Keep Me Safe (15 page)

“Oh no, I told you I’d carry you! That’s what I’m doing!”

I stopped flailing and hoped that no one was watching us. I felt ridiculous with my ass up in the air and giggling like a teenager. When he finally got to the edge of the water, he playfully slapped my butt and put me down. He stepped into the water and felt the resistance of my hand he had ahold of.

“Come on in, I’ll walk ahead of you.” The water was blue and almost crystal clear. There really wasn’t any reason for me to be afraid. Although I knew what was in the water, there was no reason why I needed to think every bad thing was lingering at my feet.  “Here, hop on.” He faced his back to me with his arms out, waiting for me to climb onto his back.

“Are you sure? I’m too heavy.”

“Yeah right, you barely weigh more than my equipment bag for work,” he teased.

I hesitated at first, but then jumped onto his back and he walked further into the water.

“See? Not so bad.” He turned his head sideways to look at me.

“I guess not. I’ve got a good motivator though.” I grinned and laid my chin on his shoulder.

When he stopped walking, the water came up to just below his chest. He let go of my legs and grabbed both of my hands.

“Ready to get down?”

“Um, I guess so…” I still felt like I had a death grip on his shoulders with my hands clasped together, but I slowly loosened them. He let go of my hands and I slipped into the water. My feet went down until my toes stuck into the sand at the bottom. I had been in the ocean – okay, the gulf - before, but it had been so long ago that I almost forgot what it felt like to be this far in the water. Parker turned around to face me in the water and put his hands on my hips.

“Nothing to it, right?” He smiled at me and I felt him playing with the ruched fabric of the side of my bikini bottom between his fingers.

“Not yet,” I said crinkling my nose. I always had some kind of allergy to something in the air, and I did it completely unknowingly.

“Don’t do that,” he said in a serious tone.

“Do what?” It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. “Oh, the thing with my nose? Why not? I don’t even realize I’m doing it most of the time.”

“Because it’s adorable and it makes me want to kiss you.”

“So kiss me.” I took one step forward which put our bodies almost close enough to touch. “What’s stopping you?”

“I doubt you want to turn this family friendly beach into a show. If I start kissing you, then I won’t want to stop and I imagine all these people don’t want to watch it. As much as I want to, that will draw attention to you and I don’t like the thought of that,” he smiled. Instead, he backed up and ducked far enough in the water to get the back of his head wet. He quickly ran his hands through his hair to get off the excess water and started walking backwards. He needed to walk towards me, not away. I had the urge to run my hands up his chest.

I started walking towards him when he brought his hands up and swirled them on the top of the water. He got a smirk on his face which I knew, even in the small amount of time we had known each other, meant that he was about to do something funny or mischievous. He reached back with his hand and splashed water all over me.

“No you didn’t!” I shivered with the new feeling of the cold water all over my head and arms. “Alright, two can play at that game!”

  I started to splash him relentlessly with both hands. Before I knew it, we were both drenched, flinging water in what we thought was the right direction because we both had our eyes closed. I knew enough to know I didn’t want salt water in my eyes. He managed to get close enough to me to grab both hands to stop me from splashing him anymore.

“Alright, alright, you win!” We both wiped the water from our faces and squinted to adjust to the sun.

“I kicked your ass,” I teased.

“Yeah right, I let you win.”

“Sure, that’s what every guy says when he gets beat by a girl. You don’t have to be –” I felt something barely skim the skin on my leg and before I realized it I had jumped right onto Parker, arms around his neck and legs with a death grip around his waist. “What the hell was that?!” I practically screamed.

I looked down into the water, hoping to find whatever just took five years off of my life by scaring the shit out of me. When I stopped panicking, I realized Parker was laughing at me. Then I realized I was attached to him, closer to him than I had been yet.

“Why are you laughing at me? Because I screamed like a little girl or because I attached myself to you like a leech?” I was on the verge of laughing myself. I looked like an idiot, but there was no way I was getting down yet, regardless of my current position.

“I’ve never seen anyone jump so fast in my life!” He was laughing so hard he barely got the words out. “I’ve had quite a few people run from me at work, but you set some kind of record with that one.”

“Ha ha, laugh it up. Something touched my leg. So now, whatever it is, it’s going to eat you instead of me.” I looked down at the water again hoping I didn’t see anything swimming around. When I turned back and faced Parker, I realized he wasn’t worried about what was in the water because he was too busy staring at me. His smile and laughter had faded and there was a look of desire in his eyes. I was wrapped around him like he was a stripper pole. I wouldn’t expect him to not feel tempted by me and my death grip around his…parts.

“I don’t see anything,” he said without even looking. “But you can stay here if you’re still scared.”

The corner of his lips turned up into a crooked smile and I had no desire to jump down. I had to squint to see him because of the sun shining right in my face, but that smile flipped my insides. I tightened my grip around his neck and brought my lips to his. The taste of salt water was immediate, but it quickly became forgotten. Parker used both hands to smooth the hair away from my face then clasped them together underneath my legs. 

His kiss was sweet but patient. I knew he didn’t want to get carried away, whether it was because of people watching or not wanting to push me too far. I intensified our kiss, being the first to start the exploration with my tongue. Despite the chaos around us, I felt a groan rattle in his throat. It only caused me to kiss him harder. When I realized we were probably being watched, I pulled away slowly and looked him in the eye, keeping us almost nose to nose.

“People are probably watching us now,” I said rubbing my hand through his hair.

“Maybe, but I just forgot we were even in public.” He kissed me softly but quickly while we were still locked in our gaze.

“I’m pretty sure whatever touched my leg is gone now.” I hesitated, but I loosened my grip around his waist and slid down to stand in the water.

“That’s too bad,” he said disappointedly. “I was having fun protecting you.”

We walked back towards the beach holding hands and sat back down on our towels. I pulled my phone out of my bag and turned on Spotify. We lay down and listened to all of my saved music and every so often I’d hear him sing a chorus of one of the songs. After a little while I looked down and realized I was almost past tan and into the burn stage.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a little bit of a burn.” I brushed some sand off of my thighs and looked at my arms.

“Do you want to get out of here and get some lunch? It probably won’t be too much longer before I burn either.”

“Yeah, what time is it?” I reached down to look at my phone and realized it was almost two. “No wonder I’m so hungry.”

“Daiquiri Deck isn’t too far that way. Do you want to drive or walk?”

“We can walk. We’ll just have to put our stuff in the car first.”

We gathered up all of our stuff and walked to the car. I put my cover-up and flip flops back on and put my phone back in my bag. We locked everything else in the trunk and walked towards the restaurant. Parker grabbed my hand as we walked across the street.

After we were seated and looked at the menu, the waitress came back and took our order. Given where we were, I ordered a strawberry daiquiri with my food and Parker ordered a beer.

“This weather feels amazing.” There was a slight breeze blowing through the restaurant. It had an open floor plan and they had all of the shades pulled up, exposing patrons to everything outside.

“Yeah I love this time of year. I wish it stayed like this longer.”

“No kidding. That’s the one thing I miss about Wisconsin – the seasons.”

“I bet. It gets pretty miserable wearing my vest under my uniform, even at night after it gets dark.”

“Oh yeah, I didn’t even think about that.”

“Do you have plans to go see your family soon?”

“I was going to go for Thanksgiving, but it just didn’t work out.” I felt a small wave of disappointment wash over me, but I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I got to see them. “I’m supposed to go see them for Christmas, so I can wait until then.”

I’d hoped that after my divorce I would’ve seen my parents more frequently than I did in the last couple of years, but it hadn’t been the case yet. I missed them both terribly. You never really grow out of needing your parents – at least I didn’t.

“What about your parents? What do you guys do for the holidays?”

“We’ve had Thanksgiving at Matt and Beth’s ever since Tyler was born. It just seemed easier to go to them and the tradition kind of stuck. We go to my parent’s house for Christmas though. Tyler gets spoiled, I stuff myself silly with my mom’s potato salad, and everyone is happy.” He noticed the look on my face and grabbed my hand.

“I know it’s not the same, but you could spend Thanksgiving with us since you’re not going back home.”

“Oh you don’t have to do that. That’s your family time. I won’t interfere with that.”

“The only thing that would interfere would be my own mind. Knowing I could be spending time with you, being right next door and not seeing you? I’d be thinking about you the whole time.”

“That’s your family time though…”

“I’ll ask Beth. I’m sure she’ll be totally fine with it. She would’ve probably invited you herself if I hadn’t asked first. If you’re not ready to meet my parents, I totally get that. But no one would make a big deal about it.”

“No, I’m not worried about that.”

“Good then. It’s settled. Our first holiday together, I like the sound of that.” He rubbed my hand with his thumb just as our waitress brought the food to our table.

Seventeen

After I ate the best grouper I’d ever had and we were finished, we left the restaurant and walked back to the car.

“Where to now?” I shielded my eyes with my hands and looked around.

“Um, whatever you want. We can go to St. Armands Circle which isn’t too far from here, we can just drive down along the beach, or we can go home. Any of that sound good?”

“What’s the whatever circle place?”

“It’s an outside shopping plaza pretty much - a bunch of shops, restaurants, that kind of thing.”

“That sounds fun. I’m not a big shopper though.” He gave me a ‘yeah right’ look and smiled. “No I mean it. I only buy something when I really need it. Shopping isn’t really a hobby to me.”

“I like you more and more all the time.” He nudged me with his elbow before walking to open the car door for me. “They have a really neat ice cream place there. You at least like ice cream right?”

“Get outta here,” I said, pushing him playfully before getting into the car.

The drive to St. Armands was beautiful. The road stayed right along the coastline and it was a gorgeous view. The water was crystal clear, the breeze had a slight coolness to it and there were only a few clouds to be seen. When we got there, we found a parking spot not too far from the ice cream place. Parker immediately grabbed my hand and walked me through the door, under the sign with the name “Scoop Daddy’s” on it.

The inside was so unique. It looked as though we stepped back into the fifties or sixties. The fixtures were older styles, there were neon signs with the old Coca-Cola logo and every surface was covered with magnets; pictures of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith.

“What a neat place.” I ran my hand over a wall of magnets and looked up at a big neon sign that said “Slick’s Drive-In”.

“Yeah, my parents used to bring us here when we came to the beach. We’ve always lived close to the beach, but mom loves Siesta Key.”

When we got to the line, there were a handful of people in front of us. I looked at all the flavors of ice cream but I knew what I wanted.

“What are you getting?” I asked as he looked through the glass at the huge variety to choose from.

“Hmm, good question. The cookies ‘n cream looks pretty good. What about you?”

“Big, giant Sprite float.”

“Like…Sprite with vanilla ice cream in it?” It certainly wasn’t the first time someone gave me that look when I said that’s what I wanted.

“Yes, Sprite with vanilla ice cream.” I laughed and he looked as though I’d lost it.

“Interesting, can’t say I’ve heard that one before.”

“I’ve heard
that
before,” I snickered. “It’s been my favorite since I was a kid. The employee wherever I order one from usually asks me to repeat myself.”

“Alright then, if that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll get ya.”

He brought his hands up and rubbed up and down my bare arm. I took a step forward and leaned my head against his chest. He wrapped both arms around me and I wrapped mine around his waist. I felt him sigh and then he kissed the top of my head. I leaned back and smiled when he looked down at me.

“What are you smiling about?” he asked as he pushed my bangs off of my eyes.

“I’ve just had a really great time with you. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent the day like this.”

He leaned down and kissed me softly on my forehead.

“You might as well get used to this. I see a lot of great days in our future.” The teenager behind the counter snapped me out of my current bliss.

“What can I get for you guys?” The cashier seemed as unexcited about helping us as I was about him interrupting our moment.