“Then I’ll say it was me,” I added.

Even with her back to me I could tell her face had locked up along with the rest of her body, as her head rose solidly from between her shoulders, she slowly turned around. I had never seen her look so stunned before.

Both of her hands came out in a flash and she shoved me hard, but I didn’t fall. Then she grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Don’t ever say that again. You fucking hear me, Elias? Don’t you ever say that!”

I just stared into her wild eyes, seemingly unfazed by her outburst. I needed to keep my cool, because one of us needed to be calm and it clearly wasn’t going to be her.

I reached up and tried to cup her face in my hands but she shoved them away.

“I can’t believe you said that!” she snapped.

“You can’t believe I said it, or that I’d actually do it?”

“It doesn’t matter. I won’t let you go down for me.”

She began to pace.

“I can’t go down for you, but you’ll let me go down with you?”

She froze. I knew my words would hurt her, but they needed to be said. Because it was exactly how I felt.

“There’s not that much of a difference, Brayelle.”

“Is that what this is about? You’re just trying to prove a point?” Resentment laced her voice.

“What point would that be?”

She shook her head with dismay. She couldn’t respond. Maybe she didn’t understand her own question, I didn’t know, but I admit even I was somewhat confused by my own. Did I just openly blame her? I thought to myself.

Not wanting her to feel that way even if it were true, I took her into my arms and kissed the top of her head.

“You’re not going to lie for me and say you were there and you’re not going to go down for me, either.”

“Then what am I doing here with you?” I asked calmly, surrendering, knowing that her resolve was unshakable.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be,” she shot back, but I knew it wasn’t something she wanted to say.

She stayed in my arms and didn’t try to pull away. I wouldn’t have let her if she did.

“Is that what you want, Elias? To leave?” She sighed and nuzzled her cheek against my chest muscle. “If you want to leave I’ll understand.” The pain was soft in her voice, but pain nonetheless. It wasn’t to make me feel guilty at all, but it did anyway.

“Well, I’m not leaving you,” I said. “But we need to figure out what we’re going to do. Partying every night and running around with Tate isn’t going to make this go away. A few more days. That’s it, Bray. We need to figure this out in a few more days, or we’re going back together and I’m going to be your witness.”

“You can’t do that.”

“If it’s the only option we have then I will do it.”

I placed my hands on her arms and took one step back, looking down into her tightened face. “Just promise me that,” I said. “If we don’t think of anything else, you’ll at least let me be your witness.”

“What if I’m lying? Would you still be my witness?”

That caught me off guard. “I know you’re not lying.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I trust you. And because I know you.”

Her gaze strayed, but it wasn’t because she was hiding anything.

“Just promise me that you’ll go along with it.”

She didn’t answer at first. I knew she didn’t want to. Finally, she nodded.

“Good,” I said and hugged her close to me again.

We stood there quietly for a moment. I had a feeling that even though she agreed, when the time came, if it ever did, there was a chance she might change her mind.

“Elias, what’s going on with Caleb and Tate?” she changed the subject. “What if this is our last stop with them? I doubt Adam will want us here after Caleb leaves. And besides, I’d feel weird about staying anyway.”

Yeah, so would I, I thought.

“I’ll talk to Tate,” I said. “Ask him to keep us around for a few more days at the most. Long enough for us to figure out our next move.”

Bray didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, but you heard him talking to Caleb. They sent Grace and Johanna back for a reason.”

“I know,” I said, but I knew she was right so it was all I said.

Thunder rumbled in the sky and the thick, dark clouds lit up in the distance, revealing what the tops of the trees looked like painted against the black backdrop that had shrouded them. The crawling branches that reached upward along the infinite dark looked ominous as the flash of light faded.

I felt a drop of rain. And then another.

“So much for a quiet walk together,” Bray said.

And just then, the sky opened up and it began to pour. Bray shrieked and tried to cover herself unsuccessfully with her arms and then the screaming turned into laughter. We were both drenched in under five seconds. The rain pounded down so fast and so hard that we had to shout over the noise to hear each other; each drop like a million nails being thrust into the dirt on the baseball field.

“It’s a long walk back!” I said.

Bray started spinning like a ballerina in the middle of the field. She laughed and raised her arms above her and turned her face upward toward the sky and just let the rain wash over her. She opened her mouth and spun around and around. I watched her for a moment, mesmerized by her innocence. I saw that little girl I met so long ago, running with me through that pasture without a worry in the world. Just seeing her like that, it made me smile, but deep down it also crushed me. I knew that she would never be that innocent again, that our life together would never be as carefree as it was when we were children.

“Dance with me!” she shouted.

“What?”

“Dance with me!”

I had heard her right the first time. I just didn’t understand why here, why now.

“There’s no music!” I said over the rain.

She grabbed my hand. “You don’t hear that?!” she said, motioning to the patter of rain and thunder around us.

She started spinning around me and I stood in the same spot following her until she grabbed both of my hands and pulled on them. Next thing I knew, we were spinning together, holding each other’s hands tightly and distributing equal weight on our arms. At first, I felt like an idiot and hoped Tate wasn’t spying, or worse, Caleb. But I was quickly lost in Bray’s laughter and her smile and her beautiful blue eyes. The thunder got louder, the lightning more intense. I was beginning to worry about us being out in the open like this, in the center of a baseball field just asking to be struck down by the finger of God. But soon, I didn’t care. We were those two innocent children again, living free and loving life. And not even lightning could ruin this moment. It wouldn’t dare.

We stopped spinning, and I twirled her around by her hands as I stood in place, and then I dipped her. Leaning over her body, I pressed my wet lips between her breasts as her white shirt was weighted down by the endless rain. I planted kisses up the center of her throat until I found her plump lips, dotted by droplets of rain. Rain washed in heavy rivulets over our faces, into our parted mouths. I searched her eyes staring back into mine, and I longed to taste her. In every way. Every square inch of her body. But right now, just her lips.

I raised her body back up and gazed into her eyes, my hands secure at her back and still holding up her weight. She smiled at me, that same bright and beautiful smile that never failed to instigate my own. I watched adoringly as the rain clung to her eyelashes and streamed down her cheeks and glistened on her lips. I would’ve given up anything to stay with her forever in this moment, blocking out the world around us and forgetting what awaited us out there.

I lifted her from the ground with my arms wrapped around her lower back and I kissed her deeply, savoring the taste of her warm tongue against mine.

Perfect. Beautiful. She could never shatter my image of her, no matter what she did.