I quickly rinsed in the shower, finding an excuse not to roam the cabin just yet. Then I threw my hair up in a messy ponytail, slipped on a light crop top and shorts and bravely walked out.
But what I walked out to was…laughter.
Lots of laughter.
I went down the stairs, catching Leo in the kitchen talking to Hunter. Hunter, who was standing over the stove top, cooking bacon, the waft of it making my stomach pang with hunger.
“I’m telling you, I beat that level—”
“How’d you get past the sixth wave?” Hunter cut in, shaking his head. “Impossible, bro.”
Leo laughed. “I found a perfect team.”
“Yeah, now I know you’re talking shit.”
“No, it’s true! I slayed that room while getting acquainted with a crazy Russian named Serb who was, not a word a lie, smashing back a bottle of vodka—”
Hunter interrupted him with a laugh. “They are the best at that game—”
As they talked, I stopped by the entrance of the kitchen, watching them with a light smile on my face, feeling a huge wave of relief wash over me.
And when they noticed me, Leo smacked my bottom, leading me to the table and Hunter promised a plate full of bacon for the “birthday girl.”
“Not my birthday anymore,” I teased.
“It’s your birthday everyday if it were up to me,” Leo remarked, a light kiss on the side of my head, making my chest warm.
“And this is your birthday getaway,” Hunter added. “Every day we’re up here, you’re the birthday girl.”
I grinned like an idiot.
They continued their chat as I ate, and I slowly came down from my panic.
I reasoned with myself that I had been ridiculous, paranoid, overly worried when I should have remembered that this was Leo and Hunter, and nothing was wrong, andwe did nothing wrong.
Straightaway, Leo poured us more alcohol, rationalized that it was nearly noon, that we were going to spend the day in the land of “fog and fun.”
“My head is pounding,” I said, but Hunter solved that by throwing a painkiller my way, fully supporting Leo’s plan of drunken fun.
And so I took a painkiller or three, and I nursed my hangover with more alcohol while we ate bacon and then stumbled back to the lake.
“You guys are doing this because you love drunk Skye,” I declared, sunglasses hanging down my nose as I peered at them. “You want me brash—”
“You’re a lot more fun,” Leo agreed.
I flipped him off and he choked on a laugh. “You have never flipped the bird. Hunter, she stuck her middle finger at me!”
Hunter threw his shirt off and collapsed in the same chair as yesterday, sinking his feet in the water. “Liar. I want to see it for myself.”
I flipped him off next, and they roared with laughter. I grinned and, before wading into the water, I threw my shirt off, and then my shorts, and then I was just in my bra and thin underwear and nothing else because there was no damn way I was going to get my shorts and top soaked when I had nothing clean left to wear.
And drunk Skye didn’t care.
Leo’s eyes were fixed on me while Hunter looked down at the smoke twirling between his fingers. I disappeared under the water, holding my breath tight in my chest. Neither of the boys joined me. Leo swam elsewhere, and Hunter smoked quietly in his chair, never batting me an eye.
“Such gentlemen,” I chided after I had emerged, sticking my tongue at Leo who glanced my way with a grin. When I turned to look at Hunter, his eyes met mine, but he wasn’t smiling back.
“Come on,” I urged him. “Get in the water, Hunt.”