“I just wish I could go back and do something different. Maybe if I had been a better friend…”
“No. No. None of that,” she says. “Some people are just sick and evil. Leo is one of those people.”
I nod and lay my head on her shoulder. “I’m so glad I have you in my life, Stacy,” I say.
“I’m here forever, babe. We will be old and gray, terrorizing the nursing home together,” she says, and I laugh.
We sit on the dock and don’t move until we hear footsteps behind us. When I turn, I see Lance, Mason, and Dean walking over, focused on me.
When Lance wraps me in a hug, it forces tears to surface. “I’m sorry,” I sniff and pull away to wipe my face.
“Don’t apologize, baby,” he says softly, cupping my face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just dwelling on memories I shouldn’t be thinking about,” I say. “I’ll be okay.”
“Well, we have a whole week to make more memories,” Mason says as he hugs me. “This is the first of many years that Stacy will come with us, so we can all start fresh.”
“Yeah,” I smile.
“Have you two gone inside?” Dean asks, and I shake my head.
“I wanted to wait for the three of you to be here,” I admit, and look down at my hands. Dean lifts my chin and softly kisses me.
“Let’s go inside,” he says sweetly. I nod and go to take a step toward the cabin, but he scoops me up and tosses me over his shoulder.
“Put me down,” I giggle and tickle his side. He smacks my ass as he carries me, and I yelp.
When they get the door open, he carries me in and drops me to my feet. “What would you like to do?” Mason asks.
“Sadie and I are going swimming,” Stacy says as she grabs my hand and pulls me away from everyone before they can grab me.
We go upstairs with our bags and get dressed in our bikinis. We are in no rush, so we come downstairs twenty minutes later, and all of the guys are dressed to go swimming.
“What are you guys doing?” I ask with a frown.
“Swimming,” Mason says with a grin.
“Mhmm,” I say. I grab a towel for Stacy and me before we go ahead of the guys to the lake. We lay out our towels and stand on the dock together.
We turn when we hear footsteps running down the dock toward us. I scream when Jake wraps his arms around my body and jumps into the water, still holding onto me. When we surface, he keeps a hold on me.
“You’re going to drown me,” I complain and wiggle against him, trying to get free. Stacy is laughing, and I see that Del has done the same thing to her.
“Better hold on then,” Jake laughs and tickles my side, making me squeal. I put my arms around his neck, and he loosens his grip as he moves his hands to my waist.
“Have I told you recently that you’re an ass?” I ask.
“You only say that because he pulled you over,” Mason laughs.
“It made me late for meeting Del and Ben, but in hindsight, I guess that didn’t matter because all they did was diddle me,” I say, and Stacy laughs.
We are all in the water now, but somehow Stacy and I have ended up surrounded by them.
“So, what are we doing this week, Little Demon?” Lance asks as he pulls me to his chest.
“Ideally, avoiding being attacked by the 8 of you,” I say as I wrap my legs around his waist and loop my arms around his neck.
“Aw. But we brought blindfolds,” Lance teased.
