Текст книги "Near and Far"

Автор книги: Nicole Williams

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

I WAS IN one of my favorite spots in the world—pressed tight against Jesse—as Old Bessie rumbled down a country road and Johnny Cash flowed in the background. What was to my left and in front of me was as good as it got. What was to my right and behind me . . . not even close. So much for an afternoon alone.

Garth stuck his head through the open rear window, and he had no qualms about hollering six inches away from my ear. “Think you can get this beater past twenty? I’m going to grow a full beard before we get to the swimming hole at this pace!”

“Your mother should have drowned you at birth,” I said, thumping Garth’s hat over his eyes.

“She tried. Didn’t work.”

“Obviously and unfortunately.”

“So much anger toward me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a crush on me or something.” Garth did that eyebrow wiggle that had driven me up a wall so many times I’d seriously considered shaving off his eyebrows while he slept.

“Okay. Enough. I have to put up with you for the rest of the day, but I’m not going to put up with you irritating Rowen.” Jesse shoved Garth’s face through the window before sliding it closed. For the fifth or sixth time. No matter how many times we slammed the thing closed on him, the crazy SOB wouldn’t take a hint.

“Josie, you really must be one of my best friends.” I threw a warning look at Garth when he went for the window again. So help me . . . One more time and I would crawl into the bed of the truck and toss him over the side. Right after I pushed Miss Montana out. I doubted she had blinked while eyeing Jesse through the window. After the stunts she’d pulled that morning at breakfast, she was seriously on my shit list.

“Duh.” Josie rolled her eyes. “But what’s making you bring it up?”

“Because if you weren’t, I would hate you right now for inviting yourself and the two tagalongs in the back.”

“Garth, A.K.A. The Ass of Hole, invited himself. And Jo I couldn’t really un-invite.” Josie stuck out her lower lip and even made it wobble. “And I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have invited myself like that, but you’re one of my best friends too, you know? It’s not fair that Jesse hogs you the whole time you’re here.”

“I feel like I should apologize for that, but it wouldn’t exactly be a heartfelt one,” Jesse said, slinging his arm around my neck before whipping down another country road. It was so overrun I could barely make out which part was road and which part wasn’t.

I knew Josie was mostly teasing but not completely. My visits to Willow Springs had been few and short, and I only had a handful of hours to spend with Jesse before I had to get back on that bus to Seattle. But Josie was right; it wasn’t fair. Even though I knew fair wasn’t a guarantee in life, I tried to even the score whenever I could.

Winding my arm around Josie’s neck like Jesse’s was around mine, I gave her a squeeze. “Two things. Actually three. I’m sorry I haven’t made time for one of my best friends this year. I suppose I’m glad you’re going to the swimming hole with us even though I was planning on making up for lost time with my boyfriend.” I nudged her as she giggled. “But I do not and cannot understand why you couldn’t un-invite Jolene. It’s not like she’s your best friend or family.” I was cool with Josie tagging along. Garth . . . well, I’d accepted it. But Jolene the Jesse Worshipper? I don’t think so.

“Actually, we’re both.”

“You’re both what?”

“Best friends and family,” Josie answered with a shrug.

“You’re shittin’ me, right?” I glanced between Josie and Jolene.

“Shittin’ you not. We’re cousins.”

Well, shit.

“We’re only best friends because when you share every summer together with another girl, sharing the kinds of things girls share, well . . . you kind of become best friends by default.”

“Did you know this?” I looked at Jesse, still baffled.

He lifted a shoulder. “Yeah. I mean, Jolene’s stayed with Josie’s family every summer, except last year when she was with the Peace Corps. You’re the same age, too, right?”

“Save for three months,” Josie said.

“My, aren’t you the Jolene expert,” I grumbled. I wasn’t really upset with him but with the situation. The girl I was sure I didn’t want within a ten-foot pole of my boyfriend was pretty much tied to him by circumstance. “And Jolene comes here every summer because . . . she likes the scenery?” That last part wasn’t exactly a question. It was obvious how much she enjoyed the “scenery”.

“She grew up in Missoula but likes spending her summers in the country. She usually just spends the summer messing around with me, but when she found out Mrs. Walker needed a hand this season, she practically jumped at the opportunity.”

I slumped a little farther into my seat. “I bet she did.”

The window whooshed open again. “Hey. My dick is about to fall off from underuse back here. Think we could speed it up and arrive sometime this year?”

“Good-bye, Garth and Garth’s dick. Rest in peace.” I didn’t bother to make sure his face was out of the way before sliding the glass closed. “Josie, you’re telling me every morning, Jolene gets up and drives close to twenty miles to slave away in a kitchen because she couldn’t think of a better way to spend her summer?” Not. Buying. It.

“She isn’t staying at my place, Moody.” Josie looked between me and Jesse like we were clueless.

“Then where the hell’s she staying? In a tent?” Maybe that was the Peace Corps way. To cut down on carbon emissions or something like that.

“She’s staying at the Walkers. Where did you think she’d be staying? You ought to know. You were the one working there last year.”

“But I stayed there because my home was two states away, Josie. They had to go out of their way to make a room for me . . .” And then something I really didn’t want to click into place did. I twisted in my seat all the way so I could look at Jesse full on who was humming along to Johnny Cash, trying to stay out of the conversation. “Oh, hell no. Tell me—please tell me—she is not sleeping in your room.”

“It’s not really my room anymore,” Jesse replied, looking like he was putting his answer together carefully. “I haven’t slept in it since last spring before you came. The only person that’s been sleeping in it is—”

“Me!” I didn’t mean to snap, but I still did. “Where am I supposed to sleep now? Or am I being kicked out? Maybe I can set up a cot in the barn or something. Next to the horses.”

Both Josie and Jesse looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Even in my impassioned state, I knew I was close to it. The room was just . . . special. It felt like mine, like ours, and knowing that someone else was living in it made me feel a bunch of things I didn’t like: anger, jealousy, sadness, and even a little bit hopeless. The last one scared me the most.

“What? Rowen, no, of course not. Calm down.” Jesse’s hand dropped to my leg. “You’re taking my room and I’m sleeping in the bunkhouse with the rest of the guys. I should have told you that last night, but we didn’t exactly make it to bed . . .”

Josie looked out the window and shifted.

I huffed, “Trust me, we were doing nothing last night to make you shift in your seat. And we won’t be doing anything tonight thanks to a certain bet that still stands.”

“What bet?” Josie piped in.

“Bet or no bet, we couldn’t do anything this afternoon either thanks to the company of best friends, pity friends”—I grabbed the window right before Garth got it open—“and arch nemeses. Lucky us.”

“What bet?” Josie repeated.

“Forget about it. To your knowledge, and I wish to my knowledge, there is no bet.” I really, really wished I didn’t know about that asinine bet. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around how you and Montana Barbie are cousins and, in one fell swoop, she displaced me. Of my bedroom,” I added when Jesse let out a long sigh.

“Listen, I know she’s a bit of an acquired taste, but give Jolene a chance, Rowen. You and I didn’t exactly get off on the right foot and look where we are now.” Draping her arm around me, Josie gave me a nasty noogie.

“Yeah, yeah. What would I do without friends like you?” I patted my hair back into place once she was done disheveling it. “And what are you talking about right and wrong foots with us? We got along swimmingly from the very start.”

“Whatever, Rowen. You might not have come right out and said what you were thinking, but the look in your eyes did. You hated me hardcore because you thought Jesse and I were still together. Face it—you were a bitch.”

My eyes widened. “What? I was not. I was completely civil.”

Josie snorted. “Yeah, civil by Henry Tudor’s standards.”

“Henry Tudor? Really, Josie? If you’re going to enter an argument with me, you better bring your A game.”

Jesse was smiling. I could feel it rolling off of him.

“Rowen. You’re a bitch. Not all the time and not with everyone, but we all know you do bitch well when you have to.”

I wanted to pull her braided pigtails until that smirk came off of her face. “Jesse . . .”

“No, no. Don’t you bring him into this.” Josie waved her finger in my face. “This is between you and me.”

I stayed silent for a minute, not because I was trying to build my argument against her, but because I knew she was partly right. Okay, mostly right. I was a bitch to her at first. I’d covered it up with a smile—a whole lot of no good that did me—and I knew Josie hadn’t been the first to form the B opinion about me. I’d developed that part of me as a defense mechanism. I’d let people into my life for temporary periods, but I’d never let them get to know the real Rowen. Not until last summer. Then I’d dropped the walls I’d hidden behind for so long. Even though every day was a struggle to keep them lowered, I knew I’d never regret fighting that battle. I’d shed so many of my dark layers that I might as well shake loose another one.

So yes, Rowen Sterling had been a bona fide bitch. Rowen Sterling didn’t need to stay one. At least not to the nth degree. I’d still reserve a little bit to keep things interesting.

“Fine. I was a bitch. What can I ever do to earn your forgiveness?” My overdone apology was interrupted when Josie threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

“You just earned it,” she said with a sniffle.

I patted her back and did my best not to squirm. Random acts of physical affection still threw me. There was only one exception to that: Jesse. No matter how many times he sneaked up behind me to throw me over his shoulder or leaned in unexpectedly to kiss the corner of my mouth, I didn’t squirm under his touch. Josie’s, along with everyone else’s, I was still getting used to.

“Just let your bitch relax and get to know Jolene. She’s really not that bad, I promise,” Josie said. I made an uncertain face, earning a pinch from her. “Behave.”

“So, Jesse . . .” I started. He braced himself. “What do you think of Jolene?”

He was nearing a wince when he answered, “I have a feeling no matter what answer I give you, I’m going to be in trouble.”

“You’re probably right. So why don’t you just go with the honest one?” I arched my eyebrows and waited.

He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “She’s okay, seems nice enough. She hasn’t spilt coffee on my lap yet, so that’s a point in her corner, but she did detain me from picking you up last night, so that’s, like, negative a hundred in the other.”

I knew that wouldn’t be romantic to plenty of women, but to me? It was the ultimate aphrodisiac. “Pull over.”

“Why?” he asked, already doing it.

“Just do it.”

Before Jesse came to a complete stop, I had my seat belt off and was crawling over his lap. His eyes went wide right before my mouth covered his, then they closed and his lips moved against mine in eager, long pulls. When I felt three pairs of eyes on us, and when Jesse’s and my bodies were starting to run away from us, I pulled back and slid back into my seat.

“What was that for?” he asked, breathless.

I snapped my belt back into place. “For being so goddamned, amazingly you.”

Jesse shook his head a few times, and a loud thud sounded above us. Like something pounding the top of the cab. Or someone.

“That’s it. I’m walking. I’ll see you all when you finally get there,” Garth shouted, driving his fists into Old Bessie one last time before hopping out of the bed and marching down the road. All three of us inside the cab laughed.

“Hey, Garth?” I hollered, hanging my head out Jesse’s open window. “Am I a bitch?”

“Ha!” he shouted as he kept on trucking down the road, blazing his own path.

“Was that a Ha of outrageous disagreement or noncommittal, partial agreement?”

Jesse had pulled Old Bessie back onto the road and had caught up to Garth.

Garth scowled at us, quickening his pace. “That was a Ha! of utter, total, and unwavering agreement.”

My glare had barely formed when Jesse punched the gas so hard Old Bessie actually fish-tailed on the gravel road.

“What was that for, Speedy Gonzalez?” I asked.

Jesse grinned widely as he checked the rearview mirror. “For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.”

“Yeah, Jesse, I know you’re the valedictorian of Willow Springs High, but what does that physics gem have to do with peeling out on some backwoods road?”

“That was my reaction to Garth’s action.” His eyes flickered to the rearview again. Something really interesting seemed to be keeping his attention.

“So Garth’s action was implying I was a bitch . . .” I twisted to find a serious cloud of dust obscuring the whole road. It was so thick, I couldn’t make out Garth anywhere in it.

“And my reaction was giving him a dirt and gravel shower.”

“Would you quit being so perfect already? It’s really getting old.” Giving Jesse my own devilish grin, we both started laughing. I was going to have to keep that action/reaction reminder in mind when dealing with Garth. Or any other a-hole, for that matter.

“You’re not just going to leave him, are you?” Josie piped up.

“We really just are,” Jesse replied.

“What? You can’t do that. It’s still another couple miles to the swimming hole.”

I gave Josie a look. Since when did she care about Garth’s well-being? In fact, I’d been sure up until then that her name would have been the first on the petition to banish Garth Black from the face of the earth.

“Exactly. So by the time he makes it, maybe he’ll remember some of his manners.” Jesse urged Old Bessie along. Since we’d dropped the baggage, we were cruising.

“Manners? Garth Black?” Josie said the words, but they were the exact ones on my mind.

Jesse’s face scrunched up as he considered that. “Yeah, you’re right. But if nothing else, at least it will piss him the hell off and give us a little bit of Garth-Black-free time.”

Josie sighed. “You are an animal, Jesse Walker.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I waved my hands in front of me. “Did you just say Jesse’s an animal? And if my ears doth not deceive me, then what—in a world where the Jesse Walkers are animals—are the Garth Blacks?”

“Your words, expressions, and hand gestures doth annoy me, so I shalt not give you a response.”

“You and I might be the two most opposite chicks alive, but at least we’ve got Shakespeare in common.”

Finally, a smile cracked Josie’s face. “There is that.”

A couple minutes later, Jesse pulled off to the side of the overgrown road into a parking space that was doubly as overgrown. I couldn’t see the swimming hole, even though it was less than fifty yards in front of us because a ring of giant willow trees lined the entire shore. There was one tight spot a person could squeeze through, and an ancient dock that was just barely floating extended into the water there. The mass of giant trees seemed like it was protecting whatever was inside from the outside world. When Jesse had taken me there the first time last summer, I’d straight out refused when he told me that we’d have to walk through because it looked a little creepy from an outsiders’ perspective. Then he stripped down for his “swim,” and my feet magically followed him.

Once I’d made it past the willow tree perimeter and was looking at it from the inside out, back-floating in the middle of the water, well . . . it was magical. It had become a favorite of Jesse’s and mine. That was the first time we’d been able to swim since I left for school, but we’d made plenty of visits just to curl up in a blanket on the dock.

“Let’s hurry up and enjoy some Garth-free time.” Jesse shoved his door open and grabbed my hand to help me out.

“I enjoy all of my Garth-free time.”

Josie moved to the tailgate to open it for Jolene. “How you doing back here, Gimpy?”

“Stuck, I think. Garth had to help me in. Someone else is going to have to help me out since he’s probably still coughing up dust.” Jolene’s eyes landed on my certain someone.

“Well, don’t look at me. I’m not going to sprain my ankle helping your gimp ankle out.” Josie crossed her arms and took a couple steps back. Some best friend-slash-cousin.

“Jesse?” Jolene said slowly, expectantly. “Mind being your usual gentlemanly self and sweeping a girl off her feet?”

I didn’t even try to keep from rolling my eyes. Whenever that chick opened her mouth, an eye roll came standard.

“Sure. No problem.” Jesse shot me a nervous glance before moving toward the tailgate. I wasn’t irritated with Jesse. His willingness to help anyone at any time was one of the things I loved most about him. I was irritated with those who took advantage of his selfless qualities.

Jolene really ate up the whole thing, winding her arm around his neck, snuggling in nice and tight against his chest, making those damn Bambi eyes at him like he was the be-all-end-all in all maledom . . . which Jesse was. But that was for me to know and no one else to find out.

Jesse did his good deed of the day, kept his hands and arms to all of Jolene’s super safe areas—yes, I was watching—and was just about to lower her to the ground when she clung a little tighter. Subtlety was a nuance lost on that one.

“That’s a long trek down some treacherous terrain. Mind carrying me the rest of the way?” she asked, practically batting her lashes. “I’d hate to sprain the other ankle or see those muscles of yours go to waste.”

If I wasn’t seeing a special shade of pissed, I might have gagged a little.

“Um . . . are you sure you can’t make it? It’s really not that bad . . .” Jesse didn’t need to look at me to feel me seething. I’m sure he could feel it rolling off me in radioactive waves.

“Oh. I’m sure.”

Oh, I knew she was.

“Okay, well . . .” Jesse turned slowly, partially wincing like he was bracing himself. “Will you be okay if I walk Jolene down real quick and come back for you and Josie?” I knew he was really asking Are you going to be pissed beyond the point of appeasing if I do this?

The answer to that was yes. And no. Jolene might have made the list after that morning’s shenanigans, but she’d just landed the number one spot on my shit list. Jesse . . . he’d never been anywhere close to it. I doubted he could do anything to wind up on that list. Just because a scheming little trollop was using his goodness against him didn’t mean I was going to hold him responsible.

“Yeah. We’ll be great.” I shot him a thumbs-up.

Jesse’s whole body relaxed. “Be right back.” He managed to press a quick kiss into my lips as he walked by. Jolene’s Barbie-doll hair came dangerously close to my hands. So close that I had to fight the urge to yank a chunk of it.

I only watched Jesse and Jolene walk away for a second because I realized it was a real-life vision for a secret fear: Jesse walking away with a girl as seemingly perfect as him and leaving me behind to wonder if my time with him had been nothing but a dream. It was baseless and unfair and gave away just how insecure I could still be, but it was there.

“Put your kitty claws away, Feisty.” Josie nudged me as I yanked my beach bag from the truck.

“You still can look me in the eye and tell me your sweet and innocent cousin is not head over heels in panting lust-love with my boyfriend? I mean, come on, Dolly Parton wrote a goddamned song about some girl named Jolene sauntering in and taking some lesser woman’s man. I don’t want to be the girl whose man leaves her for some flaming locks of auburn-haired girl.” How a forty-year-old country song could seem so prophetic I don’t know, but damn if it didn’t seem to be telling my life story at that juncture. That I knew who Dolly Parton was and what songs she sang gave away just how much time I’d spent at Willow Springs and just how much they loved their iconic country singers.

Josie yanked off her tank top and adjusted her bikini, bouncing her boobs into position. “You’re so melodramatic, Rowen. Anyone ever tell you that?”

In fact, someone had. On my first day at Willow Springs, a certain cowboy might have accused me of such.

“No. Never,” I lied. “Anyone ever tell you you’ve got your damn head in the clouds?”

“I’ve been accused of that plenty of times, for sure.” Josie laughed as she shrugged out of her cutoffs. Stripping down by the truck was easier. Less to pack down to the swimming hole. “Okay, I’ll give you Jolene is flirting with Jesse. But that’s who she is. She’s the girl who flirts with every single guy she comes in contact with. She’s been doing it for so long she doesn’t even know she’s doing it anymore.”

I tugged off my slip dress and tossed it into the cab. “That isn’t flirting. That isn’t even an innocent crush.” I waved my hands toward the spot Jesse and Jolene had disappeared into the trees. “That’s a bad case of I-want-to-build-a-shrine-to-you-and-have-a-dozen-of-your-babies.”

“Please, Rowen, give me a little credit here. One, I’d know if my cousin was wanting to have wild-monkey sex with your boyfriend because the girl can’t keep a secret to save her life, and two, there’s a code between relatives out here.”

“A code?” I adjusted my own swimsuit top, although I didn’t have as much filling mine as Josie did. My black bandeau top didn’t do anything to enhance what I had either.

“Yeah, a code. You don’t date each other’s exes.”

I wasn’t familiar with that code, but Montana people did things a bit differently. “What’s the time period on that? Weeks? Months?”

Josie got in my face and clapped her hands over my shoulders. “Ever.”

“Like never ever?”

“Is there another kind I’m unaware of?”

I let that settle in for a moment. I wasn’t sure if I bought it, but Josie clearly did, and she was no fool. I might have had a few more points I wanted to clarify, but a cowboy hustling his way back up the hill came within earshot.

“How was that for record time?” He stopped in his tracks at the front of Old Bessie when it registered I was in nothing but my swimsuit. A slow smile fell into place. A smile that made me feel things I shouldn’t be feeling with that stupid bet hanging above us.

“How’s Jolene?” I asked.

Jesse shrugged. “Good. I’m not really sure why she was so excited to come. She doesn’t want to even get in the water. Something about not wanting to get her hair wet.”

If Jesse truly was stumped as to why Jolene was so eager to come, men really were a clueless species.

“I don’t know about you two, but I don’t want to sit up here and melt any longer. I’m diving in.” Josie plunked her red sunglasses on and started down the trail toward the swimming hole.

It was hot. So hot, I felt sweat beading on the back of my neck. “Hey, wait up. We’re coming!”

Jesse peeled off his shirt and was stepping out of his boots when I passed him. Not missing an opportunity, I slapped his backside. “Come on, Cowboy. Time for a swim.”

“Right behind you. Just have to get my shorts on.”

Jesse was working his belt free when I caught up to Josie. She arched an eyebrow, her gaze fixated on him. “You need any help over there, Jesse, let us know. My guess is that you’ve got three willing and eager female volunteers.”

“Get going, man-ogler.” I shoved Josie’s shoulder then gave her another one when she glanced over her shoulder one more time. “I think that flirt gene runs in the family.”

“You think right,” Josie replied, wiggling her butt and shaking her arms to an imaginary beat the rest of the way down the trail.

I didn’t know if I attracted the crazy ones or they were attracted to me, but I had plenty of friends who fit into the escaped-from-the-psych-unit category.

“So you really think Garth will be all right?” Josie asked as we wove through the willow trees.

“I think Garth Black would be all right even if he was injected with Ebola virus. The mean ones just keep on keepin’ on. Kind of like the Energizer bunny.”

“Spoken like someone who knows.” Josie let a curtain of willow branches fall in my face.

“Hold up. Are you calling me mean now too? I guess informing me I was a bitch just wasn’t enough for one afternoon—now you have to drop the mean card on me?” I shoved the branches aside and glared at her back.

“Stop glaring daggers at my back. Meanie,” she tacked on.

“For future reference, honesty is overrated. Way overrated in your case.”

Josie laughed and paused long enough to let me catch up. She planted a surprise kiss on my cheek. “Good thing you love me.”

I wiped my cheek and tried to snatch my elbow away when she wove her arm through it. I should have known better than to put up a fight. “Good thing,” I sighed, letting her pull me along the rest of the way.

After being whipped, smacked, and assaulted by an army of willow branches, we broke free of the tree wall. The swimming hole was so flat it didn’t even look like water. The willow leaves were just starting to bud and the water looked dark, almost black, without the usual rainbow of green. Absence of color or not, it was still beautiful. Then a figure waved from the dock, and the beautiful moment was pretty much ruined.

“’Bout time you showed up. What took you so long?” Jolene called.

“We were having a threesome. Sorry,” I piped up, making Josie choke on her gum. “Jesse’s an animal. Just ask Josie.”

Jolene laughed nervously. She hadn’t been immersed in my dry sense of humor like Josie had. “Where’s Jesse?”

“With Garth now.” That time, Jolene did choke. “Kidding. No sexual acts, favors, or advances were made. After you left.” I just couldn’t help myself on the last part.

Josie hissed at me as she jogged down to the dock. “Did you forget your swimsuit, Jo? After all that deliberating and trying on five hundred this morning?”

“No. I’ve got it on,” Jo said, setting down the magazine she was flipping through.

“What is the girl who hates tan-lines waiting for then?” Josie plopped down next to her cousin and scooted onto a corner of her beach towel.

Jolene caught sight of something over my shoulder. I didn’t need to check who it was. The smile about to tear her face apart gave it away.

“I wasn’t waiting for anything. I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.” Jolene hobbled to a pathetic stand and did her wiggle, shimmy strip tease. The one where the chick with the perfect body takes her time sliding off her clothes, adjusting her swimsuit just so, making sure every last eye on the beach is on her. The one that makes every guy’s throat dry and makes him roll onto his stomach to keep his “approval” from showing. Yep, that was the one Jolene was unearthing with my boyfriend getting closer.

I should have shoved the bitch into the lake when I had the chance. Before Jesse was there to witness it. Despite knowing Jesse would be in his swim shorts—and the less clothing that covered Jesse Walker, the better—I didn’t want to turn around. I didn’t want to see him staring at another girl as she stripped a few yards in front of him. I didn’t want to see him wipe drool from the corner of his mouth. No man alive could keep his eyes diverted when a girl like Jolene was stripping down to her spandex underpants, so I wouldn’t blame him. It was just that . . . well, it would break a little piece of my heart. Stupid and cliché, I know, but I already felt that painful ache in my chest.

When I found the courage to turn around, my eyes locked on his . . . and his eyes locked on mine too. Grinning, he jogged until he was right in front of me. His eyes didn’t leave mine the entire journey. I wanted to cry with relief. I wanted to cry with the love I had for the guy standing in front of me, a love that, inconceivably, grew each day.

“Go for a swim with me,” Jesse said, grabbing me and hoisting me up until my legs tangled around his waist.

“Now? No sun tanning to warm us up before we jump into that glacial water?”

“Nope. I need to go in now.”

I grabbed Jesse’s upper arms and held on as he started toward the end of the dock. When we passed Jolene, he acted like he didn’t even know she was there. Her on the other hand? She definitely knew he was there. She was running those eyes all over there again.

“Why? What’s the rush, Walker?” Not that I cared, but we both knew the water would feel like tiny needles pricking our skin until it went numb.

“I need to cool down.”

My eyebrows pinched together in confusion. His hips rocked gently into me, and I understood. “Super. Now I’m in need of cooling down.”

“Good timing, then.”

“Good timing for what?”

Jesse’s arms tightened around me before he leapt into the air. “For this!”

That water wasn’t just glacial; it was something else. My skin was unable to decide if it was closer to burning or freezing, but I couldn’t have cared less if my skin was actually on fire. When Jesse held me that close, nothing else seemed important. When our heads burst to the surface, we sucked in gulp of air. Jesse let me have a second breath before his mouth covered mine. I didn’t even realize we were in water anymore, let alone that it was freezing cold. I loosened my legs around him just enough to drop a few inches. From the feel of it, the water wasn’t cooling him down much.

“Hey! I didn’t sign up to watch the two of you suck face all afternoon. Detach and behave yourselves,” Josie shouted from the dock.

“Then don’t watch!” I broke away from Jesse long enough to yell back. “We didn’t sign up to have a third wheel times three this afternoon!”

Josie waved dismissively. “Whatevs. Get over yourselves and your all-consuming love for each other thingy. We get it already.” Josie stood, stretched, and tested the water with her toes. “Let’s do something fun.” Jesse and I lifted her eyebrows. “Fun for all of us. Not just the horn-dogs in the bunch.”