Leave The Light On, I'll Never Give Up On You, Tag: Brice

If that tour guide was thinking about making another pass at Brice she’d hopefully get the message from how they were standing now that he was not on the market. Leaning back into his chest, Devin took in the view of the trees stretching out towards the beach. Every once and awhile she could see the white foam of a wave breaking. Things looked small and simple from up here… she wished that she could apply that perspective to her life.

She was glad that Brice was holding her. He was warm from the exercise of climbing up the stairs and she knew that at some point the breeze would make her feel chilly. Devin had always had trouble keeping warm, it seemed like she ran ten degrees cooler than most people on her best days.

“This is definitely a nine and a half,” she stated, rating their second date right now. There was a way for it to become a ten but she didn’t want to push her luck. They may have been in a group but to here everyone else had just faded into background noise. They might as well be alone for all she cared.

Slipping one of her hands out from under his, Devin pulled out her camera from her pocket, still standing in the circle of his arms. “How about a picture, handsome?” she asked. Devin was a hoarder of memories and photographs. This new picture would mark their fresh start and the beginning of creating new moments… hopefully together. “You’ll have to take it though.” Tilting her head to look at him, she gave him her own version of his puppy look.

"A sweaty nine and a half." He commented, pulling the front of his shirt back and forth to catch the breeze a little more. He was glad he hadn't forgotten to put on deodorant that morning.

He took the camera awkwardly, not sure of what she wanted him to do with it. He didn't want to drop it over the edge so he wrapped the cord around his wrist and held the device securely in his hand. He looked at the controls, figuring out how to work it without her having to tell him. He'd never had to read manuals when he opened things. He just figured them out on his own.

"Alright, smile big." He said, holding it out and hunching forward to get both their faces in there. He wasn't a photographer by any means so he had no clue how to position the camera to get a good picture. After it clicked, it pulled it up to look at it, frowning when he saw he'd cut off Devin's chin. "Let's try it again." He said, switching it back to camera mode and holding it out once more. After about 5 pictures, he finally got a good one that had all of their heads in it. It looked like one of those snapshots you'd see in a cheesy photo frame, come to think of it.

"I don't want to trek back down those steps. Think you could carry me on your back for it?" He asked her as the tour guide gave them a 10 minute warning. He ignored any look of disappointment she gave his way after seeing him and Devin in an intimate sort of embrace. "Then I'll carry you to the truck and rub your feet. Sounds like a fair trade, if you ask me."

He suddenly had the urge to pull a penny from his pocket and throw it over the side, just to see if it would hurt someone. But on the off chance that it would, he let the idea go. Didn't need to go to prison right now.

It wasn’t like cameras had changed much in the last fifty years. The button was still on the same side it had always been on and to take a picture he just had to push it like any other camera. Devin didn’t delete any of the horrible ones where he was out of frame or only her forehead was in it. They kind of made her laugh.

“I’ll just tap into my reserve super human strength.” Shaking her head she jabbed her elbow into his stomach a bit at that. It wasn’t like she wanted to go back down either. The quiet of the wind whisking away all the other sound was nice. Being with him was even better. Turning around in the circle of his arms, Devin slipped the camera back in her pocket before looping her arms over his neck. Her fingers lightly brushed at the hairs at the nape.

“How about we just stay up here? We can do that right?” They still had the rest of their picnic to eat, but she kind of wanted this part of their date to last a little longer. Ten minutes just didn’t seem like enough. “And if we do go down, you can still carry me to the truck, but a neck rub would be much better.”

Back down on the ground there would probably be more talk about child support, and figuring out schedules, and of course Brice relocating. Up here it just felt like she could be in the moment and leave those behind for just a few more minutes. “And maybe if you do a good job you can have the dessert I made.”

He knew they couldn't stay up here. Even loads of money couldn't rent out the lighthouse but he didn't want to 'break her heart.' Rather than telling her so, he took the moment to sweep in and press a light kiss to her lips. Nothing too deep or passionate, just sweet. A first date, type of kiss. "Felt like one of those moments." He explained to her rather sheepishly.

The tour guide cleared her throat and Brice colored to realized everyone was looking at them and clearly waiting on them. "When I said 10 minutes, I meant 10 minutes.' The tour guide said rather snottily. Brice didn't think her attitude was that called for and he frowned. But rather than hold up the group any longer, he threaded his fingers through Devin's and pulled her back into the doorway. This time he went first and let her trail behind him so in case she fell forward, she'd fall on him and him not on her. Luckily there were a few people behind them so the tour guide wasn't directly on their butts. Brice was growing uncomfortable with the looks she kept giving in their direction. He wondered if maybe he'd had a one night stand with her in college or something to incite that much rage.

"Keep up Devin, I want that dessert." He joked, looking back at her as she stayed on his heels. At least on the way down, no one would be looking up her shorts. Devin could check out his ass if she wanted, that Brice would not argue with.

He didn't know what the rest of their date would be like. Up on top of the lighthouse, it was like a different world where they were just dating and being carefree. Back on the ground, responsibility would come back into play. He knew he'd made her uncomfortable earlier and he didn't want to go back there, but the topic of conversation was important to him. But he'd save it for another day.

Ten. It was definitely a ten now. If there was room for her foot to pop like in the old classic movies, Devin would have done it. Instead she just enjoyed the feel of his lips against hers. The kiss was almost a repeat of the first time he had kissed her at the boardwalk on their real first date. At least this one didn’t start with his head hitting hers because she wasn’t expecting it. “I like those moments,” she smiled at him.

Leave it to the tour guide whose eyes couldn’t stay away from Brice’s ass to ruin it though. The other visitors didn’t seem like they minded. In fact there were two middle aged women who probably owned many cats that seemed to just be swooning at the display. Taking his hand though, Devin would rather keep just the McDonald’s on the list of places they had been kicked out from. She chose to just ignore the glare that the tour guide shot her way as she passed her.

It would be a bald face lie if she said that she didn’t look at Brice’s backside every once and awhile. No doubt those same middle aged ladies that were behind her were doing the same. At one point one of them whispered to her. “That one’s a keeper, young lady.” Smiling Devin gave a nod. “I know.”

As if she wasn’t right on his ass, she rolled her eyes at his joke and followed him out the main door. The ending speech from the tour guide seemed to take forever. She definitely didn’t want to give miss high and mighty any more time to ruin their date. Devin was the first one back to the truck and in her hands she had pulled out the cake-like brownies, balancing the container in her lap. “I don’t know if you should get any. I seem to remember something about carrying me back to the truck which obviously didn’t happen.”

"Hey it's not my fault that you took off like a speed demon. It's okay, the tour guide was a bitch. You can say it. Clearly she's jealous and wanted a piece of this. Who wouldn't? Maybe she's a fan of my work." He teased as he hopped back up on the truck bed. Soon the sun would be beating down their necks like a fire breathing dragon and they'd have to retreat into the air conditioning of his truck. But right now, there was a slight breeze and it was decent. Plus he was just really, really thirsty from the trek back down the lighthouse. But at least coming down was easier than going up.

He turned around and reached into the cooler, digging out a bottle of water. The ice in the cooler had started to melt so the water was extra cold with the paper label all wet from the moisture. He twisted off the cap and tilted his head back, guzzling it down. His adams apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed, a few droplets of water running down his chin and down his neck, him reaching up with his other hand to wipe them away with the back of it. He drank the bottle until the plastic collapsed from the pressure of his swallowing.

Throwing the empty bottle back in the cooler, he turned back to Devin. "Is that brownies I spy? You know I love brownies. Well, really I love anything that is chocolate and full of sugar. Today, my favorite happens to be brownies though." He said, giving her a cheeky grin and eyeing the knife she'd use to slice them.

“She wanted a piece of something,” Devin mumbled under her breath as she cut the brownies into hand held portions. She wasn’t going to admit that she wanted to scratch the girl’s eyes out, or thought about placing her hand in Brice’s back pocket. There was no reason for her to even be that way at all. It wasn’t like Brice had a title like boyfriend or anything like that.

Setting down the brownies, Devin realized her hair was a tangle of messy waves from the wind having tossed it around. Slipping a hair tie off of her wrist, she pulled it up quickly. Though she tended to like to keep her hair down, this at least would mean she could keep cool for a few more minutes. Turning to see him chug down the bottle of water, Devin tried to keep her eyes from following the trail one of the droplets made. Instead she teased him bumping her elbow against his arm. “People would think you had just been stranded in the Sahara from the way you’re drinking.”

Slipping the knife back in the basket, Devin moved the brownies so they were just out of his reach on her other side. Picking one up she took a bite, some of the chocolate frosting on the top getting on her fingers. “Well these are really good. I think probably my best.” An impish smile settled on her face as she looked at the brownies. Picking another one up, she turned towards Brice. “I guess keeping your favorite from you would be mean.” Without hesitating Devin smooshed the brownie over his mouth and in his face. “Looks good on you too,” she laughed.

It greatly surprised Brice when she smashed the brownie into his face. Out of all the things he might have expected, that wasn't one of them. "It's delicious. If we weren't in a public place, I'd make you eat it off my face." He said, his tongue darting out to catch bits before they fell to the ground. He lifted his hand to wipe away smeared chocolate from places his tongue couldn't reach, sure he still had some left after his attempt at using his hand as a napkin.

But not letting her get away unscathed, he reached out for the end of her shirt, wiping his hand on it. He would have just put his whole face into it but again, they were in a public place and he didn't want to lift her shirt up for everyone to see.

"Did I get it all?" He asked her in a serious voice. The last thing he wanted was someone asking him why he had shit on his face. It reminded him of a bad joke where a mailman asked a guy why he had peanut butter on his forehead. Except it wasn't peanut butter.

"And just so you know, you'll be paying for that later. Matt may have gotten his trickery and pranks from his father." He said, giving her a devious grin as if he were plotting some kind of world domination.

Licking her fingers clean, Devin was actually quite proud of herself. It was one of those things that before she met Brice, she never would have done. There were a lot of things that ended up being fun that she wouldn’t have ever tried before. She wished that she hadn’t have dropped her camera back into her bag because this was surely a Kodak moment. Of course it probably was now at the bottom of the bag underneath everything.

“Brice… don’t even…” but it was too late. Her shirt had just become a paper towel for his hands. First her white one and now her yellow one. He already had wrecked one of her blouses. Brice was a one man clothes wrecking machine. “Jerk,” she laughed through an open mouth not believing he had just done that.

“Just no lizards,” she reminded him. She’d be ready for any prank he could throw at her as long as she didn’t wake up to something like an iguana in her bed. He knew how phobic she was of the creatures and if he ever wanted her talking to him again, he’d stay away from that area.

Looking over his face she was trying to see if everything was off. There was still a bit on his cheek and caught in the corner of his mouth. Scooting closer, Devin used her thumb to wipe away the chocolate on his cheek. But being this close to him, well it made her mind shut off for a second and the next thing she realized was that she was kissing him. Not just a simple peck like up on the top of the light house or a hello how are you kiss. This was one of the soul searing kind that felt as if it didn’t last long enough.

“Now it’s all gone,” she stated pulling back before she did anything else stupid.

To be honest, Brice was expecting her to do that mom thing where she licked a napkin and dabbed at his face. Which would be kind of disgusting when all she had to do was dip the cloth into the cooler. But rather than lick the napkin, well she just licked him. Next thing he knew, Devin had her tongue down his throat and he seriously thought they were on their way to indecent exposure and a night in jail.

It seemed that lately, whenever they allowed themselves to kiss like this, it blazed like a wild forest fire and they ended up doing things they weren't ready for. And as much as he enjoyed the feel of her mouth on his (oh he was kissing her back, no doubt), he knew that they needed to stop or this foundation they were building would be void. The point was to get to know each other and make their relationship stronger.

"I'll be sure to wear my food more often." He said, clearing his throat and shifting on the truck bed so he could adjust his jeans. He felt eyes glaring into the back of his head and he turned to see the bitch tour guide looking in their direction before she tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked off towards the visitor center. What the hell was her problem?

He didn't comment on the kiss or say that they'd gone too far cause he figured it was moot. Sometimes they'd do something that they just couldn't control and kissing was one of them. Just as long as it didn't go beyond that, he figured they were safe.

"So...what else do you want to do today? Fly to Europe?" He should probably bring up that he needed to drive back to New York really soon.