Falling In (7 page)

When
then boat was secure, he extended his hand to Audrey and said with a smirk,
“Now get the hell out of my boat.”

She
climbed up to the front and took his hand.  In seconds, her feet touched down
on dry land and Liam turned back to pull the kayak up even higher.

“There,”
he said and sat down on the dock to put his shoes back on.  “It gets better, I
promise.”

Audrey
eyed the way that the toned muscles in his arm flexed as he tied the laces back
together in neat, double-knotted bows and dusted the extra sand off of his
ankles.  By the time that he stood back up, she had to tear her eyes away
before she ended up looking like a creep.

“You
ready?”

“I was
born ready, my friend.”

Liam led
the way to where the wooden boards of the tiny, forgotten pier gave way to the
glittering sand, which in turn relented to firmer, grassier patches.  He pushed
past a massive, willowy-looking branch that blocked the way, finally allowing
Audrey to see the first part of the forgotten town: the graveyard.

Much as
they stood over a hundred years before, rectangular mounds of bricks sat
scattered across the tree-shaded patch of land.  All of them faced the same
direction and some were higher than others.  A few even still had the names and
dates.  Audrey leaned over one to get a better look.

She
reached a hand out and wiped away a wet layer of leaves, but as soon as the
letters and numbers came into focus, she couldn’t make sense of them.  Behind
her, Liam had moved in close enough for her to feel the steamy heat radiating
off of his tight body.  It distracted her so wholly that she gave up on reading
the head stone all together.

“This
really is something,” she said and straightened her back.  When she did, her
shoulder bumped into Liam’s golden chest.  On the sides of where the thin strap
of her shirt covered, Audrey’s skin met his.

It felt
like heaven.

“Yeah. 
This place just feels unreal every time I come out here.”

He
squeezed her hand and pulled her away from the decrepit, moldy head stone.

“Do you
take all of your dates to graveyards?”

He
peeked back with a grin.

“Nah,
you’re special like that.”

“I don’t
know if I should be flattered or concerned.”

Liam
shrugged his powerful shoulders and continued to pull her deeper into the
town.  Along the way, small shacks were scattered in a hap-hazard fashion, some
in a bigger state of disrepair than others.  They were obviously peoples’
homes, given away by the tangled clothes lines that still hung in front of a
few of them.

“Here,”
he said and pointed to the only building around that still had a roof.  “Look
at this.”

They
stopped short of climbing a set of sinking stairs and peered in through the
door.  Inside, dozens of small desks had been pushed up and piled against the
wall.  Where the windows once were, rectangular holes in the building’s wood facade
were all that remained, allowing the little light that made it past the trees
to filter in and illuminate softly-swirling clouds of dust and pollen.

“This
was the schoolhouse?”

“Yep.  I
don’t think that anyone was actually in here when the storm hit, but it’s still
kind of creepy.”

Audrey
looked to where one end of the chalkboard had been torn down and sat on the
wood floor, splintered and cracked.

“You
think so?”

“Of
course.  You should see it at night.”

“No
thanks,” she said and leaned in.  The moldy, musky smell of rotting wood
assaulted her nose and made her pull back.  “But I don’t think it’s that
creepy.”

Liam
moved behind her and slipped both hands around her waist.

“Then
what do you think?”

Audrey
cast aside the nervous rumbling in her gut and leaned back into the handsome,
tattooed man.  Even though the temperature was an easy 10 degrees warmer than
when they arrived, the sensation of Liam’s rock-solid muscles holding her close
made her shiver with delight.

His
hands wrapped around a little further and eventually came to rest over her
hips.

“I think
it’s beautiful,” she said, forcing the words out amidst a maelstrom of
excitement.

“How’s
that?”

“Stuff
like this is like a snapshot of a world that stopped living; like a reminder of
lives that were changed in the blink of an eye.”

She felt
a few of Liam’s fingers tips dip below her shirt so that they could rest on the
bare skin of her waist.

“Well if
you like this, you’re going to love the old cedar mill,” he said and pointed
past the sinking school house to where a single, rust-red spire jutted above
the ancient tree line.

Over the
sweeping curve of a long, flat hill, a tangled mass of red pipes towered over
the rotting frame of what used to be a massive processing mill.  All
around--leading to and from a sizeable inlet--the precarious legs of former log
flumes stuck out of the ground like crossbones.

“This
thing isn’t going to be here much longer, is it?”

Liam
finally stopped walking and shook his head, allowing a small bead of sweat to
roll down over his high cheek bones.  The air around them got hotter by the
minute.

“No. 
It’s a damn shame, too.  I love coming out here and so does everyone else.”

Audrey
moved away from his touch and took a few steps closer to the aging factory.

“I
wouldn’t do that,” Liam said and pulled her back by the waist so that she
bumped up against him.  “It’s not safe to actually go in there.”

“Oh,”
she said with a fair amount of disappointment.  “I would love to see the
inside.”

His hand
reached around and cupped the patch of flesh where her navel sat.

“Well
when I’m ready to watch a building collapse on you, I’ll let you know.”  He
squeezed her hot, sticky skin.  “It’s getting pretty damn nasty, even for
here.  Do you want to head back?”

“Yeah,”
she said and stared through the massive openings on the sides of the building. 
Beyond them, only the black recesses stared back.  Though she couldn’t put a
finger on why, the place seemed so peaceful.  Its disrepair and neglect was
almost artistic, drawing in her attention so forcefully that she wasn’t sure
that she could look away.

It was,
in a sense, a mirror image of the state of her life.

“Come
on,” Liam said and tapped the back of her hand.  “Let’s head back.”

By the
time the two marched back toward where they left the kayak, Audrey was sure
that her skin was going to melt right off.  Somewhere between the old school
house and the graveyard, the temperature spiked at a miserable 102 degrees. 
With the humidity, it was like someone put Florida’s weather on the “hell” setting.

“Why is
it so damn hot?”

Not
realizing that he put some distance between them as Audrey slowed and gasped
for air, Liam turned back at the sound of her voice and waited for her to catch
up.

When she
reached him, she asked, “How do you live with this?”

“Just
like everything else,” he responded and stripped off his damp shirt.  “It’s a
trade-off.”

It took
everything Audrey had to make her feet continue onward in light of the
glistening, wash-board body staring back at her.  She bit the bottom corner of
her lip and trudged toward its tempting glow.  Fat, meandering drops of sweat
rolled down her back, giving her chills in spite of the oppressive heat.

“We’re
almost there,” Liam said.  He reached back and took her hand like he did the
night before.  “It’s okay.  I’m kind of surprised a city girl like you made it
as long as you did.”

Though
she was weak, Audrey had just enough energy to reach up and backhand him across
the arm.  It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, even though a loud, wet pop echoed
through the deserted landscape.

“You’re
a jerk.”

Still a
step or two ahead, Liam peered over his shoulder and replied, “Not always.”

He
pushed aside the low-hanging plant that signaled that they were, indeed, back
at the rotting dock.  Near it, his red kayak sat waiting right where they left
it.  But instead of leading Audrey toward it, Liam veered off and started
toward a different section of the hot, white sand.

“What’re
you doing?”

Continuing
on toward the lapping water, he answered, “I’m doing you a favor.”

“Oh
yeah,” she said with a little attitude.  “What’s that?”

Before
she knew what was happening, Audrey’s feet left the ground as Liam scooped her
up.

“You
know how to swim, right?”

Being
pressed against his naked chest was something that she didn’t want to end.

“You’d
better not,” she giggled.

“You
sure seem to have a hard time just saying yes.”

“Liam,
you-”

Audrey’s
petite frame flew through the air and fell into the surf with an impressive
splash.  To her surprise, the water that seemed so warm on the way over was suddenly
like a cool oasis.  Even though her clothes were soaked through and the little
bit of cash she brought was probably ruined, she spread her arms and legs out
to float, letting all of her stress and tension melt into the sea.

The
water wasn’t deep where she was.  As she bobbed on the gentle surface, the
sandy bottom and scattered shells brushed against her arms and legs.  Through
the patch of blue sky that occupied her vision, little cotton ball clouds
marched along in a line.

Liam
kneeled down into the water and leaned over so that she could finally see him
again.  They were close enough so that Audrey’s arm grazed his rippled core in
the brief lull between waves.

She
picked her head up out of the water and asked, “And what if I
didn’t
know
how to swim, tough guy?”

He inched
in and held her up with a hand in the middle of her back.

“Then I
would have saved you.”

I
wish you would
,
she thought to herself.

A faint
flash of light made both of them snap their heads in the other direction. 
Miles out to sea, a blistering series of lightning bolts illuminated the open
ocean.

“Don’t
worry,” Liam said and turned back to her.  “Storms like that pass by without
hitting land all the time.  Sometimes we all get together, have a few brews and
watch them roll past.”

“Are you
sure about that?  They seem really close.”

“I’m
sure,” he repeated and moved in for a kiss.

When
they met, the salty layer on Audrey’s lips spread between their groping
mouths.  Though both were searching for something, the one thing that Audrey
wanted most was to be able to trust him; to let go of the pain that haunted
every waking thought and emotion.

A deep,
rumbling clap of thunder sent sound waves racing through the calm waters and
into their increasingly intertwined limbs.  Liam stood up on his knees so that
the warm water rolled across his bare abs as his ink-riddled fingers settled
under Audrey’s shirt, just over her navel.  His touch in such a sensitive spot
made her moan softly into his mouth.  She closed her eyes and let another
thunderous vibration sweep across her goose bump-laden flesh. 

Liam’s
hand inched up her ribs like stairs.  Without skipping a beat, he dipped below
the thin barrier that separated them and closed his shaking palm around her
bare breast.

Behind
her clenched lids, Audrey saw more of the bright flashes from the nearby storm
as Liam’s calloused fingers massaged her swollen, pointed nipple.  She also
felt him as he moved her floating body and positioned himself between her legs,
only releasing her from their kiss for a moment.  When his lips came back down,
a bulging swell pushed outward against Audrey’s thin, wet shorts.  A violent
chill racked her spine and forced her to shiver under his touch.

Letting
go of her breast, he finally pulled her out of the water and lifted her face to
his.

Audrey
mumbled like she was drunk, “I don’t know if...”

“If
what?”

As badly
as she wanted to know what he felt like on a deeper level, all of the guilt and
uncertainty made her doubt whether or not she could actually go through with it.

“If I
should be doing this.”

Liam
guided her legs shut around his waist and asked, “Why?”

It was a
simple question with a very complicated answer; one that she tried to formulate
as they bobbed with the tide’s gentle rocking.  Audrey had her back to the
passing storm, but could see the stunning flashes reflected in her handsome
caller’s eyes as he waited for a response.

“I,” she
said softly but hesitated before copping out as she did before.  “I don’t want
to talk about it.”

“Oh.” 
The disappointment in Liam’s stormy eyes was painfully apparent.  “Okay.  We
should probably get back to town soon anyway.  That lightning is getting a
little close, after all.”