I smile. “Good.” Real good.
“So, I heard there was some funny business going down in the living room this morning.”
“You’re not very subtle,” I tease.
“I wasn’t trying to be.” She splashes me with water and gives me a wide, toothy grin. “So? Give me a quick rundown.”
“We watched a movie last night after everyone went to their rooms, fell asleep, and he woke up grinding me with his morning wood. It was amazing. Satisfied?”
Molly lets out a loud laugh and splashes me again. “Holy crap, I didn’t think you’d actually tell me.”
“I think it’s easy with him because he’s like me. You know, we’re both… awkward. It’s not intimidating.”
Molly bounces up and down in the water next to me, still holding the tube. “Plus, he’s easy on the eyes.”
“Plus, he’s easy on the eyes,” I agree, throwing my head back and letting it rest on the tube. Staring at the ceiling for a few silent minutes, I let out another long, content sigh and dramatically cover my eyes with my forearm as I float peacefully in the concrete lagoon. “The gap in his teeth is divine. It’s one my favorite things about him. Swoon!”
“It is?” a deep voice asks beside me, the low rumble laced with amazement.
My eyes fly open and my body jolts, the motion so abrupt that along with the small waves from the lazy river, the gesture tips the tube and dumps me ass-over-teakettle into the water.
I go under and come up sputtering, tipping my head back into the water to get the hair out of my eyes before rising to a stand.
Why, why, why is this happening to me!
The water is waist deep, and we’re in it alone.
My head whips around, frantically searching for Molly, whose bikini-clad figure is quickly retreating out of the wading area. With a jaunty little wave, the brat leaves me stranded to fend for myself.
“Caleb!” Water drips from my nose, and I wipe it away, mortified. “Where did you come from?”
He points to the opening of a water ride not thirty feet away in the opposite direction, that’s shooting large quantities of rushing water and guests out of its tunnel to the same area we’re standing in now.
He’s gloriously shirtless, water dripping from his seriously powerful chest, wearing that backwards ball cap and biting his bottom lip to stop himself from smiling with his teeth.
He couldn’t be any hotter right now.
I lied before when I said he wasn’t intimidating. A big fat lie, because seeing him standing there soaking wet… Guh!
“I think that was the last ride. Everyone is going to start getting ready to head back,” he says, stepping a little closer. “Unless you want to go down one more time?”
“I’m good.” Good, but dying inside from my earlier proclamation about his teeth. Dying. “We can go.”
He reaches out and grabs my tube, which had begun drifting away. I can’t help it; I watch his powerful biceps flex as he retrieves it, my blue eyes assessing him appraisingly when his ripped muscles coil inside his powerful arms.
Don’t even get me started on the rest of his body. Or the dimpled indentations in his back, above the waistband of his swim trunks.
I swallow and wipe the water out of my eyes, giving him a weak smile when he starts back toward me, clutching his tube and now mine.
Cecelia: Molly just LEFT you in the lazy river with him? That tricky little matchmaker!!! This is the SECOND time she’s tried to fix her friends up. Although, I must say, her success rate is 1:1
Abby: I did everything in my power not to hyperventilate or nervously giggle from the sight of Caleb in nothing but his swim trunks. Swim trunks and a baseball hat. OMG!
Cecelia: I’ll have to take your word for it. Totally adorable that you went down a water slide together. Lucky duck, going to the water park.
Abby: Quack, quack…
CHAPTER 16
CALEB
“I have an idea,” Miles announces after the last of the dinner dishes are put away and everyone is gathered in the kitchen of Bear Claw. “Let’s play a drinking game.”
Some people groan, others cheer, because let’s face it, none of us are above juvenile fun, even at twenty-one years old.
“Which drinking game?” Cubby wants to know. “I brought my beer pong paddles.”
Blaze rolls his eyes. “This isn’t a frat party, Cubs. Let’s keep it classy but make it more interesting.”
“Like strip poker?”
Shelby laughs. “Not that interesting…”
“And since when is strip poker classy?” Molly snorts.
“What about Spin-the-Shots?” Angelica says from a chair in the corner, her dark eyes scanning the room. Rising, she walks to the center island, hips sashaying, and grabs a nearby beer bottle, setting it in the center of the kitchen counter. “You take both liquor and non-alcoholic beverages and put them in shot glasses. Then, you arrange them in a circle, and in the middle of that circle you put your spin bottle.”