Chapter 445: The Water Was Warmer Here
The sandwiches disappeared faster than the fruit had.
That was probably because Chenghai had packed enough meat into mine to make the bread bend in the middle. I ate the whole thing anyway, then stayed across his lap while he folded the empty paper and pushed it back into the bag.
The boat had drifted close enough to the trees that branches hung over one side. Their shade covered most of us, but the sun still hit my legs and the front of the life jacket.
I tugged at the bottom edge again.
The thing had become hot, bulky, and increasingly annoying. Every time I tried to lean against Chenghai, the padding shoved itself between us like it had been invited.
He reached for the buckles.
I caught his hand. "The lake is still deep."
"You’re in the boat."
"The boat looks like it was built before electricity."
"It has a motor."
"That doesn’t mean the rest of it isn’t ancient."
Chenghai left the buckles alone, although his fingers stayed beneath the edge of the jacket. His thumb rubbed over my stomach while I looked across the water.
The turtle hadn’t returned.
Neither had the aggressive fish.
The lake had gone still again, with only the small ripples around the boat moving through the shade. It looked clean from up here. Dark, but clean.
That didn’t mean I trusted it.
Chenghai shifted me off his lap and stood.
The boat rocked beneath him.
I grabbed the side. "What are you doing?"
He pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it onto the bench.
That wasn’t an answer, but it was a good distraction.
Chenghai removed his shoes next, then stepped over the side of the boat without warning.
The water swallowed him.
I stared at the place where he disappeared.
He came back up a second later, pushed wet hair away from his face, and rested one arm along the side of the boat.
Apparently, the lake had failed to eat him.
"Is it cold?" I asked.
"Not like the creek."
That was a low standard.
Chenghai moved away from the boat and disappeared beneath the surface again. I followed the dark shape of his body until he came up several feet away. Water ran over his shoulders and chest while he turned onto his back.
The man floated without doing anything.
That seemed unfair.
I shifted closer to the edge. "Are there fish near you?"
"Yes."
I immediately moved back.
Chenghai rolled upright and looked at me. "They’re small."
"That turtle was small too, and it still snuck up on us."
"It surfaced."
"Without permission."
His mouth moved, but he managed not to laugh loudly enough for me to hear it.
Chenghai swam back toward the boat. He held onto the side and reached his other hand toward me.
I looked at it.
Then I looked at the water around him.
The life jacket suddenly felt less annoying.
"I’m fine here."
He didn’t try to pull me in. His hand stayed open between us while the boat drifted slowly beneath the trees.
"The water is warm," he said. "You can keep the jacket on."
That helped a little.
I moved to the edge and placed my feet on the narrow step near the bottom of the boat. Water covered my sandals immediately.
Something brushed my ankle.
I nearly climbed onto Chenghai’s head.
He caught both of my legs before I could kick him in the face. "A plant."
"There shouldn’t be plants in water."
His hand moved beneath the surface and pulled up a long piece of green weed.
I stared at it.
"That was touching me?"
"Yes."
"Kill it."
Chenghai threw it away instead.
The weed floated nearby, waiting for another chance.
I tightened my grip on the boat.
Chenghai stepped closer until his body blocked most of the water beneath me. He placed my hands on his shoulders, then slid both arms around my waist.
"You don’t have to let go," he said.
That sounded reasonable.
I let him lift me from the step.
The water rose around my legs, then my waist. The first touch was cool, but it didn’t punch the air from my lungs like the creek had. Sunlight had warmed the surface enough that I stopped fighting it after a few seconds.
Chenghai kept me against his chest.
The life jacket tried to push me upward while his arms held me down. I ended up floating awkwardly between the two until he adjusted his grip beneath my thighs.
My legs wrapped around his waist.
That worked much better.
I looked over his shoulder toward the boat. It had already drifted a few feet away.
"It’s leaving."
Chenghai caught the rope trailing from the front and looped it around his wrist. "It isn’t."
"You planned that?"
"Yes."
Of course he had.
He moved away from the trees with the boat following behind us. His feet barely touched the bottom before the ground dropped and the water became too deep for either of us to stand.
I tightened my arms around his neck.
Chenghai stayed above the surface without any visible effort, holding both of us while the life jacket did its best to drag me away from him.
"You can loosen your legs," he murmured.
"Not happening," I replied.
"There’s a life jacket."
"I trust you more."
His arms tightened around me.
That answer seemed to make him happy enough that he stopped trying to convince me.
Chenghai turned onto his back with me still against him. My body stretched over his chest while his arms stayed around my waist. The life jacket held my shoulders above the water, and his body held everything else.
We floated together.
The sky filled my view. White clouds moved slowly overhead, bright enough to make me close one eye. The trees around the lake became a green line at the edges, far enough away that I couldn’t see the broken road or the dock.
Chenghai began moving one arm through the water.
He pulled us across the lake without making me do anything.
That might have been the best part.
I rested my cheek against his chest and listened to his heartbeat beneath the water moving around us. Every few seconds, his hand returned to my waist and rubbed slowly over the skin beneath the jacket.
The fish stayed where I couldn’t see them.
They were much easier to tolerate that way.
After a while, Chenghai rolled us upright again. My legs found his waist before I thought about it, and his hands settled beneath me.
Water ran down his face.
I wiped it away from his eyes.
He turned his head and kissed my palm, then moved his mouth to my wrist. The slow kisses travelled up my arm until he reached the life jacket.
"That thing is in the way," I said.
Chenghai looked at the buckles.
"We’re still in the lake."
His hand stopped.
He had learned.
I leaned closer and kissed him instead.
His mouth was cool from the water, but the hand spreading over the back of my thigh was warm. He held me steady while the boat tugged lightly at the rope around his wrist.
The kiss remained slow. There was nowhere to brace myself, no porch beneath us, and no tree against his back. I had to trust Chenghai to keep both of us above the water.
He did.
When I pulled away, he moved his mouth along my cheek and kissed the skin beneath my ear. His arms never loosened.
I looked past him and noticed a small strip of land farther along the shore. Trees covered most of it, but pale sand showed between the water and a wall of tall grass.
"That wasn’t on the map."
Chenghai followed my gaze.
He started swimming toward it with me still wrapped around him and the boat trailing behind us.