“Swim anyone?” Maverick asks.
I shake my head as does Reagan.
“Oh, why not.” Dakota stands, looks to me and shrugs with a smirk
“I’m going to find the bathroom. Do you want to come?” Reagan asks me, then glances between me and Heath.
“I’m good.”
Heath opens the case and holds out a can. “Drink?”
As I wrap my hands around the cold can, he holds tight and leans in. “You look good. Do you want to skip this party and go make out?”
I laugh, but heat rushes to my core at the thought. “Pass.”
“You wanna not skip this party and just make out right here?”
“Definitely pass.” I pull the drink from his hand and pop the top. After I’ve taken a long drink, I ask, “Does that usually work for you?”
“Honestly?”
I nod.
“Every time.”
I roll my eyes. “What is wrong with women?”
“I’m really good at making out.” His stare darts to my mouth. I have no doubt.
“You and I are going to be just friends.”
“Friends?” His brows raise. “I don’t have girl friends.”
“You do now.”
8
Heath
Looks like the Scotts are on the same page, anyway. Friends? With Ginny?
I can’t stop staring at her lips. That’s not a thing friends do, I don’t think.
When Reagan comes back from the bathroom, I’m disappointed at the prospect of sharing Ginny, but Reagan takes off her coverup and tosses it on the lounge chair. “I’m going in the pool. Anyone want to join me?”
“Really?” Ginny asks and she and Reagan share some sort of look I can’t decipher.
“Only live once. Coming?”
Ginny shakes her head and Reagan heads to the pool
“You know it’s a pool party, right?” I ask when it’s just the two of us again.
She gives me an annoyed look and motions to her chest, covered by the swimsuit, but uh, I might get lost a little too long staring at her chest. Also, not something a friend does.
“Something against swimming?”
“No, I love to swim. But…” She pauses. “Dakota said the pool was where people go to find hookups.”
I try real hard to keep from smiling too big. Sweet, innocent Ginny’s not looking for a casual hookup. I could have guessed that. It shouldn’t make me happy because it also means I won’t be hooking up with her, but for some reason, I’m glad that no one else will be either.
“What do you want to do?” I ask her. “We’ve got people watching which we’re perfectly positioned for now, we could play one of the many party games—flip cup, beer pong—all the usuals, there’s volleyball, I’m still offering up making out in case you want to rethink that one, or we can go to the pool and I’ll swat the swarms of boys away so you can swim without being harassed.”
She rolls her eyes. “Swarms?”
“I mean, look at you. Yeah, swarms.”
“And you’re going to be my protector?”
“Totally self-serving,” I tell her honestly.
“How’s that?”
“I like spending time with you.”
She glances to the pool, and I can see the longing there.
“Come on.” I stand and take off my T-shirt. Her eyes flit over my chest and abs before she gets up and carefully removes her shorts and sandals.
The light pink suit she’s wearing dips low in the front and cuts up on her hips. Ginny’s thin and her frame is small, but her boobs did not get the memo because they’re disproportionately bigger. Thank fuck for disproportions.
We enter the pool at the shallow end. A lot of people are swimming or hanging out near the edge, but I manage to snag a floatie for her.
She leans her upper body onto it and we go to the middle of the pool. The water comes up to my armpits and I dip down so it covers my shoulders and I’m at eye level with Ginny. Her gaze darts around taking it all in, but I see the exact second that she relaxes into the blue floatie and decides to be in the moment with me.
I grab a hold of the floatie and let my legs drift underneath me. Music pumps through the speakers and I close my eyes behind my sunglasses soaking it in. Good tunes and a bunch of people hanging out, talking and laughing. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. Not bad at all.
“You look pretty comfortable in here,” she says. I open my eyes to see her skim her fingers across the water. “This your typical hang out?”
“Are you trying to ask if I use the pool to find my hookups?”
“Do you?”
“Don’t knock it `til you try it.”
She laughs, her lips pulling wide and flashing her straight white teeth. “Maybe I will. Anyone you suggest?” She lifts her head and glances around the pool.
“Just say the word.” I find myself staring at her lips again. They’re full, the lower one so plump I want to trace it with my thumb and my tongue, and they’re this perfect pink color.
“I’m not dating for a while. Boys suck.”
“Why is it when girls get their heart broken, they go off men entirely? A guy gets his heart kicked in and he moves on to the next. Chicks aren’t like that.”
“Well, women are smarter. It takes you guys longer for your small brains to catch up and be brokenhearted.”
A chuckle escapes from my lips and she smiles.
“I got out of a relationship right before I came to Valley.”
“Might have heard something about that.”
“Ugh. Really? Adam told you about Bryan?”
“Not by name, but he did mention that you’d recently gotten out of something. He’s worried about you, wants me to look out for you.”
Her mouth gapes and her shoulders tense. “Is that why you’re…”
“No. Fuck no.” Her hair is in another braid today and I finger the end and tug it gently. “I thought we established that I like hanging out with you.”
“Same.” Her body melts back into the raft and those perfect pink lips pull apart. “How’d you and my brother become roommates? I get the hockey connection, but you don’t seem
