Her All Along

I got a quick glimpse of a pert, rounded, soft-looking ass before I glanced away and swallowed dryly.

The T-shirt of mine she’d worn ended up on a blanket along with her shorts and flip-flops, and then she headed down to the water with Evelina.

I scrubbed my hands over my face and willed my mind to erase the last ten seconds.

Fucking hell, I needed to cool off. I couldn’t even blame the sun beating down on me.

There was something wrong with me.

“Avery, you game?”

I looked over at Ethan, who was holding a tennis ball. I didn’t know what game he had in mind, but I’d take anything at that point, so I nodded and shed my shoes and tee.

“We’ll head out to where we can’t touch the bottom,” he said, ever the gym owner and PT. “You’re almost back to where you were before you went on your baby vacation. I can finally see your abs again.”

I stared at him. “You think raising a daughter is a vacation? Man, I cannot wait for you to have kids.”

He laughed.

After fishing out a bottle of water and taking a couple swigs, I followed him down to the ocean and rolled my shoulders a little. Most of the people who came to Silver Beach in the summer stayed away from the edges where cliffs shot up from the water. It was the whole reason we went there. There were barely any others around us.

A twinge of discomfort and buried uncertainty hit my chest when we passed Ryan and Angel. She was new in our group, and I didn’t have any tales of guts and glory to go with the battle wounds that’d once covered my back. I hoped she wasn’t an inquisitive person.

“Come on, girls! That’s not how you do it. Just dive in!” Ethan gave Evelina and Pipsqueak some shit for hesitating in the water. They’d gone far enough that the water reached their thighs, and it was my cue to look away.

Pipsqueak huffed. “Just dive in,” she mimicked.

“Good one,” Ethan deadpanned.

My mouth twitched.

Tightening the drawstrings on my board shorts, I walked farther out and sucked in a breath. Well, it’d be a lie to claim it was warm… But I braved the cold, even when I reached that painful, painful part and my junk was submerged.

It was the cooldown I needed.

Ethan and I put our guts to work when we swam farther out and threw the ball to each other, obviously always attempting to make the catching difficult for the other. But it wasn’t long before the others joined us, because that was one thing you could count on with the Quinns. Eventually, everything turned into a contest that involved everyone.

Ryan suggested we introduce Angel to a game of ten ball, something we’d come up with years ago. A game with very few rules, for those early days when we’d been too drunk to keep score. Two teams, one tennis ball, and the goal was to hold the ball up in the air for ten seconds. We’d never played a game that had gone beyond one single point.

Since Jake was no longer among us, Ryan went from the third to the second eldest of us, so he and Darius picked teams.

I kept the ball in my grasp for now, and Ethan and I made our way closer to the shore as Darius made the first pick.

“Ethan, you’re with me,” he said.

Ryan nodded at me. “Ave.”

“What the hell?” Angel looked affronted.

Ryan grinned. “I’ll get to you, I promise.”

“Lias,” Darius said next.

Evelina huffed. “The sheer misogyny, I swear.”

I tried to make eye contact with Ryan so he’d pick—

“Angel, get over here,” Ry chuckled.

“The fuck, man.” I raised my brow at him and pointed toward Pipsqueak. “You realize she was the champion of the women’s swim team before she quit, right?”

Ryan smirked. “Yeah, but Angel throws punches.”

I side-eyed the girl in question. I mean, she was what, 120 pounds soaking wet? She merely flashed me a saccharine smile.

“Elise!” Darius hollered. “You’re with us, baby girl.”

Goddammit. Now Pipsqueak would be on my opposing team.

In the end, it was Ryan, Angel, Evelina, and me against Darius, Ethan, Lias, and Pipsqueak.

“Two minutes of strategizing!” Darius announced.

All right, then.

In waist-deep water, my team huddled together, and Ryan and I went with what we usually did.

“As soon as one of us gets the ball,” Ryan said, “we’ll pass it on to Evelina.” He addressed her directly. “You will hold the ball in the air for ten seconds, and we will keep the others away.”

“Who’s our strongest swimmer?” I asked.

“Probably you, buddy,” Ryan replied. “You go after the ball, and Angel and I will be right behind you.”

“Got it.” I glanced over at the other team. Much like Ryan and I were the strength of our team, they had Darius and Ethan. But Lias was fast as shit, plus they had Pipsqueak. “They’ll probably send Lias or Pipsqueak for the ball.”