Page 45 of Incomplete
Upon emerging from the depths of the lake and refilling my lungs with air, I was greeted by the boisterous laughter of Lakelyn’s voice echoing across the surface as she floated on her back, enjoying the weightless abandon of the water. Drawn to her infectious personality, I swam closer just as she transitioned to treading water and swiveled in search of me.
The moment our eyes connected, her smile became so bright the sun could never compete, and this woman had wrecked me as it was clear no one else would ever compare.
Chapter19
Lakelyn
My alarm went off twenty minutes ago, yet I couldn’t bring myself to get up. I just wanted to live in the memory of my time with Boden. After our movie in the forest was abruptly cut short by the freak rainstorm, our evening turned into a full-on immersed experience, followed by a morning that made me forget all my worries.
When I think back to after I jumped in the lake with Boden, I initially had second thoughts, worried about how I would get out of the water without giving him an eyeful of my thong. Given the angle at which I stripped out of his borrowed clothes, I was sure he was none the wiser. However, I was suddenly self-conscious at that moment. It turned out, the blip of worry was all in my head, as when it came time to get out, Boden took the lead.
Clad in his white boxers, I watched as his muscular legs carried him to the trailer, only to return with one towel tucked under his arm and another wrapped around his hips. His towel, slung low, accentuated a sharp heavenly V and the wisp of darkened hair under his belly button that disappeared beneath the towel. Boden was the epitome of hard muscle everywhere, from his legs to his chiseled chest, complete with an eight-pack granite wall of drool-worthy abs, to his arms that made my knees weak.
He made my brain fuzzy with feelings I’d written off and didn’t believe existed. Then he turned his head away when he held the towel up. It was a pure gentleman move when I fantasized about him doing very ungentlemanly things to me all night.
“Ugh, get it together, Lakelyn.” I groaned.
I got up, showered at the speed of light, threw my wet hair up in a topknot since I didn’t have time to dry it, got dressed, applied a quick coat of mascara, and just finished swiping my favorite lip gloss across my lips as the doorbell rang.
“You’re early,” I greeted him as he replied with a telling smirk. “Or were you hoping for a little payback?”
“Payback?” he queried.
“For the time, I was early to your place and caught you in your towel.”
“Ah, yes. It would appear I’m a few minutes too late.” He didn’t even bother to hide how his hooded eyes made a slow show of perusal, taking in my appearance.
“I think you saw enough yesterday,” I teased. “Anyway, let me grab my shoes and bag, and then I’m all yours—I mean, ready to be put to work.”
I turned around quickly to hide the redness creeping up my cheeks while silently hoping my actions would deter him from replying with a witty comeback regarding all the various ways he’d seen me in the past twenty-four hours.
Why did I have to be so darn awkward?
* * *
“I think that counts as my daily cardio and weight workout,” I joked, lowering the last two stacked boxes of flooring I was carrying into the house from Boden’s truck.
“Thank you, I appreciate your help.”
“But of course, that’s why I’m here. So, is the plan still for me to paint the kitchen?”
“Yes. I’ll help get you all set up.”
I spent the next hour painting until Boden appeared beside me.
“I’ve got to run out to Home Depot quick. Are you good here, or do you want to come for a break?”
I climbed down the stepladder to get more primer on the roller. “I think I’ll stay if that’s okay; I’ve got a good momentum going on here. Plus, the quicker I finish priming the walls, I can move on to adding some color.”
“Sounds good. I shouldn’t be long.”
“Okay, be safe.” The words passed my lips as if on autopilot, but the voice I heard wasn’t mine. It was my dad’s voice and a saying he would say without fail if he were home whenever I went out.
Without warning, an early memory from my childhood flashed before me and flooded my psyche, thus separating me from the outside world as I allowed myself the reprieve to zone out. The vision before me was so crystal clear it was as if it were yesterday, while the raw emotions from that night slammed into me, knocking my axis off-balance. The happiness that trumped the melancholy in my chest when my dad surprised Annabelle and me one summer’s day by coming home early from work to take us to the park was immeasurable.
It was out of character but not unwelcome.
I could still recall the warmth of his hand I’d clutched tightly on the walk to the park until we reached the grass on the outskirts. It was then that my sister and I took off running. However, the winner of that particular race earned a first-class trip to the emergency room for stitches.
