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Frowning, he shook his head. “You’re only two years older than me.”
“That still makes you thebaby.”
“I really hope that doesn’t become a thing.”
Nia laughed and then gestured to her glass turning in a slow circle. “You need a drink,” she announced, wandering off for a brief moment before returning and holding one out to him.
“What is this?”
“Beer.”
Gavin made a face. “Isn’t beer gross?”
“I like beer,” she said, shrugging as she took a sip of her drink. He watched a drop of the alcohol slide down her jaw, his eyes then following the curve of her throat. Heart racing as he admired the dark freckles on her skin from all the sun, Gavin forced himself to take a sip from his glass. He shuddered and smacked his lips, because beerwasweird.
Nia was suddenly wrapping her free arm around his neck and swaying side to side, but Gavin couldn’t hear any music over the sounds of the bonfire crackling or people speaking. Was she drunk?
“Dance with me!” Nia said, tipping her head back to finish her drink, giggling when she stepped on his bare feet. Whether she knew what she was doing or not, Gavin was completely fascinated by how incredible Nia looked. Her hair fluttered in the light breeze and sand clung to parts of her arms and shoulders. She’d always been the most beautiful girl he’d known and in this happy drunken state, she was captivating.
“I like you,” Gavin told her, the hand on her waist stiff as he watched her come to a halt, eyes bright as she smiled at him.This was not the way I wanted to tell her.
“Is that so?” Nia swayed, wrapping both arms around his neck and Gavin inhaled the floral scent that he’d come to associate with her. “Well, what are you going to do about that?”
His eyes dropped to her mouth, wondering if she’d slobber all over him like Missy had, and before he could scare himself out of taking a shot, Gavin kissed her. He felt Nia hesitate, her body freezing against his, but as he started to pull away, Nia’s hand splayed over the back of his head and she kissed him back. He was ready to apologize and run far away, but her mouth parted against his and he felt her tongue move over his bottom lip. Gavin inhaled deeply and opened his mouth, moaning as her tongue slid skillfully in as she guided his head to the side slightly. His drink had been abandoned at some point, both hands were on her hips, fingers curling into her sides as he held her close.
The party raged on around them, but he was so completely hooked onto Nia he didn’t care. All he could focus on was how gentle she was, how warm her mouth was, how smooth her skin was—how that was the best kiss of his young life.
It was only when someone stumbled into them that Gavin broke the kiss and fully registered what he’d done. He opened his eyes to look at Nia and found her smiling at him with the corner of her bottom lip tucked between her teeth.
Then she said the words that completely transformed his life: “I like you too, Little Rhodes.”
* * *
GINNY
One day she was dancing with Gavin Rhodes on the beach, surrounded by her friends, and the next she was sneaking into the boathouse with him, her hands in his board shorts. It was the wildest thing that had happened that summer and if Nia was being honest, she hadn’t seen any of this coming.
In fact, she’d been thinking about how summer breaks on Tybee with her parents were starting to feel a little odd. Her older siblings—David, Stella and Josephine—were off doing their own thing, so it was just her for the last two summers. The only upside was that Spencer was there by her side as they got into all kinds of trouble and broke all the rules. It was also a good form of distraction from the tension between her parents. Nia didn’t know when they’d stopped showing affection publicly, but they no longer held hands or even acknowledged each other unless they were around the Rhodes family. She was also pretty certain that her father was sleeping in a different room.
After all, this ginormous house had enough rooms that one could use without anybody else knowing.
Nia loved the story of how this house came into their lives and why it was such an important part of the Thomas-Rhodes family history. Elsa Marie, also known as her mother, had met Juniper Rose when they were in diapers. They’d been best friends all through high school, college in different states and marrying men who moved them to different parts of the country. Letters, emails and phone calls had connected them for years and when she was growing up, Nia got a kick out of reading Juniper’s multipage letters about her family.
She knew that coming from two different worlds should have been a hindrance to their friendship. Juniper was born in a white household, while Elsa came from a South Indian family that had moved to Houston many years ago. The difference in their skin color or beliefs didn’t stop them from being the best of friends. Instead all that strengthened it.
Then came the kids—David Thomas and Noah Rhodes, born three days apart—and the family holidays began.
Every summer since then, the families would spend two whole months at the same home on Tybee Island. The houses got bigger as more children were added to the families and by the time Nia was born, her parents had a timeshare with the Rhodes’ for a gorgeous eight bedroom home on the island. She might have been born and raised in Houston, but Tybee was where Nia really came into her own.
While Nia was close to her siblings, being just two years younger than Spencer Rhodes had made him her best friend. She had tiny crushes on Spencer’s older brothers—they were the kind of attractive that anybody would be drawn to—but she’d never even considered thatGavinwould be the one she’d be hooking up with.
* * *
That summer after he kissed her, they spent a lot of time doing more of that. She liked that with Gavin, things were simple and fun. Everyone else was demanding. She’d lost her virginity on the island to a boy named Otis a year ago and since then, Nia had been discovering the magic of sex. Her friends back home were all desperate for boyfriends, but not her. She liked the freedom of being with anyone who got her attention, and given that she’d finally come out to her siblings, Nia wanted to explore her sexual appetite further.
Gavin was the unexpected exploration she hadn’t accounted for. But she didn’t turn him away. She should have, because if Spencer knew what they were doing, he would most likely lose his mind. When she mentioned it to Gavin, he just brushed her off andinsistedthat his brother would never find out. “Besides, it’s none of his business,” he’d added before he kissed her again. And hiskisses. She had an inkling that he was new to everything—girls, sex—but Gavin was a quick learner. After their first kiss, he took a few more risks and by the end of that summer, he’d mastered the art of making her body hum.
Now, two summers later, Nia and Gavin had explored every facet of sex she could think of. All of the kinky stuff she picked up reading books was reserved for other people. She didn’t know how Gavin would respond to it and she didn’t want to risk ruining the good thing they had going. After all, it was just fun, right? Sure, she had this deep affection for Gavin and sometimes the sight of him alone would make her clit throb, but to her, it was nothing more than a summer fling.
