The Lake House

Eva kicked her feet up onto the wooden railing of the porch that wrapped around the lake house she was renting. She used her legs to swing herself on the wooden bench that hung by a chain from the ceiling of the porch as she placed her camera on the empty spot next to her. She smiled at the sun as it slowly began to set behind by the calm lake, she hadn’t remembered the last time she had seen the sun so beautiful before. She loved how quiet her surroundings were since she had been traveling almost nonstop for the past four years. She was in great need of a little R and R.

She heard a few twigs snap to the right of her, but thought nothing of it, figuring it was just an animal walking by. She bought the blanket closer to her body in the crisp November air to help contain any body heat she had left. She loved coming to this lake house at this time of year. It wasn’t crowded from the tourists in the Summer time, and it was right before Christmas.

It had been quite some time since she had last been to the lake house. It was their special place to get away from everyone. It was far enough for them to have some peace and quiet, yet close enough for them to return back to the city in no time. All she could think about was him and all the good memories they had shared together. She let out a soft giggle as she thought about the first time he bought her to the lake house.

“Don’t you look comfy,” a deep voice chuckled from the steps.

Eva flinched, being startled by the random voice. She sat straight up from the bench, letting her bare feet touch the cold wooden flooring. “Gabe? What the hell are you doing here?” She asked in a surprised tone. Her New Zealand accent made him smile.

“I tried renting the lake house but they told me someone else already did. I was going to try and convince them to switch with me,” he admitted with a chuckle. “I didn’t expect you to be here. Do you mind if I join you?”

“Of course not,” Eva said as she picked her camera up. Placing the camera in her lap, all she could do was stare at Gabe. She loved how his blonde hair poked out of his gray beanie. “So how have you been? It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you.”

He smiled at her, “yeah, it’s been a long time. But I’m really good. So far we’ve been playing great this season and I couldn’t be happier. What about you? I’d never thought I’d see you in the Colorado area again. When we last talked, you were in Brazil.”

Eva smiled over at Gabe, thinking about the last email she had sent him. She attached a picture a fellow photographer had taken while they were in the rain forest, which was roughly seven months ago. A monkey had jumped on her back and pulled her hair. To this day she would still flinch every time she would see a monkey. She didn’t always have internet connection, so their emails were never frequent.

“Well I’m working on this photography book with two other photographers,” she explained, “it’s a book on these beautiful buildings that no one really knows about. I know it sounds silly but – “

“It’s not silly at all,” he said in all seriousness. “I bought your last book, you know.”

A warm, fuzzy filling began to grow in her chest when he had told her that. He was the one person who believed in her photography career. People thought that her job was pointless because anyone could take a picture, which was true. But Eva didn’t want to take pictures of people or silly objects around the room. She wanted to take pictures of the wildlife and the beautiful nature around her. She got to travel the world and made more money than people ever thought she would. How many people could say that they pet a lion out in Africa?

“Did you really?” She sounded so excited, it was too adorable for him to handle. He laughed at her cute behavior before giving her a nod. “Oh Gabe, that’s so sweet.”

He shrugged, “what can I say? You’re great at what you do. But you’re back in Colorado because of the book?”

“I am. The publishing company is here. I had a meeting with them two days ago and figured I’d take a little vacation while I was here,” she said, watching him shiver. His navy blue sweatshirt wasn’t doing all that well at keeping him warm as the cold air surrounded them. Night time was approaching, meaning that the temperatures would drop even more. “Do you want to come in for some dinner?”

“Yeah, dinner would be nice,” Gabe stood up shortly and stepped aside to let Eva walk in first. Once Gabe had walked into the lake house, he was flooded with memories the two shared. “Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

“I know, me too,” she said with a nervous chuckle. She didn’t know why she felt so nervous. It was Gabe, the one person she was never shy around. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Whatever you feel like making,” he said with a smug smile. He noticed her sleek, white laptop resting on the table in the kitchen. He looked over at her to see what she was up to and saw her camera hooked up to her laptop. “Do you mind if I look at some pictures?”

Eva let a smirk form upon her lips as she pulled out some potatoes from the pantry. She placed the heavy bag onto the counter before walking over to type in the password. Gabe was already sitting down, so Eva had to bend over the table as she typed. Instead of looking at her bottom like he normally would have, he inhaled quietly, taking in her scent that he had missed over the years. Despite being outside most of her life, she still smelled sweet and clean.

“Christ Eva, these are beautiful,” Gabe gasped, browsing through the photos. She didn’t get to organize the photos that she had recently uploaded, so they were a mix of pictures of buildings, animals, and some of the people that she had met on her journey. He laugh out a little laugh as he saw the picture with the monkey pulling on her hair. He had no idea that they were quiet for a solid 20 minutes, being so absorbed into the pictures that told the story of her life for the past year.

“Would you like a glass of wine? I’m sorry I don’t have any beer,” she said with a frown.

“Wine is fine,” he smiled. He wasn’t much of a wine drinker, but he only did it for her. “Do you need any help?”

Eva shook her head as Gabe watched her pour red wine into two glasses. “Everything is in the oven so all we have to do is wait.” She put the cork back into the wine bottle before grabbing the two glasses and joining Gabe at the table. “So, I heard someone scored a hat trick the other day.”

He gave her a bashful smile, “you know?”

“Well, I am back in Colorado after all,” she giggled before taking a sip of her wine. “I tried watching but I had no internet access and I was out on the field.”

“Don’t worry about it, I understand,” he said truthfully. “So, tell me about traveling. Did you have foreign guys sweeping you off your feet everywhere you went?”

She laughed at his joke, although she had a feeling he wasn’t entirely joking. “Not every country. The last guy was while I was in Argentina about five months ago. His name was Enrique as he was as dreamy as they came,” she teased. “I was there for about a week before flying to Australia.”

“Wow, five months. That’s a long time for you,” he joked back.

“Okay, Mr. Innocent, what about you? When was the last time you were with someone?” She pestered.

He gave her a big smirk before taking a big sip of his wine. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Eva gave him a simple eye roll before getting up to check on their dinner to make sure it wasn’t burning. On her way back, she picked up the wine bottle on the counter to bring it over to the table so she could refill her glass. He watched her intently as she sat back down, pushing her dark locks out of her face. It was nice seeing her dressed so casually. Her blue jeans hugged her nicely and her black sweatshirt kept her cozy. Over the past four years, Gabe had always seen her wearing ripped shorts with a sweaty tank top from being outside all day long. He thought it had its benefits though, her skin had a natural glow to it.

“Have you dated anyone serious since I left?” Eva asked with a lick of her lips, making him fidget in his seat once he had seen her pink tongue poke out of her mouth.

“This one girl, named Melanie. We dated for like a year but she had to move away for work.” He explained as he closed her laptop, “We tried the whole long distance thing but it just didn’t work out with the way our schedules work out.”

“Aw, that’s a shame. It seemed like you really like the girl too,” Eva said with a little frown.

Gabe just shrugged at her. “I don’t know. Maybe it happened for a reason. But enough about ex’s, tell me more about your travels. What was Australia like?”

“It was a lot of fun there! There were a lot of cute animals and I even got to go deep sea fishing! Wait, I have to show you this picture!” She said excitedly, grabbing her laptop to place it on her lap.

He bit down on his bottom lip as his gray eyes focused on that tooth grinning smile she had plastered on her face. He never realized how much he had missed her accent until that day. She made every word sound adorable when she had hated her accent so much. At first, he thought she was British, then he thought she was Australian, eventually he gave up and just waited for her to tell him what she was. That was what most people did.

“Jesus, is that an octopus wrapped around your arm?” Gabe smiled, bringing the laptop closer to him.

“Yeah, it’s a baby octopus,” she giggled. “It took us a good ten minutes to get the bugger off of me. By that point, I was too tired to continue so I went back on the boat.”

“Everyone always tells me how I’m lucky because I get to play the sport that I love as a living. But man, I think you have the life,” he said with an impressive smile. “You travel all over the world and your life seems so care free.”

Eva gave him a little shrug as she got up from her chair to pull the food out of the oven. He should have figured that she made Shepard’s Pie for dinner. It was her favorite. She was quiet as she placed their dinner in the middle of the table before grabbing a few plates for them to use.

“Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?” Gabe asked as Eva served the food. “You don’t like the care free life?”

“Not really. Not anymore,” she said honestly. “I was literally care free all my life, especially for the last four years. I go from place to place, guy to guy. It just gets tiring after a little while.”

Gabe raised his eyebrows, surprised that he was hearing this from her. The reason why they had broken up in the first place was because she hated staying in one place. She wanted to travel and see the world and what it had to offer. She couldn’t do that if she stayed in Colorado with him.

“Then what do you want?”

Poking at her food with her fork, she just gave him another shrug. “I don’t know. I’m getting kind of old. I’m thinking about settling down and maybe try to find a serious boyfriend that I can see myself marrying one day.”

“Are you serious?” Gabe laughed, “You’re only three months older than I am. You have plenty of time to meet a good guy and have time for a family. Maybe you’ll even meet the guy when you’re off at Ireland and you’ll have a couple of cute babies with accents.”

Eva gave him a half a smile as she took a bite of her food. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be bothering you with my silly problems. I’m sure you came up here to get away from your troubles.”

“Come on, Eva. I know you. Why are you so worried about marriage all of a sudden?”

She felt like a little child as she place her fork on the table and looked up at Gabe with sad eyes. “Phoebe and Chloe are both married with two kids, each!” She exclaimed, referring to her twin baby sisters who were four years younger than she was.

“Shit, your baby sisters have kids already? Jeez, now I can see why you’re worried all of a sudden,” he huffed. “Okay, so what if they’re married with kids? It’s perfectly normal to be 26 and not have any of that.”

“I just don’t know what to do anymore Gabe,” Eva sighed. “I’m just going to die an old lady who takes pictures of stupid things while her baby sisters are happy with their families.”

“Eva,” Gabe whined, “you know I hate seeing you like this.” She was that one person that was literally happy all day long and would be the one to cheer anyone up who was sad. What was Gabe going to do now that she was the one that was sad? “I have an idea on how to cheer you up,” he said with a mischievous smile.

Her eyes followed Gabe as he walked down the hall and disappeared. Moments later, he returned with two towels in hand. A smirk appeared on his face when he saw how her eyes widened in surprise.

“Gabe, no!” Eva said, pushing the towel away that he had tried sticking in her face. “It’s freezing outside! We’ll catch a cold!”

He shrugged at her as he waved the towel in her face. “Live a little.”

Instead of objecting, she gave him a smile and grabbed the towel from his hand. Gabe followed Eva as they headed outside, making sure he turned the outside light for the porch now that it was dark outside. By the time he reached the lake, Eva’s towel was already resting on the dock as she removed her clothing. By the time half of his clothes were removed, Eva was already standing at the edge of the dock, waiting for Gabe to jump with her.

“Hey, eyes up here!” Eva scolded, smacking Gabe in the arm.

“Nothing I’ve never seen before,” he smirked. He linked his fingers with hers, and gave her small hand a little tug. She looked up at him with her big green eyes, and gave him a big smile, thanking him for doing this crazy thing with her. “You ready?”

Eva quickly nodded before she and Gabe jumped in the ice cold water. Once resurfacing, Eva regretted her decision. She shook violently from the ice water as she tried to stay afloat. Gabe seemed to have no problem with the cold water as he was able to stay above the water with no problem. He laughed at Eva as she struggled to stay above.

“This seemed like such a better idea back inside the house,” she said, with her lips chattering like a windup toy.

Things quickly grew quiet between the two as they stared at each other. They both forgot about the fact that they were both butt naked, yet if they did know it wouldn’t have mattered. Eva couldn’t believe how much Gabe’s featured had matured since she had last seen him. He was more muscular, his face had cleared up, and he was even growing some facial hair. The past four years had done some good for Gabe Landeskog.

Eva hadn’t changed much since the last time he dropped her off at the airport all those years ago. Her hair changed a lot during the years, but she was still his Eva. The same Eva that he was head over heels for.

“Are you going to keep staring at me like that or are you going to kiss me?” He smirked.

She shook her head and she wiped her face to get rid of the excess water. “It’s not a good idea.”

“Why not? You never complained about it before,” he gave her a tooth baring grin. “If this was four years ago we’d probably be having sex by now.”

She was thankful that it was pretty dark outside so Gabe couldn’t see her blush. The only light they had was from the porch light and the full moon. With the way the lighting was, she could only see the half of his body that was the closest to the lake house.

“Be quiet,” she said, giving him a shove. “I’m trying to change.”

“Eva, there’s nothing wrong with being the way you are. I love that about you. Everyone I know takes things too seriously. Maybe they could learn a thing or two from you,” he said, making her laugh quietly.

By this point, both of their bodies grew numb and were now getting accustomed to the water. Her teeth had stopped chattering as she could feel herself swimming closer to Gabe. He licked his lips slowly, making her shudder at the thought of what he could do with that tongue of his. She would just let him think that she shivered because of the cold.

“Why are you being so nice to me? You sound like you still love me.”

“Because you never forget your first love,” his deep voice said lowly. “No matter what happens, your first love will always be in your heart. They were the first person to show you how wonderful love could be.”

Eva gave him a playful glare, “Seriously, Gabe? You forget my birthday but you remember that bull shit thing I told you?”

“At least I remembered something,” he laughed. “We should go back inside. I know it’s really dark out here but I can see how hard your nipples are.”

She teasingly scoffed at him and pushed his shoulder before swimming back to the dock. Gabe didn’t bother to hide the fact that he was staring at her. Every single aspect of her was beautiful and all he wanted to do now was prove it to her. He didn’t care how old she was or how she never had a worry in the world. All he wanted was for her to be his again.

The four year gap seemed nonexistent as he followed her into the bedroom. Cold water continued to drip from their bodies as they struggled to stay warm. She swallowed the dry lump that grew in her throat as he slowly walked over to her. He had another towel in his hand and used it to wrap it around her shoulders, using his big hands to rub her arms to create friction to keep her warm.

She pried her eyes away from his chest to look him in the eyes. He gave her shoulder a little squeeze before pulling her body closer to his. The tip of his nose barely touched hers as she could feel his warm breath on her lips. She didn’t understand how they got into this position so quickly, but she loved how close he was to her again. She didn’t want him to let her go.

Before she knew it, he was removing the towels that were wrapped around her body. Her finger tips slowly traveled down his stomach as his eyes lingered all over her body. His eyes were glued to her perky breasts as she unraveled his towel, letting it fall straight down to the ground. He moved one of his hands down to her hip and gripped it to pull her body against his so that nothing could get in between. Once their bare bodies had touched each other, they felt some sort of spark that they had been missing all those years.

He pulled her into a kiss and let his hands roam all over her body. With his new muscles, he picked her up with ease and bought her over to the bed. He had her flat on her back as her wet hair soaked the sheets, but neither of them cared anymore. She shivered as she his lips travel up her abdomen, and when he had stopped at the curve of her breast, she stopped him to bring his face towards hers.

“Are we really doing this?” Eva asked breathlessly.

Gabe gave her a big smirk. “Forever you and me, babe.”