“Sounds good,” I agree. “Do we need to eat the food right away?”
She shakes her head. “I used ice packs. It’ll be fine.”
I watch as she pulls a towel out of her bag and lays it out. Then she sits down in her bikini top and shorts, leaning back and bracing herself with her hands. I get my drink from the cupholder and grab one out of the cooler for her before settling beside her on my own towel.
I get distracted staring at her chest again, and when I hear her quiet laughter, I turn red, knowing I’ve been caught.
“Aren’t you getting hot?” she asks.
I’m about to say I’m fine, thinking she’s teasing me about my flushed face. But then she raises her eyebrows in what feels like a challenge, and I catch on to what she wants.
Tugging my shirt over my head, I reveal my own bikini top. Mine’s adusty pink and a little skimpier than hers. It’s not something I’d wear in public if there was a chance I’d be photographed, but I’m happy to show it off here.
“Damn, Strawberry,” she says, her voice low.
And if I wasn’t getting hot before, I am now. But it’s less from the heat of the sun, and more from the heat of her gaze on me. I decide to take it a step further and shimmy out of my shorts. Then I lie on my side to face her, propping myself up on my forearm. She doesn’t try to hide the way she’s looking me up and down.
“I’m really glad you came,” I tell her.
“Oh yeah?”
“Mmhmm.” I reach out and place my hand on her leg, running it up until I can tease my fingers under the hem of her shorts.
She sits up and captures my hand before it can creep higher. “Let’s save that for when your brother isn’t watching.”
I glance at the water to find that Andrewwaswatching us, though he immediately turns his head to pretend he wasn’t. He got in the water to give us privacy, but I can’t blame him for being curious. I also can’t blame myself for wanting to touch Addison when she’s right here, her skin glowing under the sun.
She squeezes my hand and doesn’t let it go, resting both our hands on top of her thigh. I smile at the gesture.This is nice.
I like how she’s showing me that we can hang out casually—be something more than friends even when we’re not hooking up. It almost feels like we’re edging into dating territory, but I know that’s not true. Everything I said earlier to my brother still applies.
She’s sworn off relationships.
I’ll be leaving town soon.
We couldn’t work.
But as we chat and laugh and get buzzed on alcohol, holding hands and sneaking kisses, I let myself pretend for a while that maybe we actually could.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ADDISON
WhattheheckisRiley Rowland doing to me?
This is supposed to be about sex, nothing else. Sure, I like her company too. But it needs to end at that. No matter what Brenden and his wild romantic fantasies have dreamed up for me, we’re not going to fall in love and have a fairy tale happily ever after. I’ve already learned those don’t exist. Not for me, at least.
I can have fun. I can hang out and drink and float around in the lake with her. I can check out her gorgeous body in her pink bikini. I can cop a feel or two under the water when no one’s looking. But I can’t, under any circumstances, start to develop real feelings for her.
When she was strolling so casually around my house wearing my clothes, I’m afraid it messed up my brain. The sight of her in my flannel and her underwear was hot as hell, and believe me, it inspired plenty of dirty thoughts. But it also had me thinking more dangerous ones. Like that this thing between us is more than it is. Like we’re together. Like she’s mine.
She’s not, though. Not more than temporarily. And I’m finding that the more time I spend with her, the more often I need to remind myself of that.
Like right now, when she’s treading water with an inner tube around her, her arms crossed on top of it. As she gently kicks her legs, they tangle with mine, because I’m holding on to the outside of the tube. Our faces are close together, and every so often, she leans in for a kiss. She tastes like raspberry seltzer, sunshine, and happiness.
I’m glad she came here in the summer, that I got to enjoy her glowing skin and the tease of her curves in those sundresses she loves to wear. But my mind skips ahead to the next seasons. To the fall and then the winter.
What would it be like to have her around then? To cover up her arms in one of my warmer flannels, to drink apple cider with her at the farm and feed her pumpkin pie. To see her with rosy cheeks in the winter, her neck wrapped in a woolen scarf to keep her warm. Would she wear one of those hats with the little silly pompom on top? Would she let me take her home after walking out in the snow, take off all her layers, and then warm her up with my own body?
