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He tweaked one of the slim white straps. If any other guy in the bar had done that, I would have swatted his hand away. But Spence and Pax were closing me in, making me dizzy with their cologne and bright smiles and expensive clothes, like they were from another world. Will's world. My aunt and uncle's world. Seeing them here, feeling them close to me, confused my senses.
“How about that drink?” Pax asked with a grin.
“Thanks. Okay, yeah. I’ll have a whisky sour.” I fanned my face, sweating now in the humid room. Spence disappeared toward the bar.
“Have you talked to Will?” I asked Pax. His arm looped around my waist. Across the room, Meg and Emily were busy flirting.
Pax smiled down at me, his eyes traveling from my face to the freckles sprinkled on my bare shoulders and chest. “Why, haven't you?”
My stomach jumped. A chill swept my body in the hot steamy bar, tightening my nipples inside my dress.
Did he know? He couldn't know. Will had promised he wouldn't tell anyone. I'd promised him too.
But our secret wasn’t safe. Aunt Rose and Uncle Richard knew, I didn’t have any doubt. The security guards who patrolled my relatives’ estate had definitely seen Will and me stumbling out of the woods, lips swollen from kissing and leaves in our hair. I didn’t want to know how many maids had passed closed doors in the morning and heard giggles, gasps, moans — mostly mine, then Will’s soft grunts as he came.
“No,” I said, trying to sound cool and calm. “I haven't talked to him since I moved to the city a couple of weeks ago. I was just there for the summer. A few months — that was it. Our lives are pretty different. I’m sure he’s busy with his last year of college.”
Three months, to be exact. Will had kissed me at the garden party on the first day of June, and we’d said goodbye on the last day of August. It seemed like one long dream, though my heart and body told me it was very real.
A cool glass met my palm. I murmured a thank-you to Spence, back from the bar, vaguely aware of his hand slipping under my long copper waves to cup my sweaty neck.
“Well, he was definitely protective. One time we were out and some of us started talking about you—“ Pax gave me a significant smile “—and he just shut it down like that. He didn't say as much, but it was clear if anyone hit on you, they'd be sorry. Kind of funny, uh... what was your name again?”
I took a big swallow of my whisky sour and let it burn my throat going down. “Andrea.”
“Yeah, Andrea. We definitely got a very "mine" vibe from him. Like, don't you think about touching my cousin.”
“Funny,” I repeated, the burn spreading to my cheeks.
“It was funny, wasn't it, Spence?” Pax said over my head. I was flushed, my stomach turning somersaults at their touches. Pax was squeezing my hip, his large hand swallowing the slight curve. Spence was caressing the back of my neck now, rubbing the skin with his thumb. “Almost like he wanted her for himself.”
“Nah.” I shook my head quickly, trying to laugh it off. “I’m not his type. And we're cousins.”
“Yeah, too bad about the whole cousin thing.” Spence gave me a wide, white smile. “But you should make the most of Will liking you, beautiful. Most girls would do anything for that.”
I flushed hotter. Will had said the same thing to me, back at the beginning of the summer, when he found me soaking in his parents' huge marble bathtub. Before the night in the woods, when things changed.
You should make the most of it, Andie, he'd smiled, as he pulled his shirt off. Most girls would take advantage.
“Well, now that he's not here, giving us the evil eye,” Pax murmured, his lips brushing my ear, “why don't we find someplace quieter where we can all talk some more?”
I looked at the empty glass in my hand, sparkling with ice. My body throbbed, and sweat trickled between my breasts.
“I should—“ go find my friends, I meant to say. “Call Will. All this is reminding me that we need to catch up. I'm sure he'd love to say hi to you guys.” I pulled my phone out of my purse.
Fingers left my neck. A palm released my hip.
“It's okay, Andrea.” Spence held up his hands and gave me an ingratiating smile. “We just saw him last weekend.”
“It's been fun.” Pax bent to kiss my cheek again, then straightened at a warning look from Spence. “Have a nice chat with your cousin.”
When they strolled toward the bar, clearing the space around me, I saw Meg and Emily eyeing me from their barstools, radiating curiosity and probably wondering if they could get a free drink out of Spence and Pax too.
Signaling that I was leaving, I set down the glass and stepped outside.
The cool early fall air was a welcome relief. It felt good to walk the busy sidewalks alone. But as I paced down block after block, my feet took me past the plaza where I’d played silent games of chess over the summer — first with whoever came by, then with Will when I started teaching him.
Until the end of the summer, I’d always won. Even when his knee against mine made me dizzy. I’d been playing a lot longer.
