“Tonight?” I ask, my chest pinging with excitement.
“Nah, tomorrow. We’ll just chill tonight.”
I nod, reaching for my phone. “Can I invite my girl?”
“Yeah, of course,” Darian answers with a grin. “Anyone’s invited. Let’s get a little crazy.”
“All right.” I smile, not loving the idea of this place getting out of control, but 100 percent loving the idea of Mandy joining me. She’s gonna love this place.
I text her immediately.
Hey baby. You up for a party tomorrow night? Aspen lake house will be going off. Would love you to be here.
She doesn’t make me wait too long, and my smile grows a mile wide when my phone pings with her reply.
Mandy: Sounds awesome! Send me deets and I’ll be there.
That’s my girl.
I fire off the details and send a few kiss emojis as well.
She never uses emojis, but I can’t help myself. I’m in love. I haven’t actually told her that yet, but I try to show it in a myriad of ways so that when I do finally say it, she’ll know it’s coming.
I don’t think the words will scare her off. She seems pretty into me too, but we’ve only been official for about four weeks, and I want to play this carefully. I want us to stay together after the summer, and I won’t do anything to jeopardize this relationship.
“Where should I put my stuff?” Cash asks.
Mac glances up from his phone. “Wherever you can find a space, man.”
“Sweet.”
We all split up, heading in different directions to check out the house and find a bed. I go upstairs and take the room next to the bathroom. There’s a king-sized bed in there, and it’s got a great view of the forest and the edge of the lake. Mandy will love it in here.
Placing my bag on the end of the bed, I take a quick look around the upstairs. There are like six bedrooms up here. Most of them have multiple beds in them, and I wonder if I should be sharing.
I head back downstairs to check with Mac and find him outside, smoking a joint. Gross. Weed smells like dog shit.
I stand upwind so I don’t get a face full of smoke.
“Hey, is it cool if I take the bedroom with the king upstairs? The one next to the bathroom? I can move if you want a room to yourself.”
He shakes his head. “Go for it, dude. I don’t need a room to myself.”
His shoulder hitches, and I remember that he’s an only child. I can’t even recall how I found out. Probably from some article about his actress mother or his stupidly rich dad. I come from an upper middle-class family, so I’ve never been without or anything. But Mac’s an elite. His dad must be a multibillionaire, surely.
Biting my lips against asking, I turn and rest my forearms on the railing. The view is stunning. The lake isn’t huge, so you can see across to the other side of it. There are a few mansions scattered around the water’s edge, but they’re nestled in clumps of pine trees, so everything feels very private.
A jetty runs out from the lower deck with an expensive-looking speedboat anchored off to the side. My gaze travels across the rest of the outdoor area to the hot tub. I wonder if Mac ever jumps from the stones surrounding it into the freezing lake. I can just picture him running down the jetty with a banshee cry and cannonballing into the water before running back to the hot tub and burning his flesh as his body adjusts to the sudden temperature change.
I bet he’s had some fun times here.
When he glances at me, I smile at him. We don’t really spend too much time together off the court, and I can sense the awkward silence creeping over us, so I quickly fill it.
“Nice of you to invite us down here, man.”
He hitches his shoulder hitches and takes another drag. “It was Darian’s idea.”
“It’s a good one.” I nod.
