“Holy sweet abs of steel, my life is complete.” Her words come out breathy when the first person in our view as we walk outside is my brother, manning the grill. “Do me a favor and snap a picture on your phone. You can send it to me later.”
“Uh, no. I’m not doing your dirty work,” I say when she begins patting me down, searching for my phone. “Stop touching me, dammit. My phone isn’t in my bikini top. Use your own.”
“Let me see your phone.” My brother sneaks up behind Hope, causing her to jump and drop her bag.
Without a word, she pulls her phone from her bikini top and hands it to him. I watch him, curious, as he holds her phone up at an angle and snaps a picture of what I’m assuming is his abs, and hands the phone back to Hope. “I’m not shy, Hope.” He backs away and points at her phone. “Don’t forget to save that.”
Hope nods and turns away, covering her face. “Well, shit. You could’ve told me your brother was coming.” She’s bitter for a split second, before the biggest smile I’ve ever seen takes over her face. “Wowzers, he went low on that one. I have a major lady-boner now.”
I laugh and walk away, mine and Easton’s gazes meeting at the same time. My breath escapes me when my eyes trail down his perfectly chiseled body to land on the snug, black swim trunks he has on. I’ve never seen a pair of swim trunks make an ass look so… magnificent in my entire life.
Holy shit. Where’s the beer?
Easton says something to Talon and Stiles before walking away, grabbing a beer from the cooler and heading my way. “You look like you could use one of these?” He grins and twists the cap off, handing it to me, before leaning in to whisper, “Your ass looks much better than mine any day. Trust me.”
“Who says I like your ass in those…” I tilt the bottle back, needing some alcohol to even finish.
“I’m not blind,” he says with a laugh. “You were staring at it. Now I’m going to back away before I forget our friends are watching. There’s a lot more I’d like to do to you right now than hand you a damn beer.”
“What ya looking at?” Hope appears at my side right as Easton is walking away, her eyes widening once she gets a view of what my eyes are zoned in on. “Holy shit. I totally should not be saying this, but what an ass that boy has on him.”
I pull my eyes away and take a long drink from my beer. “I wasn’t looking at Easton’s ass. I was looking at… Talon,” I lie quickly, feeling like an idiot that she caught me. “I like his trunks, that’s all.”
She turns her attention to Talon now as he bends over to grab his skateboard. His white swim trunks fit him just as good as Easton’s fit him. “Oh, no one’s ass compares to your brother’s and Talon’s. Apparently, skateboarding does wonders for a man’s ass. At least for those two.”
I smile and look her in the eyes. “Do you have a thing for Talon too?”
“What?” she screeches, reaching to pull her sunglasses down. “I didn’t say all that.” She points at me and backs toward the pool. “Do not put words in my mouth, woman. No one likes that.”
I roll my eyes and watch as Hope and the boys make eye contact from across the pool before all three of them are diving in, in a hurry to get to the giant inflatable unicorn in the middle of the pool. Stiles is the first one to reach it, but Talon pulls him under the water, allowing Hope to climb on top and claim it.
“Victory!” She throws her arms up and makes a face at Stiles when he comes up for air. “Looks like you have to bring me a drink now. Any color will do.”
“Stay in the pool, dickhead.” My brother grabs a Seagram’s Escape from the cooler and jumps into the water, swimming to the middle to bring Hope her drink. With his eyes on her, he unscrews the top and takes a drink, before handing it to her and diving back into the pool. If that’s not his way of flirting, then I don’t know what is.
“You going to swim or stand here and watch everyone have fun?”
“I plan to swim. I just want to finish—”
My words get cut short when Easton picks me up and jumps into the pool with me in his arms. When we reach the bottom, his lips capture mine, breaking apart just moments before we resurface the water.
“Really!” I look around to see if anyone is watching us, but luckily everyone’s busy doing their own thing. I push his chest and back up against the wall of the pool to get away from him. “I should kick your ass. You can’t do that here.”
“No one could see us.” He smirks and reaches over the side of the pool to grab me a new beer from the cooler close by. “Just have a drink and relax, Kota. Because tomorrow…” He tilts back his beer with a smirk. “We’re washing my precious truck and it could take all night.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll relax if you keep your lips to yourself until we leave.” I pull my gaze from his mouth and take a drink of my beer. “Think you can handle that?”
“Yeah. Just don’t plan on staying late.” He winks and swims away when Talon calls him over to play pool beer pong with him.
“What’s up, girl.” I laugh when Stiles floats by on a shit ton of pool noodles. “Want a ride to the other side?”
“No. But I’m dying to do this.” I yank the two noodles out from under his arms, his upper body sinking under the water while his legs fight and struggle with the three noodles under them.
I laugh when he finally gets back to his feet and wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me with him as he swims to join the game.
“I’ve got my partner.” Stiles elbows Talon until he moves to the other side to join Easton as his partner. “Now keep your eyes on mine. First team to sink a ball in goes first.”
Talon goes first and misses, so Stiles hands me the ball and smirks as if he knows I’m going to make it and I do, so he claps once and throws up his middle fingers.
When I toss the ball to start the game, Easton winks at me and grabs the cup it lands in, tilting it back and emptying it. I’m still watching him when Stiles tosses his ball and misses.
Talon and Easton both make their shot, so Stiles and I toss back our shots of beer and throw the empty cups aside.
The game goes on until we’re down to three cups and Easton and Talon are down to one. Stiles is just about to take his turn when a hotdog smacks him in the shoulder and my brother yells that the food is done.
“Seriously?” Stiles complains, before sinking to the bottom to grab the hotdog. “I was going to make that shit,” he yells once coming back up.
“I doubt it,” Talon mutters, tossing the ball at Stiles’ head, before jumping out of the pool.
“Is Stiles good at anything other than tattooing?” Easton questions when coming up beside me.
I shake my head after I think about it for a second. “Sadly, no.”
He laughs and boosts me out of the pool first, before climbing out himself to join my brother by the grill.
Once we get our plates, Hope ends up seated between my brother and Talon. I smile at her when she goes to shove her brat into her mouth and she just about chokes. I don’t know what she’s thinking about that has her choking, but I definitely was not smiling because of that. I just find it funny that she has a thing for both of them and she’s stuck in between them.
We’re all in the middle of eating when the guys start talking about the pub, bringing up old stories from when Easton and Roman worked together.
“We had some good times at the pub before you left, man.” My brother smiles across the table at Easton, who is sitting between me and Stiles. “You can’t deny that we were the hottest bartenders in town. When we worked together on the weekends eighty percent of the customers were female and some of those females even traveled from another town for a few drinks just so they could check us out.”
Easton laughs and tilts back his beer to wash down his food. “How could I forget? I’ve never seen so many women in one place at once. I definitely wasn’t ready to handle that craziness.”
“Remember that one time Easton had to pry that drunk redhead from you?” Talon sets
his burger down and wipes his hands off. “She was so wasted that she cried when he finally got her to let go, so he let her stay attached to you until her friends talked her into finally going home.”
My brother nods. “That was rough, man. My favorite T-shirt ripped that night from her pulling on it.” Roman shakes his head and laughs, as if he just remembered something. “Don’t forget about that one girl who kept putting her hands in Easton’s back pockets and he had to dodge her every time he stepped out from behind the bar. Didn’t she pinch your ass like a million times that night?”
“My ass was sore for a week from how many times she pinched it,” Easton mutters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she left a bruise.”
Oh, I remember that night all right. I hated that chick for putting her hands on Easton. They don’t know this, but I’m the one who finally kicked her out that night. I waited until she was alone, and I threatened to break her fingers off if she pinched him one more time. Minutes later, she was gone. Just like that.
“All right. I’m stuffed.” Stiles pushes his food aside and opens a fresh beer. “Where’s your skateboard? I need to work this shit off before it ruins this sexy as fuck body.”
“What world are you living in?” Talon teases, before nodding toward his board. “You can use mine. Just don’t fuck it up like last time.”
“Hey. Not my fault it snapped.”
“Totally your fault, Stiles.” I laugh at the memory from last summer. “You tried to be cool like Talon and do some crazy ninja flip onto the board and landed on it wrong. I’d totally say it was your fault.”
“Whatever.” He shrugs and sets Talon’s board down. “I replaced it with this one, which is way better anyway.”
“Dude. You had your fucking name designed into the board.”
“Yeah, which is why it’s better.” Stiles takes off around the pool, doing a kickflip as if he knows what he’s doing.
It’s not long before my brother is pulling out his skateboard, doing drunk tricks. Something he calls a fakie gazelle flip that takes him twice to get down due to the beers he’s consumed.
Everyone else ends up back in the pool minutes later, Hope picking out the perfect spot to watch the boys skate. It’s getting dark, so my brother turns on the pool lights to give him and Stiles light to skate. We’re all watching them and just enjoying the night and it feels like we’re teenagers again. I can’t stop smiling as I float, just enjoying being here with everyone.
“Come here.” Easton comes out of nowhere and pulls me to him, away from everyone else, who are at the other end of the pool. He smiles against my neck, before kissing it.
“Easton.” I shove him under the water and laugh when he comes back up and spits water out. “Keep your lips to yourself,” I whisper. “Don’t make me rip them off.”
He just smiles and grabs my foot, yanking me back to him. “What if I don’t want to?”
I place my hands on his chest when he moves in as if he’s about to kiss me. “Don’t you dare, Easton!” I laugh and push him away when his facial hair tickles my neck as he goes for it instead of my mouth. I’m laughing and enjoying the moment so much that I allow myself to get a little too close to Easton, forgetting that everyone is around for a moment.
The huge unicorn is in front of us and I hope that’s enough to hide us away from everyone’s view.
With a grin, he sets his beer down on the ledge and grabs my thighs, wrapping them around him. His dick presses against me and I moan out, covering my mouth once I realize what I’ve done.
“I’m so kicking your ass later.”
“What makes you think I won’t enjoy it?” He smiles against my lips and just as he goes to kiss me, I shove him back and swim away, laughing.
Hope screams when I come up behind her and grab her foot, distracting her from the boys who are still taking turns doing tricks. “Don’t do that, asshole!”
“Did you just call me an asshole?” I laugh.
“My bad.” She smiles and pulls a noodle to her. “I’m used to yelling at the boys.”
I grab a noodle myself and kick back to watch as Easton joins the boys in doing tricks. The only time I ever saw Easton with a skateboard growing up was when my brother asked him to join him at the skatepark. I’m not sure Easton was ever really into it, but he did it for my brother, and I always loved that.
“Easton is pretty good,” Hope says when he does some kind of flip and smoothly lands it. “I didn’t even know he skated.”
“Because he only did when Roman wanted him to.”
“Ouch!” I flinch when Stiles attempts a flip and falls on his side. “Brush it off, Stiles.”
Talon takes his board back, so Stiles dives into the pool and begins collecting all of the floating cups from our game and stacking them in his hand.
After a while, the other boys join us in the pool, and we spend the night telling stories and laughing until midnight creeps around and we all realize we have to work in the morning.
I don’t know what to expect when we leave, but right after Hope and I jump into her truck, Easton jumps into the backseat and leans over the front seat. “Mind if I sleep on your couch tonight? It’s late and we both have to be at the shop early. It’ll be easier if I’m closer.”
“Oh, good idea!” Hope says, while fixing her hair. “You have less than six hours before you have to get up. It’ll give Easton a few extra minutes of sleep.” She pulls out of the driveway and heads home. “I’d be milking every last second I could get.”
“Sure.” I smile to myself, happy that Easton found a way to make tonight work without looking suspicious. “Makes so much sense.”
If every night could be like this, it’d be much easier.
Dakota
Once I reach my street, I stop running and place my hands on my thighs, fighting to catch my breath. My chest burns with each breath that I struggle with. I’ll take the burning in my chest over the ache in my heart when thinking about Easton any day.
All it took was Talon asking me today at work when Easton was leaving town to go back home. Back home. It was a harsh reminder that his home is no longer here with us… with me. It might’ve felt that way for nearly the past two weeks, but it’s not. Easton is no longer part of the crew. He’s not going to be here for more game nights and pool parties or movie nights.
“Ugh!” I stand up straight and run my hands down my sweaty face. Talon’s question has been eating at me since this afternoon, and since I didn’t want to think about it at work—I needed a clear head to work—I fought my hardest to push it away. It took a lot more out of me than expected, both mentally and physically, and the moment we ended the workday and Easton left with my brother, the thought of him leaving plagued my thoughts again.
I’m not even sure how long I’ve been running to clear my head, but it’s dark now. Dark enough to be at least eight or later. My phone is at home where I always keep it when running, so I have no idea if Easton has tried contacting me or not.
A part of me—just a tiny part—thinks it would be best to text him and tell him he doesn’t need to come over tonight. I hate that I’ve gotten so comfortable with Easton sleeping in my bed that I haven’t stopped to think what it will feel like when he’s no longer around to hold me at night.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhale and take off walking toward my house. When I reach the driveway, I stop, my heart beating even faster than it already was from my run when I spot Easton sitting on the tailgate of his truck with a beer in hand.
He looks up from the bottle in his hand, his amber eyes meeting mine once he notices me standing here. With his jaw tense, he sets his bottle down and jumps down to his feet, coming at me. The intense look in his eyes when he grabs my face and kisses me, causes a breath to escape.
“Fuck, Kota. You can’t make me wait this long to kiss you. I can’t handle it,” he says, once pulling away to look at me. “I called and you didn’t answer.”
“I didn’t have my phone.” I look up a
t him, my stomach twisting into knots from the intensity of his gaze. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d be with my brother longer.” My eyes move past him to see the bucket of soapy water sitting next to his truck. “You washed your truck without me?”
He nods and takes a step back. “I knew how much you wanted to drive it. I didn’t want to make you wait any longer and I didn’t know when you were getting back.” Placing his hand on the small of my back, he guides me to the truck and opens the driver’s door for me, a small smile forming on his lips. “You’re in charge of my baby. Hop in.”
“Really?” I ask, almost worried he’s messing with me after how long I’ve waited for this moment.
He laughs and boosts me into the truck. “I said you could drive it and I meant it.” He swallows, eying me over in his seat as if he can hardly handle the way I look right now. “Shit,” he whispers, before shutting the door and walking to the other side of the truck.
Once he’s inside, I adjust the seat and start the truck, a smile taking over as I back out of the driveway. “I can’t believe you’ve made me wait practically nine years to drive this thing.”
He smiles and grabs my hand, pulling it into his lap. “I can. If you could see how you look behind that wheel right now, you’d understand why I wouldn’t let you drive it back then.”
“I doubt it’s any more torture than what I had to deal with seeing you drive this thing over the years. My crush on you intensified by about a million the day you drove this thing home from the lot. Why do you think I stayed away from you that weekend and that Monday at school?”
He squeezes my hand, so I glance his way to see him smiling at me. “So, that’s why you refused a ride home from school that day?”
I nod. “I thought about you all day at school and how hot you looked in your new truck. I even avoided it in the parking lot that day.” I laugh at the memory of me trying to dodge his damn truck, while walking to Roman’s old beat-up Jeep he had back then. “I hated you for a good week,” I admit.
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