Calmly, Carefully, Completely (The Reed Brothers 3)

At least I put brilliant words in your mouth. He pats his chest. I could be boring. Where would you be then?

“My life could be worse. I’m sitting by a huge pool looking at a beautiful girl with a boy who’s pretty smart.”

Careful or my head’s going to start to swell. He looks toward Reagan. Is that longing in his eyes?

“Stop scamming on my girl,” I warn.

He doesn’t take his gaze from her, but it looks less lascivious and more…needy. Do you think… His hands stop moving.

“What? Spit it out already,” I prompt.

Never mind.

“What were you about to say?” I ask, turning to face him completely. “Ask it. I won’t be able to sleep tonight unless I get to hear what’s going in that head of yours,” I tease.

I was just wondering… He looks toward Reagan again. Do you think there will ever be a girl that looks at me like she looks at you?

I glance toward the lifeguard stand. “How does she look at me?” I ask.

Like she wants to jump your bones. He laughs. But I can tell this is serious to him. More serious than he wants me to know.

I tap his leg with my foot to get his attention. “That’s not the question you should be asking yourself, doofus.”

I’m in a chair, Mr. Mentor Man. You think it’s a good idea to call me a doofus? You might affect my self-esteem.

I roll my eyes. “If you had any ego problems, I’d already know it.”

Forget I asked, he says. He looks everywhere but at me.

“There’s a lid for every pot, Karl. Some fit better than others, but there’s one made just for you. You should be asking yourself if she’s good enough for you. Every single time. Don’t ask yourself if you’re good enough for her because when you find the right fit, you won’t doubt it.”

He grins. I think he likes that answer. And I mean it.

So you think she exists?

I nod. “I think she’s just waiting to find you. So don’t f**k it up by being a smart-ass.”

He points to himself. Me? Never!

Karl’s mom approaches from the other side of the pool. She just happens to have a bucket full of water in her hand and she’s tiptoeing, so I try not to smile. But I can’t help it when she dumps the water down his back. He leans forward, wincing, but he’s also laughing.

“That’s what you get for being a shit this morning,” she says with a smirk. So this is where he gets it from. I like her even more now. She pulls a water gun out from behind her back. She hands it to Gonzo. “Reagan looks like she could use some cooling off, don’t you think?” She winks at me.

Gonzo is suddenly a man on a mission. He hides the gun down by his leg and rolls around to where Reagan is sitting. He stops below her and claps his hands together. She looks down at him, smiles, and says something, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. He grins, pulls out the squirt gun and proceeds to soak her. He doesn’t hit her in the face, but he gets the rest of her pretty well. She puts her hands up to shield herself, and it’s really pretty amusing. Suddenly, his pistol runs out of water, and she climbs down the ladder of her chair. She has a wet towel in her hand, which she proceeds to flick at him until it cracks against his knee.

“Ouch!” I whisper to myself, wincing. But he f**king loves it. He grins and throws his gun to someone in the pool to fill up. The whole time, she’s chasing him around the edge of the pool with the towel, until her dad has to come and send her back to the stand. Mr. Caster points his finger, and she pretends to pout. Then she flicks him on the ass with the towel too. He turns around, picks her up, and tosses her into the water. She floats to the surface and sputters. Her big, floppy straw hat floats there beside her. And her glasses have sunk to the bottom.

That shit’s funny. I can’t stop laughing. I laugh until my sides ache from it. She looks in my direction and narrows her eyes. She swims over to where I’m still sitting, completely dry. “You’re looking a little too amused, there, Pete,” she says. She fills her mouth with pool water and spits it from between her teeth at my foot. Damn, that’s hot. But, again, I’m a guy. We tend to get a little orally fixated. She could spit a goober and I’d still probably find it sexy.

“What are you going to do about it?” I ask, sitting forward with my elbows on my knees. She looks startled for a second. Then I realize she’s plotting. I can almost smell the gears in her mind burning, they’re working that hard. Gonzo rolls up next to me. They must have warned everyone about Gonzo’s tracheostomy tube because no one tries to get him wet and he’s careful about the edge of the pool. Next thing I know, he’s beside me, and he doesn’t take the same care with me that he took with Reagan. A blast of water hits me in the face.

I put my hands up to block him, but dammit, he’s having so much fun with it that I don’t want to stop him. Instead, I let him squirt until the gun’s empty. Then I blow water from my lips and open my eyes. She’s grinning like hell, and Gonzo’s almost as happy as she is.

“You so deserved that,” she says.

I stand up and point to her. “I’m coming for you, Reagan,” I warn. She squeals and backs away. She looks a little panicky, but then I realize she’s having fun and she’s panicking because I’m going to dunk her rather than because I’m going to touch her.

This shit is like foreplay. The really good kind. I go in the shallow end and stalk her all the way to the rope that sections off the middle of the pool. I want to touch her so badly I can taste it. “Come here, little girl,” I taunt. “Let me show you what happens when you mess with a real man.”