Strawberry Wine by Kristy Phillips

nineteen, and she would be leaving at the end of the summer. It was the height of stupidity to get involved with her. Maybe he should leave her alone. Maybe her absence the past two days meant she had made that decision for him. He let out a slow, deep breath and dropped his wire cutters on top of the roll of fencing. He needed a break. He needed to cool off.
    * * * * *
    Alli marveled at her skin in the mirror. The tea had worked wonders. She still had a faint rash, but the itching had greatly subsided.
    She glanced out the window. Today promised to be another hot one. Maybe she would invite Jason down to the creek. She was impatient to see him, having been house bound for the past two days at the insistence of her gran. She had originally been worried that he would show up at her door when her grandparents were at home, but he hadn’t materialized.
    After the second full day went by with no Jason, Alli had started to dwell on the reasons behind his failure to investigate her absence from his barn. Had he lost interest? Had he discovered her real age? Had he come to his senses and realized what a complete geek she was? All very likely scenarios.
    “Well,” She said to her reflection. “Only one way to find out.”
    Alli slowed her steps as she approached the barn in an effort to appear composed, when what she really wanted to do was go sprinting in. Every second spent not drinking in the beautiful sight of Jason was a second wasted, in her opinion.
    As she rounded the door into the barn, she realized her efforts had been unnecessary. The barn was empty.
    Her heart sank.
    He must be down clearing more brush , she thought.
    Jason’s work ethic was really getting in the way of Alli’s fantasy love life.
    Or he knows about your little truth problem, and is smartly avoiding you in order to stay out of perv jail. Alli sighed. She hated her conscience when it was in opposition to her desires.
    She decided to head to the creek solo.
    The path to the creek was a well packed deer trail of soft, silty dirt. It widened as it came closer to the creek, eventually spreading out on either side to form a small clearing. This clearing was referred to as “the beach”. There was a bend in the creek here, which resulted in a good sized pool, complete with a tattered rope swing hanging dutifully from a strong tree branch. It was next to this tree that Alli found Jason’s clothes.
    Alli smiled mischievously. Where was Jason? As if in answer to her thought, she heard a splashing from upstream. Quickly grabbing his clothes, she hid them in some bushes behind the rope swing tree. Then she settled herself in the spot his clothes had been, and waited.
    He didn’t keep her waiting long. Within a minute her breath caught in her throat as she watched him wade back into the pool from upstream. The two days without seeing him had had her questioning whether he could possibly be as physically amazing as she remembered. Seeing him now confirmed that her memory hadn’t embellished his appeal. If anything, her memory was a little lacking, because he was in fact even more beautiful than she had remembered.
    The water came up to his waist, leaving his glorious torso on display for her viewing pleasure. He was chiseled, but lean, like a living version of Michelangelo’s David. The sun glinted off his golden skin where it filtered through the branches overhead.
    The water was deepening as he reached the pool, and he leaned into the water and started swimming a graceful stroke to Alli’s side of the creek. He was about to pull himself up the bank when he saw Alli. He took note of his missing clothes, and her wicked grin. Walking back into the pool where the water was a little deeper, he flipped his hair out of his eyes and made a courtly bow towards Alli.
    “It would seem you have me at a disadvantage, m’lady.”
    Alli smiled impishly. “Why, whatever do you mean, sir?”
    “It’s no use playing innocent with me. It’s obvious the shirt