My one and only Love

Chapter 8

Maya walked out of the school, her eyes going right to her phone as a message from Josh popped up. A small smile crept on her lips just from seeing his name on her phone. Fate was a cruel thing to bring him to her when she was so far away, but at least she had something with him. ‘Where you going?’ he asked. She typed back that she was heading home but as his next message came through her eyes went wide. ‘Look up.’ Her head shot up and her eyes darted around. He was leaning against the side of a silver Toyota, his eyes on her.

Josh caught her as she rushed him, tears in her eyes as her arms flew around his neck and she clung to him. He leaned down, holding her close to him and just breathing her in. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed her until she was in his arms. Her face buried in his neck as she let out a relieved and joyous cry. She didn’t think as she pulled back and pressed her lips to his. The entire world felt like it was spinning when Maya kissed him and he just held onto her to keep himself grounded.

Students gossiped to one another as they walked past the city girl making out openly with some strange guy in front of the school. Maya didn’t care what any of them said, all that mattered was that Josh was there. He had arranged his schedule to get four days with her; nothing pressing in a few classes and a friend who would record the lessons for him, not wanting to mention it to her in case he couldn’t work it out. He had been looking into Cortland and in turn the state park that it bordered. Mosquito Creek Lake didn’t have an appealing name, but it did have a campground so close to Cortland’s town center that Maya could walk to it in under 20 minutes from school.

Josh had driven directly to the school, not even stopping to set up the camp site, he’d been too excited to see Maya to wait any longer. There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation as she rode with him to the campsite instead of going home. Together they got the tent put up though their frequent stops anytime one got too close to the other to resist made it take much longer than it probably should have.

It took Maya back to the time she spent with him in the dorm room when she’d taken off to New York. After that first kiss, something had clicked between them and whenever they had any time alone, they were attached to one another. Suddenly the three years age difference didn’t seem to matter anymore to either of them. Maya not being stuck to Riley at the hip or attending school but instead there with him on her own had let Josh see her in a different way, no longer a kid with a silly crush, now an interesting young woman he couldn’t get enough of.