“Yeah, well, uh…” When he trailed off, my eyebrows shot up, but I kept laughing.
“You can’t say the same, can you?”
“Uh. No?”
“Are you asking me?”
He groaned. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re judging.”
“I am not.” I sighed. “Okay, maybe a little, but the point is that it’s still true. I don’t just hook up with people.”
“It wasn’t just hooking up to me,” he murmured, the humor fading from his eyes again as they locked on mine. “I don’t want you to think it didn’t mean anything to me. It’s just that at the same time, we both need to remember that I don’t live in Quartz Pass.”
As I stared back at him, I appreciated what he was trying to do. We really did both have to manage our expectations here, but with him looking at me so intently, I almost melted completely into his gaze, convinced that we could work something out.
Until Avery revved the boat’s engine and someone yelled, “Hang onto your butts!”
The next moment, the boat surged forward and our tube launched like a missile. A scream tore out of me just as Theo started cursing under his breath. His muscles tensed as he clung on for dear life.
Avery might’ve sworn to take it easy on us, but he didnotkeep his promise. He took off directly for a wake and hit it hard, launching us into the air when we hit seconds later. One moment, I was still holding on, but the next, I was flying through the air and then I was underwater, mentally cussing at my brother.
As soon as I resurfaced, Theo was beside me, which had to mean that he’d let go of the tube as soon as I’d fallen off. Concernwas etched into his features as he found my hand underwater. “Holy shit. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “That’s Avery for you. It’s his personal mission to make sure no one stays on for longer than a minute. I think it’s his way of trying to save on gas for the damn boat.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he repeated, squeezing my hand with his eyes once again locked on mine. “It looked like you hit the water pretty hard.”
“I’m fine.” I smiled. “That wasn’t my first rodeo and I’m not made of glass. I swear, I’m okay. For now. I’m going to kill my brother later, though. I might need you to bail me out of jail.”
He chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”
Tugging me a little closer, he searched my face carefully, as if he just needed to reassure himself, not at all caring about the water dripping into his eyes from his hair. Sunlight danced across the lake around us, those green eyes so vibrant in this light that I felt completely mesmerized by them.
My eyes dropped briefly to his mouth, and when I glanced up, he was staring at my lips in turn. I started bending toward him, the distance between us shrinking slightly as he did the same. My pulse sped up, his hand tightened on mine, but before anything else could happen, the boat pulled up beside us. Avery leaned over the pontoon. “Nobody died, right?”
Instantly, the moment shattered and I closed my eyes. Theo groaned, but Avery just grinned at both of us, then waved us back onto the boat. “Come on, slowpokes. I’ve got a cold beer waiting for each of you and Luis says it’s his turn on the tube.”
CHAPTER 21
THEO
By that night, our campsite looked more like a small festival than a bonfire with friends. Throughout the day, word of the party island had spread and people from other campsites around the lake had shown up, turning it into an actual party on the shore.
The fire kept growing larger as stacks of firewood were added. A few guitars were being strummed by some of the newcomers who were apparently in a local band. I was having a great time with Avery and his friends, really fitting in now that they’d all accepted me.
I sat in a folding chair with a beer in my hand while Jared told me about all about some local legend involving gold in the lake. Nearby, some of the others were trying—and failing—to throw horseshoes. Laughter was echoing through the warm night air.
Unfortunately, getting to know these people also meant fielding questions about myself. Jared eventually exhausted the local legend and leaned back in his chair, titling his head as he looked at me. “So, what exactly do you do in Chicago that allows you to take this much time off your job?”
I shrugged. “A little bit of everything. I work for the family business, so getting the time off wasn’t that much of a problem. I just had to tell my older brother I was leaving. Keeping him off my back about going home is what’s difficult.”
Several people laughed, but one guy—either Jason or Mason—frowned. “That still doesn’t really tell us what you do for a living, though. Do you sell drugs or something?”
I snorted. “No. Why the hell would you think that?”
He gave me a one-shouldered shrug. “Usually, when people are that vague, it’s for a reason.”
“No reason here other than it isn’t all that interesting,” I said, doing my best to sound breezy and casual. “God made me the youngest brother, which means I’ve got a bit more freedom than the others to figure it out. We’re in, uh, the broader finance sector.”
