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Our eyes meet, but he doesn’t let go of me, or even loosen his hold. “I didn’t think you liked to swim.”
His mouth tips. Nothing hotter than a Landon Scott smirk. “I didn’t think I liked a lot of things. Then I met you.”
A catcall sounds out of nowhere, interrupting the private moment we were having. I’d forgotten we aren’t alone. “Landon Scott’s in love, boys. Never thought I’d see the day,” Maddox hollers from somewhere in the near distance, sounding back to his old, joking self. His tone is completely different from earlier, like you can hear him smiling. I’m assuming he and Gabby made up in the time they’ve been gone.
One of Landon’s hands leaves my side, and his arm comes out of the water, not stopping until it’s in the air. Curiosity gets the best of me and my eyes follow to see what he’s doing. When I notice he’s flipping Maddox off instead of denying it, I laugh, unable to help it.
Masculine cackling commences from multiple people, and then, as if they planned it, all say, “Welcome to the motherfucking club,” all cult-like.
I look at him, a grin on my face, and I tell him, “Don’t disappoint me now. We got a rep to protect.”
His smirk spreads into a grin, and he returns, “Fuck y’all and your motherfucking club,” in the most unbitter, non-Landon way, as if he’s stumbling over a laugh. Not believable at all.
I propel myself higher while he’s not holding on to me and place my hands on his shoulders, shoving him under the water with my body weight, then move in a hurry toward the side of the pool where my drink is probably already melted.
I don’t get far before a hand grips my ankle and I’m pulled under. I lock in the only air in my lungs from lack of time to inhale, already kicking at him to let me up. He jerks me toward him instead, my legs coming around his waist.
My eyes open when my middle connects with his lower stomach, meeting Landon’s only inches in front of me. Bubbles are coming out of our mouths from the slow release of air. His arm movements—much like a bird flapping its wings—are keeping us from surfacing, but we’re not far under the see-through wall that separates us from them. My lungs are burning, and I shouldn’t have my eyes open with the chemicals in the pool, but seeing him like this is calming. He isn’t smiling nor scowling, and his brown hair is floating all around his head as he stares at me. He just seems . . . at peace.
I think back to the way he was when I met him, and the way he is now, and I can’t help but be proud of myself that I helped change a person when I had so many insecurities of my own. We’ve grown as individuals in such a short period of time that I can’t imagine what we’ll be like five years down the road.
As if we were thinking the same thing, our lips come together, briefly kissing in a way that we don’t have to open our mouths, and the second we each pull back, we surface, like we just needed a second to ourselves to adjust to being a public couple.
Sayler tosses both floats in the pool the second we come up for air, music now playing in the background. Both are floating chairs where your butt sags in the water, the back rounded in a way that is similar to a horseshoe, sort of, one pink and one orange. She’s wearing an innocent smile. “I’ve never seen that boy hit water since we’ve been at this house. If he wants to swim, you’re swimmin’, girl.”
I laugh at her, starting to understand why everyone likes her. When I make it to where the pink one is floating, Landon swipes it out from under me and parks his hot ass in it after a few misses. I splash water at him, my eyes slightly narrowed so that he knows I don’t appreciate him stealing my float, because the water is too deep to be without one. No one aside from athletes or those exercising wants to actuallyswim, we just want to relax in the water.
The dickhead leans back as if to prove how comfortable he is. I swim toward him, ready to dump his ass out, and trying not to look at his lean torso or the scattered tattoos he has. Riggan sets down three cold beers on the edge of the cement and dives in, going to get the runaway for Sayler, I’m sure.
When I make it to Landon, he grabs my hands before I have a chance to do anything. Then he spins me around to where my back is facing him and lifts me out of the water, despite the float rocking, until I’m sitting on his lap just beneath the surface.
It feels weird—him being affectionate in front of his friends. Something has drastically switched in his brain, and I don’t know if it’s all the time alone we’ve had in California or something else. “This seems uncomfortable for you,” I tell him, that phrase a double meaning, and also trying to decide whether to lay back against his chest or just sit upright.
He pulls me backward by the strap of my swimsuit running across my back, answering that question without saying anything at all, and when my arms layer his on top of the float, I notice one of my ponytail holders on his wrist. My heart swells from such an insignificant thing.
“Nothing is uncomfortable when your ass is on my dick,” he says at my ear, one hand now in the water and paddling us toward the side of the pool from the center. When we make it, he grabs one of the three beers and Sayler hands me my margarita in the insulated cup. After I take it, she sits on the edge with her feet in on the opposite side of the ladder from where Maddox and Konnor are doing that exact thing, each drinking a beer.
With our drinks in hand, we start to float back toward the center, Riggan pulling the float toward Sayler for her to get in. When she hops in and gets on the float, he comes between her legs and wraps his tattooed arms around her to hold on and float with her.
Gabby isn’t out here at the moment. I’m assuming she went to put a swimsuit on, since she wasn’t wearing one the first time she walked out here, her face flushed and hair all a mess like she’d just been thoroughly fucked and satisfied.
I look around at everyone sipping on drinks and listening to music as I soak up the sun’s harsh rays, just enjoying being chill and together while Chloe naps under the fan next to the pool table, realizing this summer may not be so bad. The only thing that would make it perfect would be having Navy come down for a two-week period when Landon has to work. That may be a conversation next time we text. The dramatic bitch is probably just waiting for an invite.
When Landon’s free hand laces with mine on top of the float arm, Maddox grins as he brings the bottle opening to his mouth. There must be something deeper with those two than I understand; all three of them, really. Even early on, it didn’t matter how much Maddox prodded Landon, he took it. There may have been some fucked-up things he said in return, albeit, but he took it, nonetheless. And when Landon offered to fight earlier to settle the score, Maddox backed down.
“If you have something to say, Maddox, just say it and get it over with,” Landon says, but he doesn’t sound nearly as annoyed as he used to.
Maddox’s grin grows, but his eyes remain on mine for a moment before they veer to Landon. “I have nothing to say except that you’re a lot less ugly when you’re happy.”
“Then I’ll be a stud when I move to California at the end of the summer,” he replies as calm and collected as he has been, but with an edge of sarcasm mixed in. My heart races like we’ve been keeping a secret.
“What?” Maddox’s head jerks toward Riggan, who is floating with Sayler not far from us. My eyes sway to Konnor, who’s smiling behind his beer bottle, because Landon has only talked to Konnor about it due to the house situation. It’s hard to keep him out of the loop when he pretty much owns the house. Well, him and his sister, Kinzleigh, but she doesn’t have a need for it. Knowing Konnor all my life, he didn’t tell any of them. Wasn’t his business to tell. That’s just Konnor.
“Are you really surprised?” Riggan responds. “He’s there every time he’s home.”
“Yes! This isLandonwe’re talking about. He’s simple folk. Most tight-wadded fucker we know. His whole life is in Mississippi. He’s too country for California.”
“Actually,” I interrupt, pulling my hand out of his without thinking, using it when I talk. “He fits in better than some of the people that have lived there their entire lives.” I roll my eyes. “No girls that speak to me can stop talking about how hot he is. Apparently, that thick accent just adds to the appeal. My best friend Navy makes him talk for her all the time.”
