Prompt 63: Summer
Their legs hung over the edged of the little boat and Jo smiled up at the sun beating down on their browning bodies. Not so many years ago she might've pushed the boy that lay next to her, loosely holding her hand, off the little dinghy but as it was Jo'd grown quite accustomed to the little tender gestures he'd limited himself to. Not so many years ago they weren't quite so attached to two other important people who had laughed at their adventures where they behaved as if it was not so many years ago.
Jo turned her hand, still smiling brightly to find him turned the same way to her but perhaps without such a wide smile.
"How many plays do you suppose I wrote in this boat?" Jo asked, interested to see how much attention he really paid back then. He could hardly have kept count.
"One actually, dear." Her brows rose in surprise at his decisive, and she was sure, incorrect answer. "Well you only ever did write one in its entirety. I do recall a large amount of dilly-dallying and pushing certain people into a certain temperature of water." Jo laughed as he squeezed her hand.
"Well as I remember it, certain persons deserved it!"
Laurie smiled, rolling his head to look up at the sky, a look of nostalgia crossing his face of twenty-eight years. Jo had always thought it to be a very fine face and she would proudly tell everyone of the handsome brother-in-law she had. But sometimes there were pieces of expressions that entered his black eyes, or crossed his dichotic mouth that made her stomach unsettled and the idea of his being her brother-in-law only too frightfully forgettable.
"It's just as well we're so old and serious now," said she, looking up at the clear summer sky again as Laurie shifted on his back making the boat rock a little and their shoulders bump up together.
"Speak for yourself sister Jo!" he spoke the name neither seemed to use seriously as he put on an affronted tone. "I'll have you know I'm as spritely and deserving as ever!" Laurie grinned wickedly when she looked at him and something inside Jo stirred, wondering what he'd do.
"Oh really?" she begun, planning to play along as they both leant on their elbows facing each other. Jo was ready to list all the things he couldn't do anymore when she saw a flash of a look cross his face and he shut eyes, quickly leaning forward to plant a kiss on her half-opened mouth.
It was all so fast but incredibly thorough as he pressed his lips against hers, grazing the bottom of her lip with the tip of his tongue. Jo could feel his teeth just behind the surprisingly soft flesh of his lips where drops of spittle gathered between them in the heat.
"Teddy!" she cried when he pulled away, a glint in his eyes she hadn't seen in over a year and Jo shoved him in the chest until his tall frame shifted the weight in the boat and they both tipped over.
After a moments struggle underwater Jo swam to the surface blindly reaching for the overturned boat to stop herself from being dragged under by her heavy dress. Laurie was nowhere to be seen and Jo panicked, her hand slipping from the curved underside of the boat as she spun about calling him.
"Jo, Jo I'm here!" she heard what sounded like his voice under her hand and she gaped as the dinghy was lifted out of the water to reveal a drenched Laurie under it. "Seems I got up on the wrong edge, that's all," he said taking her wrist as her legs tired from treading water. A moment later he'd tipped the boat the right way up and was helping Jo back into it when he told her, "that's the last time I try to kiss you – we almost drowned!"
Once he hauled himself over the edge he looked up to see Jo frowning sternly at him and he immediately regretted both the action and words.
"Laurie," she started and he knew he was in trouble just by his name, "we are old and serious now." Jo's hand gripped the rim of the boat tightly; so much so he could see her knuckles turn white with the pressure. He couldn't meet her gaze knowing both the anger and pity in her grey eyes would set him against her without a second thought.
"I know."
"We're both grown up and married now. And happy."
"I know."
Laurie felt like the little boy who wrote love letter to Meg under someone else's name all over again and he folded his wet hands looking over the side of the boat. God he felt foolish.
"It was a silly mistake and I'm sorry for it." He apologised feeling cold and hot all at once covered in water under the sun. He picked up the wet oars tied to the boat and begun to row them back as Jo leant on her hand with her back to him. Maybe she would never really love him for the way he acted but he was sure she had started to kiss him back.
One thing was certain, whatever it was between them wasn't over.