by Alex Grayson
Spike was there with a fist-bump and nod. “Badass.”
Moody joined us with a low five. “I hope someone got that videoed. I need to watch that go down in slow mo. There were six of you going for it and you got past all of them.”
It was the respect from these guys, the four best friends who’d let me into their group, that hit deep. I’d do just about anything for it.
My eyes shot to the sidelines and my grin wavered a beat. There she was. Hazel Ross. Fresh off the field from her own tournament win, I could only guess. Hazel never lost, and she stood now with a ball at her hip, all tough and confident. She had to know I wasn’t the only guy staring, but her eyes were on us. She was part of our group, and I’d been the outsider. With the way I caught her looking at me sometimes, I’d wondered if she’d felt threatened by me, but no, that wasn’t Hazel. She wasn’t afraid of anything. And these guys would never push her out of the crew. Hell, they’d probably die for her if it came down to it.
“Yo cuz, how many?” Bodhi, her cousin, called out to her.
She held up four fingers.
Emmett jogged over and swung her around. As her cousin, he could get away with that kind of outward affection. Hell, even Spike and Moody had known her long enough for that. But it wasn’t only that I was the newest to the group that held me back from pulling Hazel into my arms to celebrate our wins. If just a sharing a smile with the girl sent electricity through my veins, full body contact might start a fire.
Or at the very least, clue in the guys just how bad I was crushing on our girl.
Hazel
“Is that drool?” Bodhi snickered from beside me in the hot tub.
I whipped my head around and glared at him, which only made him laugh.
Cruz Donovan was walking across the hotel pool deck in black boxer briefs. That’s it. Okay, he was holding a hotel towel in one hand, but it was all my fantasies coming to life. If my stupid cousins weren’t in the hot tub with me, that was.
By the time the awards ceremony happened, it was easier to just spend Monday night at the hotel in New Jersey and hit the road back to Defiance Falls, Massachusetts in the morning. It was Memorial Day, so we’d only miss a half day of school Tuesday morning. In the final weeks of eighth grade we weren’t exactly learning much anyway.
Cruz turned to toss his towel on a chair and I got a little glimpse of his backside.
“Definitely drool,” Emmett confirmed and I kicked him in the shin under the bubbles. “Oww,” he whined.
Cruz stood over the hot tub now and I tried, I really did, to pull my eyes away from him. But he was practically naked, and he’d filled out this year, looking more like seventeen than fourteen years old. He was almost fifteen actually, with a late summer birthday.
I mean, his body was the perfect specimen of athleticism. But his face, that was what nearly killed me. The boy was simply beautiful. So gorgeous, it was almost shocking in its intensity. He took his time stepping in, adjusting to the hot temperature.
“You guys got the room keys?” he asked the twins.
“Yeah, I got one,” Emmett said. “Nice suit, man.”
Cruz smirked and his cheeks turned a light shade of red. He was only up to his knees in the water now so I could only guess he was blushing.
“Forgot my suit. Where’s everyone else?” He started easing into the spot beside me and butterflies took flight in my stomach. It was a little disappointing though, because now I couldn’t look at him as easily.
“Spike and Moody are coming down,” Bodhi answered. “But I think everyone else headed home. At least on our team. Any girls on yours stick around tonight, Haze?”
“Sounded like most were hitting the road.”
“Good thing we’ve got your dad and a minivan then, huh?” Cruz asked, brushing his shoulder against mine as he lowered himself all the way in.
The twins’ parents had a minivan precisely for this purpose, and since they had normal jobs requiring them to work tomorrow, my dad had volunteered to play chauffeur. Chaperone too, though he was currently holed up in the hotel room doing work on his computer.
“You see Spike and Moody? Thought they were right behind us.” Bodhi leaned back, stretching his arms. The guys had been lifting hard all year and he had his own little set of muscles to show off.
“Yeah, they’re coming. Spike seems to be up to no good though.”
Emmett chuckled. “What’s new?”
Cruz turned to me, and our knees bumped this time. “So, four goals today in the finals, huh? What’s the total then for the tournament?”
I shrugged. “I lost count.”
“Ha. Yeah right,” Bodhi called me out.
Cruz’s mouth curved in a small smile as he watched me. “How many, Hazel?” he asked again. Even the way he said my name made me want to melt into him.
“Twenty-three,” I whispered.
His eyebrows shot up. “That’s almost four goals a game.”
“You can divide,” I deadpanned.
Ignoring me, he added, “We didn’t even get that as a team.”
Emmett shook his head, agreeing. “Nope. Not even close.”
“Whatever.” I was proud of my accomplishments, but when I wasn’t in the moment, sizzling from the competition on the field, I wasn’t real big on talking about it. It sounded dumb, like statistics. It was nothing like the actual sensation of kicking a ball into the back of the net.
Spike’s hollering took the guys’ eyes off me. “We got this whole place to ourselves!” We turned to find him walking in, arms wide and a grin on his face, a water bottle in each hand.
Moody was right behind him, also with water bottles in hand and a mischievous little smile on his face. Oh boy. This was going to be an interesting night.
Cruz
Spike and Moody had managed to get some rum from guys on the U-18 team. They were driving back to Massachusetts tonight, and had half a bottle they were willing to unload to help us celebrate the win. They’d mixed it with Coke, and within an hour Bodhi, Spike and Moody were well on their way to wasted.
“Should we make Bodhi share a room with those two tonight?” I asked Emmett, who had only tried a sip or two.
Emmett sighed. “Nah, figure if he’s gonna puke from drinking for the first time, I should be there so I can hold it over him afterward.”
“That means I should babysit those two idiots.” I nodded at Spike and Moody, who were running up the steps to go down the slide. It was a pretty sweet hotel pool, and I was kind of surprised we’d only had one young couple join us briefly over the past hour. We’d been going back and forth between the pool and the hot tub, with Hazel, me and Emmett opting out on the rum and Coke. Keeping my dick in line around Hazel was already a struggle, I didn’t need anything lowering my inhibitions.
When Emmett got out to use the restroom though, it was just the two of us in the hot tub. She was across from me now and when her emerald eyes hit mine, my body instantly responded.
“Why are you ignoring me, Cruz?” she asked straight out. This was Hazel; she didn’t flirt, not like other girls her age. But she didn’t hide either.
“I’m not ignoring you, Hazel.” I almost laughed at her question.
“You haven’t said anything to me since you asked about how many goals I scored. And you’ve barely looked at me. What’s up?”
This girl. She had no idea how much power she had over me. Or did she?
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Hazel, I’m not ignoring you.”
I’ve been sneaking glances at you every time you get out of the pool. Memorizing the curve of your ass. The swell of your breasts. And praying I can hold it together until I get a cold shower later. There was no way in hell I was admitting any of that to the girl whose gaze was threatening to cut me wide open right now.
She narrowed her eyes right back at me. “I asked if you wanted to go down the slide together and you dove head-first down it without answering.”
Fine. She wanted some honesty? I�
�d give her some. “You do know what happens to us guys when a girl is sitting between our legs, right?”
Her resolve shook for a second but I caught it. “Oh, is that how it works?” Now she was taunting me. “I didn’t know it happened so quickly.”
I was already half hard just having this conversation with her, knowing she was only wearing a bikini underneath the bubbles from the jets. We sat there watching each other, and I caught her squirming, her only give she was affected. Me? I knew I was blushing, I just hoped she attributed it to the heat from the tub.
“It’s not like I could hide it. And we’re here with your cousins and best friends, who happen to be guys. They’d give me hell.”
She crossed her arms under the water, making her chest rise above the surface. My eyes dropped to that area, obviously, and she caught me.
“Well, no one’s in here with us. Why don’t I try sitting on your lap now so I can see how it works?”
I nearly choked at her declaration. “You. What? You’re kidding, right?”
She raised a single eyebrow. Oh shit. When she did that, it was a challenge. And I never backed down from a challenge.
My voice was half hoarse when I said, “Come here.”
She didn’t hesitate, even though half of me hoped she would. I was already stretching the capacity of my briefs as it was, and there was no way she’d miss it. Should I warn her?
Too late.
She turned her back and my legs parted, making room for her. Hazel slid back slowly, our legs rubbing against one another. When her ass hit my crotch, she sucked in a breath. “Oh,” she breathed out. “I see.”
I swallowed, unable to speak. My hands were at my sides and I wanted to move them to her thighs. Anywhere on her skin she’d let me, I was desperate to touch.
I was starting to do just that when I felt the eyes on us. All four of the guys were standing a few feet away, staring at us.
Hazel
Spike had a lopsided smile, Moody was smirking, and the twins shared the same shocked expression, mouths agape.
When Bodhi took the first step toward us, I moved away from Cruz. Everything inside me ached for him, that was the only way to describe it. Even my blood was boiling for him. As I forced myself to the spot I’d been in a few feet away, I could practically feel my body chanting “No, no, no. Stop! Hey, go back! What are you doing? We want mooooooore!”
But then my best friends were there, splashing as they got all up in our business.
Spike raised his hand. “I would like to say that I called this first.”
“Uh, no, I did,” Emmett told him. He’d taken up on my other side.
“Called what exactly? Nothing happened.” I didn’t even know why I said that. Five sets of eyes landed on me but it was Cruz’s gaze that felt heaviest.
No one even bothered responding to my question. Bodhi pointed between us. “This is new, right? You guys wouldn’t hide it from us.”
“Depends on what you’re referring to,” Moody said. “They’ve been crushing on each other ever since Cruz joined our club team a couple years ago. I think they only admitted it to each other just now though.”
Cruz went to the private academy in town while we went to the public school. He’d still managed to win over the guys while playing with them on our club soccer team, and we’d started hanging with him outside of school. I don’t know when he officially became part of our group, someone we trusted, someone we assumed would always be there, but it hadn’t been all that long.
“We haven’t even kissed!” I blurted. What I’d done, what I’d felt, that had seemed much more intimate than kissing. Not that I would know, never having kissed anyone before.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Bodhi asked. “Go for it.”
“Yeah, we don’t mind. We’re all practically family here,” Spike said.
I finally let my eyes go to Cruz’s, and I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. He had this mixture of longing, amusement, and something darker, like regret, or perhaps just unease. But I could never be sure with him. It was always so electrifying in his presence, I didn’t know what I was imagining and what was real.
When he spoke, I hung on every word. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? You guys are best friends. Hazel too. I don’t know if this is okay. I mean, none of you have kissed her so I assumed it was an unspoken rule.”
“Gross, man, she’s our cousin,” Emmett said.
“And she’s basically our sister,” Spike added. “Like, we were there the first time she got her period and let me tell you…” I reached across the hot tub to whack him in the shoulder. He chuckled. “Fine, I guess we don’t want to bring you two into sibling status anyway, am I right?”
Moody put his hand up. “Hazel once stepped in my shit when we were camping.”
Silence. As if the hot tub itself had been stunned, the jets went off at that moment too. Cruz asked, “By shit, you mean metaphorically?”
“No, he means poop. Turds. Excrement.” I volunteered the information.
“How?” Bodhi asked. “And why have we never heard about this before?”
“Remember our first overnight backpacking trip before fifth grade?” Moody asked and the guys nodded. “I didn’t know you had to like, dig a hole and cover it with dirt. I mean I kicked some leaves over it but it wasn’t far enough from the campsite, and then Hazel went to pee later when we were roasting marshmallows and –”
“Yup, I think they get the picture,” I finished for him. “Why are you telling this story right now, Moody?”
“Oh, you know,” he said, “to explain why we won’t ever kiss.”
Another round of silence. Moody did not seem the least bit embarrassed while I wanted to disappear. It wasn’t the poop story making me feel this way though, it was the other reason attention was on me.
“And here I thought you loved me like a sister,” I mumbled.
“Oh I do, Haze.” He threw an arm over my shoulder. “There’s that too.”
Cruz wasn’t finished though. “So what’s happening here? I have permission to kiss Hazel? You guys won’t ditch me as your friend if I do?”
“Well, first we’ll beat the crap out of you,” Spike said. “Like big brothers should.”
“But then you can have her,” Bodhi finished.
“You guys will not beat the crap out of Cruz if he kisses me.”
Cruz was suddenly right in front of me. “You mean when I kiss you?”
His face was right there, his lips inches away, but I shoved him back with a foot to his stomach and he fell back spluttering.
“I will not have my first kiss with all of these guys watching,” I growled. Then I got out of the pool to turn the jets back on. And also to hide the giant smile taking over my face.
Cruz
My heart had been in my chest for nearly twenty-four hours at this point, ever since Hazel kicked me in the stomach. I had no clue how that girl felt about me, if she wanted this half as bad as I wanted it. The guys had conveniently left only two seats open in the back of the van so that Hazel and I were squished next to each other for the five-hour drive home. Not like I was about to try anything, with her dad having a perfect view of us in his rearview mirror.
She seemed to have a reaction to me, but she didn’t show it like other girls. It made me wonder if I was imagining the way she looked at me, reacted to the slightest touch, if I was wishing for it so hard I wasn’t seeing clearly, or if it was real. Like when she moved to sit in my lap last night? What was that? Was she just being Hazel, not giving a shit what it might look like because she was curious? Or was it more? It had to be more.
We got dropped off for a few hours of school, and then we had a rare afternoon free from practice coming off the four-day tournament. Vanessa, the twins’ mom, was set for carpool duty for practice today anyway, so she picked up the others after school before coming to get me. When I suggested she drop us at the Lake, my family’s property on the edge of town, she seemed to l
ike the idea.
“We have soccer balls there, so we can get in some training. And the lake will be cold but we can maybe take a swim,” I explained.
“It’s fine, Cruz, I know no one will be there but it’ll only be a couple hours before Spike’s mom comes to pick you up so you can’t get into too much trouble. I’ll let her know where to find you.”
Now, it was thirty minutes until we’d get picked up and I was running out of time. If I didn’t do something soon, it could be days before I saw Hazel again. Sure, we’d pass each other at practice, but I’d never get a chance to kiss her.
We’d been kicking the ball around, scrimmaging for nearly an hour before we finally got brave enough, and hot enough, to jump in the lake. We only had our workout clothes with us and now I couldn’t decide if Hazel in black underwear and a sports bra was worse than Hazel in a bikini. Or better. It all depended on perspective. Either way, I was grateful the cold water was keeping things under control better than the hot tub had.
She hadn’t been ignoring me, not exactly, but why wasn’t she giving me a sign? I watched her cannonball into the lake from the dock and when she came up for air, I silently begged her to look my way. Come on Hazel, any sign and I’ll take you somewhere for that kiss.
She ducked her head down under water and disappeared. I was treading water a little ways out, waiting for her to come up again, when I felt a hand grasp my ankle and tug.
I went underwater and there she was, her face inches from me. She winked. Wow. I’d never seen anyone wink underwater, and it was one more thing about Hazel Ross that turned me on. I didn’t care if it meant nothing in her mind. To me, that was just the sign I needed.
Hazel
I started swimming toward the big oak tree with a rope swing, hoping Cruz was following me. This might be our chance. The guys had been over here earlier, but now they were toweling off, and I heard them talking about exploring the trails. Checking out the property. This place was amazing. I couldn’t believe Cruz had his regular home in Defiance Falls plus this place. It was a little oasis, and for this afternoon at least, it was all ours. When I hit the shore, I knew he was at my back without looking. The little hairs on my skin stood at attention.
