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Chapter 1
The Third Wheel
Wilder Cox has been the third wheel in my relationship with Cash Allred since we started dating freshman year of high school. In fact, I can't think of a single relationship milestone Wilder wasn't present for.
He pretend-gagged when Cash asked me to be his girlfriend at lunch the first week of high school.
He shot death glares at me the first movie night I was invited to at Cash's house.
He grumbled from the backseat when Cash got his driver's license, and I was assigned the front seat of Cash's brand-new truck.
He gasped when he walked into Cash's room after we had sex for the first time, and we were still naked.
He groaned and moaned all through senior prom because his date, Kerrigan Lewis, drank too much in the limo and spent the whole night puking in the bathroom. Instead of slow dancing with just Cash, I had to slow dance with Wilder, too. People started asking us if we were a throuple after that. We are definitely not.
And right now, he's goading my boyfriend into jumping out of a large oak tree into the shallow creek below.
Some things never change.
Wilder Cox has been—and always will be—the third wheel in my relationship with Cash Allred.
"Come on!" Wilder yells from a sturdy branch above the crystal-clear creek. "You're only young once, Cash. Do you want to spend it lying on a rock with your girlfriend? Or do you want to jump out of the fucking tree with me?"
Cash sighs beside me. "I'd rather not break a leg, Wild. Or my face."
"Your dad's a plastic surgeon," Wilder waves off. "He can fix your face."
Cash chuckles and sits up. I glance at his toned stomach as the sun bathes my boyfriend's body in a golden glow.
Cash Allred is beautiful. The kind of beauty that makes my heart ache every time he drops me off at home and his taillights disappear down the road. Sandy blond hair, eyes bluer than the sky, and a smile that's always stopped me dead in my tracks. Four years later, I still pinch myself every time I remember the moment I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he blurted out, "Will you be my girlfriend?"
Yes, Cash. Yes then. Yes now. Yes always.
Cash leans forward and places a chaste kiss on my lips. "I'm gonna go for a dip. I'll be back in a minute."
I prop myself up on my elbows and watch as Cash jogs over to the creek, the muscles in his back constricting with the swing of his arms. He's sexy. The kind of sexy that makes things achy and needy down there.
I hate that this is our last summer together before he starts school at Johns Hopkins in the fall. His dad pulled some strings, so Cash will be leaving me—and I guess, Wilder—behind for Baltimore in three short months to pursue medicine. Cash's dad wants him to go into plastics, but he's more interested in pediatrics. Cash has never met a kid he hasn't absolutely fallen in love with. Sick kids are no exception.
"Geronimo!" Wilder yells before jumping off a flimsy branch above the creek bed, and my eyes slide from my handsome boyfriend to his harebrained best friend.
Cash's back tenses. The water is too shallow. We both know it.
I close my eyes as Wilder disappears under the water. A loud splash echoes off the shade trees as I inhale sharply.
I slowly open one eye and sit up straighter, waiting for Wilder's dark, idiotic head to appear. When it doesn't, I stand and rush over to the creek.
Cash is already wading in, swimming toward Wilder's lifeless form beneath the clear water as I cover half my face with my hands.
The moment Cash grabs his arm, Wilder shoots out of the water, sputtering with laughter. "Your," more laughter, "faces right now. I wish I had a camera."
I breathe a sigh of relief as Cash punches Wilder in the arm. "No one is going to believe you're really hurt if you keep pulling asinine stunts like this one."
Wilder's eyes widen in disbelief. "Did you just say ass?"
"No," Cash quickly replies. "I said asinine."
"You better hope Daddy doesn't hear you cussing," Wilder teases him. "He might make you put some of your trust fund dollars in the offering plate Sunday morning. You know, as an atonement for your filthy mouth."
