Page 54 of Forked (Frenched 2)
When I looked at him, I had all the stomach- flipping, panty-melting, heart-fluttery feelings I had all those years ago. When I thought about his success and saw how hard he’d worked to get where he was, I felt proud and happy. When I thought about being here at the farm, talking to Noni about family history, I felt like I belonged somehow. And when I thought about never being back here again, about saying goodbye to Nick tomorrow when the weekend was over, about going back to my regularly scheduled days of work, living with my parents, and no sex, I felt empty. No, worse than empty. Sad. Lonely. Depressed. Doomed to spend countless nights alone with my vibrator, getting myself off by thinking about Nick—and that’s only when I knew the house would be empty.
But. When I thought about what he’d done, I got so mad. I felt bitter and humiliated and betrayed. Served him right if he still loved me—here was my chance to make him feel a little of what I felt back then.
Only trouble was, I still loved him too.
Looking skyward as we turned around at the silo, I waited for lightning bolts to streak the sky or thunderclouds to burst. But there were just birds and trees and puffy white clouds. Did that mean the universe was in favor of a second chance? The lake came into view, and I made up my mind. I’d listen to what he had to say, and I’d tell him how I felt. If he could somehow convince me to give him another chance, I’d try again—barring any signs from the cosmos telling me to run for the hills.
Because this felt real. Familiar. Right. As if we were picking up our story where we left off, but now we had a chance to give it a better ending.
In order to do that, we had to go back to where we went wrong…we had to talk about it.
The thought was scary as hell. But it was the right thing to do, and the decision to face it freed me somehow. I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. With a fresh burst of energy, I surged ahead. “Race you to the lake!”
He laughed and shot past me through the trees within five seconds. I caught up just as he was ripping off his socks.
“First one in wins!” I yelled, barely slowing down to yank my Nikes from my feet and run right off the end of the rickety old wooden dock into the water, fully clothed, Nick at my heels.
Heart pounding, I went all the way under, the water blessedly cool against my hot skin. I rested for just a couple second under the water, my toes digging into the mucky sand bottom. The world around me rumbled when Nick jumped in beside me, and we surfaced at the same time.
“Cheater!” He shook his head to clear the dripping hair from his eyes and reached for me. I
“Look who’s calling who a cheater.” I tried to swim away from him, but his hand closed around my right ankle.
He pulled me back toward him, reaching for my waist when I was close enough. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Only that one of us has a history of cheating, and it isn’t me.” But I let him turn me into his arms, running my hands up his shoulders and wrapping my legs around his torso. The water came up to his chest, just below the tattoo of my name. Every time I looked at it, I felt a surge of desire for him.
“Aren’t you ever going to let the cheating thing go? It was so long ago, Coco.” His hands slid beneath my ass.
I shrugged. Would I ever be able to let it go? Not a bad place to start. “Maybe we should talk about it.”
He groaned. “Now? I do want to talk to you, like I said before, but now I can’t concentrate. It was bad enough when you put on your little running outfit but now that you’re all wet too…” He kissed me, and his cock stirred between us. “Now I have other ideas.”
“Mmmmm.” I squeezed him with my thighs, pulled him closer with my heels. “Tempting. Except remember what happened that last time we did it in this lake?”
His face fell. “Oh yeah. It gave you an infection.”
“Right.” I’d never had a UTI before, so I was terrified by the symptoms. Nick had gone with me to the campus clinic and held my hand in the waiting room. It cleared up after a round of antibiotics, but I didn’t feel like repeating the experience. Shuddering, I shook my head. “Sorry, no sex in the lake.”
“No. I agree.” He spun around, making my stomach go weightless. “I’ll just look at you, then. I could do that all day.”
I smiled. “Liar.”
“You’re right. That’s a lie.” He spun around the other way. “I wouldn’t last all day.”
I hugged him close, chest to chest, and rested my chin on his shoulder. Cool water swirled between us, the sun warming my arms and glinting off the surface of the lake. “It’s OK. I wouldn’t last all day either.”
We stayed like that for a couple minutes, so peaceful that I was loath to disturb the mood with a painful conversation, but I wasn’t one to wait around when I had something to say. And the sooner we dealt with the past, the sooner we could try to bury it and move forward.
At that moment, I honestly believed it was possible.
I opened my mouth, but Nick spoke first.
“Coco.”
“Yes?”
He swallowed. “I lied to you. That night we broke up.”
