Chapter 2

If life was fireworks, we’d be that big flower shell that blasted into the sky in a few seconds, trailing just a few sparks to allow you to follow its path, then the BIG explosion, stars filling the skies, and now we were at the stage where you could close your eyes and the image was burned into your retinas.

We were lying there naked on a beach in the sun, talking.

“If the divorce was final, I’d move you in with me immediately. If that’s what you want.”

“You gotta know that’s what I want,” she said. “And two weeks. That’s what it takes if you don’t contest it.”

“I didn’t know that.”

She smiled. “I do. I looked it up. Two weeks to a month after she files, IF you don’t contest. And that part where she lived with Mom and me for six months, like y’all were separated.”

“We just as well have been.”

“I believe you. I heard her and Mom talking.”

“Colby, honest, I haven’t had sex with Sam in more than six months. At first, she just wasn’t interested, and then, it didn’t matter if she was interested or not, I never knew if I wasn’t getting sloppy seconds...”

“Ewwww, baby...” Colby said. She kissed me. “I saw you hurting but I couldn’t do anything. I was afraid, too. I could dream of you wanting me, but if you’d’ve rejected me I don’t know how I would’ve handled it.”

“Sometimes I just wanted you and me and whatever we could load into the pickup and the travel trailer, and hit the road. Go find someplace and have OUR lives together. Of course, it was really MY Life, but I wanted to think that YOU would be a great thing to make a part of it.”

“We just made me part of it, baby, if you’re as serious as I am.”

I brushed my fingers along her cheek, losing myself in those big grey eyes. A flash of thought went through my mind, incongruous here on a beach in the height of summer. I saw us covered up together, cozy in the dead of winter, each with a mug of steaming fortified cider and a book. I don’t know if Colby will do the cider, but I know where she stands on books.

“There’re a million ways I want you to be part of it. Actually, you’ll be ALL of it to me.”

A little shiver shook her.

“Are you okay?”

“Look, you! I just had the most amazing experience in my life today. I keep getting these little tingles.”

I smiled. “I understand. I just don’t show ‘em. You’re beautiful and sexy and I love you.”

“I dunno about the ‘beautiful and sexy’ part, but Cole, I definitely love you.”

“Beautiful and sexy,” I repeated, kissing her.

“I can be that to you.”

“You’re smiling. I always wanted those smiles to be for me.”

“You silly man. When you were around, they usually WERE for you.”

We kissed a few more times, caressing, loving, then got up, shook the towel out and stowed it.

Each of us got dressed. She faced me, letting me drink in the view. Of course, she watched me. I got my shorts on. She stepped forward, a hand reaching down, then up the leg of my trunks to feel my dick.

“I really like this, Cole. I’m gonna have so much fun with you and me.”

We started the trip back, wading in the shallows of the creek, towing the pirogue behind us. Empty, it drew maybe an inch of water, so us walking along was a lot less effort and much faster than getting out into the stream and paddling against the current.

Trouble comes in when we run out of shallows. We get in, paddle together until we reach the next shallow spot, then get out and walk.

We made three sandbars on the trip back before, “Let’s stop here. If it’s isolated.”

“Uh, yeah...”

She grabbed the beach towel. “That was my FIRST one ever. Maybe I’m not done for the day.”

“You’re not sore?”

“Not sore enough to pass up another one.”

I dragged the boat halfway onto the beach. It’s safe there. We picked a spot halfway between the water and the grass line, spread the towel.

I looked at my new lover as she started unbuttoning her blouse. My undressing was quick – rip the t-shirt over my head, pulling the tie-string to drop my trunks.

“I could get used to us bein’ naked out in the sunlight,” she smiled, stepping into my arms.

“Sweetness, I could get used to us being together, naked or otherwise, just about anywhere.”

She towed me down with her as she sat back on the beach towel. Just the thought of this eager, happy young lady is enough to account for a stonecutter of an erection. I knelt between her knees. Her right hand wrapped around my dick, tugging me towards her goal.

We both sighed together, then she giggled. “You and me ... Perfect!”

“Yes, you are...”

I didn’t have to strain quite as much to keep from unloading in her delightfully tight pussy this time. We rode against each other, kissing, her lips, her neck, and if I curled hard, those two pink-nippled titties. She was grinding to her goal and I told myself I was along for the ride. Guys. My orgasm was a given. Hers was something to attain.

We got there locked in a tight embrace. After sighs and little kisses, “Two! You gave me TWO! I’m gonna sleep good tonight,” a statement that was to tell me that her prognosticator creds were suspect.

We stayed wrapped up together for a bit before we got up, got dressed, and resumed our journey. This time she gave me a mischievous grin as she turned to meet me in the water. Her blouse remained unbuttoned.

“Does it bother you?” she said with a twinkle.

“If by ‘bother’ you mean, ‘delight’ or ‘arouse’, yes. Am I complaining? No.”

We made three or four more bends in the river before “You know, I REALLY like it. And we probably won’t get a chance when we get back...”

Oh, yeah. It’s been a long time since I did three in one day.

And Colby is thinking. As we’re wading in shallow water, the pirogue floating along behind us, our conversation ranged far and wide, but part of it was, “I overheard Mizz Sam telling Mom stuff about y’all, you know...”

“You told me that.”

“I didn’t understand some of it because I had nothing to make a comparison, but now I understand.”

“What do you understand?”

“She told Mom that you ... sex ... you wanted to spend the afternoon in bed.”

“Yeah ... she was a kinda ‘get it over with’ girl.”

“I didn’t understand ... Cole, you and me, first chance we get, I WANT that ‘all afternoon’ thing.”

“It would be my pleasure, baby. You’re a feast.”

“It’s kinda scary, you know,” she said.

“Why scary?”

“I mean, I just GAVE myself to you. Premeditated a little bit, but I did, and it’s all because I thought I read things about you that told me I was safe doing it. I knew the divorce thing. I think I know your personality ‘n’ stuff. I know you put up with a lot of crap from Mizz Sam, and that you and me, we’re friends ... but that’s a BIG step from ... for ... the physical thing. I guess maybe the relationship stuff might’ve come first.”

I stopped walking, gathered her to me with my free arm. “Colby love, I know what you gave me and I’m pretty sure I know the exact Colby that did it. I will spend my life trying to honor you as my mate. Wife. Lover. All those things. If I didn’t think you and I could be that to each other, we wouldn’t have done what WE did together.”

“See?!? That’s what I wanted to think...”

I kissed her. “That’s the way it is,” I said, “says the divorced guy who’s giving his heart to a teenaged girl. You’re not the only one who takes a risk here.”

“I got that,” she said. “It’s simple. You take care of me. I take care of you. We know each other. We’ll do it right. I know what you look like when you’re tired and aggravated. You know what I look like when I’m aggravated and upset, and we both know how to fix each other.” She raised an eyebrow. “Although we just might have some new tools to use now.”

“Then let’s do it, princess. As soon as us being together won’t cause legal problems, me and you – together. And married.” I’m still thinking that Colby’s only eighteen, but then this IS the same Colby who’s been my friend for years, and of late the friendship seems to have transitioned from ‘adult-teen’ to equals. I always saw her as different – more mature, not flighty, so if she says she loves me and we’ve made today our day for a lifelong commitment, I’m all in on it.

After all, I already know what you get if you sign up with one who says, ‘we could give it a try.’

“You do realize that when Sam presents the papers to me I ain’t living there any more.”

“She could be the one who moves out,” Colby said.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t bet money. I halfway expect that part of her need to go into town today was to box up all my stuff. Or throw it out on the lawn.”

“I don’t think she’d throw it out,” she said. “What’ll you do for a place to stay?”

“For right now, I got the trailer. Leave it right here, do the commute. Then look for a place, where to keep this trailer, or an apartment or something.”

“Am I crazy if I say I’d love to live in the trailer with you?”

“Just as crazy as I am for you to stay there with me. Love it. But it’s too remote for long-term. Besides, what would you do during the day when I’m gone?”