Lacey laughed and said, “Cam, I really am okay. I want to go again. I’ll flip it over this time and be fine.”
“Let me check it first.”
“I will agree to that.”
Cameron smiled and without thinking, she took Lacey’s hand and walked them both out of the water before she let go of it and found Lacey’s boogie board. She ran her hand over it and found the issue.
“A piece of fiberglass just tore off here a little. This is fiberglass, right? What is this thing made of?” She pulled off the offending piece. “They let kids play with these things?”
“Cam?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go,” Lacey insisted.
Cameron handed her the board and said, “Fine. But if you get scratched again, we’re going inside.”
“Deal,” Lacey replied and took off toward the water.
Cameron just watched her run for a second and thought about how free she looked in that moment.
CHAPTER 18
Lacey
She was happy. She smiled, laughed, and yes, screamed a little, but it was the fun kind of scream. She rode that board all the way in until she fell off it into the inches of water, and the waves rolled over her. She lay on her back and laughed because she’d made it, and Cameron was behind her, standing up and holding her own board under her arm. She hadn’t made it. Lacey had won this time. She hadreallywon because Cameron Levine was walking toward her in a bikini top and board shorts, tossing her messy hair back and looking at her with a smile and those blue eyes. She looked…
“Perfect,” she muttered to herself.
But it was more than just how Cameronlooked. Yes, the woman was an actress in Hollywood, so she was beautiful. Everyone could see that. It was more than just that, though. Cameron was nice, gentle would be a word that Lacey would use, but she also seemed to understand that Cameron wasn’talwaysgentle and that had wetness building between her legs that shouldnotbe there. Cameron was funny, too. She was different than Lacey thought she’d be. Kennedy was about what Lacey had thought she’d be, but not Cameron. It was almost as if because Kennedy was essentially brought up in the industry and Cameron wasn’t, that they had totally different approaches tolife. Lacey knew it was unfair to make those kinds of judgments because she didn’t know either of them well and hadn’t spent much with Kennedy at all, but they were there all the same.
“Want to go again?” she asked when Cameron dropped the board behind them and sat down in the surf next to her.
“I’m exhausted. I think you’re the winner.”
“Only five to four.”
“Is that better or worse than one to zero?” Cameron asked, likely recalling their air hockey game from the night before.
“I think we can call it even,” Lacey suggested.
“Sounds good.” Cameron turned her head back toward the house and asked, “Do you want to stay out here for a few more minutes? It’s lunch soon anyway, and at least out here, we don’t have the cameras.”
“That sounds really good, actually,” she said and picked up a rock that was on her other side, holding it between her thumb and forefinger.
It had been there for a while at least or had been in the water previously because it was smooth on both sides. She ran her thumb over that smoothness, and it calmed her a bit from the thought that had just entered her brain. Soon, they’d have to go inside. Therewouldbe cameras. There would be River and Kennedy and cameras and pressure to put on smiles she didn’t want to aim at either of them, and she’d have to avoid smiling at the one person she wanted to smile at, which was the wrong person for that smile because they both had partners.
“What are you thinking about?” Cameron asked after a long moment of shared silence.
“Loaded question,” she replied without thinking.
“Yeah? Why?”
Lacey turned her head and saw Cameron looking at her now, not the water in front of them.
“You know what you’re going through with Kennedy?”
Cameron nodded.
