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“So I didn’t misread you that day?” she asked.
“When I slipped? And looked at you like I wanted to pull you up onto the boat and tear that bikini from your body rather than simply lend a helping hand as you climbed up? No, you didn’t misread me.”
“I guess there’s no point in asking why you didn’t slip more often?”
“You’re right, there’s not. Because you already know why. I’d never have opened that can of worms. I’d become the creepy older brother, hitting on someone I’d known for years. So many times, I thought of testing the waters. And then you started working for us, so I pushed all thoughts like that aside.”
“Min doesn’t know,” she confessed as if it were the gravest of sins. “At first I hardly understood what it was to have a crush on a boy. And then we were in high school. You were surrounded by adoring girls—”
“Don’t even get me started,” I countered. “When Rory Altman slapped your ass on the way into the locker room that first year you started cheering, I nearly tackled my own teammate. And would have if you hadn’t smiled at him like he was the finest damn thing in the world rather than telling him to keep his hands to his fucking self.”
“He was a dick,” she said. “Wish I was smarter in those days.”
“Speaking of smarter, how about Mark Evans?”
“Eww, don’t remind me.”
“I come home for the summer to find you dating the biggest asshole in Kitchi Falls.”
“To be fair, he was hot.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hot. And a total player. You had to have known that.”
She shrugged. “What can I say? You know I always liked the bad boys.”
“Which is why I never expected this,” I said, waving my arms between us. “Marco maybe. But me?”
“You’re an exception to the rule,” she said. “And clearly you have a little bad boy in you. And are letting yourself off the hook way too easily. What about Sharie—”
“I knew you were going to bring her up.”
“Because she slept with half of Kitchi Falls High School? And is a total airhead?”
“To be fair, she was hot.”
Thayle’s nose scrunched up in disgust. “Maybe.”
“But she doesn’t hold a candle to you.”
Her smile faded. Instantly, Thayle became serious. She looked at me as if to ask if I meant that. If she didn’t already realize it, she would soon. I was into her more than any woman alive. Had been for a long time.
“When you walked into the room at the party in that cat costume, I nearly broke my own rule about staying hands-off. You looked so fucking gorgeous.”
“I can’t believe this conversation is happening.”
I knew exactly what she meant. And wanted to clear another thing up for good too, while we were at it. “When I saw you with Garrett, I wanted to beat the shit out of him. If I’m being honest.”
“Soooo, about that.”
I waited, the sound of the falls behind us, watching her intently as she stood just feet from me, knowing what would happen between us tonight...but I had to know she’d been serious about them being just friends.
“It was Garrett’s idea,” she said. “I’d never have purposely tried to make you jealous. But I called him earlier in the week and kinda had a breakdown.”
“A breakdown? Because of Rich?”
“Because of you.”
“Me?” I thought back to last week, but nothing I’d done stuck out as remarkable. “Why?”
