Page 50 of The Way the Heart Breaks: Jade’s Story

He grins as we drift closer to the floating dock. “You notice Brooks blocking my girls’ view before we?”

“That means he noticed you noticing.”

“I wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“No, Tommy, you looked at her like she was the last beer at a graduation party.”

“Can you blame me?”

They all take this time to jump into the water.

Lucas grabs the side of the old raft first and hoists himself up, expensive swim trunks and all, not caring when the weathered boards scrape his knees. The dock rocks hard beneath his weight. I grab the opposite side and shove myself up beside him, both of us stretching out on the hot wood while pond water drips off us into the dark water below.

For a second, neither of us says anything. Just sun, cicadas, laughter from shore.

Then Lucas folds his hands behind his head. “Think they’ll ever actually trust us?”

I glance back toward them. “Maybe not.”

“Yeah, well fuck them and their middle school dance mentality. We showed up and they —”

I cut him off. “It’s not fuck them. We do this because we have more to lose than they do.”

“I’m not kissing anyone’s ass to make them see the value we bring.” He stands up. “Let’s roll.

Lucas dives clean off the raft before I can answer, slicing into the dark pond water hard enough to rock the whole thing beneath me.

“Show off,” I mutter, pushing up to my feet.

I jump after him.

The cold hits first, then silence, pond water swallowing everything except the muffled churn of movement around me. When I break the surface again, Lucas is already halfway to shore.

“Try and keep up, Tommy!” he yells.

“In your dreams, pretty boy.”

We swim in fast, arms cutting through the water while the guys on shore keep watching us in that way football players do, sizing up competition without admitting they’re doing it. By the time my feet hit mud, Brooks is standing at the edge of the pond with his arms crossed.

“Took you, ladies, long enough.”

Lucas runs a hand through his soaked hair. “Sorry, Brooks. Some of us showed up to chill off the field. We know how to enjoy life.”

Ryan snorts. “Pretty much all you enjoy is chilling.”

“Not true,” Lucas says seriously. “I also enjoy attention, which we received none of when we made an effort, so now we’re out.”

Alex laughs before trying to cover it with a cough. Ryan shoots him a look.

And there it is. Tiny crack in the armor.

I step out of the water beside Lucas, mud sucking at my feet. “See? Alex likes us.”

“Alex likes stray dogs, too,” Brooks fires back.

Lucas presses a hand dramatically to his chest. “You comparing me to a rescue mutt? Because honestly, that feels classist.”

“Everything about you feels entitled,” Ryan mutters.