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Leo shrugged, that smile devilish now as he said, “It was nothing.”
“Who was she?” I couldn’t help but ask as the blood rushed to my head.
“Just some daughter of one of my dad’s friends. We spent the summer sailing the islands with them.” He shrugged again. “She wanted me to walk with her, and I did, and then we sort of just fell into it.”
“It?”Hunter prodded. “Like…you did more than kiss her?”
“No,” Leo shook his head. “I mean, like, we talked and then she wanted to be held, and we sat on a towel on the beach, and she had her head on my shoulder and—”
“Did you touch her anywhere else?”
I blinked in annoyance at Hunter’s eager questions, annoyed even more that Leo was laughing wickedly in response. “A little. It wasnothing,” he re-iterated. “Just a kiss, you know?”
“With tongue?”
I wanted to elbow Hunter, but I bit my lip and crossed my arms instead, pretending to school my face as Leo shook his head, “No, no tongue.”
Hunter dropped back down on his back, letting out a long breath. “Nice one, Leo. You beat me to it.”
A flare of irritation raced through my chest. “You guys were competing?”
Hunter grunted. “Yeah, I bet I’d get kissed by a girl before summer ended.”
Leo nudged his shoulder against mine, whispering, “It didn’t mean anything, Skye.”
I nodded once, hiding the strange pain in my chest, but suddenly I didn’t feel so good anymore. Didn’t feel so special. I just smiled weakly, burying the hurt, reminding myself that these guys were my friends, that while we were closer than friends ought to be, neither of them had ever made a move on me.
And that was fine.
That was okay.
It was the way it should be, which was why the burn I felt at his declaration didn’t make sense. I should have been happy for him, but I wasn’t. My eyes stung, and I felt an empty cavity in my chest like something big—something I hadn’t even noticed before—had been scooped out.
Before that night, I’d never even considered how I would feel if either of them liked other girls. Before we ever understood feelings of that kind, we were the three musketeers, adventuring through town, growing up with nothing but our imagination running the show. But this…this was part of growing up. At some point, we would all start searching for some form of intimacy.
I just didn’t think we’d officially gotten there yet.
“What was her name?” I wondered, for no other reason than to satiate my curiosity and jealousy over this girl I’d never meet.
“Candice,” Leo said thoughtfully. “I’ll probably never see her again.”
I wondered what she looked like. My mind conjured her up in that nanosecond. A slimmer, taller, prettier version of me. Richer, too, because she was part of Leo’s family circle, and they oozed money.
All Hunter and I ever oozed was grit and dirt.
I hated Candice and I didn’t even know her, and I wished with all my heart I would never get to, either.
“Well,” I said sweetly, swallowing back my hurt and plastering on an easy smile, “I’m really happy you had a fun summer, Leo.”
And Iwashappy for him. I wouldn’t have liked it if he had been bored or unhappy. Even then, I wished nothing but the absolute best for my boys. So, if he happened to like kissing that stupid pretty princess, that was alright by me. I’d get over it—better yet, I was sure I’d get over it by morning.
But then Leo studied me in the dark, and the way his brows came together, it was like he knew the direction of my thoughts. A brief look of remorse washed over his features. I ran my fingers over the frown of his brows, smoothing them out, giving him a reassuring look.
Still, he seemed off.
“Anything extra memorable happen here?” Leo then wondered next, looking to Hunter.
Hunter glanced at me, a soft smile on his face. “With Skye, every minute was memorable, Leo.”
