“Can’t punish the boy for his whole life just for a little misadventure.”
I nodded. The sun was still hot despite the late hour, and now that I was standing here in nothing but a pair of shorts I realized how thick the layer of dust was on my skin.
“You wearing sunscreen?” I asked as I dropped my towel on the dock.
“I’m going swimming, I don’t need it.”
“Actually—” I started, but I didn’t finish my sentence. She was already jumping off the dock cleanly into the water.
She surfaced and the sun reflected off the lake with such force I had to squint and almost lost sight of her. “Get your butt in here, the water is fantastic.”
Skye leaned her head back to get all of her hair into the water. My eyes caught on the long line of her throat. I was worried my interest was going to become very obvious in my shorts, so I planted my feet and took a running leap into the water, creating as big a splash as possible.
The cool water enveloped my entire body and the tension left with it. I surfaced and shook my head. Not that I had much hair to get wet. I kept mine buzzed short, an old habit from when I’d been into MMA.
“You splashed Kyle!” Skye said, gesturing toward the dock.
I glanced over and couldn’t help but laugh. The cat was standing in a puddle, soaked from head to toe. The little mohawk was back and he was aggressively licking his back.
“He was fine with the water before,” I said defensively.
“I’m sure he’ll get over it. Besides, splashing is part of the fun.”
She laid on her back, her chest just peeking out above the surface, distracting me before she kicked her feet and sent a wall of water at me.
I sputtered as it hit my face and she laughed hard.
“Oh, so you want a splash fight, huh?”
She smirked in response.
She took off swimming fast in the opposite direction and I ducked under. The lake wasn’t crystal clear, but it wasn’t full of seaweed and algae either. I easily spotted her foot as she swam away.
She was fast, but I was faster. I grabbed her ankle and yanked her under for a moment before letting go.
We both surfaced at the same time, only inches apart, laughing and catching our breath.
“You’re more of a menace than Kyle,” she teased.
“You started it.”
Skye rolled her eyes.
I wanted to keep up the banter, but I was too close to her not to have my heart rate kick up. Little drops of water slid down her forehead from her hair, catching in her lashes or dropping off her chin. She’d gotten more sun today, and extra freckles had bloomed across her cheeks. I started mentally connecting them into shapes as I watched her face.
“You’re staring,” she said, her voice lower now. She moved closer and our hands brushed.
“Sorry.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay. I was just wondering what you were thinking.”
“I was thinking I could spend all day just looking at your freckles and connecting them together,” I said honestly, then immediately regretted how that sounded.
What kind of seventh-grade poetry attempt was that?
Her face softened and she moved closer still. “Are you flirting with me?”
“I’m not sure what I’m doing,” I admitted. My honestly had me mildly horrified at myself.
