The Truth Is...

"Last day." James announced as he dropped onto Claudia's bed while she ran a brush through her freshly washed hair in the bathroom. She turned to face him and shot him a smile before he said, “Then back to reality we go.”

“I can’t wait to be able to sleep in my own bed though.” Claudia told him, and James nodded his head in agreement. James watched her fingers weave a braid into her hair from the top of the back of her head and down, she twisted it into a bun at the base of her head and then she turned to face him completely and asked, “What’s on the agenda today?”

He patted the spot next to him so she joined him, laying on her stomach next to him, resting her head on her hands as she waited for his response. He thought about it for a moment before he said, “We did all the touristy stuff already… how about…. A day to just hang out? Grab a couple of drinks and spend the whole day in the ocean.”

“That sounds perfect.” Claudia mused, but neither one of them bothered to move from where they were.

Instead they woke up three hours later, around two in the afternoon, still on top of the covers on Claudia’s bed in their hotel suite. It was James who had woken up first, he noted the fact that Claudia was tucked into him, her back against his chest, as his arm laid heavily over her middle and his head was resting against the back of her neck. He lifted his wrist just enough so that he could see the time on his watch and then he stayed where he was; with Claudia cuddled against him because he couldn’t think of a more perfect feeling in the world right now.

He must have fallen asleep because he woke up with a start when Claudia moved his arm off of her and sat up, she turned to face him with flushed cheeks as she said softly, “I was trying not to wake you up but I really need something to drink.”

James smiled gently and untangled their legs before they both got up, stretched their bodies and then headed to the kitchen. Claudia grabbed them each a bottle of water before they headed out to the beach again. They had done and seen just about all that there was to do and see over the last few days, but Claudia was glad that they still had one more day to relax because, while she was looking forward to getting home, she knew what getting home meant.

James had been right; back to the real world.

The real world where shortly he would have to start packing up his Nashville home and move all of his things twenty-six hours away from her and she was less prepared for that than she expected to be.

She supposed that it hadn’t sunk in yet, really, just how different their lives would be if she stayed behind when he went to Vegas. At least, it hadn’t sunk in, until now.

James nudged her as they settled in on the sand, side by side on their towels, and when she turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow he asked her, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.”

He called her on her lie, “No it’s not. What’s wrong?”

“I just wish we had more time… that I had more time.” She said, and for a second he didn’t know what she meant, and then it seemed to click for him. She was talking about this summer, about Vegas and her decision.

James didn’t speak to that, instead he simply told her, “Me too.”

While it was beginning to become obvious to James that Claudia had made her choice, the reality was far from it, she still had no clue what she was going to do. There were so many pros for each option, and she couldn’t figure out how to shake the feeling that she was letting her heart make the decision for her. But, then again, what was all that bullshit about following your heart?

Still, she reached over and grabbed his hand to give it a squeeze and she changed the subject completely to ask him, “What time do we get in tomorrow?”

“We arrive in Toronto around five-thirty, so barring any luggage issues we should get home by about seven the latest.” James told her, adding in with a smile, “Just in time to eat some dinner and go straight to bed.”

Claudia smiled and told him, “I’m slathering you in Aloe tonight, you poor burnt boy.”

James looked down at his skin which was a lot redder than it usually was, though he wouldn’t really consider it a burn and he said, “Thanks.”

Why would he turn down a free massage?

James left Claudia alone for a moment as he headed back to the hotel to grab them both drinks, it was enough time for her to roll onto her stomach and untie her bikini top so she didn’t have any other unusual tan lines. When he arrived back to find her laying on her stomach with her top undone he nearly tripped on air.

He set their drinks down and then laid across his own towel, and with a grin on his face he announced to her, “My hand is still on your ass.”

Claudia rolled her eyes and she propped herself up slightly on her arms to grab her plastic drink cup and take a sip. James noted from the corner of his eyes that while the fronts of her breasts were still covered by the towel underneath her he did get a view of a good handful of side boob and he was glad he had his sunglasses on so that she wouldn’t catch him staring.

He was disappointed when she dropped back down and his view was mostly obstructed by her arm. Mostly.



After nearly seven days on the beach James and Claudia were, oddly enough, exhausted. They were relaxed, of course, but neither one of them could look any more forward to finally getting to James’ home in Whitby and crawling right into bed. Their flight leaving Miami had been delayed almost an hour and a half and James thought maybe they should cancel lunch with his family the next day and just sleep all day but he knew that Claudia wouldn’t have any of that.

So as he pulled into the driveway of his summer home at nearly nine at night he put the car in park, leaned back in his seat and covered his mouth as he yawned. Claudia must have felt the car stop moving because she straightened up and then arched her back to stretch as much as she could in the front seat of his vehicle.

James pulled the keys from the ignition slowly and located the house key before he held it out to her and told her, “You go inside, the alarm is off, I’ll bring the bags in.”

She knew not to argue with him about the bags so she nodded her head and took the keys as she got out of the car. She was already to the front door when James looked over at her seat and realized she had left her shoes in the car, so he chuckled and reached over to grab them before he headed to the back of the vehicle to grab their two bags.

Claudia held the door open for him as he carted them inside and tossed her shoes to the floor by the door next to where he had kicked his own off while Claudia locked the door behind them.

When he walked into the kitchen a small laugh escaped his mouth so Claudia followed after him and she smiled at the sight of a pizza box sitting on the counter with a note of it that said ‘welcome home’ on it in his dad’s writing but it had no doubt been his mother’s idea.

“Thank god, I’m starving.” He announced, heading into the kitchen right away. He picked up the pizza box and put his hand on the bottom of it before he turned to Claudia and said, “It’s even still warm.”

“What, did they drop it off five minutes ago?” She asked in amusement as she finally headed into the kitchen after him. As she took the seat next to him James found the note where his dad had written a time on the bottom, eight minutes ago. Claudia saw it, smiled and said, “Your family sure does love you.”

“Nah, they just love you.” James told her and when she rolled her eyes he asked her, “You really think they would do this for me if you weren’t here? Not a chance.”

She smiled and told him, “Your mom would, you’re a mama’s boy James, time to just admit it.”

“I’ve never tried to hide it.” He fired back, and she had to nod her head in agreement, because he was right.

They ate in silence, James took the pizza box and their beer bottle each out to the recycling bin in the driveway beside the garage door and while he did that Claudia tossed their napkins out and wiped down the counter for him. A quick glance at the clock on the stove told her that it was now nearly nine and she was exhausted, and thankful when James came into the house and took their bags upstairs.

She made sure the doors and windows were locked downstairs, armed the alarm and then she headed upstairs to find James. A quick glance to her right as she was walking down the hall told her that he dropped her bag off in the guest room she usually stayed in.

He was in his bedroom, freshly changed out of his travel clothing and into a pair of sweat pants, a t-shirt was in one hand as if he were trying to decide if he even wanted to bother with it or not. She knocked on the door frame, he looked over at her and smiled softly.

“Heading to bed?” He asked her, and she nodded her head. He smiled again, “Me too, I think.”

She wanted to ask him what the plan was for tomorrow but she was having too much trouble keeping her eyes on his and not allowing them to wander down to his bare chest. She wasn’t sure what had come over her over the last week, because she had been around James with less clothing than this on and it had never bothered her before.

Claudia didn’t have any words so James tried his hand at his own but it seemed he was having just as much luck as she was as he stumbled through a sentence, “Did you uh… do you… want to… uh… I uh… never mind.”

He took a step forward, she stayed where she was and she jumped slightly when he placed his hand on her forearm, and then it slid up her arm, to her shoulder, as she looked up at James to find he was looking right back down at her. How had she gone so long without truly admiring this man’s eyes? They were the most unique shade of blue-green she had ever seen and she found herself so focused on them that she didn’t even register him leaning down toward her until his lips pressed against hers.

It didn’t even take Claudia half of a second to kiss him back, she smiled against his lips as he wrapped both arms around her, clasping his hands at her back and pulled her swiftly into him. She let one of her hands slide up the length of his arm, her finger tips pressing into his reddened skin gently until they reached the back of his head and then her other arm wrapped around his shoulder, hand pressed against his back.

James took the chance to boldly drag his tongue across her bottom lip, surprised when she almost immediately opened her mouth to him. He had been expecting her to pull away from him and slap him across the face, to be honest.

When he seemed to hesitate Claudia took matters into her own hands and deepened the kiss for him, which made him smile slightly against her lips. He tightened his grip around her, pulling her so tightly against him there wasn’t even a tiny sliver of room between them and Claudia gripped his shoulder with one hand while the other tangled in his longer than usual hair.

They pulled apart slowly as Claudia dropped back down onto the heels of her feet, James still had his arms around her, and her hands were pressed into both shoulders and they slowly slid down to the bottom of his biceps as she stared at his chest.

She cleared her throat and then looked up at him through her lashes, she wondered if her own lips looked as puffy as his did. His cheeks flushed slightly, and he let go of her as she stepped backwards, but he wasn’t put off by her reaction because she smiled gently up at him.

“Goodnight James.” She told him as she turned away from him and headed down the hall.

He didn’t even bother saying goodnight back, he couldn’t figure out how to form words and make his voice work again. So instead he closed his bedroom door and picked up the shirt he had dropped on the floor, tossing it onto the top of the dresser as he sat down on the edge of the bed and let out a sigh. Had he just ruined everything?

Claudia paused outside the open door to the guest room she would be sleeping in, she stared at her suitcase on the bed and bit down on her lip hard. That kiss changed things, it changed everything because never, not even once in their entire friendship, had they ever crossed that line or even come close to it. Could they go back to normal? Did they want to go back to normal? Did he kiss everyone like that?

She could honestly say that she had never been kissed like that before. She wasn’t sure if it was because they were so close to begin with, but it was like she could physically feel everything he was feeling. Claudia had never understood the saying feeling like the world stopped moving until now.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment longer before she turned her head to look down the hallway toward James’ bedroom, before she turned on her heels and headed back there. She knocked on the door frame before she could convince herself otherwise and James was speaking to her as he opened the door, a smile on his face, “What did you forget?”

She didn’t answer, not verbally at least, she simply put one hand on each side of his face, leaned up on her tip does and kissed him with as much feeling as she could muster up. Much like it had her minutes earlier the kiss caught James off guard but it hadn’t taken him very long at all to respond, wrapping arm around her and pulling her closer to him.

Claudia pulled back just slightly so that they could both get some air into their lungs before she kissed him quickly twice, and then James looked down into her eyes and he leaned down enough to grab her by the backs of her legs and lift her up into the air. She wound her legs around his waist as he carried her to the bed, sitting down with her on top of him, legs on either side of his hips, never once breaking eye contact.

Eventually he leaned over and kissed her again, and that was when he thought it was all over, because Claudia pulled away from him a few seconds later and got up. But then she turned around, standing in front of him, pulled her hair over one shoulder and asked him quietly, “Unzip me?”

So with shaking hands James reached out and grasped the zipper to her cotton maxi dress and unzipped it with only a little bit of trouble. He watched as she slowly pushed one shoulder off, and then the next, and finally the dress dropped to the floor and left her in a lacy underwear set. He wondered if she always wore things like that.

James stood up, pressed himself against her back and leaned over to kiss the skin on her shoulder, she still tasted like salt it made his lips stretch into a smile against her skin as he dragged her teeth over her shoulder and then moved on to the next one, flipping her hair to her other shoulder.

Finally, Claudia must have had enough of that because as he dragged his hands down her sides delicately she turned around to face him, leaned up and kissed him square on the mouth for the first time in what felt like forever to both of them.

As much as her initiative to slip out of her dress told him she wanted this James resisted the urge to unclasp her bra, instead she let Claudia set the pace. She seemed content to simply kiss him for a while, and so he obliged, at least until Claudia grabbed the waist band of his sweat pants and shoved them off of his hips, they pooled around his ankles so he stepped out of them and kicked them out of the way.

As James ran his palms up her back slowly Claudia decided she liked the feeling of his rough, calloused hands on her skin. They were cool, which was a nice contrast against her burning skin. It took him considerably less time to unclasp her bra than it did most guys, and he slipped it off of her shoulders and she let it fall between them as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to each shoulder again.

All this time she had no idea he could be this gentle with someone.