Hot Summer Lovin’

by Parker, Ali

  Reaching up without missing a beat, she caught the tube between her long fingers and smirked. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to catch me off guard. I’m good with my hands.”

  She added a waggle of her brows to her last statement, prompting Olive to pull her sunglasses from the top of her head and slide them over her eyes on a low groan. “Gross, Val. I didn’t need to know that.”

  “What?” Valerie winked at me before sliding her own sunglasses back in place. “I didn’t mean it that way. Don’t blame me for your mind being in the gutter.”

  “It’s not,” Olive protested, ducking her face into the homemade cocktail we had mixed before coming out.

  I laughed, digging around in my beach bag for my sunglasses, a spray bottle filled with iced water, and a paperback book I doubted I would get to actually read. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, O. We’ve all got dirty minds around here and besides, that was definitely what Val meant.”

  Valerie chucked the sunscreen back at me, smacking me in the shoulder with a gleeful laugh. “Take that, you liar you.”

  “What did you mean by that then?”

  Valerie shrugged, lying back on her towel. “That I’m a very handy person, that’s all.”

  “Handy, huh?” I chuckled, wiggling my fingers in her direction before lying down myself. “I’m sure you don’t mean with power tools or anything.”

  “Hey,” Valerie protested, laughing as she pulled earbuds out of her beach bag. “Those tools can be pretty damn powerful if you ask me. I think I could use a reminder, though. What were you guys saying about that Will guy this morning?”

  My skin flushed at the mention of his name. That dream had been so damn hot and seeing him again had done nothing to lessen my desire to jump the man’s bones. The flush was also caused by a tiny amount of embarrassment, though. He hadn’t said anything about it, but I’d caught the look he sent my way when he checked inside the box. He knew I had messed with it to see him again. Still, my impulsive gamble had paid off since I was going out with him that weekend.

  “You would have known if you had woken up like a normal damn person,” Olive said to Valerie, sitting up on her towel with her arms looped loosely around her knees like she was doing her best not to touch any sand. “Not that it would have mattered if you had woken up. I’m pretty sure the only one of us who has a shot at finding out how powerful that particular tool is, would be Heidi.”

  Valerie puffed out a sigh, but then shrugged while still lying down. The motion made her displace some of the sand under her towel and she wiggled around a bit to get comfortable again. “Whatever. I’m sure he has friends. Does he have friends?”

  “No idea.” I didn’t know anything about the guy. Not yet anyway, but I had every intention of getting to know him intimately. “I’ll find out for you.”

  Lying on the quiet beach underneath three faded red umbrellas, which we’d found in the garage, with my best friends was absolute bliss. Val and I had scooted down on towels so our bodies could get some sun while our faces remained in the shade. Olive hadn’t laid down at all, her gaze now rooted on the sparkling blue horizon.

  We lay there in silence for a while, each absorbed in our own thoughts. My own started out on Will, but then I turned my head and looked down the pristine stretch of beach that was now my new backyard.

  It was too incredible to think that a few days ago, I had been living in a shitty apartment above a Chinese take-out place. My room was right above one of their outlets, and as a result, had almost smelled like the stale sweat of old oil and garlic. I hadn’t had a backyard in my life, now I had miles of sun-bleached sand and the actual ocean as my swimming pool.

  “This is the dream, isn’t it, girls?” My voice was as calm as our surroundings, as peaceful as lazily lapping waves a few feet away. “I think this has to be hands down the best decision we’ve ever made.”

  No one answered me at first. I honestly wasn’t even sure if they were listening to me until I heard Olive’s equally lazy voice. “Maybe. Do you guys think the diner’s doing okay without me? I think I should call tonight. No, I should definitely call tonight.”

  Valerie’s humorless laugh told me she had heard me too. “The diner’s fine, Olive. I hate to break it to you, girl, but the people who can do that job are a dime a dozen. I bet they haven’t even realized you’re gone yet.”

  “Val.” I couldn’t keep the slight admonishment out of my voice.

  Valerie sat up, pushing her sunglasses back into her hair and leveling me with a glare. “What? I didn’t mean it in a cruel way. Olive just needs to relax and stop feeling guilty so she can enjoy being here with us.”

  “She is sitting right here.” Olive finally dragged her gaze from the horizon and looked at Valerie. “I know I shouldn’t feel guilty, but that’s just the way I feel. I’ll get over it, I’m sure. I just need some time.”

  “Take all the time you need, hon.” I smiled, letting her know that I understood. Of course, I didn’t understand why she felt guilty about leaving the shitty diner and Olive knew that, but I did understand not being able to help what you felt.

  “How did it go when you quit, Heidi?” Valerie tilted her head, her short black hair sticking up a little in the back from when she’d been lying down. “You never told us.”

  “It…” The next word I should have been able to say got lost in my head when I realized that I didn’t actually have a next word because… “I never actually told them.”

  “You what?” Olive’s head snapped in the direction of mine so fast I was half afraid she was going to give herself whiplash. “How could you not tell your boss you were leaving?”

  “I kind of forgot, I guess.” There had been so many exciting things going on after we’d made the decision that I hadn’t paused to tie up that one last loose end. Even if I had lumped “quitting your job” in there with the things one had to do before upping and leaving when I’d been talking to Will about it yesterday. “Oopsie.”

  “Oopsie?” Olive ripped her sunglasses from her eyes, as if to make sure I could see how serious she was. Her dark-blue eyes flashed with horror followed quickly by disappointment. “Heidi, you can’t do stuff like that. What if we have to move back to New York? You could have had your job waiting for you.”

  I lifted up my fingers and counted them down as I replied. “First, it doesn’t really matter whether I told her or not because she would never have understood me anyway. Second, we’re not moving back to New York because this is heaven and I’ll do anything in my power to stay. Finally, you’re a good employee, Olive. Your old boss offered you your job back if you ever needed it because she knew she would always be able to use someone like you. Those ladies in the salon had no use for me. They wouldn’t have offered me the job back because I wasn’t indispensable.”

  Valerie inclined her head in a way that told me she agreed, but she wasn’t being mean about it. It was simply true. As for Olive, she looked like she was about to say something when our conversation was interrupted by loud male voices behind us.

  “Oh, God.” Olive groaned. “It’s those assholes from next door again.”

  Sneaking a peek over my shoulder and hoping they wouldn’t see me or take it as a sign that their jeers were welcome, I saw the group of guys standing on their balcony. “At least they’re staying put. I don’t think they’ll come down here. The breeze will probably ruin their hair.”

  Olive nodded her agreement, a small smile breaking the tension that had crept into her expression. “True, or even worse, they might get sand stuck to their feet.”

  I faked a shudder, but then I realized that Valerie wasn’t on her towel anymore. She’d gotten up at some point, still wearing nothing more than her bright-yellow string bikini and was sauntering closer to their balcony.

  My stomach sank when I realized she was about to play along. Jeer the jeering, so to speak.

  Legs coiling under my butt, I was ready to jump up to help at a moment’s not
ice. Guys like them didn’t scare me. I just really hadn’t felt like a confrontation when I was feeling so at peace as I had been.

  Val propped her hands on her narrow hips and looked up at them standing on their wooden deck, a decided sneer on her face. “Excuse me, did I just hear one of you say you would fuck me like you were a prized racehorse tasked with ensuring your bloodline continued?”

  A deep V formed between her eyebrows, disgust dripping from her voice. One of the guys stepped forward, obviously not having noticed her expression or her tone if his smirk was any indication.

  “Yeah, sweetheart. I did. Have you ever seen the size of the cocks on racehorses?” He made the situation worse by winking at her. “I’m that big.”

  Olive hiccupped on a laugh from her towel beside me but didn’t say a word to intervene. Val didn’t need us to, not yet. She let out a loud, very fake laugh before beckoning him closer. “Come here and show me then, big boy.”

  “In your fucking dreams.” The guy rolled his eyes, but Val calling his bluff seemed to have muted his bluster for now. No doubt it would be back later. It always was with guys like them.

  Val took another step forward, watching the boys with amusement. “Really? You’re all quiet now?”

  There were a couple of scoffs and a few more comments, which only fueled my friend’s ire. A cold, wicked smile spread across her lips. “None of you have the money, the cock, or frankly, the balls to carry out any of these acts with or against us. We’re not going to fuck you. Not now, not ever. Do yourselves a favor and move on, m’kay?”

  The guys’ silence didn’t last much longer. Before I really knew what was happening, a yelling match had started up and Olive had yanked me to my feet and was dragging me back to the house. She grabbed Val’s wrist as we passed her, taking her with us.

  Olive shut the doors to the house tightly when we were safely inside, then ran to double-check the front door. It was only once she was sure they wouldn’t be able to get in quite that easily that she sagged down on the couch. “Is this going to be something we need to worry about? It feels like it could be.”

  “No.” Valerie stomped up the stairs and disappeared for a couple of minutes before she was back, wearing an old hockey mask and carrying a hockey stick. “I’m ready. Let’s go get those damn assholes.”

  Blinking in surprise at her outfit, the sound of my laughter rang out in the room. I reached out to pat Olive’s leg, noticing that she hadn’t even cracked a smile at our friend’s ridiculous outfit. “Don’t worry, O. Valerie’s here to protect you, everything will be okay.”

  Chapter 11

  Will

  Rayce lived in an apartment similar to mine, just around the corner from my own. The difference was that on the inside of his, you could see that he had money. It was surprisingly well maintained, thanks to all of his downtime between jobs, and he had all the toys any guy our age could dream about.

  Gaming consoles, arcade games, a flat-screen the size of a wall, a bar, and leather couches. And that was just to start off with. While I didn’t want to flaunt my ill-gotten gains even in my own home, Rayce had zero qualms about it.

  I could hear him screaming at someone, probably into his headset while he played a game, from the second I exited the stairwell on the sixth floor. Another difference between our places was that even though his looked as small and crummy as mine from the outside, he actually rented all the apartments on his floor and had joined them together on the inside.

  It hadn’t been an easy task, creating interleading doors between them, and he’d never get his security deposit back, but he assured me it had been worth it. Apart from claiming that it was a security risk if neighbors heard him talking about business while in his own home, he also said that this was a safe way for him to enjoy his money without attracting attention.

  In a way, I guessed he was right. I just wasn’t interested in creating my own version of his junkyard palace. Neither of us planned on staying in this run-down neighborhood forever, literally surrounded by junkyards and drug deals, so I refused to invest the kind of money Rayce had on a place that was purely temporary.

  Knocking on his door, I heard him tell whoever he was playing with to hold on. The sounds of shooting, explosions, and yelling cut off abruptly, then the door was yanked open.

  Rayce stood in his doorway wearing a pair of black sweats and nothing else, his upper body and arms covered in tattoos. Some of them were terrible, designed by the same newbie as some of my own.

  One of our former foster brothers had been doing an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop years ago, and Rayce and I made a point of supporting him regularly. It was stupid, yes, but at least we had been loyal customers to a guy who really needed them.

  Over the years that had followed, Rayce had had some of those designs cleaned up and incorporated into other, more colorful designs. You had to know now that the shitty work was there, or you’d never say it was.

  “Will.” He frowned, his expression hardening as he studied mine. Sweeping an arm toward the interior of his apartment, he stepped aside and allowed me in. “What’s up, man? I didn’t know you were coming around today.”

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” I told him honestly. “It’s a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.”

  Rayce closed his front door and headed to the kitchen, grabbing two beers without asking if I wanted one or worrying about the time of day. He handed one over to me and popped the top off his own, leaving it where it fell on the floor next to his feet.

  “What moment are we spurring exactly?” Rayce sipped his beer, eyes narrowing as anger brewed in his irises. The man knew me better than anyone. I had no doubt that he had at least a rough idea of what I was about to ask him.

  “I need your help with something.” I drained half my drink in one long swallow, wiping the foam from my mouth with the back of my hand, then dropped it to my side and let the bottle hang from my fingers. “No questions asked.”

  “You got it.” He turned, disappeared into the labyrinth of his joined apartment, then reappeared a few minutes later wearing a tight sleeveless tee and a pair of sneakers. “For the record, I never question you.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I swallowed down what was left of my beer and tossed the bottle in the trash can in the corner, watching as Rayce finished his and left the empty bottle standing on his coffee table. “Hope you feel like kicking some ass.”

  At that, the corners of Rayce’s lips rose. It was scary sometimes how much the guy loved to fight. He was one tough bastard, and he liked for the world to know it. “You gonna give me the reason for this ass-kicking?”

  “Nope.” I popped my lips on the p sound, then led him to my truck. True to his word, he didn’t ask me any questions as I drove back to Heidi’s neighborhood. Although he did give a curious stare when I parked outside her neighbor’s house.

  What those guys had said and the way they’d said it when I left didn’t sit right with me. With guys like that, you could never trust that they wouldn’t get drunk and take whatever it was they wanted.

  Entitlement was a dangerous thing. If you got used to getting everything you wanted, you started believing you had the right to it.

  While I hadn’t grown up rich, I’d come across enough guys with that mindset to know what I was talking about. Heidi and her friends were in danger while those guys were in residence.

  Perhaps they hadn’t made any real moves yet, but they would. I was sure of it. Had seen it in them and the way they watched her even after she’d flipped them off.

  I didn’t really know the girls and it wasn’t my job to protect them, but I wasn’t that big of an asshole that I could ignore a legitimate threat to a bunch of women. If my suspicions proved to be right, and one of those fraternity morons hurt so much as one hair on any of those girls’ heads, I would never forgive myself for not stepping in sooner.

  Rayce and I had that quality in common. We’d grown up having to protect our fellow foster siblings from harm and both of us had
carried that protectiveness into adulthood. It was so ingrained in us that I doubted either of us could have stopped even if we tried.

  I cracked open my door and jerked my head toward the house with the assholes in it. “There are five of them in there. Five that I know of, at least. There might be more.” Then I slid out and closed the door behind me.

  Rayce followed me out of the truck, cracked his knuckles, and flashed me a borderline maniacal grin. Thank God this guy is on my side.

  I’d have hated to be on Rayce’s wrong side. “Five sounds good. More sounds better.”

  I shook my head at his eagerness, glancing up and down the street quickly before crossing it. Rayce followed me without needing to be asked to do it. “Just don’t kill anyone, okay, Ray? We’re only here to deliver a warning.”

  He released an exasperated-sounding breath, punching me teasingly in the shoulder. “Spoilsport, but fine. Even I wouldn’t stoop that low, you do know that, right?”

  “Just reminding you.” Sometimes, as well as I knew him, even I didn’t know the extent of what Rayce was capable of. I wasn’t sure he knew either. The guy carried darkness around inside of him, fought against it consuming him every damn day. I shuddered to think of the day he lost that fight. “You ready?”

  “Ready.” He didn’t smile as he said it, already focused on what lay ahead. “We knocking or…”

  Trailing off when he saw my foot lifting, he raised his own and held up his fingers in a silent count. When the last finger fell, we both kicked hard, and the door flew right off its hinges.

  It was another talent of ours, another one born out of necessity: being able to get into locked rooms or houses when the inhabitants didn’t want you there. Growing up, we’d saved many kids from harm that way.

  The assholes from last night looked up from where they were lounging on low-slung couches when they heard us coming through the door, jaws going slack in shock. Some jumped up to their defense while two others just sat there blinking, as though they were too surprised to move.