Eric's pick-up crunched over sticks and pebbles and bobbed in and out of potholes in the dirt.

"Where are you taking me?" Tami asked. "Should I be leaving a trail of breadcrumbs?"

He drove into the woods now, the truck easing narrowly between two trees, and then eventually emerging into a small clearing. He stopped driving, threw the truck into park, and turned it off. "You're going to love this spot," he vowed.

It was Sunday afternoon, and school would re-start tomorrow. They'd both gotten back from their trips last night, and he'd called and promised her a picnic after church.

She stepped out of the truck. The clearing had thick, wild, dark green grass, and was surrounded by a near perfect circle of trees. The sun twinkled down on them. It was unusually warm for early April, promising an even hotter-than-usual summer to come, but Tami had on a cool, flowered sundress and enjoyed the feel of the sun on her face as she squinted up at the fluffy clouds.

Eric took her hand. He tugged her toward the woods on the opposite side of the clearing. They made their way along a path through the brush, and Tami was glad she'd worn her cowgirl boots instead of sandals. They emerged on the gravely shore of an inlet from the man-made lake, but they couldn't actually see the rest of the lake from here. It was a private paradise. "How did you find this?"

"Hiking," he said. "That water there is about four feet deep."

He took her back to the clearing, and they laid out a blanket. He'd brought a hamper picnic basket, and he pulled out sandwiches and apples and a bottle of Moscato. "I talked to Kimberley last night. She said you liked this wine."

He poured them each a glass. He'd brought real glasses but paper plates.

"I hope you didn't steal this wine from your father's bar," Tami said.

"Well, he doesn't pay me when I taxi, so I figure I ought to get a few perks."

"Did you seriously take it? He probably knows where every bottle is."

"He knows I took it. He said I could. I'm 18 now." Eric raised his glass. "So what are we toasting? What did you decide?"

"UT-Dallas."

"To your future at UT-Dallas, then." They clinked glasses.

She sipped. She was really liking this wine thing. "But after my freshman year, I'll try to transfer to UT-Austin, so we can be closer. I mean, if you still want me to be closer."

"You mean if you still want it," he said.

She smiled at him, because she thought he was joking, but then she caught the shimmer of worry in his hazel eyes. She leaned in and kissed him.

They drank, ate, talked, and laughed, and an hour passed like a minute.

Tami reached for the bottle and poured, but only two drops dribbled into her empty glass. "Good Lord," she said. "We drank an entire bottle. What is that? Two and a half glasses each?"

"Umm…I only had one and a half glasses. I am driving after all."

She giggled. Then her eyes brightened and widened. "Let's go swimming!" She put her glass down. Tami stood up and made sure she was still steady enough on her feet to move. Her head felt buzzed, but she wasn't wobbly.

Eric, looking at her with an amused twinkle in his eyes, said, "I didn't bring a swim suit."

"Who needs one? Come on!" She left him sitting there and ran, a little clumsily, into the woods and down the short trail he'd shown her earlier. She shed her boots and clothes in a pile on the shore of the inlet, dashed into the water, and squealed at the sudden cold. After splashing into the deepest part, where the water just barely covered her breasts, she turned around.

Eric was standing on the shore now, shaking his head and smiling. "You're crazy, babe!" He quickly took his shoes and T-shirt off and dropped his jeans in a pile on the ground before walking toward the water.

"No!" she shouted. "You've got to drop those drawers, too!"

"Are you completely naked in there?" He hadn't seen her run in, apparently. Eric looked at her pile of clothes as if to confirm her underwear was among them. He turned back and grinned. "Damn, Tami!"

She jerked her head toward herself, smiling.

"Well, turn around," he said. "Don't look."

"So your sister was right. You are shy." Tami twirled around. When she heard him splashing his way to her, she turned back. He stood a foot from her, face to face.

"You're naked," she told him and giggled. Then she splashed him. He splashed her back, and then she squealed and half ran, half swam away. She tried to stand again and stumbled a little on the inlet floor. He caught and steadied her, and then his lips came down on hers.

They made out there in the water, tongues dancing, her hands roaming his chest and back and then down to his firm ass, which she squeezed. This made him emit a low chuckle, and then his lips were all over – on her earlobes, her mouth, her neck, her shoulders. He kissed and suckled and nipped. With one hand he fondled her breasts, and with the other he rubbed her lower back before straying down to squeeze a cheek.

Eric nibbled her neck at a tender spot that sent a shiver through every centimeter of her naked body. She could feel his erection lightly grazing her stomach. He need only lift her slightly, or bend himself, and then…

Tami's body was willing, but her mind was less certain. She felt like she should probably say something to slow this train down, but her head was starting to spin just a little, and she couldn't remember what it was she wanted to stay.

"Eric," she managed finally. One word, and nothing more, but her tone must have been enough.

The heat of his lips vanished from her neck. "Do you want me to stop?" he asked.

"I don't know."

The cool water lapped at her breast as his hand slid away. Eric stepped back and said, "Well I know what I want. I want you so damn bad, Tami, that I can barely think straight. So we better stop and go back to shore and get dressed and wait until you do know what you want."

She nodded.

They waded inland, Tami covering her bare breasts with crossed arms as the water receded. When the water was only up to her belly button, she refused to go another inch. "I'm embarrassed." Embarrassed she was naked, embarrassed she was buzzed, embarrassed she'd been so incredibly horny a moment ago, embarrassed she'd been acting like a fool.

"Just stand and wait here, then," he said. "I'll go get you a towel. I think I have one in my truck."

She watched him wade to shore, thought hazily how fine his ass looked, and then thought she shouldn't be watching him. He pulled on his boxers over his dripping body with his back still to her. The boxers clung to his damp, sinewy thighs as he struggled into the jeans she'd gotten him for Valentine's Day. Then he slipped his bare feet into his tennis shoes before disappearing in the woods.

She was getting cold by the time he returned, shivering on the upper half of her body. He had a towel with him. He put it on top of her clothes. Water dripped from between his pectoral muscles and weaved a path down to his navel. "I'll turn around. Tell me when you're dressed."

He stood with his back to her, his hands on his hips, and his head bent while she dried off and dressed.

"I'm done," she said, and she could feel the heat reddening her face.

He turned, took the now damp towel from her, and wiped off his chest and back before putting his white t-shirt on. "You a'ight?" he asked. "You feeling dizzy?"

"I'm fine," she insisted.

"You cold?"

"Yes."

"We'll go lie in the sun. Warm up." He put a hand around her waist and walked her back to the clearing, where she lay with her back on the blanket and looked up at the clouds for a second before putting a hand over her eyes.

He lay down beside her. She could feel his strong shoulder against hers. Her head felt clearer now. Though it was still spinning a little, she could at least think. Maybe it wasn't really the wine that had been clouding her thoughts a moment ago. Maybe it was his naked nearness.

They lay in silence for a few minutes. She wondered what he was thinking, if he wished he'd seized his opportunity and they'd had sex out there. "I'm not on the pill," she said. "I went off it the day Mo and I broke up." She figured he ought to know, given how close they might have just come to slipping incautiously into unprotected sex.

"A'ight," he said.

"I'm not ready." She almost cried when she said it, though she wasn't sure why. Such a confusing sea of emotions swirled in her – love for Eric, regret over Boone and Mo, embarrassment over her inebriation.

"A'ight," he said. "I'm sorry I let you drink so much. I was having such a good time talking to you. I wasn't paying attention."

"You're not my keeper, Eric. I'm responsible for that."

"I just…I brought the wine because I thought it would be romantic. I don't want you to think I was trying to liquor you up to get you naked. Because I wasn't."

"I got myself naked," she said.

He chuckled. "Yeah, and fast, too."

"I'm such an idiot."

"Nah."

The sun tickled her skin, drying the remaining droplets and warming her flesh. "Thank you," she whispered.

"For what?"

"For not taking advantage of me."

"You're thanking me for not being an asshole?"

She laughed. "I don't know. Am I?" She slid her hand off her eyes and rolled to face him. He turned his head slightly. She kissed him softly. "Sorry you're dating a lush," she said.

Eric rolled onto his side and draped an arm around her waist. "You're fun," he told her. "I need some fun in my life. But promise me something."

"What?"

He raised his eyes to hers. "When you go to UT-Dallas, you won't ever get drunk at a party around other guys, when I'm not there with you."

"Eric, I'm not going to throw myself at some random guy. Yeah, alcohol loosens my inhibitions, but it's not as if it makes me do something part of me doesn't already want to do."

"That's not what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid of you not being in a position to defend yourself if…" He swallowed. "Just promise me, please."

"I'll be smart," she said. "I'll be careful. I'll promise you that. But I'm not promising you I'll never get drunk at a party in college."

He frowned.

"Would you promise me never to get drunk at a college party?"

"It's not the same risk for me, and you know it." In his tone, for a moment, he sounded almost like his father.

"Like I said," she replied firmly. "I'll be smart. That's all I'm promising you."

He stared at her for a moment, as if he was considering insisting on her compliance, but then he said, "A'ight. I love you, Tami."

It occurred to her that however many times she had thought to herself that she loved him, she had never actually said those three little words. Maybe she'd been afraid to, after what had happened with Mo, as though not saying the words could somehow protect her from heart break if he ever chose to walk away. But she knew it couldn't.

Even more importantly, she knew he deserved to hear it. "I love you, too, Eric."