by McClung, Amy
It was a little big on me so I twisted my hair up on top of my head and placed the hat on top. The extra hair inside tightened it and kept me cool too. He motioned for me to sit first. I eased myself down onto the edge of the dock. I slipped my socks and tennis shoes off and rolled my jeans up to my knees so they wouldn't get wet. Ashton rolled his jeans up and sat beside me.
He picked up a Styrofoam cup. When he opened the plastic top, I squealed, “Gross!” There were several fat slimy worms crawling through dirt inside the cup.
He chuckled at my girly-ness, “Not that girly at all,” he teased, bumping his shoulder against mine. He baited the hook for me and handed me the pole.
“Do I just plop it in the water now?”
He smiled. “No, honey, I’ll show you.”
Oh-to-the-freaking-my, him calling me honey gave me chills all up my arms.
I waited patiently while he baited the hook to his pole. He slid behind my back with his legs sitting on either side of me. I bit my lip as his arm reached for mine to show me how to handle the fishing pole. His arm pulled mine back and to the right gently. He instructed me on flinging the pole forward to cast my line. I did as he said and the line shot straight out across the lake.
He whispered in my ear, “Great job.”
His lips grazed my ear, causing me to suck my bottom lip in with a gasp. I turned slightly and smiled when I saw his face so close to mine. He moved away from me and cast his line next.
“Do you come here often?” I asked.
He smirked. “Is that a pick-up line or small-talk?”
I laughed and said, “You know what I mean.”
He grinned. “I haven’t been out in a while. My dad took me as a kid every weekend in the summer. He taught my brother Derrick and me. The three of us used to camp once a month and he made us live off the land during that time.”
I had an image of an old black and white TV show with the father and son whistling as they carried fishing poles to the lake. The thought made me smile. Everything about Ashton made me smile.
“What all did he teach you for camping?”
He shrugged. “The usual: fishing, hunting, building a fire, that kind of stuff.”
I smiled. “That sounds nice. I’ve never been camping. I’d like to go sometime, with you.” Take it back, Gracie. Take it back.
He seemed surprised. “You would?”
I tried to fix my faux pas. “Yeah. Maybe we could get a bunch of people together and go camping. It would be fun.”
He turned back the lake. “Check out your line.”
As I caught sight of my line I began to bounce up and down excitedly. "I got something!"
He laughed as I tried to jerk the line back. "Wait, wait." Ashton reached for my hand and placed it on the reel. He held his hand over mine as he helped me reel the fish in. "Pull back gently as you turn this and it will ease the fish in."
When the line pulled harder, he took it from me to help out. The fish came flying out of the water, straight for me. I squealed and flung myself backwards.
Ashton yelled out, "Gracie, be careful!"
It was too late, I tumbled off the dock into the lake. I gasped. My mouth filled with lake water and I felt myself sinking to the bottom. A few moments later, I felt an arm around my stomach as I was yanked upward. My back came in contact with a hard surface. I coughed, jerking upward, and spit up a large amount of muddy lake water. Yuck.
Ashton sat over me with a worried expression. "Gracie, are you alright?"
I nodded. "Except, that I just swallowed a bunch of bug infested lake water that probably had grosser things in it then I even want to think about." Then, I began to laugh.
He helped me sit up. "What's so funny?"
I shook my head. "I'm such a klutz. You have to admit that was funny."
His face scrunched up before he began to laugh with me. "Now that you're safe, yeah, it was. You should've seen your face when that fish came at you!" We were both cackling like crazy.
I looked around. "Where is it?"
He pointed out at the lake. "It took off with my pole. When you fell in, I dropped it to jump in and save you."
I covered my mouth. "I'm so sorry, Ash. I'll buy you a new pole."
He waved it off. "Nonsense, it was worth it to save you."
I placed my hand against his face and gazed at him. The moment felt right. I licked my lips and moved toward his mouth. Ashton was moving closer. At the same time, I felt something on my arm, looked down, and screamed as I saw a large bug on it. I jumped up shaking my arm and squealing, "Get it off me!"
Ashton grabbed at me as he said, "Gracie. Gracie! Stop!" I knocked into him, pushing him to the ground as I fell on top of him. Ashton groaned in pain.
"You ok?" I asked worried.
He squeaked out, "Your knee."
I looked down and realized my knee had hit him directly in his crotch. I jumped up, "I'm sorry!"
He sat up, laughing, with a slight wince on his face. "You're lucky you're cute."
I blushed as he pulled me into a hug, still groaning slightly. "I think we should head home. We both need to get into dry clothes."
He smiled up at me. "We could do that. Or we could let our clothes dry in the sun and go swimming."
I glanced down at myself and shrugged. I lifted my shirt off and he turned his head when I did. I reached out to move his chin to face me. "It's just a bra, Ashton. Covers the same amount of skin as a bikini. "
He nodded as he glanced over me briefly. I stood up and slipped my blue jeans off. That was easier said than done since they were so wet they stuck to my skin. Ashton shimmied out of his clothes and stood in boxer briefs only.
He grinned at me. "Race ya."
He took off running across the dock before I could think. He did a cannonball into the water. I jumped in behind him and when I came up, he was waiting for me on the surface.
I pushed my hair back off my face and shivered.
"It's colder in here than I had expected."
He moved forward and wrapped his arms around me, running his hands up and down my back. "Is that better?" His face was only inches from mine.
"Uh-huh," was all I could say.
His face moved toward mine, I closed my eyes ready to kiss him. His head landed on my shoulder in a hug.
"I'm having a lot of fun, Gracie."
I sighed with disappointment, but said, "Me too." This idea of us being just friends was taking a toll on me.
Ashton's hand went to my shoulder. My head turned to see what drew his attention.
"Aww, it's a ladybug," I said.
He stuck his index finger out and waited for the ladybug to crawl onto his finger. "You know, when a ladybug lands on you, it's said to bring good luck and grant wishes." He held his finger out to me. "Make a wish, Gracie."
I closed my eyes and wished for the only thing I wanted, the man in front of me to love me the way I was falling in love with him. Ashton lightly blew on the ladybug, her wings fluttered as she flew away from us.
"We should probably get out before we both get sick," he suggested.
I followed him to the dock. He lifted me up first. I held my hand out to him and he laughed.
"Sweetheart, I'll end up pulling you back in. Back up, I got this."
My hands rose in mock surrender as I stepped back from the edge. His palms placed flat on the dock, he lifted himself out of the water.
We grabbed our clothes and headed back to his truck. "You don't happen to have towels do you?"
He nodded. "Yep. I knew our feet would at least get wet so I stuck some behind the seat."
He handed me a towel first. My clothes were still wet, so I slipped my shirt on and wrapped the towel around my waist for the ride home.
When we made it back to my house, I let Ashton come inside to throw his clothes in the dryer. He kept a towel around his waist and threw his boxer briefs in with the clothes. I bit my lip realizing he was totally naked in front of me.
"I'm
gonna run upstairs and get dressed." Once upstairs, I flopped on my bed and screamed into the mattress in frustration. Come on ladybug wish and work already, I thought to myself. The bedroom door opened, I sat up quickly.
Ashton chuckled, "You're still wet."
Whoa. My mind went in a totally different direction than what he meant with that statement. "Sorry, I felt a bit tired."
He sat next to me. Ashton Collins, the man I'm falling head over heels for, is sitting naked with only a towel keeping me from seeing every glorious bit of his body right now.
"I smell like fish, don't I?" Where that came from, I had no idea.
He pressed his nose to my shoulder and breathed in, "No, you smell like caramel and vanilla."
My body quivered as that familiar heat of desire ran over me. I stuttered, "That's, um, that's my vanilla bean spray."
"It smells amazing," he said as he lay back on the bed. The slit in the towel was open, showing me a perfect glimpse of his athletic thigh. He stretched his arms back and groaned. "Swimming is exhausting. I feel like I really worked out."
My breathing increased as I watched his body stretching across my bed. I reached out, without thinking, and trailed my hands along his abdomen.
He sucked in a breath and sat up. "What are you doing?"
I shook my head. "Sorry, you're in amazing shape. You must work out like an animal."
He shrugged. "I lift weights in the morning and I usually run at night, when I feel like it." He stood up. "I better go check on my clothes."
I waited a few minutes before meeting him downstairs. He was fully dressed by the time I came down.
"All dry now," he said holding his arms out to display that he was, in fact, dry.
We walked out to his truck. I was about to kiss him goodbye when I heard a car pull up behind us.
Hudson stepped out and yelled, "Hey baby girl."
I turned to Ash, "Thanks again, for everything."
He nodded and drove away.
I wrapped my arms around Hudson's neck as he kissed me. "Did you have fun at your concert?"
His mouth moved to my neck. "Yep, but I missed you so much. Let's go back to my place." His hands roamed down my back and slipped inside my shirt. He leaned against me. "I missed the smell of your skin, the taste of your lips, and the way you drive me so crazy."
I giggled as he nipped at my skin. "What are we waiting for? Let's go to the house."
We groped each other on the drive to his house, anxious to get to a bed. We barely made it in the door before our clothes were off.
Chapter Seven
Most of the next few weeks were swamped with shopping and preparations for the holidays. Christmas Eve was the night we always spent together as friends to exchange presents. Christmas Day, we went to our separate family dinners. Cameron and I always went together to both his family’s dinner and mine. There was never a thought in my mind to ask Hudson to go to either get-together. He brought it up and I decided the one with friends was the only one I was comfortable with.
We gathered around the Christmas tree with our spiked eggnog and a huge pile of gifts. Cameron always liked to play Santa Claus and hand out the presents, because he always bought the most for everyone. He especially loved to spoil me. By the time I finished opening his gifts, I practically had a new wardrobe and enough movies to watch for a year or two.
“This one says to Hudson from Gracie.” Cameron handed it to Hudson.
I was so excited to see his reaction. He opened the small package and pulled out a CD of Five Finger Death punch that was autographed by the members of the band. Hudson’s face lit up, “Wow, this is awesome! Thanks, babe.”
I smiled and he leaned over to kiss me.
His face fell slightly. “I didn’t get you anything though. I didn’t know we were exchanging gifts.”
I sat back. “It’s Christmas, Hudson. I’m your girlfriend; it’s traditionally something you do.”
He shrugged. “Sorry, babe. What do you want me to do about it now?”
I stood up annoyed, “Nothing, Hudson. Nothing at all.”
I stormed outside to the deck, slamming the door behind me. A few minutes later it opened up. I turned angrily and spat, “Leave me the hell alone!”
My eyes landed on Ashton, whose hands rose defensively. “I wanted to check on you. I’m sorry.”
He turned to leave, but I reached out for his arm. “No, you, I want to stay.”
He smiled and handed me a small gift box.
“What is this?”
He tapped his index finger against his lip. “Hmm, it’s wrapped in Christmas paper, it has a bow and today is Christmas Eve…a gift maybe?”
I laughed. “Sorry, stupid question.”
On the tag it read, ‘To Gracie-bug, from Ash.’ I tore into it and when I opened the velvet box it was a silver charm bracelet with a beautiful ladybug charm dangling from it. The charm was lined in silver, the ladybug was made of a large ruby with black stones, I wasn’t sure what kind, and a large diamond for the head. I gasped at the beauty of it.
“Ash, this is gorgeous.”
He grinned. “It’s a charm bracelet for you to capture your happy moments, achievements, or just things that you enjoy. Something that you can look at when you feel down and it can warm your heart with memories. I started it with a ladybug charm for our day at the lake. I hope that memory makes you happy at least. It’s one of my favorites.”
I didn’t respond to his question right away because I was too busy staring at the most thoughtful gift I’d ever received.
His hand lifted my chin until our eyes met. “Do you like it?”
I nodded ever so slightly and held it out. “Put it on me?” The small silver bracelet looked so tiny against his large masculine hands. My hand trembled as his fingers, adjusting the clasp, brushed against my skin.
He wrapped his hands around mine. “Are you cold? You’re shaking.”
I shook my head. “No, not cold at all.” I turned the bracelet to look at the ladybug charm.
“You can find one to represent your friendship with Cameron too. I know he’d want to be represented.”
I nodded, unable to speak, as I ran my finger over the beautiful charm and tried to hold back the joyful tears I felt ready to spill.
“I saw it and it made me think of you. The day we went fishing and the ladybug landed on you. Plus, since I call you Gracie-bug, I thought it was fitting.”
And the tears began to fall. I knew at this moment I’d fallen deeply in love with this man and there was no turning back on those feelings.
His fingers traced the charm against my wrist. Once again, I closed my eyes and relished his touch. When I opened my eyes, they met with his. They seemed to match my feelings at the moment. His hand moved to my cheek. His face leaned in toward mine.
The moment was interrupted by the deck door opening. Hudson stood there looking sad. “Can I talk to you?”
Ashton looked as disappointed as I felt. “I’m going to head back in.”
Turning my back to Hudson, I asked, “What do you want?”
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and I cringed at his touch. I closed my eyes and imagined it was Ash instead.
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Give me a chance?” he asked. He moved my hair aside and pressed his lips against my neck. I squirmed away from his embrace.
“Right now, I need some space. Go home, Hudson.” Defeated, he walked back inside. slamming the door.
When it opened again, Ash looked concerned. “Did he hurt you? He looked pretty angry.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I told him to leave. He didn’t do anything wrong.” I fingered the bracelet again and smiled. As he stepped closer to me, I embraced him, pressing my face against his chest. “Thank you for my gift.”
He smoothed my hair, “You’re welcome, bug.” He moved toward the swing and I sat beside him.
“I’m glad you spent today with us. Are you doing the family thing to
morrow?”
He nodded. “Yep, brother, niece, parents, we all have a tradition of going to the Opryland Hotel to look at the lights and the décor.”
“I love that place! Especially at Christmas! I haven’t been since they remodeled from the big flood.”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s still early. Why don’t we see if everyone wants to head over there tonight?”
I jumped up. “That would be so much fun!”
I ran inside to tell everyone else and they all had the same reaction, excitement. We bundled up, considering it was a cold, thirty degree night with a brisk wind. Ash had driven his truck instead of his bike, due to the cold. Angel and I rode with Ashton, and the others piled in Cameron’s car.
Angel sat against the door, putting me in the middle, against Ash. It was a manual transmission, so I had to straddle the gear shift. Each time he went to shift, his hand grazed my knee. If I had been wearing something other than jeans it would have driven me insane each time. Even with jeans on, it was causing me to practically bite my lip off.
Angel leaned over, smushing me into Ashton, as she played with the radio.
I glanced up at him and he smiled at me. “Sorry, Angel’s a bit rude about music. She’s always changing my stations too.”
Angel shoved her elbow into my stomach teasingly. “Look chica, I can’t help it I have better taste in music than the two of you. Ash, you don’t mind that I changed it, do you?”
He shook his head. “You ladies can listen to whatever you like.”
As we neared the hotel, it became clear that everyone had the same idea judging by the amount of traffic to get inside to park.
“Go over to the mall entrance. We can park for free and walk over," I suggested. Ashton moved out of line to head toward the mall around the corner.
When we stepped out, Angel looked down at her shoes. “I wish I’d worn better shoes for this walk.”
Ashton walked over and stooped down. “Get on my back and we’ll get you some shoes inside.”
She laughed. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah girl. Come on, you’ll keep me warm too.”
