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His Game: Chapter Twenty Four

Once I finish my question, complete with a cocky gleam in my eye for how spontaneous and probably dreamy I am right now, Joey's gaze moves from me to the trailer hooked up to my motorcycle.

I watch her calculating gaze stare at the trailer for a few moments, and then, as though her thoughts lined up exactly how she wanted, she starts to smile.

"This some grand idea to woo me for our last weekend?" She asks, quirking a brow at me.

I chuckle and throw my hands into my pockets with a tiny shrug, "Something like that. So, what do you say? Trust me enough to drop everything and go with me?"

Her smile is the only answer I need.

Ten minutes later, Joey has a small bag packed with the vague list I offered her and I'm putting it in the trailer. I make sure she doesn't watch me do it, considering this adventure is going to be kept a secret until we get to our destination, and if she saw what I packed it would give it away.

She mounts the back of my bike after I get on, sliding her hands around my waist and underneath my loose jacket to hold on to me for the ride. I glance at her over my shoulder, nearly knocking helmets.

"Ready?"

We drive for an hour, hitting the coast and feeling the salty change in the air. Though it's November, we're in California so the air is still warm enough for people to be enjoying the beach.

The sun is supposed to set in less than an hour, which is exactly how I tried to plan this. We drive down closer to the beach, the late hour causing people to start to pack up and head home for the night. I park the bike, stepping off with slightly shaky legs from a long ride.

Joey gets off as well, removing her helmet and shaking her hair out. Her astonished eyes stare at the beach in front of us, a reflection of her view showing in her eyes. She looks over at me with her mouth slightly parted in disbelief.

"Punk..." she trails off.

I grin at her reaction and walk closer to her. I take her hands in mine and give them a small squeeze before lifting and resting them on my shoulders as I place mine on her waist.

"Surprised?" I ask.

She lets out a small, breathy laugh. "That's an understatement. I half expected you to take me to some motel in the mountains for a creepy get-away that was meant to be cute."

I cringe, "Really?"

"A little bit."

My eyes move to the beach, "Well, low expectations just lead to more amazement so I'd say that worked in my favor." I glance back at her and smile, taking her hand again and pulling her down to the beach. "Come on."

"You know," she says after we remove our shoes and let the cool sand between our toes, "despite moving around so much, I've never set foot in the Pacific ocean."

I turn my head to her and smirk slightly, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Isn't it going to be, like, freezing?" She asks, warily watching the waves crash down on the shore before being taken out to sea again.

"Do you really think I'm going to let you not get in the water after you just told me you've never been in the Pacific?"

She glances back at me, "Just my feet."

"Don't want to go all the way in?" I ask with a small chuckle.

At that, the expression in her eyes shifts slightly, "It's hard to go all in."

And I know she isn't just talking about getting into the water.

So, I step closer to her and brush some hair behind her ear since the wind whipped it all around. "It doesn't have to be," I say softly, continuing when she doesn't reply, "I'll be right there with you."

Despite words of comfort that clearly have a double-meaning, I still see hesitancy in her eyes. It wavers from my words, nearly disappearing, but a few words aren't going to knock away all of someone's vulnerability.

I offer a small smile and glance back at the ocean and the sun beginning to set atop it. "Or, just our feet for now," I offer.

She looks at me through her lashes and I have to remind myself how to breathe. "I think we both know I've already dipped in more than my feet."

Even if I wanted to look away, with the intensity of our stare there's no way I could.

"What do I have to do to get you to jump in with me?" I ask. "What do you need?"

"Certainty that I won't drown," she says quietly.

In response, I dip my head down to kiss her. She sets her hand on the back of my head, letting her lips land sweetly on mine. I hold her gently in my arms, trying to give as much certainty as I can through my soft kisses.

When we pull apart, I see the vulnerability in her eyes gone and replaced with her every day confidence and mischief.

"Seriously, though, I'm going to go put my feet in," she says with a small grin.

Before she pulls fully away, a thought suddenly hits me.

"Wait here," I say before jogging back up the beach towards my motorcycle and the tiny trailer attached. I open it and reach into the back of her bag, a pocket she deliberately left open since it couldn't close, and my hands find her Polaroid camera.

I jog back towards her, waving it in my hand with a tiny smirk.

"I think your first time touching the Pacific is worthy of a picture, don't you?" I ask as I reach her.

She starts to walk down closer to the water and I get the camera ready, snapping the picture the second her feet touch the icy water. Her reaction is perfect; obviously the water is freezing since this is the Pacific and it's no longer summer, and her face morphs into sudden shock from the temperature.

Seconds after I take the picture, she rushes back towards me while doing a few hops and letting out a few chilly shrieks from how cold the water was.

"I was right," she breathes once she reaches me, "that was freezing."

I take the picture from the Polaroid and glance down at it, nearly fully developed already, and I grin. I guess I snapped it just before her crazed reaction, which is both disappointing and beautiful. Instead of cringing back from the water in the picture, even with the lower quality of a Polaroid you can see the curious wonder in her expression and the excitement in her posture as the water rushes towards her feet.

I hand it to her, and she smiles slightly as she examines it. "I'm not used to keeping Polaroids of myself," she admits with a tiny laugh.

I know she meant nothing by her comment, but my mind goes to the drawer of Polaroids I found the other night, and my mood drops within seconds.

Right. She's only used to keeping Polaroids of the guys she's dated from the countless times she's moved. Though she reassured me they didn't matter, my mind is crawling with thoughts about them.

"Those guys," I start against my better judgement, and she shifts her eyes to mine, "do you still talk to them?"

She tilts her head with a frown, "No. Once I left...well, that was the end. I told you, I can't live in the past when I'm constantly forced to move on."

I slowly nod, watching the sun set behind her. "Feelings, though, don't just disappear because you move."

Joey recognizes what I'm insinuating and steps closer to me, softly resting her hand on my cheek so that I'm forced to make eye contact. 

"Punk, I'm here with you. Does it seem like I think of anyone else when I'm with you?" She strokes my cheek gently as she asks, and it takes away a bit of the pain from my pounding heart.

I lean into her touch, "I guess not."

"I don't. When I move away, I move on. Now I'm living in this moment. Right here, right now. With you, Rhett."

The intensity of her stare forces me to believe her, and my frown melts into a soft smile. I move my head to the side to set a light kiss on her palm.

"For someone so confident," she hums teasingly, "you need a decent amount of reassurance."

Shortly after, I grab everything from the trailer and bring it down to the beach as the temperatures drop to make a chill rise in the air.

"A tent?" Joey asks in disbelief as I start to set it up. "We're staying on the beach?"

I smile up at her as I drive a stake deep into the shifting sand, "Good observation, Joey."

"I think you may have my meadow/lake surprise beat."

"Oh, I definitely have it beat," I say with a bit of forced breath from exertion as I finish up the tent. "Romantic weekend getaway to the beach? I mean come on, I must be the perfect guy or something."

Joey snorts and walks over to me as I stand up, winding her arms around my neck. "Let's go with 'or something.'"

I dip my head and kiss her, causing us both to react with soft smiles. I lay down a blanket on the sand, trying to flatten it out wherever I can to make it more comfortable.

"And the romance continues," Joey hums as I lay it out. "What brought all this on?" She asks, sitting down with me.

I pause for a second at the question and glance over at her, a small smile on my face. "Nothing in particular."

That's a bold faced lie.

We sit down on the blanket and I pull out a couple of sandwiches my mom made for us.

"I hope you like PB and J."

As we eat, I sense Joey staring at me so I look at her.

"Do I have jelly on my face?" I ask with a small cringe.

"No."

"Peanut butter?"

"Nope."

I scrunch my brow, "Then why are you staring at me?"

"I'm just trying to figure out why you started this game."

I pause mid bite at her answer and then slowly set my sandwich down. "I started because I wanted to get you into b-" I start to say truthfully.

"No," she says, stopping me instantly, "I mean from the very beginning. With your dad leaving you and all...I guess it makes me curious as to why you'd play a game that causes you to do the same emotional damage he did."

I narrow my eyes, "The same emotional damage?" I echo, "He had two kids with someone and left her for another family."

"You get girls to fall in love and leave them for someone else." Joey reasons gently, "I'm not trying to accuse you, I just want to know why."

I glance away from her, staring at the blanket and then at the darkness over the ocean with the sun completely set.

"Think about it the other way around, Joey," I finally say. "From your description, I'm the bad guy. Think about how I'm the victim of someone leaving," I say with a small sigh, forcing myself to look at her again.

I don't see judgment in her eyes, which causes my shoulders to relax. Instead, I see sympathy and calculation as she thinks through my words.

"You leave them, thus cutting off the chance for them to leave you," she says quietly. "You said your dad didn't matter in your life, but he's the cause of the game that runs it."

"Sometimes," I start with a sad smile, "you can be too perceptive."

"This time it's because I know how you feel. My mom left, I told you that was the last straw and finally forced all of my insecurities of people leaving to the front of my mind."

I frown and reach over to take her hand, stroking it gently with my thumb. "You and I have more in common than we thought."

"Today is the 6th," she comments, "That makes Tuesday the last day." Her eyes shift to the ocean in front of us, clouding over as her thoughts consume her, and I frown. 

"What are you thinking?" I ask.

Joey lifts her eyes to mine, the brown sucking me in and making me never want to let go.

"That we need to make the most of it."

We stare at one another in silence after the words leave her mouth; carrying with them a deeper meaning than a passerby would notice. As if by some force, we both start leaning in, and once our lips meet...neither one of us can stop.

My hands move from resting on her face to trailing slowly along her body. Hers massage my back before dipping down and exploring my body, too. I pull her close, hold her tight, and kiss her harder. I kiss her and kiss her and kiss her until I can't even tell where my lips end and hers start. I keep her body pulled flush against mine, nearly lifting her up. Her hands are all in my hair, over my neck, over my chest, and back up again. 

I don't know exactly how it happens, but the more we kiss and the closer we become, we end up moving into the tent.

I lay her down gently on the floor of the tent, sliding between her legs and pressing my body onto hers as I kiss her over and over again. Her hands are in my hair, on my neck, all over my back, frantic and passionate.

There is something different about this. We've made out before and we've shared innocent kisses, but the feel of her touch and the passion in her kiss...it shows me that tonight this may not end.

I pull away for a second before I reach for her shirt, silently asking her to stop me if she's not ready.

With a soft smirk in her eyes, her response is to help me take it off faster. 

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