“I like it right here. I’m all the time alone—greatest spot to clear my head,” he says as he unties a boot by the sting of the water and pulls it off.

My eyes slender as I watch him.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it seem like I’m doing?”

He slips off his different boot and works to unbuckle his belt earlier than pushing his denims down his legs.

My mouth drops.

“You’re swimming?”

I go searching, like possibly I missed one thing. Like a pool. And bathing fits.

He peels off his socks.

Then shirt.

Then briefs.

When he stands in entrance of me carrying solely a cocky smile, my coronary heart stutters.

“We’re swimming. Strip,” he says, making a fast swiping movement together with his index finger by means of the air.

I shake my head. “You’ve misplaced your thoughts. I’m not swimming! This can be a public path, Ethan. Anybody may stroll up! And God, we’re adults—adults don’t swim bare in lakes. I’ve children!” I sound as panicked as I really feel.

“I’m an grownup, and I’m swimming bare in a lake. And in case you haven’t observed, your children aren’t right here.”

As nonchalantly as he says the phrases, he walks towards the water, the muscle mass of his naked again flexing with each step.

I can’t do that.

Can I do that?

When he’s as much as his shoulders within the water, he turns to take a look at me—nonetheless totally clothed on the shore.

“What are you ready for, Penelope?” His echoed voice is a taunt throughout the flat water.

What am I ready for?

Perhaps it’s the way in which he appears bare in that lake, or possibly it’s as a result of it feels daring and scandalous, however I do it. I do it with out pondering or making an attempt to speak myself out of it. I kick my boots off, shed my garments, and chuckle wildly as I run into the water with a splash.

Bare.

I’m forty-one and thin dipping, and I’ve by no means felt so ridiculous or alive.

I swim out to him. He lifts me up, and my legs wrap round him and his nakedness. Then, in a lake in the midst of nowhere in Maine, he kisses me.

If I weren’t leaving in days and a mile wasn’t thus far, I would suppose I’ve simply fallen in love with him. I would suppose for the primary time since Travis died, that is the happiest I’ve been. As quick because the ideas invade me, I push them away. As a result of I do know love takes longer than weeks to occur, and a mile actually is way, particularly when there are practically two thousand of them linked collectively.

Even when the hikers he promised me would by no means come stroll by and obscenely catcall us, we keep in that lake. We swim till our fingers wrinkle and our stomachs growl.

It’s among the finest days of my life.

***

On the second to final morning, earlier than Marin and Finn are again, I watch Ethan sleep and examine how the nice and cozy gentle displays off hidden strands of silver in his hair. I watch him for therefore lengthy my eyes begin to burn.

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