Sipping on Fire

Chapter 4

He had it coming. How dare he try to embarrass me in front of all his friends, of which I knew no one. As payback, I played 'damsel in distress' and threw his ass in the cold lake water. I turned to look over my shoulder as I wrapped a towel around my body. Tyler stared at me from the water with what looked to be a look of 'awe' on his face. He smirked before grabbing the wakeboard and strapped himself to the board.

"You got my boy hooked." BK came over, handing me another cold beer.

I raised an eyebrow. "Hooked on what?"

"You, girl!" He nudged me with a wink. "T is totally into you, darlin'."

I shrugged Brian off. "Oh, come on. Stop it." I flipped my soaking wet hair into a messy bun on the top of my head and began wiping off the water from my body. I turned to face the back of the boat to watch Tyler rip up the wakes. His body looked delicious, I must admit.

Tyler flipped through the air and landed back in the water effortlessly. "He's showing off. He never does that unless he's into someone. And you're the only person here  he'd be into." I swallowed hard. Why would he ever like someone like me? He didn't even know me. I instantly had butterflies in my stomach - and not the good kind, but played it cool with a shrug of my shoulders.

As I watched Tyler flip and jump over wakes, I was having a mental debate with myself. There was a small percentage of me that thought it was badass that a musician could be into me but the majority me thought this was nothing but a disaster waiting to happen. He'd be gone, all of the time. He would be around screaming girls, all the time. Some of them would be literally throwing themselves at him. I had trust issues to begin with. Starting anything with Tyler was just doomed for failure. How could he not see that?

The boat slowed quickly, pulling me out of my own thoughts and back into reality. Tyler had fallen. He climbed up the boat ladder and reached for a towel before making his way towards me. "What'd you think?" He smirked.

I shrugged with a smile, "I guess you're alright." If there was one thing I noticed about the two of us is that just his presence alone put a smile on my face. I had almost instantly forgot about any internal debate I may have had and focused on the long-haired, tattooed, Southern God in front of me.

Tyler licked his lips and looked up and down my, still soaking wet, body. "You're alright too, girl." I blushed and wrapped the towel tightly around my body as the boat sped off towards the dock. BK dropped the anchor and turned up the music on the radio before passing out beers from the cooler to everyone on the boat. I sat on the ledge of the boat and watched the fun unfold in front of me - still questioning how it was that I was here. Tyler was off jumping into the water with BK when Britt came walking over.

"You ok?" She questioned, sensing something was on my mind.

I nodded quietly, "Just overwhelmed, I guess." She snickered in a way that told me she understood. "I just don't understand why I'm here......why me?"

She smiled and looped her arm through mine pulling me closer to her. "That's a question I've been asking myself every day since I met him." Her eyes connected with Brian. He blew her a kiss and winked from the water. "If I could give you any piece of advice at all, it would be to just relax. I see where your head is going. Mine did the same thing at first. You're thinking, 'why is he hanging out with me when he could be with anyone else'. Truth is, regardless of what their job is for a living, they are just normal people." I nodded in agreement. "Think of it this way, if you met a guy at the club, and he wanted to hang out with you ... you wouldn't think anything of it, right? Because he's just a normal guy." She nodded towards Tyler who was looking our way, clearly wondering what in the world we could be talking about so seriously. He was noticeably nervous. "Think of him in that way. Take his job, the media, the screaming girls, the sold out stadium, take all of that and throw it out the window. Because what's left behind is one down to earth, funny, loving guy." Tyler threw me a wink and a lazy smile. "Just relax, be yourself, and just get to know him. No pressure." She shrugged with a smile. I held back my urge to hug her for being so nice, welcoming, and most of all...for saving myself from myself. 

I watched carefully as Tyler swam over to the side of the boat I was leaning against. "Come on in, darlin'. The water is fine." I looked at Britt who's eye's pointed down to Tyler, as if to say, 'get in there'. I sighed and swung my legs over the side of the boat, letting Tyler lower me slowly into the water. My skin broke out in goosebumps as the cool water hit my warm skin. My arms looped around his neck as his slid around my waist in a natural, unforced way. As if our bodies belonged together. "I'm glad you came today." He said quietly into my ear, his cheek touching mine.

I nodded in agreement, "I'm glad I came today, too..." I remembered what Brittney had said 'just relax and be yourself'.

He cleared his throat nervously, with his arms still wrapped around my waist. The water from the waves in the lake, splashed against us. "Do you think I could see more of you?" His voice was barely a whisper. He had just officially confirmed everything everyone had been telling me all day. He was into me. My stomach flopped nervously as I nodded in response. "Dinner at my place? Tomorrow night?" He asked with pleading eyes.

I couldn't hold back my smile, I sucked in a deep breath. "Tomorrow it is."

'And so it begins' I said to myself as Tyler's grip around my waist tightened.