First and Tension (Summersweet Island 4)

“Don’t you dare smile at him or fall for his charms, Tess!”

“Sorry, I was actually daydreaming about the synthetic cotton-blend he’s wearing and how fast it would go up in flames.”

“Okay, so I guess I really do need to fear the pregnant one. Anyway, go ahead; ask me about the rumor I heard.”

“Is it the one about Quinn Bagley finally going the fuck home?”

“No. Haven’t heard that one. It’s about a dare I found out you took the night we met. Something about kissing me…. Oh, so you have heard it!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The shock and horror on your face right now says otherwise.”

“It’s constipation.”

“From the wheel of cheese, huh?”

“No! From your annoying ass!”

“Been looking at my ass, have you? It is a great ass. So, about that night… I found out you actually failed at a dare. Emily Flanagan failed. At a dare! You probably should have kissed me that night, and then you’d have a better dare track record.”

“I still can’t believe you failed. You successfully completed that dare in college with a naked Brett Crawford, the bucket of chicken, and two garden snakes. And you couldn’t even kiss one stupid man.”

“Well, now we’re definitely not getting matching BFF bracelets, Tess. I’m also gonna need to know more about naked Brett.”

“No, you don’t need to know more. And the successful completion of that dare included backstage passes to a Green Day concert.”

“And the successful completion of this one will restore your good name, so no one ever has to remember that Emily Flanagan failed so epically at a dare. Or you could just kiss me now and finally put that one in the win column.”

“For the last time, Bagley, go away. Tess, call the girls. I need a Sip and Bitch.”

“Daaamn, that boy can run. Someone must have warned him about Sip and Bitch, when they were spilling all your secrets.”

CHAPTER 9

Emily

“She said yes!”

“Tess promised me that Bodhi has been reprimanded, and he will no longer be divulging any more secrets to Quinn,” Wren reassures me after I spent the last five minutes talking her ear off about my latest troubles. “She hid all of his bongs, but between you and me, she’s going to crack long before he does. Bodhi is going to annoy the piss out of her.”

I laugh when I think about Bodhi chasing Tess all over this island until she gives in. And then quickly stop laughing when I remember Quinn did the same thing to me all day yesterday.

At least I never gave in before he left… but I’m not going to think about the fact that he left, because I don’t care.

“I feel sick,” I mutter, resting my hand against my stomach as I stare out at the fifty-yard line of the Summersweet Island High School football field. The bright floodlights illuminate the entire field, my green Sandbar Cottages hoodie keeping me warm with the cool evening breeze coming in off the ocean just beyond the visitor stands. I try to remember that I’m in my happy place, doing what makes me happy.

“You feel sick because you ate an entire pound of Vermont sharp cheddar and a bucket of raw cookie dough last night at Sip and Bitch,” Wren reminds me.

“Oh, shut it.” I roll my eyes at her. “I ran ten miles this morning to make up for it.”

And because I may or may not have been hoping someone would grab my arm again, but without all the unpleasantness of pepper spray. So I ran my usual route twice, like some pathetic loser.

“It was one thing for Bodhi to tell Quinn to dare me in the first place. But then he had to go and explain to him in more detail about how it’s impossible for me to turn down a dare,” I remind her. “And to really drive his point home, he thought he’d add in the super neat story about the kiss dare when he saw him in town. Why is everyone trying to ruin my life?”

The fact that the boys never shared that little tidbit of information during their social media troll tour is astonishing. I planned on taking it to my grave. It’s humiliating enough that Emily Flanagan did not complete a dare. Having Quinn know I was too chicken shit to follow through with the dare is almost too much to handle. He just isn’t aware that I didn’t want to ruin the perfect evening we had once I got to know him by throwing myself at him just like every other football groupie. Also, I don’t care how much coffee and water I drank, or how much pizza I inhaled after, I still threw up that night. Vomit was in my mouth. No way in hell would I allow the hottest man I have ever met to put his tongue in there as well.