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“Why are you still smiling?”
“I can’t quite believe you’re here. In my house. For the whole summer.”
My feet close the distance between us, and I wrap my arms around his neck. “Pretty cool, right.”
“Absolutely.” He bends to kiss my lips. Not deeply, just softly, like I’m something fragile, and he doesn’t want me to break. He often surprises me with that, but I like it, and it makes me feel special.
The next few days are a blur of great food, swimming in the ocean, and spending time with Jeremy. But also, his parents.
Their welcome party was overwhelming. So many people were there, all from the Cove. I looked a little underdressed compared to the cocktail dresses and other posh frocks and heels. Jeremy told me I looked pretty, but his words didn’t stop me from feeling out of place. It was like a reunion of sorts, everyone knowing each other and catching up. And everybody wanted to meet ‘Archer’s girl.’ That was my name for most of the night, even though Jeremy introduced me to everyone as Anna. To his credit, he never left my side, keeping my hand firmly in his. I’d have died if he left me.
Every time someone called me Archer’s girl, he’d run his thumb over the back of my hand as if reassuring me. I never wanted him to let it go.
His mum was like a completely different person at the party than when I first met her on the driveway. She was loud and over the top, but also made sure she was the ultimate host of the party. She kept fawning over me, fixing my hair and ensuring I had a glass of bubbly in my hand whenever she saw me. Even pulling me this way and that to show me off to her friends.
His dad was pretty absent in comparison, and I wondered if it was to escape all this fuss.
Just like at school, everyone called Jeremy, Archer, but I couldn’t see him as anything other than Jeremy.
When we were together, it was better — just the two of us. We spent time at the beach, lounging by the pool, or just hanging out together.
And that’s how things went for the first week. We spent time on our own during the day, and if his parents were entertaining, joined them in the evening. I didn’t want to think back to the argument we had all those weeks ago, where Jeremy warned me this was how it would be, but he was right. It felt like there was an unwritten expectation that if I dated Jeremy, then this was what was required as his girlfriend.
But they graciously opened up their home to me, letting me eat their food and do as we wanted most of the time. The least I could do was show up when asked and smile.
The first bonfire party on the beach was fun. My nerves were excited nerves, like butterflies taking flight inside my stomach. It was the first time we were going to a party with his Cove friends and going back to where we first kissed.
It seemed to go pretty much exactly like last year. People arrived, drank beer, and watched the bonfire. It was later into the evening before they set it alight, as it was still that time of year when the days seemed to stretch on forever, and you never wanted the sun to set.
Only this year, he kissed me as we watched the sun dip beneath the waves, his fingers tangled in my hair. The kiss I had imagined in my mind unfolded right in front of me, cast in golden light, and it fed something inside of me, knowing that after all this time, we’d made it.
Jeremy never left my side. He kept my hand in his and made me feel important to him. It was perfect.
“I want to take you to the boat tomorrow,” he says as we sit on the soft sand.
“The boat?”
“Yeah. It’s at the harbour. We can reach it from the garden down the path.”
“There’s more than all of this?”
He smirks at me. “We’re not taking her out or anything. We can swim off the jetty.”
He speaks like it’s completely normal to have a boat and a jetty. “Okay,” I agree and lean my head onto his shoulder, a little starstruck.
It’s hard not to feel impressed. But the longer we stay I can’t help but wonder if I’d want to live like this — with everything done for us — waking up in the morning and breakfast already made, coffee and juice on the table. We don’t have to wash up or clean. My bed is made every day, and I think the sheets have already been changed twice. It’s nice. Luxurious. But for longer than a few weeks? I can’t comprehend.
We leave the bonfire, and Jeremy walks me to my room. He stops, kisses me on the top of my head, and I give him a little pout. “You know if I kiss you properly, I won’t want to stop.” His eyes stare into mine, and I can feel the heat building from just that look. I nod, as I’m also starting to feel impatient about the physical side of our relationship. It seems to stall at kissing, and that isn’t enough anymore. I want to do everything with Jeremy.
My black bikini has just been returned from the laundry, so I choose it for our trip to the boat. I didn’t know if I’m expecting a sailing yacht that would look fitting on the Mediterranean or a speedy power boat from the movies. After breakfast, Jeremy leads me through the garden and out of a gate I hadn’t noticed in the far corner of the property. It winds down a little path adjacent to the direction we’d take if we were heading to the beach.
“Do many people come down here?” I ask.
“A few.”
He keeps walking, and then the path opens up to a small, private harbour. There are a handful of boats moored along the main boardwalk. “This is ours.” He points to a small jetty and, next to it, a sleek-looking power boat.
“Wow. I bet this place is popular with your friends.”
