“Yeah. I’m guessin’ that wouldn’t be too hard to do,” I shot back without thinking of the implications of my burn. “My national ranking’s about your age. You wouldn’t be able to catch me if I gave you a twenty-yard head start.”
I got a round of whoops and hollers, mostly laughing as I threw the gauntlet. Josh didn’t care, he joined in with the others, impressed with the way I came back at him.
“It’s all good. You can have it because we’ll be goin’ to state for sure,” Josh added loudly and lifted a hand for a round of high fives from the other guys.
The hum in my ears grew louder, drowning out all the other sounds around me. The pull I’d experienced overrode everything else, giving me no choice but to turn toward the girls. When the object of my subconscious attention came into my vision, it was as if I’d been struck from out of nowhere by a heat-seeking missile. I was stunned I stayed on my feet.
My heart drummed frantically against my rib cage. My body tingled all over. For the first time in my life, the self-disgust I lived with vanished. Replaced with a radiant, beautiful, stunning guy.
A heavy weight lifted off my shoulders, but the feelings didn’t last. The urge to hide was too much a part of my psyche. My heart became a battlefield, fighting against my core.
Luckily, the choice in the decision was taken from me with a hard knock against my aching shoulder. When I turned, at least four sets of eyes stared at me. I forcibly resisted the connection until I understood better what was going on.
“Which one are you interested in? Remember, Ginny’s my sister.” Josh swelled his chest in an effort to look intimidating. I gave a half-hearted smile. No, Ginny held no appeal to me.
“Who else’s over there?” I asked.
“Chae, Jessica, and Ginny. Mandy and Tracy are over there too. You gotta remember them. I guess. Maybe they’ve changed,” Josh said. “I don’t know.”
“Who’s the guy? I don’t remember him.” I prayed my voice sounded casually interested.
“You wouldn’t know him. He’s here with his sister I guess, who’s here with Donny. Their dad owns the resort everybody hates. That’s why nobody’s talkin’ to him. We all had to promise not to give ’em shit. Donny’s got a thing for whatever her name is.” Josh gestured toward a couple swaying as close as they could get to one another. I didn’t remember Donny.
“Go for Mandy. She’s easy,” Hunter said.
“Hey, that’s my girlfriend,” J.J., another guy in the circle, said, using both hands to shove Hunter backward several feet. All the attention was taken off me, landing on Hunter. J.J. leaped forward, tackling Hunter to the ground.
It was like a wild wrestling match that somehow felt expected with the way their friends circled the guys to get a better view. Sides were instantly taken. The cheers rang, urging on the fight.
“J.J.” Mandy screeched at the top of her lungs. The high pitch pierced an octave above the boisterous crowd. I was impressed as she bolted into the fight, Jessica on her heels. “Stop!”
My heart raced like a Kentucky Derby winner as I took several steps backward. I needed a way out of the situation and all the bad decisions this guy was likely to stoke within me.
I made a beeline along the outskirts of the party. Hopefully, once I hit the road, I could hitch a ride back to my grandparents’ house. If not, the walk wasn’t more than four or five miles. My escape turned into reality as I neared the closest cluster of trees, allowing me to slip away.
“Beau, where you goin’,” Chae called. My shoulders tensed. I could pretend not to hear her but she might follow. But maybe she wouldn’t…
“I’ll be back. I gotta go…” My words trailed off, letting the implication handle itself.
“Hang on,” she said closer to me. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
No matter who she was with, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for small talk. I took another step toward the trees, but my damn ingrained manners got the best of me, reluctantly forcing me around.
My injured knee buckled into a funky stumble as I saw the blond guy walking stride for stride beside Chae. Jesus. He was as pretty up close as he was at a distance. Actually, prettier. Honestly, too beautiful to be real.
I put my fists on my hips, but I wasn’t sure why, so I lifted a hand and nudged my ball cap from my forehead, scratching the hairline that wasn’t in the least bit itchy. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he chimed back, mimicking me. Something confident and knowing crossed his face. What did that mean? “I’m Dasham.”
I nodded. Dash-am. More like Dash-ing. Dash.
Maybe I pulled off casual as I pushed at my hair to place the cap back on. It was probably in my best interest not to look directly into his eyes, making my stare land on his chin. “I’m Beau. Or I guess you know that because she used my name...”
My normally steady tone cracked like it had when I entered puberty. Jesus, I wasn’t fit for company. Best to stick to my plan and hightail it out of there ASAP. “Sorry. The airs got me…allergies…” As I fumbled over my lie, I clamped my mouth shut and cocked a brow at my own stupidity. I fisted my hands again and put them on my hips.
“You go by Dash?” I asked. What the hell was happening to me? I never put my hands on my hips, causing me to drop them to my sides.
“I do now.” He grinned a genuine smile, making my heart ache. Chae laughed at me—not with me—like she’d been doing for most of my life. They weren’t wrong. I wasn’t fit for company. I pivoted around to continue with my escape plan. Screw my worry about being rude.
