She dipped her toes in, the fabric rustling in her lap as she held her skirt above the water.
“What areyoudoing out here?” I finally asked.
Her mouth twisted into a frown, and the tiny dip between her eyebrows deepened. Fixing her stare on the pool, she watched the water swirl around our feet. Then her lower lip trembled.
My hands tightened into fists, some deep-rooted instinct flaring to life in my chest.
“Do I have to kill Todd Weebly?”
She huffed a laugh, but it rang hollow as silence fell around us again.
My hands twitched as that instinct grew stronger, and I tapped her leg to settle the sudden discord inside me. “What happened?” I prodded gently. “You can tell me. I won’t judge.”
Skepticism written all over her face conveyed her disbelief.“You live to judge me, Blake. It’s like your favorite pastime besides football and boning chicks.”
“Fair point. At least about football.” I huffed, and when she shot me a pointed look, I gave her one right back. “I think you might be confusing me with you.”
“What’s that mean?” She pursed her lips, her skepticism deepening but her question lacking heat.
I shrugged. “It means I’m not the one who believes every rumor I hear.”
As she tilted her head, a lock of her light hair fell out of her clip. She’d curled it for the dance, pinning the top half back in a jeweled hairpiece I recognized as one of her mom’s.
It looked beautiful.
Shelooked beautiful.
Forcing my focus off that errant golden strand, I met her gaze. “I’m not screwing my way through every girl in our senior class, that’s all it meant.”
“Oh.” Her forehead wrinkled as she fell quiet.
My admission hung in the silence between us.
Both equally lost in our thoughts, I waited for a few minutes before I nudged her with my shoulder. “Spill it, Addie. What happened?”
She threw her hands in the air. “You were right, alright!”
As soon as she released it, the skirt of her dress fell into the water.
“Oh, shoot!”
Grappling for the fabric, she tipped toward the pool.
Like a reflex, my arm slung around her waist, keeping her from falling in and pulling her into my side. She sat back with her dress bunched in her hands, her eyes jumping from my arm holding her close around her waist up to my face.
Her breathing hitched.
I forced a swallow.
And the realization that I hadn’t been this close to her in years hit me like a ton of bricks. I could see every freckle dusting the bridge of her nose. The hints of the sun in her hair. The deepest flecks of violet in her blue-green ocean eyes.
I should’ve released her, but I couldn’t get my hold to loosen. “What was I right about?”
Addie’s eyes fell to my lips, equally distracted by the sudden huskiness in my voice.
As I swallowed again, I forced down a different instinct. One that rose so suddenly, I almost couldn’t fight it. I cleared my throat, praying she’d refocus before I crossed a line that cost me the Barrows’ trust.
She blinked up at me. “What?”
