Rushing In: A Small Town Family Romance

by Claire Kingsley

  “I’ve got the scene list at home,” Levi said. “But we should do the water scene today. We can do it out at the springs so you guys don’t get hypothermia.”

  I shrugged. “Works for me. Although I still think I should be Patrick Swayze.”

  “Nope,” Logan said. “You’re the youngest, so you have to be Baby.”

  “You know this movie surprisingly well,” Asher said.

  “I did my research,” Logan said. “Just get your ass to the springs in an hour.”

  Asher laughed. “Okay, okay. I need to take Grace home. I’ll see you guys out there.”

  Evan made a noise that was somewhere between an annoyed groan and a menacing growl. But he still didn’t say no.

  I glanced over my shoulder and waved at Fiona. Evan was a grumpy bastard, but he’d been a lot more cooperative since she came into his life.

  I went home to change with Levi and Logan, then we all piled in Levi’s SUV. There were several natural hot springs nearby. One had been turned into a spa, and another was on private land and you had to have a reservation. But there was a big one not far from the lake that mostly locals knew about. It was a bit of a hike to get there, but that was good. I needed to build up my stamina anyway.

  We hiked out to an old ramshackle cabin near the edge of the pool and put our stuff down. Steam rose from the glassy surface of the water and tall pines towered over us.

  This would be a great place to bring Sky. The cabin was kind of creepy, but that was actually a plus. She liked creepy shit.

  Asher and Evan came down the trail and Logan passed out costumes while Levi flipped through a spiral notebook.

  “Logan and I made a list of the scenes we need to film,” Levi said. “It skips the boring shit and the parts where you guys would have to make out.”

  “Yeah, we have our limits,” Logan said. “I added some notes, did you see those?”

  “There aren’t any tanks in Dirty Dancing. Or explosions.”

  “It would have been a better movie if there had been.”

  “For fuck’s sake, can we just get this over with?” Evan asked.

  Levi did a few takes of the grumpy dad scenes with Evan, using the cabin as a backdrop. After a quick wardrobe change, he filmed me dancing down the trail. The original was on stairs or a bridge or something, but it was the best we could do. I hammed it up and even made Evan and Levi both laugh.

  They shot a few more things in and around the cabin. Then it was time for the water scene.

  Levi elbowed me. “Swim trunks, man.”

  “Right.” I stripped off my clothes and looked down at my legs. “Do my legs look lopsided? I can’t tell from up here.”

  Logan tilted his head and looked me up and down. “Little bit, yeah.”

  “Damn it.”

  “Jesus, Gav, put something on,” Levi said.

  “Just get back in the gym,” Asher said. “You’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure I shouldn’t film this naked? You could just block out my junk in editing.”

  “No,” Levi said. “Why would we do that?”

  “Because a grown man naked is always funny.”

  “I’m not lifting you over my head with your junk hanging out,” Logan said. “Put on your shorts.”

  I rolled my eyes, but grabbed my swim trunks and tugged them on. “Fine.”

  Logan and I got in the pool. The water was pleasantly warm—a nice change after the cold air.

  “All right, you guys have seen it,” Levi said. “Logan, you have to lift him over your head. Once he’s up, just fall backward and Gav, dive in.”

  I glanced at Logan. “Dude, are you sure you can lift me?”

  “Of course I can lift you. Let’s do this.”

  “You guys ready?” Levi asked. “Action.”

  Logan grabbed me around my ribcage and I jumped up, then back down. We made a few more attempts, but it didn’t feel like I was getting very high.

  “This is the one,” Logan said.

  “Don’t fucking drop me.”

  Bending my knees, I pushed off the bottom, mostly with my right leg. Logan hoisted me up and for a second, I was in the air over his head.

  “Holy shit, you guys did it!” someone said from the bank, right as Logan’s arms started to buckle.

  Instead of diving forward, I crashed on top of him, pushing him under. Warm water went up my nose as I belly flopped. Logan’s limbs were everywhere, thrashing to get back to the surface.

  I did a somersault under water, then my feet found the bottom. I stood and sucked in a lungful of air. Evan and Asher slow-clapped from the bank.

  Logan rubbed his eyes. “You fell on me.”

  “You fucking dropped me.”

  “Were you recording?” Logan asked. “Because I’m not doing that again.”

  Levi watched something on his phone. “Oh yeah. I got it all. This is perfect.”

  We got out and changed back into regular clothes. I was about to ask who wanted to go grab a beer, when Evan did one of the weirdest things I’d ever seen him do.

  “If you guys want to come out to my place, I have beer,” he said.

  We all stared at him. He almost never invited us over willingly. Mostly we just showed up at his house.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Sounds good,” Asher said and patted him on the back.

  Logan and Levi exchanged a look that seemed to say, what the fuck? I just grinned at him and grabbed my shit. I knew he secretly liked hanging out with us.

  We drove to Evan’s place. He had a house and a shop on a big chunk of land a couple of miles outside town. Fiona wasn’t home, but his big ass guard dog, Sasquatch, was at the door to greet us.

  Evan had the coolest dog ever. He looked like he could rip your face off. It was awesome.

  Evidence of Fiona was everywhere in the house. She had so many houseplants it looked like a jungle in here. Their pots all had names written on them in white chalk—Myra, Blanche, Rosemary, Frances, Betsy, Joan, Barbara. Fiona’s habit of naming her plants was pretty cute, and they made Evan’s house a lot more homey.

  We grabbed beers out of the fridge and settled in the living room while Evan took Sasquatch outside. When they came back in, his dog eyed us like he wasn’t sure he was going to allow us to stay in his den.

  Logan shifted uncomfortably. “Is he going to attack?”

  Evan’s lip twitched in a smile. “Sasquatch, go lie down.”

  I snickered. He loved scaring Logan with that dog. And it was funny, every single time.

  “Where’s Fiona?” I asked.

  Evan shot me a glare, which I totally deserved. I’d put a lot of energy into flirting with his girl before they got engaged, just to rile him up.

  “She’s out with Grace and Cara.”

  Logan shuddered.

  I stretched out my booted leg and took a long pull from my beer. We’d done good work today. “How soon will the movie be done?”

  “We’ll probably need to do some more filming, and then edit it all together,” Levi said. “Shouldn’t take too long.”

  “We should hit them with it on the last Saturday before they close for the winter. It’ll be packed.”

  “Good call,” Logan said. “So Gav, who’d you have over last night?”

  “Me?” I asked. “Wait, you were home last night?”

  His mouth twitched in a grin. “Yep.”

  Shit.

  “You had a girl over last night?” Asher asked. “I thought you were dating Skylar.”

  Levi coughed on his mouthful of beer. “You’re dating Skylar? As in Chief’s daughter?”

  “No, no, no.” I waved that off with my hand. “I’m not dating Skylar.”

  “Really?” Asher asked.

  “Yes, really. I think I’d know if I was dating someone. We’re just friends.” I took a sip of my beer and eyed him. “Why?”

  “I just heard you were dating her.”

  “I heard that too,” Evan said.


  “Where the fuck are you guys hearing shit about me?” I asked.

  “I heard it too, but I assumed it was just a rumor,” Levi said.

  “It is just a rumor,” I said. “We’re not dating.”

  Logan still had his eyes on me, and that fucking smile hadn’t gone anywhere. “So who’d you have over last night?”

  “None of your damn business.”

  “I knew it,” Logan said. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in when Chief finds out?”

  “Come on, it’s not like we’re teenagers. She’s a grown woman. She can do what she wants.”

  “Yeah, but Chief’s still going to be pissed.”

  “We really are just friends.”

  “Yeah, you guys seemed very friendly last night,” Logan said.

  “Fine, friends with benefits, but that was her idea,” I said. “I can’t help it if I’m that good. Who can blame her?”

  Logan snort-laughed. “Right.”

  “I was at Cara’s the other day. I think you left your TFD jacket there.” I was lying my ass off—I hadn’t been to her house and I’d never seen a TFD jacket there—but if he was going to pick at me about Skylar, I was going to kick him in the nuts right back.

  He glared at me. “Fuck off.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t yours?” I asked. “Maybe it was Levi’s.”

  “Don’t bring me into this,” Levi said.

  I took a casual sip of my beer while Logan kept glaring at me. “I guess it could have been someone else’s. I don’t know who Cara’s fucking these days.”

  “You didn’t see a TFD jacket at Cara’s house,” Logan said.

  “Yeah I did.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “If it wasn’t yours, why do you care?”

  “I don’t.”

  I grinned at him. “Sure you don’t.”

  Asher threw a pillow at me and I blocked it with my elbow.

  “Be careful with her,” Asher said, shooting me a look with all his oldest brother power behind it.

  I picked up the pillow and tossed it back at him. Be careful with her? As if I didn’t already know that. I liked Skylar—a lot. She wasn’t some toy I was going to toss aside when I got bored. I cared about her. In fact, I felt…

  Leaning back against the couch, I took another drink, stopping that train of thought. Because the truth was, I felt a lot of things for her, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do about that.

  27

  Skylar

  Hunkering down in my coat, I held my coffee cup, feeling the warmth seep into my hands. The early morning air had a bite to it, and as I looked at the knot of middle-aged men congregating near the river’s edge, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were all a little crazy.

  They were dressed in bathrobes tied around their ample waists. A few wore boots or hats against the cold. Despite the way they rubbed their arms or blew into their hands, they all seemed to be in good spirits. Joking and laughing, their breath misting out in clouds around them.

  Ginny stood next to me, her eyes wide with curiosity. She clutched her coffee close, but her attention was entirely on the growing crowd of Tilikum townspeople. Quirky small-town traditions were Ginny’s catnip.

  We were down here at the crack of dawn for the annual Tilikum Pumpkin Plunge, and all those bathrobe clad men were going to jump into the freezing, glacial fed river.

  “I love this take on the polar bear plunge,” Ginny said.

  “I can’t believe they’re getting in that water,” I said. “I can see jumping in when it’s hot out, but it’s freezing.”

  “Obviously that’s the point. Did you know it’s competitive? The guy who stays in the longest wins.”

  Involuntarily, I shivered. “They’re crazy.”

  “I know, that’s what I love about it. Risking hypothermia for bragging rights. It’s adorable.”

  “You’re a little bit strange, you know that?”

  “It’s part of the fabric of their community. I find it fascinating.” She pulled out her phone and took a few pictures.

  The crowd continued to grow. Grace and Asher picked their way down the trail. He had an arm around her and her cheeks were flushed from the cold air. Both were bundled up, as were Evan and Fiona, who came down the trail just behind them.

  “You’re not jumping in?” Ginny asked.

  Asher laughed. “Hell no. Those guys are nuts.”

  “This is so exciting,” Fiona said. “I’ve never been to something like this before.”

  Evan’s eyes swept the river and the group of bathrobe-clad men. “It’s just a bunch of old farts making their balls shrink.”

  Fiona wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. “I think it’s adorable.”

  “You’re adorable,” Evan said.

  “Hey cheesebrogers.” Logan approached, dressed in a TFD sweatshirt and jeans. Levi was with him, and neither of them looked like they had any plans of jumping into the river.

  “I’m disappointed,” Ginny said, looking Logan up and down. “I thought for sure you’d do it.”

  Logan flashed her a grin. “I don’t need to jump in a freezing river to prove my manhood.”

  “No?”

  Cara appeared behind the twins. “He wouldn’t want to engage in that kind of test of manhood in front of an audience. He’d start yelling about shrinkage.”

  Logan flinched away, like she’d startled him. “What the fuck. Where did she come from?”

  Cara cast him a sidelong glance and went to stand in between Grace and Fiona. “I don’t know why you’re always surprised to see me. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

  “A guy can dream.”

  Cara rolled her eyes.

  Gavin came down the trail wearing nothing but sandals and what looked like underwear. He carried a towel draped over one of his broad shoulders. His outfit—or lack thereof—left little to the imagination. He was all lean muscle and olive skin. The sight of him—especially almost naked—sent a flurry of tingles through my body.

  Ginny leaned close and lowered her voice. “Wow. I do not blame you.”

  “I know, right?” I said quietly.

  “Damn it, Gav,” Asher said. “Did you have to wear those?”

  “What?” Gavin asked, looking down at himself. He wasn’t just wearing underwear. He was wearing underwear with Asher’s face right on the crotch. “They’re basically a Speedo.”

  I stifled a laugh.

  “You’re utterly ridiculous,” Cara said. “You know that, right?”

  He just grinned at her.

  “No more boot?” I asked.

  “Nope. I’m officially healed.” He lifted his legs one at a time, bending them at the knee, as if to emphasize his point. “Feels good to be back.”

  “I take it you’re jumping in?” I asked.

  “Of course I am. I do it every year.”

  He waved to his fellow river jumpers. They didn’t look pleased to see him. A few crossed their arms and they grumbled to each other.

  “What’s that about?” Ginny asked.

  “They’re disappointed Gavin showed,” Logan said.

  “Why?”

  “Because he wins every year.”

  “Aren’t you cold?” I asked.

  Gavin shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “And that doesn’t bother you?”

  “Not really. I’ll warm up later.” He winked at me, then turned back to his brothers. “Am I really the only one taking the plunge this year? I’m disappointed in you.”

  “We’re happy to let you represent the Baileys,” Logan said. “Also, you’re nuts and we’re not.”

  “Or I like to have fun and you’re all boring.”

  “How is jumping into ice cold water fun?” Logan asked.

  Gavin grinned, his eyes widening. He looked a little crazed. “How is it not fun?”

  Cara’s phone rang and she smiled when she pulled it out of her handbag. “Oh good.
I’ve been waiting for her to call me back.” She winked at me—which was kind of odd—and wandered away to take her call.

  Quite the crowd had gathered along the riverbank. I caught sight of my dad a little bit downstream. My mom was with him, wearing the cutest knit hat and very impractical shoes. She teetered a little, but Dad caught her before she could fall. Their eyes met and I held my breath. Oh my god, was he going to kiss her?

  He didn’t, and a second later whatever had been happening over there—if anything—had passed. Dad put his hands in his coat pockets and Mom turned her attention to the river. I’d probably imagined it anyway.

  “Is it just me, or are your mom and dad hanging out a lot these days?” Ginny asked.

  “Yeah, they are. Mom tends to invite herself along whenever he’s going somewhere that isn’t work. Although come to think of it, he asked if she wanted to come down here this morning.”

  “Interesting.”

  The truth was, I didn’t know what was going on with my parents. They could go from sharing happy memories of my early childhood to snipping at each other in seconds.

  I was also pretty sure I’d caught my mom trying to peek in Dad’s bedroom while he was changing the other day.

  A man in a dark coat climbed onto a rock near the water’s edge and raised a megaphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, the great city of Tilikum would like to welcome you to the forty-fourth annual Pumpkin Plunge.”

  A cheer went up from the crowd. Gavin hollered and punched his fist in the air.

  The announcer held up a crown decorated with pumpkins and orange, yellow, and red leaves. “The winner will be crowned Tilikum’s Pumpkin King! Or queen, but I don’t think we have any female plungers this year.”

  “That’s because women are too smart!” someone yelled, earning a laugh from the crowd.

  “All right, all right. Gentlemen, make your way to the front.”

  Gavin handed me his towel. “Mind holding that for me?”

  “Sure. Be careful.”

  “I’ll be fine.” He winked, then made his way down to the river’s edge.

  The rest of the plungers stripped off their sweatshirts and bathrobes. Gavin was the lone twenty-something in a sea of middle-aged beer bellies and gray-haired chests. He smiled and shook hands with a few of his fellow daredevils, then started jumping and shaking his limbs out, like he was getting ready to run a race.