Sophia’s Kiss

I have her laugh memorized and know exactly where she is without having to look around the sandbank. Sophia has come to stay at the ranch every summer since her parent’s divorce, and each year she gets more beautiful. This year I’m a man starving, and she is the only meal I want, but she is only sixteen and I’m six years older than her. I admire her from afar, keeping my distance as not to tempt myself. My heart and body don’t seem to want to realize, this year, she is still a child in the eyes of our families and the law. I hear her laugh again and search the group of people sitting in the water across the creek from me. Our eyes meet instantly, and I can’t seem to look away.