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"Oh" —I wave— "it's nothing. Just hurt it today out on the boat."
Her nose wrinkles as she frowns, tilting her head. "How, though?"
I shrug. "Bumped into this ridge...sort of. The underside."
She widens her eyes, and I can tell she thinks I've lost it. "Oh right,” she says. “I remember, all those ridges we have here. So rocky..." She waves her hand and does a little move that reminds me of interpretive dance. "Mountainous ridges that hang down over the water." She sits down beside me, frowning suspiciously at me out of the corner of her eye. "So, bruh, your stepbrother."
I’m nodding, trying to keep my face neutral, when Arnie Pierce strolls up.
"Arnie. Hey." Arnie Pierce is…the last person I need to see right now. Shit.
“Hey, man,” he says, looking as blond and tan as ever. “What happened to your head?” His brows draw together, and he peers down at me like he’s looking at a bug through a microscope.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a cut.”
As soon as curly-haired Arnie crouches in front of me, I can smell the booze on his breath.
“What were you doing?” he asks. But with his deep drawl, it sounds more like, “What’ere you doin’?”
“Just out on the boat. Anyway, it’s fine.”
I notice Ezra looking my way, and I stand up, feeling my heart throb a little harder. “I’m just gonna go home.” I rub a hand over my forehead, moving gingerly around the sore spot. “I’m tired and all that good shit.”
“Sure you don’t want me to take a look?” Arnie asks.
His eyes sweep my body, and I swallow. “Nah. It’s fine now. How’s college?” I manage.
“Only been at college for a week.” He winks. “It’s all good, though. Came home to grab some stuff I left.”
I swallow again as I nod. “That’s good.”
I keep my head down as I make my way into the living room, where I scoop my keys up from the bookshelf . I step into the hall and pull my phone out, about to text Ezra when Arnie steps into the space with me.
“Hey,” he starts.
My eyes flicker from the phone’s screen to his wide ones. “Hey.”
“I just wanted to say…I miss seeing ya.” He gives a strained smile. “You considering Bama after this year?”
“Maybe.” It comes out a low rasp.
Arnie waves toward the bathroom door—the nearest one on the left. “Why don’t you let me at least clean it up. I’m still doing the EMT thing part-time. Gotten pretty good at it.”
He’s moving into the bathroom, and I feel my feet moving to follow him before they actually are moving, like the act of imagining myself following him made me do it. Then we’re looking at each other, and his mouth is curving up in what looks kind of like hunger, and also, in some other way, like satisfaction.
He steps closer. I feel his warm breath on my mouth at the same moment my hands reach out and close around his elbows. As his head tilts for what will be my first kiss—fuck, I’m about to kiss Arnie—I see movement in the mirror, through the cracked door.
A throat clears outside in the hall, and I feel Arnie’s arm tense under my hand. We pull apart at the same moment, and I lunge for the doorknob—my palm damp, my heart pounding, because somehow, I just fucking know.
Five
Josh
"What is this, two men and a bathroom? You dudes know we're up here in the twenty-first century, yeah? You can get your own hotel room."
Fuck, he's so loud.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I growl.
Ezra steps into the bathroom with us, grinning coldly as he shoulders past Arnie. "I'm not talking about anything. I just came to powder my nose. Which is different, kids, than putting powder up your nose."
When we both look at him—Arnie’s probably shocked, and I'm speechless with blind rage—Ezra hooks his thumbs around the waist of his red trunks. "You can stay if you want, but I don't really roll that way. Nothing sexy about taking a piss, ya feel me?"
"Fuck." Arnie hurries out of the small space, and I glare at Ezra before I follow.
"Jesus,” I say, pulling Arnie into a nearby room. “I'm so sorry."
His eyes widen. "Is that your new stepbrother?"
I arch my brows in confirmation. “’Fraid so.”
Arnie shuts the bedroom door. His eyes search my face, and for a minute my pulse picks up, thinking he might kiss me…wondering if I should kiss him.
Instead he looks at the floor. When he looks back up, his face is guarded. "Good luck with that, Josh."
And then he's out the door. He’s walking down the hall, back toward the pool deck, like this never happened.
I'm staring after him when the bedroom door opens.
"Are you the top one or the bottom?"
I want to smash his smug face in. I’m so pissed off that my cheeks and neck are burning, but I have to play it off. He doesn’t deserve to feel gratified. I try my best to keep my voice calm, almost ridiculing. "What the fuck are you going on about now, bro?"
