Say You Swear

Satisfied, my shoulders ease, and I move to pull the freezer open, pushing shit around to fit the first few items inside. When Noah steps around me with more, I move away, and the moment my eyes lift, they lock onto Chase’s.

He frowns, looks to all the containers on the counter, and back. He pushes to his feet, as if to come closer, and my muscles clench. He doesn’t miss it, and the creases along his forehead double. He stays where he stands.

My brother leans against the back of the couch, his arms folded over his chest, legs crossed. His face is blank as he takes everything in. The food, Noah, me… Chase.

Mason’s brown eyes lift to mine, his head tilting the smallest bit.

I don’t look away.

“No study group today?” he asks.

“No.”

“Do some cookin’?”

“Yep.”

“You cookin’ for me, Ari Baby?” Brady walks up, reaching toward the bags, but I dash forward, blocking him with a brow raised.

“Not happening, big guy.”

Brady makes me laugh when he pokes his bottom lip out.

“Don’t feel bad, half of these I won’t even be sharing with Cam this time.”

“Hey!” she whines, leaning over the countertop to look at all my goodies. “But those soup bowl things were so good!”

“I know, and if you liked that, you’d devour what he made for me today. Way too good to share.” I turn to her with a smile.

“Wait.” She turns to Noah. “You guys made those?” She pushes containers around, trying to figure out what’s inside, her smile wide. “I’ve been meaning to ask where they were coming from, but we’ve been missing each other at home the last couple weeks, and when we are here together, we’re too busy eating ‘em for me to care. I thought you signed up for one of those meal things all those Instagram models try to sell.”

Noah and I look to each other with a laugh.

“You don’t know how to cook,” Chase interrupts, his tone flat.

My throat grows thick, but before I have a chance to respond, Noah does, and with a tone far more friendly.”

“She can cook fine.” Noah’s words fan along my hair.

He’s slipped closer.

We both know that’s not exactly true, that I’m better as the test dummy, but that’s not the point right now, and I could kiss Noah for having my back without pause.

“Yeah?” Chase keeps pushing. “Since when?”

Undeserved guilt washes over me, but it quickly shifts to annoyance.

Who the hell does he think he is? He isn’t being conversational or friendly. He’s being an ass and he knows it.

I look him in the eye. “Since now. He’s teaching me.”

Chase’s lips press into a firm line, and after a moment, gives nothing but a curt nod, heading out the door, Brady and Cam right behind him.

“Be downstairs in five you guys!” she shouts, and then they’re gone.

Mason wears a blank face as he looks from Noah to me, and then to the door Chase just walked out of and back. “What’s his problem?”

I sigh, grab money out of my purse, and shove it in my back pocket. “I don’t know, Mase. Maybe you should ask him.”

“I’m asking you.”

“And I said I don’t know, all right?” I lift my shoulders.

He glares a second longer, then lifts his hand and clasps Noah’s shoulder. “Ready to get your ass soaked on some bumper boats, Riley?”

Noah glances at me, and when I nod, he turns to Mason. “Lead the way, Johnson.”

Off we fucking go.

Laughing, Cam and I turn our boats, strategically making our way past the rock waterfall without getting sucked under it.

On the other side, we split.

“Okay, tuck into that corner and I’ll take this side.” She backs up so she’s hidden from the opening. “And now we wait.”

We wait a good three minutes and are just about to give up and go back out to the main water hole, when it grows eerily quiet.

Suspicion flourishes between us, and I mouth, ‘what do we do?’

Her eyes narrow instantly, and she shakes her head knowingly, because she understands exactly what I’m likely to do.

This kind of thing makes me nervous and giddy and I can’t stand it. It’s that feeling you get when you’re walking through a haunted house, knowing full well you’re about to get scared, so you start laughing or screeching, your stomach twisting.

I can’t handle it; I turn my boat back on, and she rolls her eyes with a smile.

We come together, ready to creep around the side, but the second we do, we’re met by a strong front of four smiling men, their water cannons pointed right at us.

We scream and squeal and they crack up as they do their worst.

The excitement and freezing water have adrenaline taking over, and I gun it over to the water’s edge, hop from the boat, and dart up the side of the waterfall.