Except for the wind blowing through the trees and the trickle of the fountain in the middle of the raised water feature, it’s been silent. That would include both Stella and me. We’ve been here for the past hour and the only words that have been said were my “Hi” and her “Come on.”
“It’s hot,” I say, breaking the silence. Blistering. Heat index has to be over a hundred. Even though I switched to a pair of athletic shorts, my skin threatens to melt off my body.
Stella inhales through her nose as if I woke her from a dream, opens her eyes and slowly turns her head to look at me. I’m drawn in by those gray eyes. They’re beautiful, but they appear older than she is. As if she’s seen too much. Knows too much. If she hangs at a place like this, I guess she does. “Then let’s go swimming.”
Okay. “Where?”
“Here,” she responds in a duh voice. I lean to the side to allow Stella to swing her legs to the ground. She carefully slips off her canvas sneakers and I grin when I notice the red-painted toenails.
“You are such a girl,” I say.
She wiggles them and I’m captivated by her smile. “I know. It’s a luxury, isn’t it? Painted toes. But I like how it makes me feel.”
Never thought of it as a luxury. Mom visits the spa for her nails and sometimes she does it herself. How much can a bottle of nail polish cost? A dollar? Two? But I like her smile so I ignore those questions. “How does it make you feel?”
Who’d ever guess a cocked eyebrow could be so seductive? “Special.”
With that, she dashes off the bench and splashes into the pool. A few drops hit me and Stella echoes my own thoughts. “Crap, it’s cold.”
She folds her arms close to her chest and I swear goose bumps rise on her skin. “Are you waiting for an engraved invitation?”
I scan the area and except for the old man I spotted Stella with earlier, there’s no one around. No one. Never realized how desolate a cemetery is. “What if they catch us?”
“Who’s ‘they?’”
Good question. “The cemetery owners.”
Stella becomes thoughtful, her face pensive. “You know, I never thought about the fact that someone owns this place. It seemed to belong to the dead people.” She pulls out of serious mode. “Okay, so the mysterious ‘they’ show and we’re skinny-dipping in the koi pond. Let’s devise a plan for what we do.”
My eyes snap straight to hers. Good God, Stella naked. I bet that would be a sight for a weary soul, but I’m not going there. Stella plays with the hem of her tank and does this shimmy shake with her hips that becomes my sole focus.
I hear her giggle and it’s a beautiful sound. She’s messing with me and I’m falling for it. Maybe we could skinny-dip. Not all the way. Not here. Maybe someplace else. Someplace more secluded.
“Thinking about it, aren’t you?” she says.
She caught me. “No skinny-dipping.”
Stella pouts her bottom lip and I pop my neck to the side. Dang it, she’s sexy.
“Do you live your entire life so seriously?” she taunts.
“No.”
“Then frolic with me and the fi sme aunts.shes.”
“No.”
“Cuddle with the koi?”
“Same answer.”
“Gallop with the gigantic goldfish?”
“How many more of those you got?”
She squishes her lips together. “I’m done.”
“Good. The answer’s still no.”
Stella’s mouth forms this glorious smile as she steps out and sits on the brick edge of the pool. “Touch your face.”
Uh... “What?”
“Do it.”
Once again, I do as I’m told with this girl and the shock registers. I am smiling. A real smile. Not forced. Not fake. And beyond the smile on the outside, I lost a few weights from the inside.
Wow.
“Thanks, Stella.”
“No problem.”
We hold each other’s gaze. One second. Two. It goes into three. With a flutter of her eyes, she glances away and red paints her cheeks. My own heart beats irregularly and it’s not from panic but from the fact I’m so alone with her.
Water drips from her long, tanned legs and for a second I wonder what it would be like to touch them. To feel them rub against my legs. And my gaze wanders to her lips. How soft would those—
Ah...no. Stella’s been good to me and I need to be good to her. Even in my mind.
“Can we do this tomorrow?” I ask.
“Maybe,” she answers. “Ri ck says it’s going to rain.”
9
Jonah
Stella plants the fall mums I bought for Lydia’s grave around the edge of the flat stone, creating a colored pattern of purples, oranges, and golds. “So Joss tells the guy that if he wants to steal her car, then go ahead, because she’d love to file a police report and get some money from the insurance company.”
We’ve been meeting at the cemetery nearly every day for the past month. The October weather is warm, not as hot as September, and both of us are in jeans. A shame since I highly admired Stella’s tan legs. Stella wipes at a trickle of sweat falling from the purple hair she’s pulled into a tiny ponytail. While she’s successful in removing the bead, she is also successful in smudging dirt across her face.
“Here.” I reach over without thinking and the moment my fingers sweep along her face, her gorgeous gray eyes snap to mine.