Songbird

Ten: Lennie

It was only our first night at the lake house and already my face hurt from smiling, my shoulders burned from too much sun, and my belly hurt from laughing. The day had already been perfect. We spent the entire afternoon well into the evening splashing about and playing in the water. There were chicken fights and splash wars and quiet moments spent just floating and smiling. Colt and I had won every chicken fight we were challenged with and every time we were near each other, his hand (or at least a finger or two) found mine. I was thankful the sun had already stared turning me red or everyone could've seen my blushing cheeks for miles around. By the time we realized how late it had gotten, we all decided we were hungry, Tasha and Rosie had shown up along with Leon and Melody. Carter instantly sidled himself up to the new girls. Poor things. One of them was bound to fall for his dumb antics and glittering smile, but I wasn't about to chase them off either.  I had more important things to worry about.

Like the cute, tattooed boy that was doing his damnedest to keep me smiling at every turn... and he was proving to be really good at it.

While Leon, Colt, and Travis manned the barbecue outside, Cora, Melody and I cut up all the fixings for burgers and put our premade salads into nicer bowls. Because our mommas would kill us if we served out of the Tupperware we brought it in. There was coleslaw, potato salad, my Aunt Maggie's macaroni salad, and Mama Rose's broccoli salad that I was certain Cora had actually roped Mama Rose into making instead of even trying herself. One of Cora's friends had shown up with a brightly colored fruit platter and I was already picking at the strawberries. We definitely weren't going hungry tonight.

I knew who Melody was in high school, but I didn't really know her, not well anyway. She was super sweet now, though, and you could tell by the way she talked about them, that she loved Leon and Colt both very much. I couldn't really fault the girl for her crappy choice in a school best friend, so I tried not to think about the fact that she was close to Rachel. At first, I felt a bit weird being around her, because when we were kids, Rachel made damn sure I wasn't a part of their group. I was the weird, quiet music girl and I was fine with that. I mean, it wasn't like I could argue it. It was a fact. Colt got to toe the line a bit. Sure, he was a music nerd, and he was mostly quiet as hell and awkward if you didn't know him, but he was also just enough of a jock to make him popular. He was on the football team anyway, and in the south football was the be all, end all. Plus, he was pretty. I mean a gorgeous football player that also played guitar and he helped his daddy run a farm? He was the pinnacle of the dream southern boy, dimples and all. There wasn't a girl in that school that could say they didn't have a crush on Colt Hayes at one point or another.

Well, Cora, I guess, but that was for pretty obvious reasons. 

After we all ate until we damn near had to be rolled away, the men built a big fire in a pit in the backyard, and we all gathered round, just drinking and laughing and telling stories. I loved few things as much as I loved the smell of a campfire, especially with s'mores involved, and the people I was surrounded by made I even better.

After night grew even darker and the crickets came out to play, Colt and Leon brought out their guitars and the stereotypical fire singalong began. I laughed and sang along and just watched Colt in his element: behind a guitar with a giant grin on his face. Occasionally, his gaze would align with mine and he'd toss me a wink, making my cheeks heat for more reason that my sunburn. This man... I had never imagined we'd end up here: exchanging flirtatious looks and glances, sneaking little touches when we could, blushing every time we looked in each other's eyes. It felt like school all over again, but better, because we were grown and there was nothing standing in our way. My heart and begun fluttering with hope and it was getting harder to ignore by the second.

"Alright, Songbird, what are we singing?" Colt asked, turning to me at his side. It was still warm out, but thanks to my sunburn, the night air had given me a bit of a chill, so I was wrapped in one of his flannels (because my girly, excited ass had spaced packing anything with actual sleeves), nursing beer number who knows what with my legs tucked underneath my bottom on the captain's chair I'd taken as a throne.