“Cassie!” Zoe shouts. “You need to be a princess, too!”
“Yeah, get your share of termites, too,” Eli says.
“I think I’ll stay like this, thanks.”
The moment I say it, it’s as if a magnet brings his gaze down my body, and he realizes I’m only wearing a bikini top and jean shorts. I’ve gained weight with all the meals Eli’s cooked for me, and I now fill out both much better than I did at the beginning of the summer. This is the best I have felt about my body in months, and the way he’s looking at me only makes me like it more.
“Eyes up here, Grant.”
He has the decency to blush as he does look back up, but the lust in his gaze is unmistakable. Even wearing a nasty dress and stupid princess hat, he makes me weak in the knees.
“Give me that,” I say, grabbing the hat from his head and putting it on mine.
“I think you make a prettier princess than I do.” He has the audacity to tuck a strand of hair under the hat, the simple feel of his finger against my forehead enough to make me shiver.
I need to get my shit together. If the kiss was a one-time thing, I can’t go around obsessing over his every touch for the rest of the summer.
A squeal pulls our attention to the lawn, where Charlie is currently on all fours, carrying Zoe on her back like a horse. That woman is a true medical student. She doesn’t half-ass anything.
Another sound quickly makes me tense. Buzzing—too loud to be a mosquito. Automatically, I start slapping the air around me like a lunatic. Do I know it’s the worst possible thing to do with bees? Yes, but I’ve never been good at remaining calm in this kind of situation.
“What the hell are you doing?” Eli says, the dock creaking under us.
The buzzing gets louder, the bee sounding like it’s right in my ear. I run around the chair, not looking where I’m going so long as I escape it. In the end, I succeed.
By accidentally stepping off the dock and falling straight into the water.
It’s not nearly as cold as the Atlantic Ocean, the lake warmed by long, scalding July days, but it still shocks me. I emerge a second later, gasping, the princess hat hanging crookedly against my temple, hair plastered to my face. Zoe is laughing from afar, and I’m pretty sure I hear her shout, “Mermaid princess!” At least the buzzing has disappeared.
To my left, a hand appears.
“We can’t keepdoing this,” Eli says.
“It’s just the second time.”
“Just?”
“There was a bee,” I say as I grab his extended arm.
“So?”
“I’m allergic.”
“I’m aware youthinkyou’re allergic,” he says, because of course he does. How many times has this exact scenario happened in my life? A hundred? Every time we’d have juice or soda on the beach, we’d get swarmed. I eventually learned to chug my drinks and toss them in the farthest trash can. He loved to tease me that I’d never actually had an anaphylactic reaction and that having had a rash after a bee sting as a kid did not automatically make me allergic to them, but I’ve always erred on the cautious side. “But was it stinging you?”
“Wasn’t about to fuck around and find out. What with your amazing First-Aid skills and all.”
“You’ll never let me live that down, will you?” He’s still holding on to my hand, his skin sun-warmed.
“You just give such great ammunition.”
“You know what? Get your ass out of the water yourself,” he teases, letting go of my hand and straightening up on the dock. Wet circles have darkened the knees of his jeans—jeans that are hugging every curve of his thick thighs and round ass, might I add.
“All right, all right.” I hold my hand out again. “Please?”
The poor guy sees nothing coming. He leans forward because of course, he won’t leave me to fend for myself, and the second I get agood grip on him again, I pull. He barely resists, toppling over the dock and splashing next to me.
Eli’s dark hair sticks to his temples and neck when his head pops back up. He rakes it back. “You little shit.” Humor is painted across his every feature, and God, how good it feels to see this man so unabashedly carefree and happy.
