The Truth Is...

When James woke up on their third official day of vacation to find Claudia nowhere to be found in their shared hotel suite he threw on a pair of swim trunks and a baseball cap, grabbed his sunglasses on his way out of the door and the minute his feet hit the sand he spotted her. She was laying on a towel on the beach, on her stomach, reading a magazine.

So he dropped onto the sand next to her and reached out to grab her magazine and toss it a few feet away from them. She looked over at him through her sunglasses and told him, “Excuse you, I was reading that.”

He grinned as he asked her, “Who reads on vacation?”

Reaching out to pinch his skin she told him, “I do, by the way, you’re already red.”

He frowned and reached over for her sunblock, slathering it over his chest, stomach, arms and even his legs. He held the bottle out for her and turned around, his silent way of asking her to do his back for him, and so she sighed dramatically but got up and proceeded to rub the lotion into his back and shoulders.

When she was done she laid down again and James asked her, “Do you need a top up?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve only been out here like an hour or two.”

An hour or two seemed to be long enough for him because Claudia jumped when he squirted lotion out onto her back. He carefully spread an even layer over her skin, rubbing it in, his fingers sliding underneath her bikini straps to get each inch of skin. Again she thought of Lucca’s recent words about them acting like more than friends, and briefly she wondered if maybe they were blurring the lines but she couldn’t find it in her to care because as much as she knew she shouldn’t she was enjoying the feeling of his palms pressed into her skin.

At least, she was enjoying it until he pulled them away and then she yelped when his hand came down to smack against her mostly bare butt cheek. She turned to face him, “What the fuck was that for?”

He shrugged, “Felt like it.”

She rolled her eyes as he wiped his hands off on the towel he was sitting on and then he dropped onto his back and pulled his hat down over his face. Claudia reached out and brushed a few stray pieces of hair off of his forehead and up underneath his hat. They laid out in the sun for well over an hour before she got up from her towel and announced, “I’m hot, I am going for a swim.”

“I’ll meet you in there.” He told her with a low, sleepy voice.

She laughed as she headed out to the water, letting out a scream when she saw him coming, he threw his arms around her, lifted her up and then took a few quick, long strides into the water before he dramatically fell on top of her into the water. When they both surfaced Claudia narrowed her eyes at him but then smiled when he grabbed her wrist, pulled the hair elastic off of it and somehow managed to pile her hair into a neat bun at the top of her head.

He told her, “I was thinking we could check out that other restaurant tonight, the one with the dancing and stuff.”

She stifled her laughter, “You want to go to a restaurant with a dance floor?”

“Why not? I hear chicks think that shit’s romantic.” He told her with a grin and she reached out and splashed him with water. He laughed as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him before he told her, “I thought you might like it.”

“I would.” She told him. If James knew anything about Claudia he knew the top three things she loved; photography, food, and dancing.

He then said, “And then I was thinking tomorrow we could go shopping and maybe we could cook dinner just the two of us, have a low key night in, you know.”

“And by that surely you mean I cook and you watch.” Claudia pointed out and he nodded his head quickly, which made her laugh. She told him, “Sure, I could handle that.”

With that she ducked out from his grasp, splashed him one last time before she took off a few feet away from him. James followed, ducking under the water and catching her off guard when he grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her under. She came up sputtering, he patted her back gently as he apologized and then she laughed as she pushed his head under water.

When they tuckered out of goofing off they simply opted to let their bodies float around in the water for a while, Claudia seemed to float better than James which when she chuckled at him struggling to stay afloat once he pointed out in the most typical James fashion that he could float like she was now if he had boobs too.

Eventually they headed back to the sand, James opted to have a nap on the beach after Claudia made sure to slather his back and arms in more sunscreen before she went back to reading her magazine. An hour later Claudia turned her head, resting the side of her face on one of her arms she watched him as he laid with his eyes closed next to her.

He must have been able to feel her eyes on him because without even opening them he told her, “The first sign of stalking is staring, or so I hear.”

Claudia rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless and he could hear that smile in her voice when she told him, “I was admiring your tattoos, actually.”

“Mhmm, sure.” He mused.

She reached out and pinched his side, and then she let her finger trace over one section of his full sleeve, and she asked him, “Are you gonna finish the other arm?”

“Haven’t decided yet.” He told her as he rolled onto his back, he asked her, “What do you think?”

“Hey, it’s your skin.” She told him, adding in, “I like it how it is, but it would look good if you brought it down too.”

He smiled and told her, “I like your tattoo, as well, you know… even if it’s a little less permanent.”

“What are you talking about?” She asked him, her eyebrow raising when he lifted his arm over her body and tapped with his four fingers against her butt cheek, the same one he had smacked previously. She looked over her shoulder to find that her skin was browner than it had been yesterday, and right there on the bottom of her ass cheek was a white hand print, he had clearly covered his hand with sunscreen before touching her. She turned back to him and slapped him hard across the stomach before saying, “James! I cannot believe you did that!”

He laughed, “I figured if I asked first you would have said no.”

“Unbelievable… now I’m gonna be walking around with a hand print on my ass for weeks.” She muttered, narrowing her eyes at him. She tried, she really did try to keep a straight face and pretend to be mad at him but he was smiling widely and looked so proud of himself that a laugh bubbled out of her mouth. When he turned to look at her and their eyes met through their sunglasses they both burst into laughter.



“Man am I glad we decided to do this trip.” James mused out loud as they sat across from each other at a little table at a patio restaurant. It was already dark, they had gotten into the habit of eating way later than normal here, not that either of them minded. James admitted to her, “I can definitely see the allure to living in a place like this.”

“Yeah?” She asked him curiously, she had been thinking the same thing earlier that day.

“Oh yeah, living on the beach, no hustle and bustle of city living, shorts all year round, the food alone…” He said, trailing off as he looked around them. He then set his eyes on Claudia, she was wearing a long maxi dress made out of some kind of soft, light material, it was a rich jewel toned purple that looked really good against the tan she already had. Even without a stitch of makeup on and her blonde hair left to dry into a curly mess from the salt and humidity she looked beautiful. He told her, “Island life looks pretty good on you too, you know.”

“Well I would say it looks good on you as well… but babe… you are red as a lobster already.” She told him with a smile, and then she asked, “Does it hurt?”

He shook his head, “It’s not a burn… it’s just my body’s natural tan.”

Claudia let out a laugh and then she took a drink of her coconut rum concoction before she told him with a smile, “Well I brought Aloe.”

“You sure do think of everything.” James noted, adding in, “I would have just bought whatever I forgot, so you probably saved me a bunch of money.”

“Guaranteed.” Claudia told him. She took another drink from her plastic cup with the pineapple wedge on the side and then she glanced over at the people who had taken up residence on the little dance floor that was bordered with lights strung up on the wooden posts around it.

James watched as a small smile graced her face and that made him set his beer bottle down and get up, he approached her side of the table and held his hand out, and when she finally turned and looked up at him he asked, “Wanna teach me how to dance?”

She let out a laugh and nodded her head, putting her hand in his as he gently pulled her up to her feet and then guided her out to join the rest of the couples who were swaying along to the music coming out of the speakers at each corner of the plank wood floor.

James placed one hand flat on Claudia’s back, still holding onto the other, while she slid her own up the length of his arm to the back of his neck. He let her do all the moving, following along with ease as the song switched but stayed consistent with the soft, slow pace as all the others they had played that night.

He looked down at her, taking in just how many freckles she had across her nose, cheeks and even her chin, the way her lashes fluttered as she eventually stepped closer and rested her temple against his shoulder. He gripped her a little tighter, and then he spoke softly, his chest vibrating as he did, “I’m glad you came.”

“Me too.” She told him with a soft smile.

For a second, just a brief second, James thought about how many he should just lean down and kiss her right here, right now. It would be easy enough to do, one quick motion and he could take her by surprise. He wasn’t sure what had come over him, sure, he was a red blooded man so he could admit that Claudia was gorgeous and had he not had so much respect for her he would have tried to get in her pants way before now.

Had he thought about it before? Of course he had, but had he ever acted on it? Absolutely not. He was probably only thinking about it now because it had been so, so long since he had been with anyone.

Frankly, James thought that they could be really good together, if they would only give each other the chance but James wasn’t a relationship kind of guy, he never had been, he had an awful track record for relationships. He had an even worse track record for one nightstands. He wasn’t anywhere near good enough for Claudia and he never would be.

Claudia looked up at him and asked him, “What are you thinking about?”

“Mm?” He asked her, he had yet to take his eyes off of her.

She blinked and he watched as her thick lashes fluttered closed and then opened again and she asked him again, “What’s going on in that brain of yours?”

In any other situation he would have made a joke about how she should know that there was nothing going on up there but he suddenly wasn’t in a joking mood anymore.

So he simply smiled gently and told her, “Just… wondering how I got so lucky that I managed to convince you to stick around and be a part of my life.”

She smiled and rested her head against him again, telling him softly, “You’re sweet.”

Yeah, sure.

There was no more talking through the rest of the song, and then through the one after, and when that one ended Claudia pulled away from him and James couldn’t help but notice the fact that he noticed how different he felt without her pressed up against him and he didn’t like that feeling. He wanted to grab her hands and pull her back in but instead he followed her back to their table.

She covered her mouth as she yawned and James stood up again and held his hands out, telling her, “Let’s go back to the room.”

“Alright.” She said, halfway through another yawn and it made him smile. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side as they walked together through the sand down the long stretch of beach between the restaurant and where their little home away from home for the week was. She reached out and placed her palm flat on his lower stomach as they walked and she told him, “I think you should go see some houses in Vegas, not just look online.”

He looked down at her in surprise, he hadn’t expected for that to be what she would say. Still, he managed to keep himself from staring at her too long because the more he did the more and more he thought about leaning down and kissing her. He pulled his eyes back to the path in front of them and he said, “Yeah, I’ll probably go next month sometime. I don’t want to make any decisions without you though, in case you decide to come out there with me.”

He didn’t want to get his hopes up too much about her moving with him but he thought maybe she would give him a second thought if she knew he was trying to make things good for her if she did move to Vegas with him. He didn’t want to push her but he would be lying if he said he didn’t want her there.

“It’s your house James.” Claudia reminded him.

“Yeah, but I want you to like it too. Even if you don’t move out there, I still want you to like the place because I’m hoping you’ll visit as much as you can.” James told her, smiling gently when she looked up at him.

She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly before she told him, “As long as it has a kitchen, a decent bath tub and air conditioning I am fine with whatever you choose.”

“A pool, definitely.” James told her and she nodded her head in agreement. James unlocked their hotel room door and they stepped into the freezing room, he said, “Guess we can turn the air down a bit tonight.”

“Nah, I like it like this.” Claudia told him as she kicked out of her sandals, leaving them by the door. She headed toward the door to her room and she turned to face him when she got there, leaning against the door frame slightly she said, “I’m gonna call it a night.”

He nodded, “Night Claud.”

He watched her disappear into her room, she didn’t close the door all the way and when he saw her drop her dress to the floor he immediately turned around and headed to his own bedroom. That door he did close, and he stripped out of his button up short sleeve and the cargo shorts he had paired for their dinner, before dropping onto his back.

He couldn’t figure out where these sudden feelings had come from, had they been there all along?

His mother was constantly asking about Claudia and James wondered if this was why, if his mother knew all along. Sure, his brothers made comments about it here and there but so did Steven and John and so James had always just brushed it off as boys being boys. Surely people didn’t still think that men and women couldn’t be strictly friends, right?

James laid on top of the covers on his bed for nearly an hour before he finally heaved himself off of it and headed out into the living room area of their suite. He stared at Claudia’s door, still partially open but it was so dark that he couldn’t see her in there so he approached the door and then he pushed it open and that let just enough light in the room that he could see where he was going as he made his way to her bed.

As he climbed onto it and laid down beside her she turned from her side onto her back, and then onto her other side, she was facing him now. When she put her hand on his stomach he jumped a little bit, and then he tensed when he heard her ask sleepily, “Couldn’t sleep?”

He felt like there was a lump in his throat, his mouth felt dry, and he had no idea how he managed to even croak out two words let alone, “No, I hate sleeping alone.”

She knew that about him, of course, after all these years.

So Claudia settled in next to him, head on his chest, and James wound his arm around her back and his hand rested on her hip. She told him, her voice low and raspier than usual, “You smell like the beach.”

He smiled, staring up at the ceiling in the dark as he told her, “You smell like apples.”

“I showered.” She told him softly, letting out a small sigh as he rubbed her skin through the material of her sleep shirt.

“Hey Claudia?” He asked her quietly, barely above a whisper.

“Hm?”

“I love you.” He told her.

He smiled as she gave his hand a squeeze and then she told him, “Me too.”