I start to climb up the ladder but Tanner grabs me by the waist and pulls me back in the water. I turn in his arms and go to push him away but he grabs my hand and holds it to his chest.

Tanner smirks and says, “When you gonna be my girl, Honey Bee?”

My cheeks instantly flush and my body starts to shake. If Tanner notices he doesn’t say anything. “Stop messing around, Tanner.” I push a little harder on his shoulder and he falls back, letting go of me.

Tanner starts laughing. “I’m gonna marry you someday, you wait and see.”

I climb the ladder with the biggest smile on my face.

2

~ Age 15 ~

Tanner

School just let out a few weeks ago for Rhea and I and our parents decided to do a camping trip before our first annual trip to Myrtle Beach with the Mitchell’s. We weren’t going far, just twenty minutes away from our houses in Fayetteville, but it was enough to get us out of our neighborhood.

“Tanner,” Mama called from the kitchen. “Can you please put this cooler in the RV for me?”

Grumbling, I pause my Xbox game and stomp off towards the kitchen. Rhea’s dad, Eddie, was over helping my mom get things packed because Dad had to finish some last minute things in the office before we took off. My dad always had things to do at the office; I think he spent more time there than anywhere at all.

I pick up the red cooler and carry it out the back door and down the steps to the RV. I don’t know why mama always insists on taking this damn thing anyway; we have a fridge in the camper. The door to the camper opens and Rhea’s mom, Daisy, comes out.

“Morning, Tanner.” She sings; way too chipper for this early in the morning.

“Morning,” I mumble as I step up into the RV.

Daisy reaches up and ruffles my hair, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Tan.”

I don’t respond back as the door slams shut behind me. I take a few more steps and place the cooler on the table. I go to turn and leave but I hear music playing faintly from the back of the RV. I stalk towards the back to find out where the music is coming from. I see the tip of a black cowboy boot hanging out of the bottom bunk. As I move closer I see that Rhea is lying in bed, her long beautiful brown hair fanned out over the pillow. Her eyes are closed and she has headphones in so she has no idea I’m standing here checking her out. Over the last year Rhea has been filling out from her awkward skinny stage. It’s probably wrong that I’m noticing these things about her but I can’t seem to help it. Rhea’s in a pair of short white shorts making her legs go on forever. The black tank top is hugging her upper body showing off the curves of her breast. She’s sucking on what I assume is a lollipop from the stick sticking out between her lips. My dick starts to strain against my jeans. I need to sit down before things start to get weird between us. The only spot that’s open is right next to her head. I turn quickly and adjust myself before sitting next to her.

Just as I’m sitting her eyes spring open and her hand holds her chest, “Tanner, you scared me.”

I chuckle because she’s yelling since she still has her earbuds in. I pull on the wire and they fall out. “Well, if you didn’t have your music blasting you would have heard me come in.”

Rhea rolls her eyes and scoots further into the bunk giving me more room to be comfortable and I kind of wish that she didn’t because now I have a full view of her gorgeous face. Her bright blue eyes are my favorite thing about her.

Rhea takes the lollipop out of her mouth, “Are we fixin’ to leave now?”

My eyes follow the pop as she places it back in her mouth and sucks on it, hollowing out her cheeks.

Cursing I look away and clear my throat. I need to get away from her but I can’t right this second. “No, not yet. Mama had me take out the cooler.” I say nodding towards the table.

Rhea is making sucking noises and I can’t take it anymore. I reach over and grab the lollipop out of her mouth and put it in mine.

“Hey,” Rhea pushes me. “I wasn’t done with that.”

I hang my legs over the side of the bunk and stand making sure to keep the front of me at an angle. “You are now.”

“Jerk,” Rhea yells as I walk away and go take another cold shower this morning.

After my second shower of the day we’re all in the RV waiting on my dad to show up so we can head off to Lazy Acres Campground for the week. He should have been here a half hour ago but I knew it was going to be more like an hour.

Rhea is lying in the bunk below me and she’s singing Born to Fly by Sara Evans. I could lay here and listen to her sweet voice sing all day. Countless times I have fallen asleep on the beach listening to her sing.

I roll over to my side, my front facing the side of the RV and my eyes grow heavy from the lack of sleep lately and also from being woken up at the ass crack of dawn, all the while Rhea’s voice is lulling me into slumber.

“Tan, can we go into the house, please?” Rhea whines. “It’s getting really dark and I don’t like the storms.”

I look over to Rex and Knox who are both sitting next to each other down a little ways from where Rhea and I are sitting. They don’t seem too concerned with the storm but it is getting darker by the minute. From what I heard on the news when Knox’s mom, Audrey, was listening to it, a hurricane was coming up the coast. Before we left the house to come down here she warned us to stay out of the ocean because the waves were too rough and the rip current was very strong. Audrey also gave us boys the lecture to watch out for Rhea. She really didn’t need to do that because we’ve been doing it for years anyway but I guess she felt the need to.

“Knox!” I yell.

Knox and Rex both turn their heads in my direction. “I’m fixin’ to head in with Rhea.” Knox waves me off.

I stand up and shake the sand from my towel as does Rhea. This is the first time she has been to the house in Myrtle Beach by herself. She’s always with her parents when they come for a visit. I overheard her mom tell Audrey she was a little worried leaving her by herself for the first time but Audrey assured her that being seven was old enough not to need her mama and daddy. She also promised everything would be fine and to go enjoy her alone time with her husband. Shortly after that she left, leaving Rhea here with the rest of us for a week.

The first rolls of thunder sounded and Rhea jumped ten feet off the ground.

“Hurry, Tan.” She started running up towards the house and I followed after her.