The Truth Is...

James reached out with his right hand and dipped the tips of his fingers into the bowl on the nightstand next to him until he grasped a chunk of ice between them. His fingers dripped cold water over his chest as he reached across himself and pressed the tip of the ice cube into the skin on Claudia’s bare back. She jumped slightly at the cold contact and turned her head to look at him, resting the side of her face on her pillow, her arms stuffed underneath it.

With a smile she asked, “What are you doing?”

James gently dragged the crescent shaped ice cube up and down her back slowly, watching through the light from the window as her skin shimmered from the wetness it was leaving behind. He told her, “You looked like you were still hot.”

With no air conditioning their summer trip to the cabin was usually a hot one, the two had done this more times than they could count and yet now it was different. Everything was different now between them but neither one of them really cared much about that at all.

Claudia leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to the front of his shoulder before telling him, “I’m sure.”

James warned her, “Don’t make me dump this entire bowl on you.”

“You wouldn’t.” She challenged back with a smile.

His hand stopped running the melting ice cube up and down her back as he pulled his arm back and reached for the bowl next to him. He picked it up and Claudia was about to concede when he moved a little too quickly for the bowl filled with melting ice in it and splashed water out onto his bare chest. The surprise caused his hand to jerk, which then, in a chain reaction, caused even more ice water to spill on himself.

Claudia couldn’t help but burry her head against his shoulder and laugh, and James, watching her laugh, couldn’t help but join in.

When she finally stopped laughing Claudia asked him, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re extremely romantic?”

He grinned over at her as he used his side of the sheet covering their lower bodies to wipe up the mess of water on himself, that was when he told her, “I aim to please.”

Rolling over onto her back Claudia sat up just enough to reach to the nightstand next to her and grab her camera, covering herself with the sheet skillfully as she did so. She pointed it at James and hit the shutter button three times before he could even react, and then he held his hand out in front of the lens so that she couldn’t take any more.

As she looked through the three pictures she got she smiled and announced, “Straight to the hockey blogs these go.”

He rolled his eyes but still managing to smile James told her, “Anyone would be lucky to see those pictures, I am pretty good looking.”

“On second thought I think I’m the only one who gets to see them.” Claudia told him as she put the lens cap back on the camera, shut it off and nodded her head.

With the camera back on the nightstand next to her Claudia reached blindly down onto the floor in search of her robe that she had discarded the night before, her fingers clasped around the silky material as she lifted it off of the ground and wrapped it around herself. James watched as she headed across the hall and into the bathroom, he could hear water running from where he stayed in bed and a second later she came back into the bedroom, closing the door behind her with a glass of water in her hand.

Instead of crawling back into bed, as James would have preferred, Claudia went past the bed and straight to the tall windows overlooking the lake beyond the cabin. With her back to him James carefully leaned forward and grabbed her camera off of the nightstand, he turned it off and popped the lens cap off before he held it up and snapped a picture of her. He pulled the camera away from his face and inspected his handiwork on the screen.

She had her back to him, standing in front of the window with her robe falling off of her shoulders and her blonde hair was a bit of a mess, the sun coming in through the window cast a ring of light around her silhouette and he couldn’t help but announce to her, “You know, if this whole hockey thing doesn’t work out for me in the future I could always try my hand at this picture thing.”

Claudia turned her head over her shoulder and she quirked an eyebrow at him, asking, “Did you just take a picture of me?”

Nodding James held the camera back up to his eye and Claudia’s only response was to tilt her head back and laugh, which prompted him to take three more pictures. Much like he had done earlier eventually Claudia held her hand out to the lens but James still took one more. Finally, he put the camera back on the nightstand and informed her sternly, “You can’t delete them until I get copies.”

Claudia looked at him, and for a second James thought he was really going to have to fight her on that one, but then she smiled and told him, “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“I know. It sure helps me with a lot of things.” James told her with a smile. When she rolled her eyes and approached the bed James wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back onto the bed with him, earning a slight yelp and a squeal from Claudia in the process.

She got comfortable next to him, laying on her back as he rolled onto his stomach again and she smiled gently as he nuzzled his face into her neck, kissing her skin gently. She told him, running her fingers through the hair at the back of his head, “I think I kind of like this.”

James told her, “Yeah, as far as relationships go I have to say I don’t totally hate this one.”

She smiled and she couldn’t help but ask him, “So you’re not ready to run for the hills quite yet?”

The corners of his lips turned up into a smile and he shook his head, telling her, “Nah, I think I’m good where I am… in fact, there’s really only one place I would rather be than where I am currently.”

“Oh yeah?” She thought he was going to make a joke, to tell her that the only place he would rather be was at the arena, or at a shopping mall, both were very James like things to do.

Instead he smiled over at her, and pushed her knees apart, sliding over to settle between her legs, most of his weight resting on the mattress. He informed her, “That’s better.”

Claudia tilted her head back and let out a laugh before she reached out and tucked his floppy hair back and out of his face. She crooked her finger at him until he moved close enough for her to lean over and kiss the corner of his mouth.

When she pulled away James told her, “Oh no, you so don’t get away that easy.”

Before she could question him he reached up and held her face with both hands, leaning over to kiss her for real this time. It was the simplest of kisses, nothing to write home about but Claudia was beginning to realize that she loved these kind of kisses and she was sure that James had realized that. They were the kind of kisses that went on forever without the nagging feeling of your body desperately needing oxygen, the sweetness in each little individual kiss and the gentleness of the soft, slow movements.

Maybe it helped that she realized the amount of feelings that there were between the two of them. She wasn’t going to say love, no they were not yet there, far from it, and besides, even if she was there she knew that would send him straight for the hills. It wasn’t love, it just wasn’t quite like, it was something right in between and she was perfectly okay with that.



An hour later when Claudia and James finally got out of bed and got dressed and ready for the day Claudia left their room first, nearly running into Roman as she did so. He stopped, glanced at her and then at James when James appeared at the doorway, intent on leaving as well, and he looked stunned. Neither James nor Claudia said anything to him, so he followed slowly downstairs and into the kitchen where Colin was cooking breakfast for everyone.

Roman continued to look back and forth between Claudia and James for a few minutes before he finally asked, “Hey Claud… were you in James’ room all night?”

“Being that we’re sharing a room yes.” Claudia told him as she reached around Colin to grab as many glasses as she could.

She brought them to the table and went back for the orange juice in the fridge, filling each glass up. That was when Roman exclaimed, “Wait… you and James are like… are you guys… I thought that was Kelly and Craig all night!”

Kelly whipped around to face Roman and Craig choked on his bottle of water, Claudia’s cheeks went pink and James simply laughed at it all. PK’s eyebrows lifted in surprise and he asked James, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

James shrugged, “Wanted to see how long it would take you two to figure it out.”

“Wait everyone else knows?” Roman asked, and when James shrugged and then nodded his head he asked him in both a little bit of annoyance and amusement, “Dude, I was gonna hit on her all weekend and you were just gonna let me make an idiot out of myself?”

James once again shrugged and Claudia jumped in to tell Roman, “I would have told you eventually. Besides, you’re not that late to the party this is only like 2 days old so who knows, I may dump him before the weekend is through.”

Rolling his eyes James reached out and wrapped an arm around Claudia’s shoulders, he pulled her back into his chest and told her, “Uncalled for.”

“It was entirely called for. That was a mean joke.” Claudia told him and Roman nodded his head in agreement for good measure.

Their conversation was interrupted when Lucca walked into the kitchen and asked, “Hey Claud… if I were to hypothetically need some deodorant where might I find some?”

Claudia let out a laugh and told her, “In my bathroom bag, there’s two travel ones in there.”

“You brought extra deodorant?” Craig asked, eyebrow lifted in amused curiosity.

Nodding Claudia told him, “Two extra travel size deodorants, sample sizes of face washes and moisturizers, an extra bottle of sunscreen and aloe, two extra travel toothbrushes and extra shampoo and body wash. I know how Lucca and James travel.”

“By forgetting everything.” Colin finished for her and Claudia nodded.

James rolled his eyes as the guys all laughed at him and Lucca simply leaned over, kissed Claudia on the cheek loudly and exclaimed on her way upstairs, “God bless you.”

“So… what’s the plan for today?” PK asked as Colin began to plate their breakfasts and bring the plates to the table.

Craig stated, “Boating. Definitely.”

Kelly added, “There will be absolutely zero fishing on this trip, I’m laying that law down right now. I’ve had to schedule my entire summer around a bunch of bullshit reasons why certain times are better for fishing and I am not doing it now.”

James joked, “Tell us how you really feel.”

With a smile Kelly told him, “Craig has a fishing problem. I’m about ready to start FA: fishers anonymous.”

Craig rolled his eyes but he laughed along with everyone else.

After breakfast the guys headed out on the boat and the girls, plus PK, opted to stay at the cabin. They were each laid out on towels across the beach working on their suntans while PK, ever the child amongst them, had dug out some of Lucca’s very old sand pales and buckets and was attempting to build a sand empire. Not a castle, oh no he was rather offended when Lucca suggested it might be called that.

Lucca glanced over at PK, making sure he was just out of earshot when she leaned over slightly and asked Claudia, “I don’t know that I’ll see you just the two of us before we head out to Denver so… have you made up your mind?”

Kelly sat up on her elbows, looked over at them and asked, “Made up your mind about what?”

“Oh. Shit. I didn’t know that she didn’t know.” Lucca told Claudia, a slight pink tint to her cheeks.

With a shrug Claudia told Kelly, “I’ve been kind of toying with the idea of going to Vegas with James.”

“Damn. Everyone’s really leaving. I’m gonna be all alone now.” She said, adding in quickly, “Not that I’m not happy for you if you do go, I’m really happy you and James are finally happy and you know, together.”

Lucca pushed the conversation along, she didn’t want the boys to come back too soon and interrupt them, “So?”

Kelly, interested in the conversation now, watched as Claudia again shrugged her shoulders.

Claudia told them, “I had made up my mind, that I was going, and then James and I got into that argument and he dropped the whole feelings bombshell on me and now I just kind of don’t know anymore.”

PK dropped onto the towel next to Claudia, causing all three of the girls to turn and look at him with raised eyebrows. He motioned to his sand empire, which at this point was half destroyed and the other half was barely hanging on and he said, “The sand is too dry.”

Lucca practically snorted, “Sure.”

PK narrowed his eyes at her, a smile on his face, before he turned to Claudia and he told her honestly, “I think you should go with him, you know.”

“What?” She tried to play dumb.

It didn’t work because he called her out on it, “I wasn’t that far away. Kind of overheard everything, plus, honestly, Nealer has been talking about it since you brought the idea up to him.”

“He has?” She asked him in surprise. That was the very last thing that she had expected.

PK nodded, “He would never say it to you because he doesn’t want to get his hopes up just to have you say you’re not going but Steven and I have been hearing about this for weeks. I’m not saying I think you should go with him just because I know how happy it would make him Claud, I just think that you should go with him because you’ll both be happier.”

“Honestly… I want to go, more than anything, but I’m afraid that now that things are the way that they are, and they’re great don’t take that the wrong way because this is the happiest I’ve ever been and it’s been like two days, but…” Claudia didn’t know how to articulate what she was trying to say to finish her sentence so instead she simply petered off.

Lucca picked it back up for her, “You’re afraid that things are so different now that if you say yes it will put extra pressure on you guys before you’re even really out of the gate with things.”

Claudia nodded and Kelly told her, “You know, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were friends for years before they started dating and they always say that’s what has made their relationship so great. I think you just need to trust yourself, you know what’s right for you Claudia and I think you know that’s James.”

Claudia sighed and said, “I hate it when you’re right.”

With a grin Kelly asked, “Really? I kind of like it.”


James hadn’t been gone for more than ten minutes before Claudia started to look for him. They had sat down around the fire pit off of the back deck of the cabin after dinner to enjoy smores and beer and he had gotten up and slipped away without anyone but her noticing. She thought he had gone inside for a refill but when he didn’t come back ten minutes later she realized he hadn’t gone inside at all.

Her eyes found him down the beach, toward the shore, his sandals were in the sand next to him and he was standing, ankle deep in the lake. Claudia got up from her spot next to Colin, kicked her shoes off before she even left the fire pit area and headed down to join him.

James turned when he heard her approaching, and he smiled gently over at her as she wound her arms around him from behind and rested her chin on his back gently. James reached down and grabbed her hands in his, resting them against his torso as Claudia placed a gentle kiss to the skin on his shoulder, close to the edge of his muscle tee.

She let go of him a second later and James turned enough to lift his arm up and over her, around to her back before he pulled her into his side. Once she had settled there and was comfortable Claudia asked him, “You wanna tell me what you’re doing way out here?”

“I was thinking.” James told her softly, and when she simply looked up at him with a quirked eyebrow he asked her, “Do you trust me?”

“With my life.” She told him honestly.

“I know that… but… romantically, Claudia, do you trust me?” She was a little bit taken by surprise by his question, that wasn’t what she had been expecting him to ask her.

She was honest with him when she told him, “I’d like to think that I do.”

Nodding James said, “Yeah… I probably wouldn’t either.”

“It’s not that I don’t, James it’s just… this is all really new and I don’t really know those things yet. I think the fact that we’ve been friends for as long as we have before this maybe… this isn’t a typical relationship for either of us. You’re my best friend, I’ll always trust you, but I also know what you’re like so I don’t know that I can answer that question from the relationship side of things yet.” James hated when she was honest with him like this. He hated it, but he was glad that she was.

“I don’t want you to feel like you can’t trust me. I know my tack record speaks for itself, and I know I can’t take that back and I know how this is gonna sound but when I tell you that I could never do anything to make you not trust me it’s not a line. I could never do that to you because I know exactly how much that would hurt you and it would kill me to hurt you like that.” James told her, his voice was soft but void of anything that might tell her what was going on.

Was he feeling insecure? Was he just trying to get on the same page as her and lay everything out? Or was it something more?

Curiously she asked him, “What exactly brought all this up? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I was thinking about Vegas while we were on the boat.” James told her, and he added, “I mean, I’ve been thinking about you and me and Vegas since I got that phone call last month.”

“Thinking about it how?” Claudia asked him, looking up at him and watching as he watched the lake in front of them.

He told her, “About how I would be okay if you chose to stay here instead of going with me. Especially now.”

“Especially now? What does that mean?” Claudia asked him curiously.

This time James turned to her and he told her honestly, “Things have changed between us and I don’t want you to feel like you have to come with me now just because we’re doing this whole dating thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for you to be there but dropping your entire life to follow some guy you’ve been dating for like a week isn’t practical.”

“Nothing about my life has been practical since you showed up in it.” Claudia told him with a smile, and James couldn’t help but let out a laugh at that. She assured him, “I haven’t made up my mind yet, because you’re right; this does change things a little, but I promise you no matter what decision I make, I made it on my own and it’s what’s right for me.”

“I just want you to be happy. I’d really like for you to be happy with me in Vegas but I’m also okay with you being happy here in Nashville. Just promise me that no matter what your decision is, you’ll tell me when I screw up, because inevitably I will, and you’ll talk to me and you’ll share things like we do. I don’t want our entire relationship to change now just because we call each other boyfriend and girlfriend now.” James told her and his brow raised at the sight of the growing smile on Claudia’s face.

“Did you just call me your girlfriend?” She asked him, and he nodded which caused the two of them to burst into laughter.

He turned so that they were facing each other, his arms around her back and hers resting on his biceps, and James told her, “Get used to it.”

“I don’t think I ever will.” Claudia told him with a smile.

He leaned over and captured her lips with his, their lips matched smile for smile.