Chapter 23: Chapter 22 - Nat

Monday 7 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

Murph and Bells fell into step beside Cody and me as the four of us wandered over to the huge archery set-up.

There were already a few people lined up. All had bows and arrows in hand, trying to fire their arrows at their nearest target. One or two were doing a fantastic job, hitting the target, but missing the bullseye. The rest were joking around and laughing as their arrows went wide or over the target, missing entirely.

Spence was standing off to the side monitoring everyone, giving everyone the go-ahead to release their arrows, and stopping everyone now and then to allow people to pick up their arrows from the field without the worry of being hit.

We all picked up our own kits and headed to a couple of open targets. Cody and I stopped at one, Murphy and Bells at the one beside us.

“You want to go?” Cody asked me.

I shook my head. “I’m happy to see how you do it first.”

She nodded and stepped up to the line. She put on the protective glove, nocked her first arrow into her bow, and waited for the draw signal.

I watched with interest to see the process. I noticed Murph had taken a similar stance at the line, too. Bells was standing back watching Murph and Cody, absent-mindedly putting his own glove on.

“Draw,” Spence announced loudly. I watched as people up and down the line all drew their bow strings back and held, waiting for the next announcement.

About ten seconds later, it finally came. “Release,” Spence called. A flurry of arrows went flying towards their targets.

I watched Cody’s with great interest to see where it would land. To my delight, it hit the target, just outside of the bullseye mark. She turned around and grinned at me.

“Wow Cody,” I applauded her. “Let me guess. You’ve done this before?”

“Once or twice,” she said. “It’s been a while, though.”

Murph laughed at her. “She was the school champion at archery for three years running,” he told me. “Only gave it up last year so she could concentrate on her schoolwork for her final year. Judging by that, though, you still practiced on the weekends, didn’t you?”

Cody had the grace to blush. “Guilty as charged. It was a good stress reliever.”

“You should give me some pointers,” Murph grumbled. His arrow had flown over the top of his target.

Cody grinned at him. “Sure. Let’s give Nat and Bells their go, and then swap partners, yeah?” She turned to me. “You don’t mind, do you Nat?” Her amiable smile turned wicked.

“Of course not,” I coughed. There I go, blushing again, damn it. I looked down at my feet as Spence called for the next group to approach the line.

I tried to remember what Cody had done. It looked easy enough. I put my glove on, as I glanced to my right to watch Bells do the same. I nocked the arrow to the bow, waiting for Spence to announce the next step.

“Draw.”

Drawing the string back, I tried to keep the arrow aligned with the bow. I took a couple of deep breaths to steady my nerves and aimed the arrow at the target. I had no idea what I was doing, but it seemed the thing to do.

“Release.”

I let the string go. The arrow zoomed ahead, swung to the left and flew happily past the target entirely. Sneaking a peak at where Bells’ arrow ended up, I could see that it had hit the target, but on the outer edge. I turned around to Cody and shrugged my shoulders.

“Not bad for a first attempt,” she said, smiling warmly at me. “At least you made the distance. Most don’t.” She turned to Bells and Murph. “Bells did well. He’ll show you how to get closer to the target.”

“Collect,” Spence shouted, interrupting the chatter. We all walked towards the targets to collect our arrows.

Bells nodded. “Cody’s right. You did brilliantly for your first attempt. Better than Murph.”

“Hey now. We agreed not to talk about that.” Murph frowned at him.

Bells burst out laughing. “You agreed not to talk about it. I swore no such deal.”

Murph’s eyes widened. “Aw, come on, man. It’s embarrassing.”

“That’s what makes it so memorable, Murph.”

“That’s what makes me want to forget it. I wish everyone else would, too.”

“Not a chance, my dude. It’s locked in here forever.” Bells tapped the side of his forehead twice. “I’m determined to bring this up at your wedding. And then to your children when they’re old enough to understand what I’m talking about. And maybe even your children’s children.”

Murph groaned as he collected his arrow from the ground behind the target. “Don’t forget Bells. I have my own memories of you.” He waved the arrow in Bells’ general direction.

“I’m well aware, Murph. That’s why I’m already thinking up countermeasures.” Bells pulled his own arrow from the target.

As I collected my arrow off the ground to the side of the target, I thought about what Murph’s seemingly disastrous first bow and arrow attempt could have been like, but considering that he’d been so nice to me today, I thought it might be better to hold off on asking Bells about it until another day. Unless, of course, Bells offered it up to me himself. There was no way I was going to refuse to hear it if he presented the story to me.

“Everyone’s got an embarrassing first experience,” Cody said, trying to relieve Murph’s embarrassment, pulling her own arrow from the target. “Dad tried to teach me, but he swore he’d never come out with me again after I nearly put an arrow through his foot.”

I gaped at her. “You nearly shot your Dad with an arrow?”

“Well, he shouldn’t have made the mistake of walking in front of me,” she countered, shrugging. “It was his own stupid fault. He should have known better than that, especially with a newbie.”

As soon as we got back to the line, Murph and I swapped places. I watched Murph take some pointers from Cody, who was correcting his stance. I was happy to notice that Murph had absolutely no problem following instructions from Cody. Even though Murph was incredibly easy going, I had noticed that he took most things seriously, especially when he wanted to learn something new.

“You ready to try again?” Bells asked me. I turned my attention to him.

“Sure.” I nocked my arrow.

Bells walked behind me. He moved until he was about a step away from me before he put his hands lightly on my hips.

I couldn’t help but stiffen.

“Your stance is just slightly off,” Bells murmured as he shifted my hips perpendicular to the target. He stepped closer to me, so his body was inches behind mine.

He brought one foot in between mine and shuffled my right leg out, bringing his torso even closer to my back. “Your feet need to be hip-width apart,” he whispered in my left ear. “And you need to relax more.”

I coughed. “Hard to do that when you’re this close to me, Bells,” I mumbled, as my hands trembled. This was not going to end well. I guess at least there was no-one in front of me I could shoot in the foot.

He chuckled. “You’re doing great.” He brought his right hand to the base of my back. “You need to straighten your back here, but keep yourself relaxed. You’re too stiff.”

“Again, kind of hard to do that…” I trailed off. I could feel my cheeks flushing again. This was too much. Maybe I should get Cody to give me pointers. She didn’t look like she was getting this close to Murph when she was helping him.

I could feel his breath tickle my ear. “Honestly, you’re doing really well, Nat,” Bells assured me quietly. “I can feel you leaning away from me. You need to straighten your back.”

“Bells…” I tried to relax, but I was worried that if I relaxed too much, I’d lean into him. And where would that lead us?

“Would it be easier if I held you still for a second?” His left hand worked its way from my waist to the top of my stomach, centred just below my breasts. He pressed against my body, pulling me towards him until he flattened me against his torso, his right hand still pressed at my lower back. “There you go,” he whispered into my ear.

Holy shit. I closed my eyes as his body warmed mine. I could feel a bulge pushing into my backside, telling me exactly how ‘relaxed’ he was.

“Nat?” he whispered.

“Mm…?”

“You need to remember to breathe.”

I swallowed. Yeah, breathing would be good. I took a couple of deep breaths in, letting them out slowly.

“That’s better,” he murmured, his lips grazing the edge of my ear. “You also need to drop your shoulders.” He drifted his right hand up my back slowly, before resting it on my right shoulder that was up around my ear. He gently pressed it down, forcing me to relax my stance. His left hand remained on my torso but pushed me towards him more. His chin rested on my left shoulder, making sure it stayed where it needed to be.

“Okay, lift the bow, aim it at the target, and wait for Spence to call for you to draw.”

I lifted the bow, but didn’t draw the string back, waiting for Spence.

“You need to keep breathing, Nat.”

Right. I took another deep breath in and let it out slowly. Bells’ body was so close to mine it was driving me crazy. I honestly didn’t know how much longer I could hold this position and remain conscious.

“Draw,” Spence called out.

“Okay, draw the string back,” Bells whispered, lifting his chin from my shoulder. As I drew back the string, I could feel Bells move his head to check my stance. His right hand lifted from my shoulder and lightly touched my right elbow, nudging it into the right position. “Good. Now hold and wait for Spence to release.” He brought his right hand back to my shoulder, encouraging me to drop it again.

“Breathe, Nat.”

I took another breath in.

“Release.”

I let the arrow loose at the same time as I let my breath out. Amazingly, the arrow soared through the air and made it to the target, hitting it solidly, even though it missed the bullseye entirely.

I let out a shocked laugh.

“Perfect,” Bells breathed into my ear. “Just like you.” He pressed his lips to the edge of my ear before releasing me and taking a step back.

Grinning like a loon, I dropped the bow on the ground, turned around and launched myself at him, hugging him.

“Thank you so much, Bells! I never thought I’d get anywhere close to hitting the target today.”

He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back. After freeing me from his tight grasp, he kissed me on the cheek. He kept his hands on my hips and gazed into my eyes. “You’re very welcome.” His pupils had fully dilated, and a tension fell between us, stronger than earlier when he had last looked at me like that.

“Breathe, Nat,” he smiled at me, as he slowly drew his face closer to mine, drifting his eyes down to my lips, which had opened to draw a huge gulp of air in.

“What the actual fuck do you think you’re doing?”