by Claire Adams
She hides behind clothes, and I hide behind false importance.
"Don't worry about me, Emily. I'm good. Brandon is in the rearview mirror — long gone." I shrugged and closed the trunk. "Let's stop talking about the past and start living in the future."
"How about we live in the present?" She glanced at me over the top of the car. "You sure you're good with me driving?"
"Yep. You wreck it and you get to talk to my dad."
"Oh, hell no." She tossed the keys over the hood, and I jumped up to catch them.
"I was kidding." I watched her as she walked around the car.
"Yeah, well, just in case you're not. I'm not looking for any reason to talk to your dad. He's the only guy in the world I think has the ability to make someone feel stupid before even entering the room he's in."
I moved around to the driver's side door and opened it, getting in and buckling up. "You should try living with him. College has been a dream come true." Nostalgia rolled over me as I glanced up the road to see the signs for Arizona State. "I love this place. I'm going to miss it."
"Not me. I'm going to start my master’s in the fall and before I know it, I'll be teaching in the science department. I'm never leaving." She settled in before turning around to look in the back seat.
"Lucky." I turned to see what she was up to before starting the car. "The snacks are in the back of the car."
"Why? That's not gonna help us when we're starving in ten minutes." She got out and moved to the back as I popped the trunk.
I was leaving behind a lot of good memories from college, as well as some not-so-good memories. I wanted to be excited about the future, but it was hard. It wasn't my future, but one my parents were still working to control.
A summer on Lake Havasu would do me some good, even if my parents highly disapproved of such a waste of time. Avoiding their phone calls was getting trickier, but I was still managing, somehow.
"Got 'em." She got into the car and tossed the bag in the back. "Let's go. I want to get there and let my hair down."
I reached over and tugged at her ponytail. "Let it down now. I'll roll the windows down, and we can let this hot ass air blow through our hair."
"No thanks. I'd rather breathe, but thank you." She pulled out her phone and leaned back. "Do you really think I might find someone to hang out with this summer?"
"You're hanging out with us." I pulled out of the parking lot and gave her a quick sideways glance. "Are you talking about a guy?"
She popped me in the arm. "Of course, I'm talking about a guy."
"Yeah, I think you could find several ‘someones’ to hang out with. Let me do your hair and help you pick out an outfit one of the nights we go out."
I almost flinched as she turned to face me. We'd had the same conversation for most of our lives. I loved makeup and dressing up and being girlie. Emily, not so much.
"Alright. I'll let you do it, but you have to promise me that you won't set me up." She stuck out her pinkie. "Pinkie promise me."
"What are we, ten?" I extended my hand and wrapped my pinkie around hers. "I promise."
"Good, and stop degrading our trust system." She smirked and kicked off her shoes before putting her feet on the dashboard. "You okay with my feet up here?"
"Absolutely. It's my dad's car. I'm just using it until I disappoint him again." I gave a sardonic chuckle.
"That's dumb. You're twenty-two, Cora. When are they going to stop acting like you’re still a kid?" She brushed her hands over her legs and let out a long yawn.
"I guess when I stop acting like one, so never?" We laughed for a few minutes over how ridiculous my parents were, more so my father than my mother. She just nodded and went along with his directives. As much as I loved her, I wasn't sure she had ever had an idea that wasn't my father’s at the start.
"What are you looking forward to this summer?" Emily glanced over at me as she worked her long, black hair out of the ponytail.
"Spending time with you, Cindy, and Dedra, for sure. Laying in the sun in a tiny bikini and getting a tan. Finding a cute boy to skinny dip with." I smiled as she let out a dramatic gasp.
"You hooker. You're not skinny dipping with a boy. That leads to sex, which leads to love, which…”
"Ain't nobody trying to fall in love." I rolled my eyes and ran my fingers through my shoulder-length, chestnut hair.
"I'm sure you're not going to be trying, but you know how these things go for you. You're horrible at flings. Dedra and Cindy? They have it down, but you're no good at it." She shook her head, and I reached over, gripping just above her knee and squeezing as she squealed.
"Oh yeah? Maybe I'm going to prove you all wrong," I pulled back as she swatted at me.
"No, you're not." She pulled her legs down and grabbed her phone as it buzzed. "That's Dedra."
"Put her on speaker." I smiled as excitement bubbled up inside of me. I needed this summer more than any of the others. They had something to look forward to at the end of it; I had these three months and that was it.
"Hey. We're just leaving the campus." Emily put the phone on the dash.
Dedra's voice filled up the car, causing me to smile. "Good. It's been a long two weeks without you guys. Cindy is grabbing some groceries, and I was in charge of cleaning up the house. Don't look in the closets or under the beds, okay? No telling on me."
I snorted. "Have you guys been having a good time?"
"Honestly, we've been resting a lot. We have a boat as part of the rental property. Did I tell you that?"
"No, but I'm ready to get on it." I glanced over at Emily and smirked. "Who's been driving that thing? I know Cindy hasn't."
"Me and the occasional boy Cindy brings home. I swear this girl is a man-magnet."
"She looks like a model," Emily added to the conversation.
"So do you, under those clothes," Dedra chuckled as I gave Emily a knowing look.
"Whatever. You guys need us to grab anything before we get there?" Emily tugged at her seatbelt.
She hated to be the center of attention, and I was hoping like hell I could help her get over that during our next few months at the lake together. She deserved the world, and yet it would be her own fault if she didn't get it.
"Nope. We just need you guys." Dedra's voice was filled with excitement.
"We'll be there shortly. Tell Cindy to round up some hot guys. We need something pretty to look at after the week we've had." I let out a short sigh and picked up the phone. "See you soon."
Emily glanced over at me as I dropped the call. "Thanks again for staying behind with me. I'm not sure I would have gotten through Mimi's funeral without you."
"I'll always be here for you. Now it's time to leave the past in the past and enjoy our summer. You ready?"
"Hell yes. Drive faster."
Chapter Two
Brody
"You getting tired of all of this yet?" Daniel glanced over at me as we lay on the dock just outside the house, our feet skimming across the top of the lake.
I opened my eyes and turned to look at him as I ran my hand over my chest. "Is that a joke? We have a boat, plenty of beer, and a new wave of scantily clad chicks rolling in daily. This is heaven. I'm staying forever."
He laughed and turned to look up at the sky. "Real life waits at the end of this summer. Sucks."
I sat up and grumbled under my breath at him. "Always pissing on the parade."
A boat pulled by just a few feet from us and the group of girls on it started to give us shit. I couldn't have been more thrilled. Daniel not so much, but me? I knew how to handle a woman, and they were all the same.
"Hey, good looking," a leggy blonde called out as she stood up from the passenger's side seat of the boat, pulling off her sunglasses.
"Hey there. You guys behaving yourselves?" I glanced down the lake, not giving her too much attention.
Daniel sat up beside me and growled. We'd been friends for a while, and he was a good guy – maybe too good. He hadn't
dated much. School mattered too much to divert his attention from it.
And, that's why you'll be a doctor and I'll be a pauper.
"Behaving?" The girls laughed. "Who wants to behave? That doesn't sound like fun, at all."
"Right." I pressed my hand into the dock beside me and pushed up, getting to my feet in one smooth motion. I pulled my t-shirt over my head. "Come get me. I'll drive you girls around a little."
"Brody. Come on, dude," Daniel mumbled and got up, giving me a look.
"What? Come with us. What harm can it do? There's a blow job in one of those girls. No?" I was half-whispering, but could have cared less if all of them heard me. Most of us were at the lake to get laid and forget about reality, and I was their king.
Daniel turned his attention back to the girls as they giggled. "You think?"
"Yep." I turned back to blondie. "You up for it? Like to go fast?"
"I love fast." She tapped her friend's shoulder as the girl bobbed up and down in the driver’s seat.
The driver pulled her headphones off and glanced up. "What?"
"We're letting sexy over there take us for a ride." Blondie glanced up to me and tilted her head. "You prepared for the afternoon?"
Condoms. I slipped my hands in my pockets and shook my head.
"Nope. A pretty woman like yourself doesn't go everywhere prepared for a chance encounter with the man of her dreams?" I gave her a sexy smile, letting my eyes moved down her taunt, tanned flesh, imagining all the ways I could make her moan. She was breathtaking, and yet a dime a dozen.
"Is that a joke?" she laughed.
"I guess so." I bent down and picked up my shirt before turning to Daniel. "Let's go, buddy. Time for a beer run, anyway."
We started back toward the house as she called out to me. "Wait. Where are you going?"
I looked back, but didn't stop walking. "To get prepared for the next boat of hot women — unless you're still here when I get back."
"What? I'm not waiting here for you." Her anger was cute. It was nice to know in advance that she was a drama queen – from calm to raging in three point two seconds.
"Your loss, baby-doll." I glanced down the street before tugging at Daniel's t-shirt. "Let's go, buddy."
"What the fuck just happened?" He glanced over his shoulder and jogged across the street with me. "Were those girls really going to let you drive the boat? There's liability insurance that has to be filled out for that sort of thing. It doesn't just cover everyone.”
I popped him in the chest and lifted my eyebrow as we stopped on the other side of the road by the rental house. "Hey, we're 22, not 82. Slow your roll on being a stiff, okay?"
"Whatever. You guys are going to learn one day that life isn't a game." He glanced back over his shoulder as indecision raged across his face. "Are we going back down there?"
"Nope." I gripped the side of the patio railing and pulled hard, hopping over it and leaving him to walk up the stairs.
"What? Why not?" He jogged up beside me, tugging at my arm by the front door. "The brunette was kind of cute. I wouldn't mind talking to her."
"Talking?" I laughed and pushed the door open. "There's no talking to those kinds of girls, Dan. They want a quick fix and that's it."
"Quick fix? Sex?" He laughed sardonically as he closed the door.
"Sex?" Clay glanced up from reading a magazine. My oldest friend was stretched across the couch, his short, stocky frame only taking up two thirds of it.
"You need some? They're selling it on pier 322." I wagged my eyebrows and walked into the kitchen to search for something to eat. "Where's Derek? Still sleeping?"
"No, he met that girl a few nights ago at the club in town, remember? Sarah, Sandra, Stephanie?" Clay groaned loudly before walking into the kitchen, rubbing his chest. "I'm still sore from playing ball two days ago. What the hell?"
"We've been laying around for almost three weeks, Clay." I turned and back-handed him in the chest. He tried to get out of my reach, but I was captain of the rugby team: “Quick” was my middle name.
"Fuck, dude. I told you I was hurting." He swung at me playfully.
I moved and caught his arm, pulling hard and pressing him to the refrigerator before putting my shoulder into his back.
"What's on the agenda today?" I reached around and poked his chest again before moving back and laughing.
He came out of the hold swinging again. The only thing he connected with was Daniel. The poor guy had chosen the wrong time to come in the kitchen.
"Ouch, that hurt." Daniel swung back, not capable of putting too much of a hurt on anyone. Where Clay was short and stocky, Daniel was tall and thin as a rail.
"Hey; all my fault." I lifted my hands and smiled as they turned and started after me. I busted through the front door and was halfway across the street by the time they came out of the house. I stood on the other side of the road and laughed at the look on their faces. Joke’s on them.
"Are you coming?" a pissy voice called from behind me.
"Oh fuck," I mumbled and turned around as a smirk lifted my lips. "You still here, baby?"
"You told us to wait," one of her friend's piped in.
"Right… About that…" I never got out another word. My two friends grabbed me and together wrestled me to the edge of the dock before launching me off of it.
I hit the water laughing. Payback was hell, and I was grateful for a reason to put the hurt on them soon. I came up in time to get a glass of beer to the face.
"I hope the alligators in this lake eat your dick off." The blonde threw the cup at me.
I lifted my arm and diverted it as a laugh bubbled up in me. "That might be good for everyone around here. He'd be full for a week."
"Ugh. Get us out of here, Tesa." The girl moved back as I submerged myself under the dark blue water and pushed off toward the dock. Girls were readily available and more than willing to strip for any swinging dick. I was just grateful that the offering was plentiful.
I had only one rule: sleep with them once and never again.
In all my years of fooling around with women, I'd never failed to hold tight to it, and as far as I was concerned, that wasn't going to change for a long time.
I pulled myself up onto the dock and glanced over my shoulder as the blonde turned toward me and tugged her top off. Her breasts were beautiful and big enough to send a shockwave of desire through me.
"See what you're missing?" She shrugged, causing them to bounce.
"I'm right up there in cabin 10-A. When you're ready for the best experience you'll have this side of heaven, come find me. I don't chase women, sweetness. There's no need for it."
I turned and jogged across the street, hating myself for not climbing into the boat and giving in to her. It would have been an afternoon of lust, as I have no doubt that each of her friends would have wanted a turn, too, and who was I to deny anyone?
I walked back into the house and pulled my swim trucks off. "You fuckers. You're going down for that."
"Oh yeah?" Clay looked up from the couch about the time I lodged my trunks at him. They smacked him in the face, and I laughed so hard I had to reach out and grab the table next to me.
"Yeah, bitch. Where's Daniel? I need to slap him around a little." I walked down the hall as Clay chunked my suit at me.
"Get something on. No one in here wants to see your ugly, white ass, and Daniel is shitting his guts out. He's scared of you, remember?" Clay called at me as the front door open.
I turned back, hoping to shock Derek with my nudeness, finding him and a pretty girl, instead. He was talking about something and had his head turned around toward her, but her? She was watching me.
Her eyes widened and she gasped as she pointed at me. "Wow."
"Yep. Home grown." I nodded at Derek as he turned to see what was going on.
"Brody. Shit, man." He moved in front of the girl, and I walked into the kitchen, grabbing a hand towel and a beer. I dried my hair and walked back into the living room as
Derek was trying to hustle the girl out of the house.
"You should stay. We're playing strip poker. I just suck at cards." I turned my attention back to Clay, who was chuckling.
"You're a fucker, you know that?"
I dropped down on the couch beside him, slapping at his feet to make room for me. I opened my beer and dropped the towel in my lap. No need to make everyone overly jealous.
"Yeah? I kinda like me." I took a long drink of the beer and leaned back, letting out a long breath. "Most women like me, too."
"Yeah, yeah. God's gift to women and shit. We all know." Clay nudged my arm with his foot. "You're going to find some intelligent, sexy minx one day, and you know what's going to happen?"
I looked over at him. "We're going to fuck like rabbits?"
"No," he sat up and chucked the magazine at me. "She's going to be everything you want in a girl, and she's going to deny your ass – plain and simple."
I caught the magazine and laughed deep in my chest. "Is that a joke?"
Daniel walked in, his complexion pale. "Is what a joke?"
"Stomach upset, buddy?" I asked before taking another sip of the beer.
"Something like that." He dropped down in a chair close to me and shook his head. "Are you naked?"
"Yep. You can thank your bowels for good timing." I patted Clay's shoulder. "Your buddy here got a pair of wet swim trunks to the face."
"Oh, great. At least he got his already." Daniel pressed his hands to his face and leaned back. "We need to find you a girl to sleep with. You're too damn aggressive otherwise."
"Sleep with? Who wants to-” I was cut off by Derek's loud, country voice as he barreled back into the house.
"Really, Brody? Shit, man." He closed the door and walked in, stopping beside the couch nearest to me.
"What?" I looked over at him. "Pretty girl, by the way. How much did you pay her?"
"She said you guys slept together a few nights back, and now she was looking for a real man." He shrugged and laughed as he turned toward the kitchen.
"Did we? I'm losing track of them." I yawned and rubbed my hand over my chest.
"Why do you do that?" Daniel asked, his voice softer than moments before.