“Elise, did we interrupt something, I-I could get out of here, or take the girls with me,” my mother stumbled over her words. She wasn’t used to this kind of thing, seeing as I never really dated anyone the way I was with Deacon. I gave a nervous smile and shook my head. Even though our moment was ruined there was no way to get back to it.

My hand gravitated towards Deacon’s as I longed for his touch again. He intertwined his fingers between mine, and sent me a loving glance as he squeezed my hand. Our moment was cut short when Claire cleared her throat, then we released our hands and smiled at the others. “No, you guys are good, we - uh are all done,” I blurted out. They continued their path to the couch, filling the gaps between Deacon and I. I let out a sigh of frustration.

I asked if anyone would like a midday drink and only three out of the four hands went up. I walked over to the kitchen and grabbed some ingredients. I filled four different glasses with three types of alcohol and two mixers. For flair, I picked up the little umbrellas that were sitting in a bag on the counter, and adorned the drinks with them. I crossed the room to the couch and handed drinks to everyone, but my mother.

“Charles and I have a dinner date tonight, so I don’t want to be unclassy when I show up,” she beamed at me. We all drank our drinks and finished watching the movie that Deacon had put on for background noise. Once the movie finished, my mother said her goodbyes to us, then the girls pulled out one of the board games. I did a head count of everyone in the room and remembered we were down a person.

“Guys, we forgot about Sadie, she’s still up in her room. Would one of you mind going to grab her,” I asked kindly.

Jessie was the one to pop up off of the floor and climb the stairs to the bedrooms. Sadie’s room was the one next to the stairs, so we could see her contort her body in such a way so that she wouldn’t have to actually go all the way up the stairs. Eight years of gymnastics was to thank for that level of flexibility. She then turned around without making a sound and sat down back in the little circle we had made on the floor. “Sadie… Is asleep, so we probably won’t see her until tomorrow,” she said, with a hint of disappointment.

We had decided on a money game, where you have to buy the most companies, and if anyone lands on your company they have to pay. It was one of those friendship breaking games that made people flip tables, but of course it was one of our favorites. One of the girls had offered to invite more people over, but that list of people consisted mostly of her exes, so we vetoed that. Then Deacon volunteered to go up the stairs to wake up Sadie, and we all looked at him with a worried look.

“Are you sure you want to be the one to wake up the bear,” Jessie was the one to pipe up. We called Sadie the bear, because when she fell asleep it was like she would go into hibernation. It was better to just let her sleep if you found her that way. Deacon shrugged his shoulders and ran up the stairs to her room, then pushed the door open. We heard a small yelp but couldn’t tell who it belonged to. The rest of us exchanged worried glances as Deacon was carrying Sadie down the stairs on his back.

“He yanked me out of the bed you guys,” she said laughing, “I guess there is a way to wake up there bear without getting the brunt of the yelling.” Amazed, we all gave him a slow hand clap as he hit the last step and carefully let Sadie off of him. She joined our circle with a huge smile on her face at seeing which game we had chosen to play. She clasped her hands together in front of her and let out a small squeal.

~

Hours had passed since playing the game and Deacon and I volunteered to put the game away, while the girls went back up to their rooms to relax. We figured it would give us another chance at our missed opportunity from earlier in the day. He helped me put the pieces away as our hands kept clumsily bumping into each other, and we giggled at each other like little kids.

When we finally got the box back in order we walked it over to the game closet that was nestled between the stairs and the kitchen. I reached up to put the box away, which caused my shirt to lift a tiny bit, then I felt hands on my waist as I released the box. He spun me around maintaining contact with my skin the whole time, and lowered himself down to my face and gave me another sultry kiss that left me wanting more. We kept kissing each other with our arms locked around each other.

He slipped his fingers up my back and tangled them in my hair, and a small moan slipped past my lips. He gave a small growl in return and kissed me on my neck, taking small nibbles of skin, as if he had intended to eat me. My brand new manicured nails began digging into his back as a new sensation pulsated throughout my body. It started between my legs, getting warmer and warmer, then settled on my cheeks. I could feel the heat rising. Is this what it felt like to be turned on?

I never really had much attraction to anyone at school, so this feeling was new. Noah and I had never reached this level of intimacy, it was more like a middle school crush for me. Never went past sloppy kisses, bear hugs, and wearing his hoodies. This level of excitement was exhilarating and scary, much like riding the motorcycle with him. This time I made sure not to holler as he made his way to my collarbone, and snuck his hands under my shirt. I could feel the tantalizing sensation of his rough hands making their way up to my bra.

He slipped one finger under - testing the waters to see if it was okay. When he was satisfied with my agreement, he slipped two - then three fingers under. When he had finally reached both hands covering my  breasts, we heard an ‘oop’ from around the corner. It was Claire. She slowly backed up the stairs not realizing she had been caught. Or that we had realized that she caught us.

Deacon dropped his hands and stood straight up. The moment once again had passed, and now he had to put his hands down in front of him to cover the proof that we had done anything. We met her at the stairs where she could now see us, as I finished fixing my shirt. “Claire, I hope you didn’t see anything happen, because we totally weren’t just… doing anything,” we said, as guilty as we felt. She stopped and turned around, cocking an eyebrow at us, clearly knowing better.

“Now, I know I was born at night, but not last night,” she chuckled out, crossing her arms. She pointed at Deacon and asked, “Wanna know how I know y’all were doing something?” she paused, “Deacon, would you mind raising your hands?” He lowered his head in defeat and removed his hands, unveiling the mound that had risen underneath his jeans. She smirked at me and turned around again, heading to her room.

Deacon and I glanced at each other and decided to just walk up to my room.