Home Sweet Hilltop

Chapter 7

Enid's Point of View:

"Let's race, like we used to by Alexandria," Carl stopped us half way back to the clearing to make his proposition.  I turned toward him with a smirk, knowing I was always faster than him anyway.

"Alright cowboy," I flicked his hat, knocking it to sit crooked on his head, "you're on!" I took off, leaving him to fix his hat before he could even start racing.  

"Oooh I'm gonna get you for that Enid!"  I turned to see him smiling as he ran after me.  I giggled, picking up speed just a little bit.  I heard his laughter getting closer as we neared the clearing.  I tried to speed up but tripped and stumbled a bit on a fallen branch, not helping my case much.  Just as I got my speed back I felt an arm wrap around my waist, lurching me to a stop.  I gasped as Carl spun me around to face him, both arms wrapped around the small of my back now.  I began catching my breath, seeing that we were just a few feet from the clearing.  

"Ya know for someone who teases me about my hat so much, you sure do like to play with it," he smiled down at me, trying to catch his breath as well, "maybe I should just let you wear it," and with a cocky smirk he reached up to take his hat off.

"No!" I giggled, ducking out from his arms and trying to run away. 

"Nope! It's gonna happen!" he teased, grabbing my hand and reaching out to flop the hat on my head.  As I ducked again, causing him to miss, he wrapped his arms back around my torso, and as I struggled to free myself through a fit of giggles, I stepped backwards and tripped on a twig, causing us both to fall into a mess of grass, leaves, and belly laughs.  Carl landed on top of me, and seeing his advantageous position, he smirked and finally wrestled the hat onto my head, despite my attempts to push his arms away.  

I let out a sigh, pushing the hat up on my forehead so I could at least see.  "Not fair, I'm gonna get hat head!" I sat myself up on my elbows and giggled as I looked up at him, still sitting on top of me.  

"Yes fair," he leaned closer to me, smiling contentedly, "besides you make a pretty cute cowgirl." I blushed just as he leaned in a bit more and closed the gap between our lips.  I stretched my neck up to kiss him back, not wanting this one to end as quickly as the others had.  I felt his hand slide up so his fingers intertwined into the hair at the top of my neck and his thumb rested on my cheek .  I leaned back down on the grass, pulling him with me, putting one hand on his hip and the other on the back of his shoulder.  It was awkward.  Neither of us knew what we were doing, but it was good.  It felt right.  

I felt his lips curl into a small smile, realizing his other hand had lifted up the hem of my shirt just a bit and was holding onto my waist.  He had stopped kissing my lips and started moving down my chin, then my neck.  He stopped when I gasped as he got to the crook of my neck.  I felt his breath tickling me as he lingered there for a moment before sucking on the area a bit more, realizing I wasn't stopping him.  As my breathing got shorter, I felt myself accidentally dig my nails into his back and scratch him.  He pulled away, a worried expression worn on his face.

"Sorry! Did I hurt you?"

I smiled,  trying to catch my breath, "No, no, that felt really good," I felt a blush warm my face, a little embarrassed by our newness to all of this.  "Are you okay though? I didn't mean to scratch you."  I sat up on my elbows again, looking him in the eye a bit more now.  

He rolled off of me with a smile, taking my hand to help me sit up all the way, "No, no, yeah that was... wow."  

I let out a soft snort, smirking before leaning in to give him one last peck, "We should really get back now, I still need to get dinner started."

He pulled himself up before offering a hand to help me up, then leaning down to pick up the hat which I hadn't realized had fallen off.  "Let me help you with that tonight, I should probably learn how to cook some real food." 

"I'd like that," I grinned, taking his hand to walk back to the gates together, not wanting to let go.