Yet he’s one of your best friends and roommate,” I said.

“I had to give in. He was like one of those puppies that won’t go away,” Saul told me as we reached the top of the stairs. He went to the first door on the right and opened it. “You can change in here. Bathroom is that way if you need it.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

He didn’t make a move to leave and I waited, watching him. His eyes were so blue it was easy to get lost in them when his gaze was locked on you. His hand touched my chin then and he brushed my bottom lip with his thumb.

I shivered and stood very still, in hopes he was about to grant me with another of those kisses that made my knees weak. He bent his head and brushed a kiss on the corner of my mouth. “If I kiss you we won’t leave this room,” he whispered near my ear before dropping his hand and walking away.

I held onto the door frame for support for a moment then inhaled and gathered myself before stepping back and closing the door.

“Whew,” I muttered. Every nerve in my body seemed to come to life so easily with Saul.

I looked at the bed in the center of the room and thought about what he had said. I wasn’t so sure I had a problem with not leaving this room. At least my body didn’t. Shaking my head in hopes of clearing it, I sat my bag down on the end of the bed and opened it up to pull out my swimsuit. I hadn’t brought a cover-up, but I did have the large beach towel I could wrap around myself. There was no way I was walking through this house with nothing but my bathing suit covering me.

Quickly I changed and wrapped myself up in the towel in case Saul came back. I didn’t look in the mirror for fear I wouldn’t have the nerve to leave this room. I didn’t look bad in a bathing suit. The turquoise somehow made my pale skin appear attractive, if that was even possible. My body was decent. I just had years of my mother in my head, telling me my flaws and how to fix them.

I folded up my clothing and put it in the bag and picked my bottle of water back up before opening the door. I didn’t see Saul and I wondered if I was supposed to wait here or go back downstairs. After a moment, I decided I’d head down and wait for Saul there.

I could hear Rio and Drake talking about a volleyball game they had planned tomorrow but I didn’t hear Saul. Glancing back at the stairs, I wondered if he was still up there. Standing in the foyer was dumb, so I forced myself to go into the living area. Drake would probably say something that was embarrassing or shocking, but Rio was there. I wouldn’t be alone with him.

The moment I walked into the room, Drake let out a low whistle.

“Shut up,” Rio told him.

“What? She’s not my sister,” he replied.

I glanced at Rio and he shook his head. “Ignore him.”

That made me laugh. It was exactly what Saul had said.

“Guess the pool is off-limits this evening,” Drake said and fell back onto the sofa. “Saul won’t share. He’s the selfish sort.”

I walked down the three stairs and went to the opposite side of the sofa to sit down. “I saw your text,” Rio told me. “Just haven’t had time to respond. Work has been brutal.”

“It’s okay. It can wait,” I replied.

“Yeah, she’s a bit busy herself,” Drake said with a wicked grin.

Rio glared at him then rolled his eyes.

I took a drink of my water, torn between wanting Saul to hurry up and wanting him to take a while longer so I could get my courage up about this swimming suit thing.

“I told her he’s been playing the guitar again,” Drake said in a low voice.

Rio glanced at him then me. “That’s a good thing,” he told me. “It’s been awhile since he’s done that.”

I hoped I would get to hear him play the guitar and sing. I wasn’t sure if it was something he only did alone in his room or in front of people. However, asking him would mean I had to tell him how I knew about it and I didn’t know if that was an issue.

“We got a volleyball game out on the sand tomorrow. Want to join? You can be on my team,” Drake said then and I turned to look at him.

“She’s got plans,” Saul said and my attention quickly shifted to the doorway he had just walked through. My breathing also became difficult. He only had on a pair of dark blue swim trunks and there was not one flaw on his body. It was unfair and beautiful at the same time.

Drake chuckled then and propped his feet up on the large round ottoman. “I’m sure she does,” he replied.

Saul’s gaze found me and I felt my entire body flush. I put the top back on my water and stood up. A crooked grin curled his lips. “Come on,” he said.

We left the other two inside as we made our way out to the pool. The sun still had an hour before it set and the light on the gulf was beautiful. Standing on the pool deck, I looked out over the fading day glistening on the water. The hard things in life seemed easier when you saw things such as this.

“It’s my favorite time of day to be out here,” Saul said, standing behind me and placing a hand on my hip.

“I can see why,” I replied softly.

Neither of us said anything more for several moments.

When Saul finally moved from behind me, I turned toward him. He gave me a wicked grin and then his eyes surveyed the towel I was clutching at my chest. “You gonna take that off?” he asked then walked over to the edge of the pool and, as if it was a choreographed move, dove smoothly into the water barely breaking the surface.

I stood there watching him glide under the surface, knowing I was going to have to take the towel off and get in too. It was either that or I could stand here like an uptight dork all evening. I did have the setting sunlight to help aid in my pale skin. When the sun was bright, I always feared my skin glowed from its lack of a golden tan.

Easing my hold on the towel, I let go of it and laid it over the edge of a lounge chair then walked to the edge of the zero-entry side of the pool and made my way down the small slant into the deeper water. I knew Saul was watching me but making eye contact seemed impossible right now. I was sure my cheeks were red and I hated that about myself. I wanted to be as cool and as tropical vacation commercial worthy as he was but that wasn’t happening.

Once the water was below my breasts, I felt brave enough to meet his gaze. He had a crooked grin and I could see the twinkle of amusement in his eyes. This wasn’t something I was used to seeing from Saul. The guy I knew wasn’t playful at all but dark, broody, and withdrawn. The one looking at me now was different. More approachable. Less intimidating.

“Am I amusing you?” I asked.

He nodded slowly.

“And what am I doing that has you amused?” I shot back with my own playful smile. I didn’t want broody Saul back just yet. I liked this version.

He gave me a full sexy as hell smirk then and I felt tingly all over. “You’re shy about being in your bikini in front of me. It’s fucking adorable.”

I glanced down at my body under the water. My two-piece would qualify as a bikini but not by the standards of most girls I had seen at his house. When I lifted my eyes back to meet his I shrugged, acting as casual as I could about this. I didn’t know what to say to his accusation since it was entirely true.

Saul moved toward me and I had to remind myself to keep breathing. His bare muscular chest looked even more amazing with water droplets running down his sun-kissed skin. He didn’t stop until he was barely an inch from me. I watched as he lifted his hands from the water and cupped my face.

Knowing what was coming next, I closed my eyes just as his lips met mine. Once I had kissed Will in the rain but never had I been kissed in a pool. There was a sexiness to it that felt more intimate. The fact we had very little covering our bodies, our cold wet bodies touching, the sun setting just over our shoulders. This would be one of those kisses I remembered. Long after I left this town, this would come back to me. How it felt to have this beautiful boy touch me, how he tasted of whiskey and sunshine, and the warmth our bodies created from their nearness.

Wanting to feel his skin under my fingertips, I ran my hands up his chest. He shivered under my touch and the power that came from such a simple reaction was what I would guess a high felt like. I wanted more of that, more of him being made weak by me. This was new to me and so very different from what I had known before. Leaning closer to him, I ran my hands up to his shoulders.

His hands left my face and grabbed my waist firmly then jerked me flush against him. My breasts were pressed against his warm damp skin and this time, it was me who shivered. Our kiss changed then too. Something more desperate or needy began to take over and I had never felt this inability to control my reactions as I did now.

The moment Saul’s hand slid from my waist to the fabric of my swimsuit bottoms to the sensation of his fingertips touching the bare skin of my bottom, I realized I no longer cared about my insecurities. Those had fled and had been replaced by desire.

Saul’s mouth left mine and moved to the spot behind my ear and then to my neck. The hand cupping my bottom slid down to my thigh and he grabbed it to pull my leg up onto his hip. The pressure from his obvious arousal against the very thin barrier between my legs made all other thoughts fade away. My body was focused on nothing else but the sensations being with him this way were causing. I tipped my head back as he began kissing down my collarbone and the tops of my breasts.

Holding onto me, he moved us back until I felt his body hit the side of the pool and my knee press into the wall behind him. The hand Saul still had on my hip moved then and I felt the cool breeze against my nipple only a moment before his mouth pulled it into the warmth. I had to grab onto his shoulders for support and rocked my hips against him as I moaned from the pleasure coursing through me.

I hadn’t come here tonight… I hadn’t gotten in this pool with him, thinking this would happen. Possibly I had imagined kissing but not this. In the back of my mind, I feared what this would do to me. Deep down, I knew this would make me vulnerable, but in this moment with his body against mine and his mouth tasting me, I couldn’t make myself care.

The intoxicating freedom of taking what I wanted and enjoying it was stronger than any concern for my future. Saul’s mouth moved to the other breast and I buried my hands in his dark wet curls. I moved my hips against him and my head fell back further as the pressure between my legs caused my body to start clawing toward a release.

Saul released my nipple and he lifted his head up to look at me. His half-lidded eyes did nothing to hide the sky blue color of them, but his pupils were so large they were pushing the color back. His hands slid to my lower back and he began to move his body with mine. His gaze never leaving me, I felt one hand brush the skin on my side, then my stomach as he slipped it into the front of my bikini bottoms.

Breathing was no longer something I could do as I waited for his touch.

“Hate to break up the party but you got a fucking psycho ex in here that won’t leave.” Drake’s voice rang out over the patio and with his words he might as well have tossed a bucket of ice water on our heads.

I moved first, dropping the leg I had up on his hip, and started to back away when his hands grabbed my waist. “No,” he said. Then pulled me to him and buried his face in the curve of my neck and shoulder.

I stood there for only a second before I placed my hands on his arms. I wasn’t sure if I had put them there to break free or not, but I didn’t do anything but stand there breathing hard.

“Fuck,” he said in a husky voice and then finally raised his head to look at me. I saw the same frustration and disappointment in his eyes that I felt. My body still wasn’t on board with the sudden halt to the pleasure, but I was breathing again.

He brushed my cheek with the back of his hand as he stared at me. “I’ll go deal with this. Wait for me,” he whispered.

Did he think I would say no? Had any female ever told him no? I would wager they hadn’t. I nodded.

He pressed a kiss to my temple and lingered for a moment then stepped back away from me and headed for the steps nearest to us, leading out of the pool. I watched him go and wondered if this had been fate. Had I been about to make a mistake and it was stepping in to keep me from it?

The idea depressed me. I didn’t want to think being with Saul was a bad thing. I wanted to enjoy it and not think at all. If I thought too much, I was afraid of how I might see things.

“Could you fucking hurry?” Drake’s voice called out. “She’s batshit!”

I turned to see a white towel wrapped around Saul’s waist as he walked back toward the house. I would be lying if a part of me didn’t worry that he’d see Fleur and remember why he was with her. He would miss her or feel something for her. Just admitting that to myself was proof enough I was past the point of no return. When this was over, whatever it was between us, I was going to be hurt.

It was clear Fleur was hurt and he had moved on from her so quickly. To me. And I had thought nothing of it. Until now. I could easily be Fleur one day.