|
Full of Grace
Nick was turning into a regular McGuyver. He rigged up a fishing pole so it
was tied to my wrist a little so if I got a bite, it wouldn't be yanked out
of my numb fingers. He had the other hand slid in this sort of brace that
was attached to the reel and velcroed around my palm. He saw my wonder at
having all of this stuff readily available to use.
He smiled from beneath his fisherman's hat, "The old man who I bought this
cabin from had really bad arthritis, but he refused to give up fishing. I
kept all this stuff, I figured someday it may come in handy." He gave me a
goofy grin, "I was right."
I tested the pole and the reel, the setup looked bizarre, but it worked. I
looked up at Nick, "Ok, Nicky. Let's get this show on the road."
Nick frowned, "Don't call me Nicky, Pumpkin."
I stuck my tongue out at him and he chuckled as he started up the engine and
brought us out to the middle of the lake.
We sat there silently for hours, just enjoying the day. I felt a tug on my
line and Nick jumped as I jerked forward. Whatever had caught my line was a
strong sucker! I started reeling in, being careful not to bend my wrist,
letting the brace take most of the strain. It was putting up one hell of a
fight. I kept jerking forward and back as I tried to reel it in, nearly
losing my balance. I felt a pair of arms coming around me from behind as
nick put his hands over mine, giving me a better grip and steadying me. We
both worked at reeling the fish in, the two of us plastered together in our
fight to get this damn reluctant fish into the boat. I turned my head to
talk to Nick, having an idea of how to get this fish to cooperate. Nick
turned his head to talk to me at the same moment and somehow our lips met.
My mind screamed at me to move away, to stop this, but the rest of me didn't
seem to want to listen. I felt Nick's hands tighten on mine, but he didn't
move away. We both stood there, the fish forgotten as our lips held their
embrace.
A snapping noise brought us back to reality. Before we could react, we were
rather unceremoniously tossed into the lake. Howls of surprise were stopped
short our two bodies made a huge splash into the lake. I surfaced after
untangling myself from both the fishing pole and Nick. I looked around for
him to make sure he was ok and saw him looking like a drowned rat. His hair
was plastered to his head and his fisherman's hat was soaked, dripping a
stream of water right between his eyes. The look on his face was priceless.
His mouth was open in an "o" of surprise and his eyes were wide in
amazement. From being thrown in the water or from the kiss, I was not sure.
As much as I tried not to, I broke out laughing. I floated on my back and
crossed my arms over my stomach, trying to stop my sides from splitting open
I was laughing that hard. Oh man, it felt so good to laugh again.
Nick looked at me in amazement and then realizing the absolute
ridiculousness of the situation broke down laughing too. We must have
looked like two idiots splashing in the water laughing our fool heads off.
When we started to laugh ourselves out, Nick wiped his eyes with a snort of
laughter, "Think that was Mother Nature's way of telling us we needed to
cool off?"
I laughed again, "Maybe Nick, maybe. It certainly worked."
He swam to get the boat, chuckling the whole way. He dragged it back over
and managed to hoist himself back in. He paddled the boat over to me and
leaned over to try to pull me into the boat. He groaned and grunted as he
struggled to lift me over the side of the boat. My arms were useless for
leverage, so he had to do all the work. Finally, he got me in the boat with
a huge yank that sent the both of us sprawling.
We landed with a thud a tangle of arms and legs. I head a grunt from
underneath me, "KEV! Yer killing me! Get off you oaf!"
I shot up and scrambled to the other side of the boat, seeing Nick laying
there making a big show of how much I almost crushed him. He wheezed and
groaned about his broken ribs and whined like their was no tomorrow. I
waited until he was finished and started to applaud politely.
He raised an eyebrow at me, "What are you clapping for, you fool?"
I grabbed the thermos that was on the floor of the boat, "And the Oscar for
the best whining scene goes to....*gasp* Nickolas Carter for "The Two Idiots
Go Fishing"!!!"
I thrust the thermos into his hands and applauded wildly, I would have given
him a standing ovation, but I was afraid of ending up in the water again.
He grinned and wiped a fake tear from his eye, "I'd like to thank all the
people who got me to this point. .... oh who am I kidding. It was meeeeeee,
it was all MEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
I was nearly crying from laughter at this point and Nick sank onto his seat,
laughing just as hard. "What do you say we call it a day? The sun is going
down and we've scared most of the fish out of the lake by now."
I nodded and wiped my eyes, still chuckling, "I had a lot of fun, even if we
didn't catch a fish."
Nick tried to make a serious face, failing miserably, "Laugh now, Aqua Boy,
but what are we going to eat for dinner?"
I made a serious face, doing a better job of it than Nick, "Well Nicky,
there is only one answer to that question. "
We both looked at each other and came up with the same answer, "JUNK
FOOD!!!"
We laughed and I shot Nick a mock severe look, "Will you look at that,
you've warped me. You've turned me to the dark side. We should be eating
vegetables, carrots and cucumbers and some salad and...."
Nick's hand clamped over my mouth and he glared at me, "You will not swear
in my presence!!! God, carrots? Bite your tongue!!!"
I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head as he turned on the engine with a
laugh. We headed back to the dock and I waited on the boat as he got it all
moored and then he reached him hand down to grab my arm and steady me as I
got out of the boat. Man, you don't realize how much your hands do until
you can't use them.
We made our way inside and Nick shoved me towards the stairs, "Go have a
shower and give me a yell when you're done so I can get mine."
I nodded, we were doing everything we could to avoid discussing that kiss.
I stopped on the bottom of the steps and looked at him, "Nick, what
happened.....you know....it just happened. I couldn't take it if things got
weird between us."
Nick nodded, "I just need to think about it, that's all. Now go shower."
I went up the stairs and took my time washing the lake grime off of me as
best as I could. When I finished, I toweled off and slipped on a clean pair
of boxers and walked out into my room.
Nick was sitting on my bed, a first aid kit in his hands. He looked at me,
still all wet from my shower and I saw something run across his face, but it
was gone before I could decipher what he was thinking. "We need to clean
your stitches. I called a doctor and he said that the lake water could have
bacteria in it."
I nodded, good thing he had thought of it, because I sure hadn't. It amazed
me how much he took care of me sometimes.
He motioned me to sit on the bed and took the sopping bandages off of my
wrist, cutting off all the tape. When he had it clear, I looked at the line
of black stitches that held my wrist together. They looked like little
spiders crawling across my skin. I shivered when I realized that without me
getting to the hospital when I did, I would be dead. He had cleared the
other wrist and held both of them over a bowl that sat in his lap. He took
a bottle from behind his back and looked at me, reluctance in his eyes,
"Kev, I'm sorry. But this is doctor's orders."
He took out a bottle of peroxide and I winced, "Ah shit. OK, get it over
with." I screwed my eyes shut and yelped as the fizzing liquid met my
wrists. I bit my lip till in nearly bled, damn it hurt like a bugger,
getting right into the slashes right down to bottom, feeling like it was
burning my flesh from the inside out. I didn't want to face Nick, he would
know by my face how much it hurt and then he would feel bad.
I felt a cloth sweeping over my wrists and then Nick's hands holding my
arms. He raised them a little and I felt air over the tingling stitches. I
turned my head to see Nick blowing softly on my wounds. I just watched his
blond head bent over my wrists and his lips puckering to blow air. I had to
close my eyes. Why the hell am I thinking like this? What the hell is wrong
with me?
My eyes snapped back open when I felt Nick looking at me. His face was
upturned and his blue eyes searched my own green ones.
I don't know which one of us moved first, or whether we both did at the same
time, but the next thing we both knew, our lips met and my arms moved of
their own volition and wrapped themselves around Nick, pulling him closer,
until he was almost on my lap, as his fingers tangled in my wet hair and
pulled my lips deeper into the kiss. I gasped and before I could stop
myself, my tongue reached out tentatively for his, only to find his tongue
meeting me halfway.
|
||