"The Last Words"
An epilogue.
Thanks again for all your fabulous feedback. I put Ryan and Summer through the emotional ringer and now they shall both get a fluffy epilogue for a reward.
Ryan was hot and sweaty from working the afternoon shift at the Lighthouse. He had already shed his button down shirt in the car and he began peeling his Tshirt off even before he was completely inside the pool house. His pants were sticky from the soda a little kid had managed to knock over as Ryan was serving the table. Orange Crush had splashed from his crotch to his ankle. All he wanted was a hot shower, a short nap and to see Summer – in that order.
Therefore, when he removed the T-shirt from his face and found her sitting in the middle of his bed wearing only the tiniest gold bikini and a huge, gift-wrapped box on her lap, he was almost taken aback.
"Summer!" he exclaimed, "You're here."
Her raven black hair tumbled over naked shoulders; her deep brown eyes were luminescent as they gazed up at him; her full lips eschewed their usual pout and were instead drawn into a big smile that displayed her dental perfection. How could he be annoyed? Ryan tossed his shirt on the floor, dropped down on the bed and leaned in to kiss her.
She pushed the colorful package off her lap and reached for him, cradling his face with one hand and rubbing the other over his bare chest as they kissed.
"Sorry," he explained breathlessly, when he pulled away, "I'm kind of gross right now. Give me a minute to grab a shower?"
"You can grab anything you want," she replied pertly.
He grinned, let out a little growl and bent to gently bite her breast through the satiny fabric of her swimsuit. Summer pushed him away with a tousle of his hair and Ryan bounded off the bed and into the bathroom.
When he emerged a scant ten minutes later, dressed only in boxers and still damp from the shower, Summer again had the ubiquitous box on her lap and was looking as excited as Seth on Christmukkah morning.
"What's that all about?" he asked, pointing to the present.
"For you."
"It's not my birthday," he reminded her then looked suddenly alarmed. "There wasn't some anniversary I was supposed to remember was there?" He was picturing one of those 'two month anniversary of the first time we held hands' type things that were so important to girls.
"No. No anniversary," Summer said. "This is just a celebration of you. And because I love shopping. You know, I found out it's actually almost more fun shopping for someone else than it is for yourself." Her voice expressed amazement at the concept.
Ryan sat on the foot of the bed and continued to look doubtfully at the package. "But I don't have anything for you."
"Doesn't matter." She thrust it toward him. "Here. Open."
He gingerly accepted the gift and began to carefully remove the wrapping paper so that he wouldn't rip it. Summer finally sighed in frustration and grabbed the box back from him.
"Let me. I want to give you the stuff in a certain order anyway." She quickly dispensed with the ribbon, shredded the paper and opened the box then she handed him the first gift.
"A package of undershirts," he said in bemusement, looking at the plastic wrapped three-pack of shirts.
"Classic Ryan," she explained. "That's to show you that I appreciate your look and wouldn't change it for anything. The white tank works for you. You've got the biceps for it."
"Um, thanks?" he said in embarrassment.
"Okay. With that said, how about this?" She held up the next item from the box.
"That's ... that's a Hawaiian shirt," he stammered, staring at the blossom splashed shirt in dismay.
"This is to remind you that it's okay to introduce color into your wardrobe."
Summer responded to the look on his face with a disappointed, "You don't like it?"
"Uh. No. It's g-great. Yeah." He quickly covered.
She burst out laughing and tossed the shirt at his lying face. "Kidding! Amber's throwing a Halloween luau at the end of the month and we have to dress up. After that you can burn the thing if you want as far as I'm concerned."
Ryan tossed the shirt to one side and grimaced. "You're funny."
"I know." She reached into the box and pulled out a smaller box, which she handed to him. In it was folded a plain white Oxford shirt.
"Because you look sooo hot in a button down that's unbuttoned," she told him, leaning forward and running an appreciative hand over his abs. His stomach muscles twitched at her touch.
"Thanks," he murmured, blushing.
She reached into her box again.
"There's more?" he exclaimed. "Look. I feel really weird about this. I didn't...."
"Shush!" she said, raising her hand imperiously. "You forget how much I love to shop. This is fun for me. Don't spoil it."
He shushed and accepted the next small box she handed him. It was a new game for the Playstation; a racing game.
"This is because everything you guys play is something Seth picked out. I saw you looking at this at Best Buy last time we went. You know, Ryan," Summer's voice was gentle, "you don't always have to do everything Seth wants to do."
She amended, "Unless he tells you to make up with your girlfriend and tell her you love her. Then you should probably obey."
"Thanks," Ryan said again. He put the game down on the bed and leaned over to kiss Summer slowly and sweetly. Pulling back, he looked into her eyes and stroked the side of her face with his hand. "I'm sorry I took so long to say it."
She smiled. "Well, I'm sorry I broke up with you and made us both miserable for two whole weeks instead of just saying it, so we're even." She kissed him again, then placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back. "Two more," she announced.
This time she presented him with a tiny box, which contained one small silver hoop.
"An earring," Ryan said. He looked up at her to see if she was joking again. "You want me to get my ear pierced?"
Summer shrugged. "Not necessarily. Do YOU want to get your ear pierced?"
"I, uh, never thought about it." He paused and considered. "It's not exactly my ... my...."
"Style? Yeah. I guess you're right," she agreed and examined his almost naked body from head to toe. "Of course," she said thoughtfully, "there are other things that can be pierced." Her eyes dwelled on his left nipple and Ryan had to fight the self-conscious urge to fold his arms across his chest.
"Whatever." She shrugged. "I'll hold on to this for you and we'll see." She grinned at him mischievously. "Maybe we can skip the piercing and go straight to getting you a tattoo on your ass that says 'Property of Summer.'"
Ryan chuckled nervously.
Finally Summer quit staring at him and reaching to the bottom of her box, pulled out a leather bound book. She handed it to him almost shyly. "I know this is kind of a girly thing, and you're not the type to keep a journal but when I was in therapy after my mom left ... my therapist recommended it. I thought it was stupid and told him so, but he was right. It helped me to understand what I was feeling when I wrote it all down and I thought ... you might like to try it. You can feel comfortable writing anything you want to because nobody else will see it. "
She paused and gave him a searching look before adding, "I, uh, wrote something to you at the beginning." He started to open the book and she stopped him with her hand. "But don't read it now."
Ryan looked at her questioningly. Summer blushed and ducked her head. "It's pretty mushy and sentimental," she explained in an embarrassed voice. "But I mean every word. I want you to be able to see it in writing if you ever doubt that I, uh, care."
He nodded solemnly, but smiled inside at her sweetness. "Okay. Thank you."
Ryan sat back and looked at his little pile of gifts strewn across the bed. He felt overwhelmed at Summer's generosity, and a little desperate. What could he possibly give her in return? He wouldn't dare buy her jewelry or an article of clothing because he could never guess her style choices. He would have liked to give her something meaningful and personal directly from his own possessions but running through the shortlist of what he owned, nothing seemed appropriate. She already owned his wrist cuff, which he had lost to her during that strip study session last spring.
Then he realized that tangible possessions weren't all he had to give. There were the words she had longed to hear which he had withheld for far too long. Ryan looked into Summer's eyes, swallowed hard because it cost him a lot to say stuff like this and imbued his next words with all the intensity and conviction he could muster.
"I love you, Summer," he said gravely, his voice almost shaking with sincerity. "I've loved you for a long time now." He paused to breathe. "You've done more for me than you'll ever know and I ... uh, thank you." He could feel his face flaming as if he had a sunburn and he quickly dropped his eyes.
"I love you too," she whispered, taking one of his hands in hers.
There was silence except for the drone of the pool pump outside. Summer cleared her throat. "Okay. You're going to be working this all the time now, aren't you?" she teased. "I can see it. Every time you want to get your way or distract me from something I want to do it's going to be 'I love you, Summer' cause you know I'll melt. I see where this is going. Manipulator!"
Ryan was grateful to her for breaking the tension. He laughed and pushed her onto her back against the pillows. He crawled up her body, straddling her hips and pressing against her groin. "I have other ways of controlling you," he rumbled in his deepest voice. He looked down at her with half lidded eyes then dove in to nibble on her neck. Summer shrieked as he tickled the hollow of her throat with his tongue.
She wiggled beneath him, gasping for air and laughing. "Stop! Stop it!" she begged as he moved his hands to all the sensitive parts of her body and tickled.
He finally stopped and allowed her to push him off of her and switch positions so that she straddled him. She pinned his arms beside his head with a firm grip and Ryan did his best to look penitent and subdued.
"Who's got the power now, baby?" she asked, rubbing her crotch against the bulge in his boxers. His eyes glazed over with lust and he shook off her restraining hands on his wrists and reached for her, wrapping a palm around the back of her neck and pulling her down for a deep, penetrating kiss.
"You do," he murmured against her lips.
"Just so you know," she answered.
Then they both quit talking and showed each other how they felt without any more words.The EndSorry gang, no hot and heavy sex scene this time. I wanted to keep a PG-13 rating and also I wasn't in the mood to write it. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to write the action of a sex scene – you have to do a lot of envisioning to see if your positioning of body parts is even feasible and then you have to find creative new ways to describe things to keep it interesting and differentiate it from every other sex fic out there. So for a dose of sex read the last chapter of "Summer Time" again.