10 Weeks by Jolene Perry, Janna Watts Read Free Book Online Page A

pulls me down on top of him. “Unless you attack the next poor, unsuspecting windsurfing instructor.”
    “Nah. This is kind of a one-time deal. Plus, who’s to say he’d want me? It took everything I had to win you over.”
    Alex chuckles. “He’d want you. It took everything I had not to fall.”
    I lick my lips and he follows the movement. Yeah. I’m not the only one screwed in this deal. “But you did fall, didn’t you?”
    He lifts me up and searches my face for the question behind the question. We both know it’s there. He opens and shuts his mouth, then shakes his head. He knows what I need to hear and still he won’t give it to me. Instead, he flips me over and kisses me until I can’t think about the missing words between us anymore.
     
     
    Jo, Sam and I are sitting on the waterskiing dock, watching the sunset. It’s a free evening as most of the campers are watching a movie in the rec hall. The loons are calling to each other across the lake , and the quiet peacefulness sinks into me and dampens my restlessness.
    “Only about two more weeks,” Jo says. “Do you know what you’re gonna do?”
    I shrug. “Go back to college.”
    “And him?”
    “He’ll go back to teaching.” The hole inside quivers at the notion of time apart, but I’m not an idiot. I want to finish college. He has a job. The reality of nineteen and forty isn’t lost on me.
    “And then?”
    I bite my lip. “Can I ask him to wait?” I eye Sam who is strangely quiet tonight.
    She turns to me. “Is that what you want? I mean , do you really think this is the real deal? I get that you’re an old soul, but really, you’re pretty young to be planting your flag right now. ” Sam dangles her bare feet into the water and kicks up a splash.
    “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I ask her.
    She raises a shoulder. “Don’t know. I couldn’t plan where I’ll be next year. Too much is changing. Too much has changed over the past year.”
    “You see, for me, I do know. I mean not exactly, but I know I’ll be teaching in five years . I know I’ll be working with kids somehow. I know I’ll figure out a way to spend summers on a lake. And I know I’ll be with him. Or at least I hope I will be.”
    Jo inhales a quick breath. “Really? You’re that sure?” It’s a weighted question. I know all the shit she’s been through with Jeff and the new guy is hitting her hard right now, but again, she won’t talk unless she really needs to, and she rarely thinks she needs to.
    “Yeah. I mean nothing is set in stone. But it makes sense. He makes sense to me. Like for the first time, I feel like I found someone who’s a right fit.”
    Sam shakes her head. “You won’t be able to talk him into it. No matter how he feels or how sure you are. He’ll think he’s taking something away from you.”
    I nibble on my bottom lip. This is the problem, of course. He will think that. And part of it will be a little true. It’s hard to find your great love when you’re only nineteen. It’s stupid and romantic and bullshit really. Except that it’s not. And the idea that I won’t be with him in five years makes something inside of me whither.
    “Any ideas?” I ask.
    Jo shakes her head and looks to Sam who says, “Hey. I got you in the guy’s bed. All the rest of that stuff is so not my area. Not that getting a guy into bed is my area.” She trips and stumbles over her words as her face reddens, making me even more curious what’s going on with her.
    The three of us spend the next twenty minutes in relative silence. We listen to the loons and the voices of people passing in their boats, but mostly, we’re each in our own heads. I’ve gotten used to that with us. It’s become a friendship of time and comfort. We all seem to know when it’s best just to let the universe unfold as it will.
    We head back up to the cabins and Alex stops me in his golf cart half way up the hill.
    “Hop in. I want to show you something.”
    I