“I’m not a lady.”
Theo chuckled. “The way you look in a bikini suggests otherwise.”
My eyes popped wide open, my first instinct to check over my shoulder to see if Avery had heard that, but he’d already turned back to Luis. Finally, I took Theo’s arm, but it was mostly because I couldn’t be trusted to stand on my own two feet right then.
That hadnotsounded like a joke and Theo wasn’t looking away from me either, just smiling as he watched me. Heat rushed to my cheeks, my usually smart mouth completely dumb right now.
When did he get so bold? Or has he always been bold and I’m only noticing now?Either way, it had caught me completely off guard, but what was even more worrying was I liked it. It had been a long time since I’d actually wanted male attention, but now that it washisattention, my heart was suddenly attempting gymnastics.
I’m spending the whole day tomorrow in my bikini. Purely for scientific reasons, of course. It has nothing to do with the fact that I’d like to feel him staring at me all day.
Theo’s smile widened as we walked, like he could hear every embarrassing thought running through my head. Stars twinkled overhead as we made our way down the path toward the cabins. The sounds of the campsite eventually faded behind us.
I was supremely aware that I still hadn’t offered any comeback to that line, but try as I might, something clever and cutting kept evading me. Finally, I let go of his arm, but I stayed close, wondering what Miley or any other woman who was actually capable of flirting would do right now.
But the only thing I came up with wasnothing.
Because I desperately, truly didn’t know what to do or say. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want this tiny bit of time I had with him to end just yet.
CHAPTER 17
THEO
The walk from the campsite to the cabin couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, but we stretched it into twenty. Maybe even thirty.
I wasn’t really sure, but I also wasn’t complaining. Raquel walked beside me, so close that our shoulders bumped every so often.
I would have preferred if she’d just kept holding on to me, but she’d dropped my arm like I was toxic just moments after we’d left the firelight. At least she was sticking close though, neither of us apparently interested in creating more space between us.
“Do you see that?” she asked a few minutes into the walk, pointing toward a dark shape a little ways up the hill.
I followed the line of her finger, struggling to make out what it was at first, but as I squinted at the structure, I realized there was a platform hidden among the branches of an old tree. “Is that atreehouse?”
She let out a soft giggle, not a sound I’d heard from her before, but definitely one I wanted to hear again. My pulse kicked up in response, my hands practically twitching to touch her at this point.
“Well, once upon a time, it was a treehouse, but now it’s more like a safety hazard,” she said, hesitating for a beat before she continued, but her voice was different now, taking on that slightly hushed quality of memory lane. “Dad built it years ago with a few of the guys who owned cabins around here.”
My eyebrows shot up, my steps slowing as I tried to get a better look at it. “That thing is enormous. How the hell did they manage to build something that big, that high up?”
“It was a labor of love,” she said. “I know it doesn’t look like much now, but it’s survived pretty much my entire lifetime of being abused by every kid who came here. Every summer, kids used to race for it and we’d play our hearts out while our parents set up camp. The second the RVs stopped moving, we’d disappear into that thing and only go back when they called us down for food or swimming.”
I chuckled, squinting through the dark again as I tried to picture it, little kids sprinting toward the treehouse while parents wrestled with tents and gear. “That sounds awesome. I’m suddenly jealous.”
It wasn’t even a lie. I could easily imagine the lake being packed with families who returned year after year, the kind of place where everyone knew everyone and the kids couldn’t wait to see each other again.
Raquel bumped her shoulder into mine. “Don’t be too jealous. Avery fell out of it one year. Straight onto the picnic table.”
“Ouch.” I winced. “Was he okay?”
“Well, I mean, he broke his arm, but yeah. Otherwise, I think the bruised ego was the worst injury he suffered.”
“Did he cry?” I asked, grinning. “He did, didn’t he? I bet he bawled his eyes out.”
“You’re a terrible friend.”
“I’m the best. It’s a friend’s job to keep you humble, right? I can think of a few ways that reminding him of his treehouse misfortune might help with that.”
She laughed. “Hey, if you want to keep him humble, I won’t stand in your way. There are plenty more stories where that one came from.”
