Letting Go (Mitchell Family #1)(12)
Author: Jennifer Foor

He attended to his fishing rod while I got mine ready to go. I had already cast my line into the water before he had his baited. I giggled when I looked back at him and saw he had pricked his finger with the hook. “Do you need me to help you instead?” I asked sarcastically.

“Shut up! I got this smart ass!” He laughed.

For the next hour we sat side by side fishing and talking about the past year. It was so nice to finally have someone listening to me. I didn’t cry, in fact it felt so good to get out.

Colt

When I asked Savanna to go fishing, I immediately had regrets. She looked terrible and needed to rest. Being in the sun couldn’t have been good for any of the abrasions on her face. I had packed lunch, but not sunscreen and I hadn’t found any in the small shed.

I handed her my one and only favorite hat. “Here, put this on your head so your face doesn’t get too much sun.” I offered.

She smiled and held the hat in her hand. “Are you sure you don’t want it? I mean your hair looks like a hot mess.” She joked.

We both started laughing as I tried to pat down my hair. I needed it cut, but just hadn’t had time. “If you want to talk about hot messes we can start with your hair this morning. I mean, it was so bad that I had to drive to the store and get you the brush. I was afraid that by tomorrow we may have lost the TV remote in there.” I said sarcastically.

“Ha ha! It wasn’t that bad.”

“Okay, if you say so.” I said as I stared out at the water.

Since I wasn’t expecting it, Savanna took her hand and pushed me over, causing me to get my hands and my rod all muddy. When I turned to face her and she saw the mud, she held her hand over her face while she laughed.

“You better get up and run, because paybacks are a bitch.” I said as I picked up a large handful of slimy mud.

Savanna threw the pole on the ground and started running away from me. The problem was that the pond was a large circle, so as long as she stayed away from the woods, she couldn’t hide.

Just as I suspected, she tried to hide behind a bunch of cat tails growing out of the water. I spotted my white shirt and tossed the wad of dirt up high so that it disbursed all over her head and unfortunately my hat.

She screamed as it came down on top of her. “You suck Colt!”

I started laughing as I bent over to grab another chunk of mud, but as I came up I got slapped right in the forehead with a cold chunk of earth. Before I could say a word, I heard her laughing uncontrollably.

I looked toward the sound of the giggles, but couldn’t spot her. Suddenly I saw another bunch of it coming my way and I tried to move out of the way. It slapped me on the shoulder. I caught a patch of white moving quickly and I ran after it. As I came up behind her, I tossed the mud at her back. She screamed as it hit her, but kept running, knowing I had to stop for more.

As I ducked down, she must have done the same, because we both came up and had a handful cocked back. She started walking toward me with a smile on her face. “I will put mine down if you do the same.” She said.

“Okay, on the count of three.” I agreed.

We both counted.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

At the same time instead of dropping the mud we threw them at each other. I closed my eyes and let the mud cover my face. When I opened them I saw Savanna hunched over. She was being really quiet and I started to wonder if I hit her in the face by accident. I was sure I aimed way lower. When I came within inches she smacked me on the chest with more mud. Her laugh was contagious and I couldn’t help but push her down and try to get her back. Unfortunately, my body was now on top of her and I froze as our eyes met each other’s gaze.

I pushed her muddy hair away from her face with my fingers. She closed her eyes as I did it. She was still gorgeous, even with the black eye, busted cheek and fat lip. Her mouth was so close to mine that I could feel her breathing. I wanted to kiss her, in fact I wanted to do a whole lot more.

She closed her eyes again and started moving her head up toward mine. I pulled away and stood up quickly. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean…Why don’t we eat some lunch.” I said changing the subject.

She sat up and just like me, pretended nothing happened between us just now. Maybe I had just imagined it, but I swear she wanted me to kiss her.

We ate most of our lunch in silence and it seemed uncomfortable for a while. Finally she just started talking about normal things.

“Wanna play some Rummy tonight?” She asked.

I finished the last bite of my sandwich. “You do know that I am the Mitchell champion right?”

“I can beat you at that game any day Colt. We aren’t kids anymore you know.” She replied.

“Well I aint doing shit until I get a shower. This mud smells like ass.” I admitted.

She started laughing as she picked at the meat on her sandwich. “You think it is the mud. Maybe it is you.”

I flung some of the cold bottle of water at her. She tried to cover herself from being hit by it and yelped as the cold water hit her neck. “That is so cold.”

“You deserved it. I was sittin’ here being nice to you.” I replied.

“Actually, we really do stink now.” She admitted.

I gathered everything up and put it in the bag. “How bout we head back and get cleaned up. It will take us awhile gettin’ the horses cleaned up anyway.” I suggested.

I held my hand out to help her up and when I pulled she ended up losing her balance and falling into my chest. She looked up at me and again our gazes met. For a few seconds we both just stood there staring at each other. Her eyes were staring at my mouth and I couldn’t help but lick them. I wanted to feel how soft her lips felt.

I opened my mouth to say something and she pulled away and started making her way toward Daisy. I had to shake it off. There was nothing going on between us. It wasn’t possible. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I had known her since we were kids and she was going through a tough time. It had to just be that I felt sorry for her. It had to be that.

Chapter 8

Savanna

After two close encounters, neither Colt or myself spoke much on the way home. I didn’t really understand what had happened. We were just joking around and having a good time, which was something I hadn’t done in forever, in fact I couldn’t even remember how long it had been.

Maybe it was because it had been over six months since I had physical contact with anyone, especially a guy. I just felt so comfortable around Colt after knowing him for so long. It didn’t make it any easier considering he was so damn hot. Part of me wished I could see him shirtless again, but the other part felt like it would be cheating on Ty. I was just so lonely.