“Well, I can see that,” she said, somewhat bemused by his reaction. Leaning back against the prow of the little boat, she observed him rowing in a sullen silence. Dahlia didn’t know what had happened to cause his mood to turn, but it was certainly not what she wanted out of this afternoon. Since she didn’t know what caused it, she couldn’t really tell how to fix it. Her instinct was to change the subject and just distract him from whatever was bothering him, but she squelched it and just let him brood for a few minutes. Of course, she was ready for him, whenever he decided to look at her again. She blinked slowly at him, letting her eyelashes brush her cheeks, and her lips were tilted up into the slightest smile.

However, she couldn’t let him sulk for too long. After a couple moments, she reached forward and took hold of his wrist, sliding her fingers up his forearm. It was interesting to feel his muscles tensing and relaxing under her hand as he pulled and pushed the oars through the water. “You weren’t really supposed to guess, you know,” she told him. Her tone would have been reproachful, except she was smiling. Even his sulk couldn’t ruin her good mood. “You denied me the pleasure of telling you. I don’t know how you can say ‘of course,’ anyway,” she continued. “I’m sure it was a very close decision. Are you proud of me?” She was pretty proud of herself, but she wanted him to be proud of her, too. She did not expect his reaction to be so glum. Oh, forget it. She was going to ask about it.

“Brice,” she said, stilling his hands so that she could slide forward into the bottom of the boat and cross her arms over his knees. Looking up at him, she asked, “Darling, what’s the matter? What’s making you unhappy?” She picked up his hand and held it in hers, pressing her cheek against it. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted to tell you my news, so you could tell me that I deserve it and that it’s okay for me to be proud of myself.” It was extremely selfish of her, but that was really why she brought it up; she wasn’t supposed to be so conceited, but she had worked hard for six years, and she hadn’t thought that Brice would mind. “I’m sorry, darling.”

She looked up at him through her eyelashes and tilted her head so that her hair fell back off her shoulder. “Do you forgive me?” Her dress had a scoop neck, which, if her hair wasn’t in the way, displayed a nice amount of collarbone. She had considered wearing her bathing suit under her dress, but the River Forth wasn’t the best place to swim. Also, she would have had to bring sunscreen, too, and Brice would have had to apply it, and now that they were sort of dating, that would probably be too much of a temptation for both of them. She didn’t want to lose her virginity in some random field somewhere, and with the lotion, and his hands all over her body… she wasn’t sure she would say ‘no’.

Dahlia realized that she was staring rather intently at his hand sandwiched between her smaller fingers, and she wasn’t sure how long she had been allowing her mind to wander and thinking about… er, impure sorts of things. Too long. She blinked a little, dropped his hand, and pressed herself upward to touch her lips to his. “Let’s find a nice little place on shore to stop,” she suggested, her words a murmur against his mouth. “We’re far enough now that no one will see us.” ‘No one’ being any of their parents or her siblings, since there was always the chance that some local resident might stumble upon them. “We can find a nice shade tree, and you can lay with your head in my lap and tell me all about the books you’re reading. Hmmm?” She didn’t want him to have to wear out his arms and row all afternoon, and sitting opposite him in a tiny boat was nice for a while, but she couldn’t interact with him much for fear of upsetting the craft and pitching them both into the river. She had decided against the bathing suit, so that was not something she was planning to do this afternoon. Dahlia pulled back a bit so that she could see his face, smiling at him encouragingly. “Unless you have a better idea…?”