“Gage,” she warns. “Don’t you dare! I should have known it was your little hooligans leading this attack.”
Her white T-shirt is drenched to the point I can see the black one-piece swimsuit she wears underneath. Her hair, in its high ponytail, is plastered against her neck.
Without losing momentum, I drop the squirt gun and grab Olivia around the waist before launching us both into the lake. I hold her tight as we fall and splash through the surface of the water.
She grips my arms as we come up again, both treading water to stay afloat. Taking advantage of the situation, I skate my hand up her side and around her back. Her breath catches, and she tilts her chin up to look at me full in the face.
Drops of water roll from her hairline down her face. I follow a bead as it slides down her forehead, between her eyes, off the tip of her nose, and drips right onto her lips.
I glance around us. Pulling Olivia behind one of the wooden dock pilings, I press her back against it and besiege her mouth with mine. She retaliates with equal force, hooking her legs around my waist and drawing me closer.
It’s a stolen moment, but I pull away before anything gets out of hand.
Olivia grins at me, and we both swim toward the shore.
When she gets out, I tear my eyes away from the shorts sticking against her skin long enough to notice a streak of green slime across the back of her T-shirt. It must have smudged onto her from the piling.
She turns her head and catches me staring. “What?” she demands.
I smirk. “Nothing, babe.” After all, thisisa war.
I look around to see my boys are as sopping wet as the girls, and the weapons are pretty evenly distributed between the two groups now too.
Everyone is laughing and having fun. I think we can call the battle a stalemate.
Chapter seventeen
Olivia
Iamnowinasituationship of sorts with Gage Carter, the boy—now man—I’ve been on-again, off-again in love with since I was thirteen.
In a way, this plan is brilliant. I have lots of experience with situationships and brief flings that don’t go beyond a few dates. I’ve been the queen of “date ‘em and dump ‘em” for years, but using that same strategy with the one man I actually want is a dangerous game.
One thing I know for sure is that I don’t want Annie to find out. Based on that phone conversation when I first got to camp, if she thought there was even a smidgen of a chance that Gage and I could be something serious long-term, she’d be over the moon. I don’t want to get her hopes up.
Lying in my bunk, I gasp and pull out my phone to text Gage.
Olivia:
you haven’t said anything to Annie about us, have you?
He replies right away.
Gage:
Not yet
I breathe a sigh of relief.
Olivia:
let’s not
The dots indicating Gage is typing appear and disappear several times before his reply comes in.
Gage:
Annie is my best friend
