Page 35 of The Cabin
He snorts. “No. But my grandpa did have horses. We spent a lot of time with my grandparents since my mom was a teacher and had the summers off. I would ride a lot, but it’s definitely been a while.”
“That was my dream growing up!” I scooch a bit, turning so my legs are facing him and I can see his face a little better.
“Yeah, I mean, honestly, it was pretty special. I have a lot of great memories from those summers.”
“It’s the same for me coming up here.”
“Even with no plumbing or electric?”
“Oh god, yeah. That was the best part. I loved having to light a bonfire so we could cook hot dogs or roast marshmallows. I can’t tell you how many times my dinner was just marshmallows. My mom would get so pissed, but my dad would always tell her, ‘It’s only one night,amor!’ and she would just laugh and roll her eyes even though she knew it was never just one night. We would spend entire days playing in the creek. I never even thought about TV or my Nintendo DS or anything. Not until I got older. Until Cruz got older and didn’t wanna play anymore.”
“Nintendo DS? I bet you only played Nintendogs or something.”
“First of all, lose the prissy attitude, and second of all, absolutely I did. I had almost every single breed of dog before Cruz stepped on my DS one night trying to sneak back in the house through my window.”
“Growing up is weird.”
“Very. I watch it happen at school. Sometimes it makes me sad because I can see all the heartache barreling right towards them and I can’t do anything about it. They’re about to go through exactly what I did and they just have to. It’s a part of the circle of life or something. I can’t do anything to stop it for them.”
“Yeah, but you create a safe space for them to experience it all. To figure themselves out. That’s huge.”
My lips form into a line and I nudge his leg with my foot. “Thank you for saying that.” There are a lot of sides to Grayson, and we play and tease and prank, he’s certainly vexing…but he’s also this.
I almost jump out of my skin when the first firework goes off. Crawling back to my original position, I watch the colors and patterns sparkle through the sky. It’s pretty and mesmerizing and it feels really nice to be a part of something. We’re all just sitting in this field for the sake of looking at something beautiful. Just to be with each other.
It might be the nature of this moment, or my possible concussion, but I lay my head down on Grayson’s shoulder. After a few seconds, his hand moves to rest on my knee, moving his thumb back and forth against it.
We watch in silence, me giving an, ‘oooh,’ or an, ‘ahhhh,’ every so often. And it’s nice. It’s just really, really nice.
Chapter 13
“If you think I’m eating that, you’re out of your mind,” I shout from the living room, noticing that Grayson is busy in the kitchen.
“You’re a growing girl, lollipop. Gotta eat up.” I’m sure he’s so impressed with himself for that one.
“Yeah, and I’d like to stay a growing girl. You probably poisoned it.”
He turns around looking like an evil mastermind. “I would never do such a thing. Mwah, ha, ha, ha.”
Goofy Grayson is a real ham. “I’ll pass.”
It is day number two of our battle of wills, both sides still going strong. Listen, I grew up with an older brother. Grayson has nothing on Cruz. I’ve been plotting and scheming my whole life. But, I severely underestimated Competitive Grayson. Not that I’ll tell him that.
We woke up ready to fight, like our temporary period of peace last night at the fireworks never happened. I am, unfortunately, currently trailing by one, Grayson having bested me this morning by switching out the body wash for honey, and by the time I realized it, it was too late. I had to spend thirty minutes trying to rinse it off because there wasn’t any actual soap to help speed things along, and about halfway through, I ran out of hot water.
“You need to eat, we have a long day ahead of us.” I’m pulled up from the couch and I try to dig my feet into the wood but it doesn’t work and he drags me into the dining area easily, plopping me into a chair. There's a burger waiting for me.
“What are you talking about?”
He joins me at the table. “The hike we’re going on. It’s a long one, gotta eat up.”
“I told you before, I’m not going on any hikes. And I’m especially not going on one with you. You’ve probably got plans to tie me to a tree and let wolves attack me.” I actually like going on hikes now, but he doesn’t need to know that.
His eyes sparkle, “You like being tied up, lollipop?” I regret ever going to that fair with him.
“Oh GAG. Of course that’s all you got from that.” I’ve never been tied up before, but I wanna be tied up by him. He can tie me wherever the hell he wants me.
“Is that what they do in your books?”