Surrendering Series Box Set

“Don’t you dare!” She tried to scurry away, but she wasn’t fast enough. Chloe was up on the dock and holding her until Marisol and I could climb up and join her. Sloane screamed and begged us to stop, but we dragged her toward the water and then all four of us were in the water in a tangle of limbs and laughter. I surfaced again and so did the other three. Sloane sputtered and wiped water out of her eyes.

“I fucking hate all of you,” she said, shaking her head. Her makeup that she’d insisted on doing this morning was already running. I’d told her she shouldn’t bother since we were just going to be in the woods and no one was going to see her but us and the trees.

“Aw, we love you, darling,” Marisol said and Sloane splashed her. A water fight ensued and it was like we’d traveled back in time and become young teenagers again.

“We should play Truth or Dare,” I said a while later when we were all floating on our backs.

“Let’s not and say we did,” Sloane said.

“Why, are you scared?” Chloe said. “I’m always up for a good dare.”

“No. I just think it’s lame. What are we, twelve? I mean, dares are only really fun when you’re that young and you’re embarrassed to call your crush or go skinny-dipping.” I’d never really been one for Truth or Dare. I’d always been paranoid that I was going to do a dare that was going to backfire on me and somehow my parents would find out. I did my fair share of stupid things when I was young, but I tried not to do anything REALLY stupid.

“I guess,” Chloe said.

It was quiet again.

“I haven’t been this relaxed in so long. Work has been hell,” I said. “I’ve been so tired and it’s been hard to keep track of everything. I’m just scared of letting my dad down.” Wow, I didn’t mean to unload that on them, but if you couldn’t unload on your best friends, then who could you talk to?

“Are you serious?” Sloane said, floating over to me.

“Yeah. I worry about it all the time.”

She gaped at me.

“Rory, that is crazy. Literally insane. You’ve been preparing for this job your whole life. You’ve done nothing since I’ve known you but work for this. And now that you’ve got it, you’re scared?” I nodded and started swimming again.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, babe. I want to hug you right now. Why didn’t you say something?” I opened my mouth to tell her why, but I didn’t have an answer. I’d just been so busy and so stressed that I wanted to keep my head down and just keep moving forward.

“I don’t know. I was just in the middle of this hurricane and I didn’t want to talk about it. I’ve just been taking it out on Lucah and treating him like shit. Oh, I’ve been so mean to him.” I was only just now realizing how bad it had gotten. Guess it took some distance from the situation. I wanted to call him right then and there and tell him how sorry I was.

“Hey, it happens. I’m a complete bitch most of the time, but Ryder is used to it. I’m sure Lucah understands,” Sloane said. Chloe and Marisol agreed with her.

“I know. And I also know you’re trying to make me feel better. Which is why I love you all.” We had another group hug in the water and then had a few races with each other.

“It’s wine o’clock,” Sloane announced when we’d worn ourselves out with swimming. Hopefully the dancing and the swimming would cancel out the calories I’d had with all the food and dessert this weekend. Hopefully. There wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room in my dress at this point, so I had to be careful about gaining or losing any weight to keep it looking good. Hey, I could always hit the treadmill.

Fuck. No.

I got a fire going in the pit and we had hot dogs and roasted corn in the grill rack and busted out the wine.

“Why is it that food cooked over a fire tastes so much better than any other food?” Marisol asked as she finished her first hotdog and then popped another on the stick.

“I don’t know, but I would weigh so much more if we cooked everything over the fire,” I said, covering my grilled corn with butter. What the hell, a little bit more wasn’t going to hurt at this point. Maybe I could do a detox next week. A juice cleanse or something. That was all the rage and they were selling them now at Chloe’s spa, so I could probably get one for free from her. If I could survive it.

“You know calories don’t count during your bachelorette party, right?” Sloane said to me.

“Oh, good. That’s good to know,” I said, chomping down on my corn. Fucking heaven. Not for the first time, I wished Lucah was here with me to share this. That was silly. I loved being with my friends, but I still missed him.

“I can’t believe I miss him. Like, if I could snap my fingers and have him here, I would do it,” I said.

Marisol let out a dreamy sigh.

“I know exactly what you mean.” We both looked at Sloane.

“What? I’m not that dependent,” she said, scoffing at us. But then she sighed.