We get to Taylor and Tree's Aunt Bronte's house around eight o'clock, and I'm surprised with how exhausted I feel when I walk through the door, carrying my bags with me. She greets us warmly, hugging each of us in turn before giving her two favorite nieces a squeeze each. Bronte has always been so cool to us, basically giving us free reign over her house for the week. Usually she spends most of her time at her boyfriend's house down the street, so we get to do whatever we want. All she asks is that we remain respectful of her things, and we always take great care not to damage anything.

I go upstairs to one of the bedrooms and set my bags down on the bed that's usually mine. Keke follows suit, setting hers down on the one beside mine. We've always shared a room on these trips, seeing as the boys have always bunked together and the twins have their own separate bedrooms each. Usually I'm stoked to share a room with Keke for a week, but this time I'd rather be bunking with someone else. She keeps looking at me with sad girl eyes, like she thinks I'm hiding something from her. Which, to be fair, I am. But it's not the something she thinks. She's thinking I'm brokenhearted over Vale, but the truth is I think I might be falling for him. And that is too much to consider right now.

"Longest. Day. Ever." I say slowly as I fall onto the bed beside my bags, burrowing my face in my blankets. "God, another minute in that bus and I swear I would've spontaneously combusted."

"It was a long day," she agrees, sitting down on the edge of her bed and staring at me. We're quiet for a few minutes, but I can feel her eyes watching me, waiting for me to give something up.

"Keke, what's wrong?" I ask, my voice muffled by the blankets. "Why are you staring at me like a psycho?"

She sighs, gets to her feet, and plops down on the bed beside her, staring up at the ceiling. "Okay, just don't be mad at me. But I have this weird feeling with you. Like you're not being truthful with me about something."

A bubble of frustration starts to rise in me, and I don't know if it's because I'm tired or because I'm sick of this conversation. But I turn, look straight at her, and say, "Listen, I told you I was okay. Why do you think I'm lying to you? Have I ever lied to you before?" She pauses before shaking her head, but she's still not looking at me. "Okay, well, I'm not lying now. So please just drop it. Vale and I figured it out. We're not making things weird. So why are you?"

"Did I hear my name?" Vale says from the doorway, interrupting our conversation that I feel is about to turn into an argument. We don't say anything, and he frowns before pointing down the hall. "Um, so yeah. I was actually just about to start getting things ready for the boat tomorrow. Thought we could get the crab pots ready. Maybe place them?"

Keke looks away from the ceiling finally to stare at him. "We just got here," she says. "Aren't you tired? Why don't we just all go to sleep and drop the pots tomorrow morning when we first get up?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. I guess I just have a craving for crab and want to get as much as we can. Don't want to waste any time. At the very least we can get the boat ready for the morning." Keke shakes her head and goes back to looking at the ceiling. "Okay, so Keke doesn't wanna go. What about you, Genny? Wanna get your hands dirty tonight?"

I am so tired, but at this point I'd rather be anywhere else than with Keke. So I jump out of bed and walk toward Vale, leaving her behind without a word. On our way outside we pass Taylor and Tree unpacking their bedrooms, and it looks like Tyler might already be asleep. When we get outside, I'm still quiet, unable to shake the short argument I just had with Keke. We go to the garage of the house and start digging through boxes from last year marked with the word CRAB in big black sharpie, taking inventory of what we have and what we need.

"You okay?" he finally asks after I've been staying silent for a few minutes. I nod my head and keep digging through the boxes. He pulls me away from them and forces my chin up with his fingers. Our eyes make contact. "What's wrong, Genny?"

I shrug my shoulders as tears burn the corners of my eyes. "I don't know. I'm tired, and Keke keeps pushing me." He raises his eyebrows, so I elaborate. "She's worried about me. Thinks I'm hiding something from her, and it's just getting annoying."

That same mischievous smile pulls at his lips. "But you are hiding something from her," he replies, taking my hands in his. I roll my eyes and fight a grin. He presses his forehead to mine and says, "I think we're all just tired. Maybe spent too much time together today. You'll see. Things will work out. By tomorrow morning, you'll have cooled off and she'll have apologized. And I'll be gloating. So don't worry about it, okay?" I nod my head and close my eyes as he kisses my forehead. "Wanna place the crab pots tonight with me?" He asks, and he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

I smile, knowing he's right. "Sure. Do we have enough cat food?" He nods his head, pointing to a box full of cans from last year. "Then yeah. Let's get on the water and get the pots ready for tomorrow."

We grab all the pots and cans we can carry and put them in the bus before heading down to the Coupeville docks. When we get to the boat, he hops in, carrying most of the things we need, then sets them down carefully before reaching for my hand to help me. Funny, a year ago this would've seemed like such a simple, friendly gesture. But now there's that electricity every time we touch, and everything is different. He pulls me onto the boat and into his arms, and before I even have a chance to find my footing his mouth is on mine again, filling me with warmth on this chilly July night.

We open the cans of cat food and set them in the crab pots, then head out to our usual spots in the water to dump them for the night. He drives the boat while I sit in the passenger seat, letting the wind blow my hair. His eyes keep landing on me, and every so often I see that dazed look again. Like he's just now seeing me for the first time as more than his best friend. Which I can understand, because I feel the same way. We drop the pots in the water, and then we just float for a while. He pulls me into his lap, and for the first time all day we have freedom to be what we want to be. More than what everyone else sees in us. His lips are like magnets as they pull me closer, and I don't fight it. I wrap my arms around him and hold him to me like I'm drowning in the water and he's the only lifesaver around, and he slides his fingers up the back of my shirt for the first time since the night in his basement. His fingers fumble over my bra for a moment, but he doesn't try to undo it. For that I'm grateful. I'm not ready to go that far with him yet. But that's the beauty about being with him. He seems to know my limits without me having to speak them aloud. Because he knows me so well. And I love that about being with him. It's so right. So damn easy.

It's closing in on one in the morning by the time he pulls away, and my lips feel raw in the best way possible. His eyes are half open, and I can tell he's getting tired. "Genny," he whispers, caressing my face with his grease-stained fingers, and my heart skips a beat at the sound of my name coming out of his mouth like that. "I really like this game we're playing."

"Me too," I whisper back, nuzzling his ear with my nose. He tightens his grip on me, and for a second I think he's going to start kissing me again. But then he blinks a little too hard, and I can tell he's getting tired. "Let's go back to the house before they notice how long we've been gone." He nods his head, his eyes drooping a little, as I move back to the passenger seat. He drives us back to the dock within ten minutes, and then we both get into the bus and head back to Bronte's place. When we pull up, all the lights are out. Everyone's asleep. He parks the bus and rests his head against the steering wheel. For a moment I think he might've fallen asleep, but he just turns and looks at me with this adorable smile on his face, his eyes half closed.

"That was the best part of this day," he whispers, and I smile, stroking his curls gingerly with my fingers. "I'm so tired, but I don't want to leave you," he says, closing his eyes now. My eyes are starting to get droopy too, and I think about how nice it would be to just stay here for the night. But we can't. Someone would notice, and it would ruin the game. I shake my head at him and unbuckle both our seatbelts.

"Let's get inside," I whisper, shaking him gently with my right hand. His eyes fly open, and I giggle. "Vale, come on. We have to get inside before they see we're still gone."

"I love when you laugh like that," he says, and there it is again. Another skipped beat of my heart. "Okay, fine. You're right. Let's go inside."

Author's Note:
Aren't they just so dang cute? Things are definitely heating up for them. What do we think of Keke? Think she'll catch them on this trip?

I just crossed the 50,000 word mark, which is super exciting! Also, in case this wasn't clear, this is a very rough draft of this story. Crescendo and Hello, Goodbye are like... fifth and sixth drafts, whereas A Touch of Cinnamon is a first draft. The story isn't even finished yet. So if you catch any sort of mistakes or inconsistencies, please let me know. But I'm definitely flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Which is fun, but different. I have a rough idea of where I want the story to go, but a lot of it I'm coming up with on the fly. So thank you for being so patient with me as I work through this.

In other news, just a few more weeks until NaNoWriMo, and I am getting PUMPED UP! I finally came up with a name for my next MC, and it's not Robin, Wren, OR Dove. I decided to ditch the bird theme somewhat and went with the name Skylar (Skye). So hopefully sometime next year, you'll all get to meet Skylar and Levi in a story I've titled Just Because. Can't wait to share more with you in time! But until then, I hope you're enjoying Gen and Vale's love story. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

XOXO,
~Aly