His mouth twitches. “Cheating?”
My lips quirk up into a half grin. “Yeah. I mean, I taste so damn good it masks my bad breath. Guess that just means you’ll have to wake me up that way every morning.”
“Doesn’t sound like much of a hardship to me.”
Nope, it sure doesn’t.
Just like Knox predicted, Sunny, Joe, and Sam are waiting for us at the lake a couple of hours later. We took our time in the shower—though I don’t know why considering we walked out into one-hundred-degree weather—then made breakfast. Knox ran back to his place to grab clothes and essentials, whatever those were, before showing back up with his brother in tow.
Clay took one glance at my messy hair, swollen lips, and the love bite I didn’t even know Knox left on my neck and gave me a thumbs-up.
Not embarrassing at all.
“Maria would love you,” he said.
Whatever that meant.
After Knox hit his brother on the back of the head, we packed up sandwiches, snacks, water, and beer and headed down towards the lake.
Even from twenty yards away, I can see Sunny’s legs bouncing up and down, probably dying to run over here and get all the details. She eyes me knowingly then gives Knox the same scrutiny. He ignores her and gets to work lathering sunscreen all over my body, not being even the least bit inconspicuous when his hands dive into my bikini bottoms and I squeal, getting the attention of everyone around us.
Sunny’s beaming from ear to ear; Joe’s smirking; Clay’s laughing; and Sam? Poor Sam is looking anywhere but in our direction.
I’m trying not to blush, and I’m pretty sure I’m failing miserably. Ignoring the lot of them, I return the favor for Knox—yes, that also means dipping my fingers into the back of his bathing suit—though he doesn’t quite find it as amusing as I do. He grabs a couple of beers and chucks me a water, and then we settle in the sand next to the gang.
Just as I’m taking The Gloryhole Killer out of my bag, Sunny swipes it out of my hands. “No, girl. No.”
I raise my heart-shaped glasses to peer at her. “What, girl?” I echo.
“You take off last night with barely a goodbye, that hot piece of tail practically hanging off you. You’re gonna come here, not say a word, and expect me not to ask?”
“Come on, Sunny. It’s all casual,” I tell her, my eyes widening with a small nod back to Knox, hoping she gets the message that we’ll talk later.
Knox clears his throat. “For the record, while I appreciate the compliment, Sunny, I prefer radical dude over being likened to a rabbit.”
Sam lifts a fist in solidarity. “Righteous, brother.”
Sunny gapes at the both of them then turns to me. “He’s not serious. Tell me he’s not serious. Radical is never going to catch on. Never.”
Clay pipes in. “I don’t know. I hear it all the time in the city. Maybe it’s just slow to become a thing out here in the sticks. All you fuddy duddies.”
Sunny glares at him. “We’re, like, two hours from multiple major cities, you turkey.”
“Take a chill pill, sister.”
That has her laughing, and she gives him a mocking salute. “Ten four, good buddy!”
Joe groans. “No. No more trucker talk. That’s just whacked.”
“Or is it wicked?”
I’m still laughing at their back-and-forth over the ’70s vernacular Grams often laments over when Sunny scoots closer to me.
“I’ll give you back this stupid book if you answer three questions for me,” she says.
“Can we do this later?” I ask through gritted teeth. I might be willing to do pretty much anything in the bedroom when it comes to this man, but I’m not spelling it all out for the boys to hear while they’re still watching us.
Sunny doesn’t say a word. She just turns towards her boyfriend, giving him a look that speaks more than words could.
Joe snaps his fingers and moves to his feet, bending down to reach inside of the cooler. “All right, fellas. That’s the not-so-subtle signal for ‘get the hell outta here so the girls can gossip.’”
Sunny turns back to me with a triumphant smile. We watch as the men each grab a beer and head on down to the shore and into the water. With the sun already beating down on my back, I’m a bit jealous at their cooling off, so I gratefully take the Michelob Light Sunny tossed in my direction.
“Before I left the house this morning, Gran warned me that the combination of beer and sun would send me to the hospital,” she muses before taking a sip from her can.
“She’s probably right.” I point to the cooler Knox carried down for us. “Which is why that’s loaded with water and food. Help yourself.”
She offers me a smile then repositions herself so she’s facing the water. I follow suit, and we both watch the boys in silence while they take turns bouncing a beach ball back and forth. It’s surprisingly efficient the way they’re all doing it one-handed, and I comment so to Sunny.
Without skipping a beat, she replies, “You’d be surprised at what all Joe can do well with just one hand.”
I groan and flick the condensation from my beer in her direction. “You’re such a horn ball.”
I’m preparing myself for her to switch the topic to last night, and she doesn’t disappoint.
“And how about you?” she asks. “Did you get your itch scratched last night, or did he barely scratch the surface?”
Sunny, ever so eloquent.
If it weren’t for the heat, I’d swear I’m blushing at the memory of everything we did last night. And this morning. Tingles alight my body, all the way down to my toes, and if Sunny weren’t watching me so intently, they might’ve curled in remembrance.
“Would it be wrong to say you’re correct on both accounts?”
Sunny’s widening grin answers for her. “So you finally did the deed?”
“Once or twice,” I reply with a coy smile. “Of course, I had to practically beg.”
She sighs, and I want to echo it. “Begging is usually a good sign, Meems.”
“I think he knew what he was doing. Days with just light touches, devouring kisses, and nothing else made me desperate for him. By the time we got back to my place last night, I thought I was going to lose my mind if he didn’t do something more.”
“By the contentment on your face this morning, I’d say he did…and more.”
“You’d be right.”
I’m surprised by Sunny’s answering silence. More than that, I welcome it. She’s my best friend, and while she might be willing to spare no detail when it comes to her and Joe, there are some things I want to keep close to the chest. My night with Knox? It’s definitely one of them. Still, as time passes and the butterflies in my belly increase, I need some girl talk.
“Do you think it’s odd to be so addicted to someone after such a short time?”
Sunny tears her eyes from Joe and lowers her glasses so I can see her eyes. “I think after four years of you blocking out anything good, the fact that he was able to get in there at all is pretty fan-fucking-tastic, Meems.”
“Don’t go getting all excited, Sunny. Just because it feels intense right now, it doesn’t mean anything. We’re just connecting for the summer. Then it’ll fizzle in the fall.”