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“Frankie,” he said, setting the sodas down and facing me. Sometimes I forgot just how tall the guys were until we were face to face. He was well over six feet, all of them were, but Bubba and Jake were the tallest. Since I was 5’6, they towered over me. Tipping my head back, I raised my brows. “Look, I don’t know what all went on with you this summer. Or why you needed time away from us… If you want to tell me, I’m here. But I missed you. There’s no one else here to bug us. We can throw on suits, get in the water and just cool off.”
Despite the smile and cajoling tone, there was a real need underscoring it all. Irksome as the boys could be, we’d all been friends for a long time. I never really set out to be in their back pockets. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out how it happened. I’d have said at one point they’d become my best friends…before.
Right now, my friend needed me, so I set aside the rest of it and made a face. “Fine, but if you dunk me, I’m going to consider kneeing you in the nuts as fair retribution.”
His smile was the sun breaking out of the clouds. “Sweet. The swimming part,” he amended. “Not the nuts.”
I laughed. “I didn’t think you’d be excited about that.” I let him herd me up the stairs before we split up, me heading into the guest room and him heading toward his. The suits were right where his mom said they’d be. The blue one was brand-new, like it still had the tags on it and there was the plastic in all the right places. A razorback, the suit fit me snuggly and thankfully didn’t cut so high I had to worry about wedgies.
Been there. Done that. Hated it.
I folded my clothes and left them on the foot of the bed, then slid my socks in my shoes. I debated leaving my hair in the ponytail but took a minute to braid it. Sometimes the elastic came loose and then I had a face full of hair. I’d considered cutting it a few times, because frankly the hair was a pain in the ass, but it also grew super slow, so no cutting until I was ready for it to be short forever.
The air conditioning seemed even colder after I’d swapped out clothes for the suit. There were swim towels in a cabinet by the backdoor to the pool. Bubba’s bedroom door was open, so I headed downstairs. The patio door had been left open, like an invitation, and our sodas were on the table under the big umbrella. Bubba’s parents had transplanted a couple of big palm trees to add to their landscaping. Between those, the colorful furniture, and the pool, it was a little tropical paradise. They even had a soaking pool with a fountain in it that helped cycle the water through.
The scent of chlorine teased me as I padded over the hot stones. Bubba raised his head out of the water. Dressed in trunks and nothing else, he looked like he belonged in one of those commercials about how to cool off in the hot summer. Tanned, densely muscled, and built solid, he had a mouth-watering physique that I made a point of not ogling.
I’d had enough guys staring at my tits after they made an early appearance in third grade. In fact, Jake and I cemented our friendship the day he beat up Trevor Markham for deciding to squeeze one of my boobs. The odd, fleeting memory made me smile, and I shook my head. Jake had always been like that. He could pick on me, no one else could. So I guess his giving Kent a black eye had some precedence.
Besides, it wasn’t Bubba’s looks that made me appreciate him. It was his bright smiles and puppy dog eyes.
The guy in question released a whistle. “Damn, you make ordinary look good, Frankie.”
Ordinary?I glanced down at the suit before picking up my soda and taking a sip. “It’s a suit, Bubba.”
“You could have gone for one of the bikinis.” He gave me a playful leer and wagged his eyebrows. The look totally didn’t work for him, and I snickered.
“Yeah, because I’m known to wear bikinis so often.” Not that I didn’t own one, but I’d never worn it.
“Huh,” he grunted, swimming over to the side and pointing to his soda. “Do you mind?”
I carried his over and took another sip of mine before sitting down on the warm paving stone and putting my legs in the water. The pool was nice; the water cooler than the air but not cold. It felt pretty good. I’d left my sunglasses inside like a dork, so I just closed my eyes, lifting my face to the sun, and leaned back, hands against the pavement. I couldn’t do this for long, I’d burn.
“Okay,” I admitted, eyes still closed. “This was a good idea.”
“You’re not actuallyinthe pool yet,” Bubba pointed out.
“I will,” I said, waving a hand him like shoo. “But this is just nice.” Not running, not studying, not working or worrying, just sitting with the sun on my face, the warm breeze chasing away some of the sweat and the cooler water lapping at my legs.
With a laugh, he pushed away. The splashes told me he was swimming. He used to swim every day. He had weight equipment in the garage. He and Jake would run together, or had, wasn’t sure if they still did. Bubba was one of the most physically active people I knew.
I worked, sometimes forty hours a week, and he mademetired.
Still, I peeked to see his broad back rippling as he cut through the water. He made it look so easy—and good. Shaking my head, I sat forward, took another sip of the coke, then set it back down before pushing off and into the water. It was a lot colder against my sun-warmed skin. I blew out a breath and laughed. Bubba glanced at me from the other side of the pool and grinned. Shoving away from the side, I cut through the water, arm over arm.
I hadn’t gone swimming once this summer. Hell, the closest I’d been to a pool had been here at Bubba’s place and then it had only been to walk outside to get away from the noise to find nearly half the guests were either making out in the water or on the loungers.
Shoving those discomforting thoughts away—the very vivid reminders of my isolated status and those behind that isolation—I kept swimming. I couldn’t match Bubba in speed, but I didn’t try to. We swam back and forth across the pool, our laps bringing us abreast of each other in the middle only to pass each other again.
After my tenth, I drifted back over to where I’d left my soda and leaned against the side. Bubba did another ten before he finally swam over to join me.
“Good idea, yeah?” He wore such an open smile that it required I respond in kind.
“Not bad,” I admitted. “Been a while since I went swimming.”
“You’re always welcome,” he told me, laying his head against his folded arms and studying me. The sun was on his side, leaving me to squint, but I shrugged.
“You know how it goes.”
