Daring the Bad Boy

by Monica Murphy

  “Yeah.” I brushed her wet hair away from her forehead, my gaze locked with hers. “Totally crazy. But you did it.”

  Her smile was huge. She looked pleased with herself. “I did. I’m proud.”

  “You should be. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  “Knowing that you were the one to jump with me, that made it easier.” Her voice dropped and she slid her arms down, her hands pressed against my chest. “You never let go of my hand once.”

  “I promised I wouldn’t.”

  The air buzzed between us, the water lapping against our skin, her hands skimming down my chest. I should kiss her. I should. I leaned my head down and she lifted her head up, her lips parting. Like she knew exactly what I wanted. No one was paying us any attention and it was so damn dark, who’d see us? No one. Absolutely no one, so this could be our little secret…

  “I can’t believe you jumped!” a girl’s voice shouted from behind us.

  Annie let go of me completely, pushing away and smiling at whoever it was. Some pain-in-the-ass girl from her cabin, no doubt. “I know, right? I can’t believe it, either!”

  “You don’t even want to see that drop in the daylight,” the girl continued. “You’d probably throw up.”

  Annie laughed nervously. “What’s done is done, right?”

  I said nothing as I watched her wade through the water with her friend, seemingly at ease as she eventually found her footing. I stayed rooted to the spot, knowing I should get out of the water and grab one of the towels that had been brought just for the occasion. But I didn’t. I watched her go, my gaze lingering, my heart hammering, my mind already reliving the moment when Annie wrapped herself around me like she never wanted to let me go.

  She glanced over her shoulder as she climbed out of the water, the grateful smile on her face sending a pang straight to my heart.

  And I knew, without a doubt, I’d done more than just fall into the water.

  I’d fallen for the girl.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ANNIE

  It was almost eight fifteen at night when I finally pushed the gate open and ran inside the pool area. I stopped, out of breath as I looked around. Worried Jake had already left, but there he was, sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water, a giant smile curving his lips when he spotted me, his brown eyes sparkling.

  Oh crap. He looked…way too good.

  Meaning I was in big trouble.

  “I didn’t think you were going to make it,” he said as I approached him. He leaned back and planted his hands flat on the concrete, his biceps becoming more defined with his new position.

  I swallowed hard, tearing my gaze away from the perfection known as his arms and stared into his eyes. “It was kind of difficult to sneak away without anyone noticing me.” Every single girl in my cabin seemed particularly interested in my whereabouts the entire day, thanks to what happened last night at the waterfall. Oh, and yesterday afternoon, when Bobbee, Hailey, and Kaycee told everyone about Jake coming to talk to me in the arts and crafts building.

  They bombarded me with questions throughout the day, most of them just curious, a few of them with malicious undertones. I knew they were curious about what happened during the hike, but I wasn’t telling them anything. I knew my silence drove them nuts, but I sort of didn’t care.

  Okay, I really didn’t care.

  “I left when we all headed for the bonfire pit,” I told him.

  “Ah, yeah, camp songs around the fire.” He swung his legs out of the water and pushed himself to his full height, coming to stand just in front of me. I tilted my head back so I could look into his eyes, and he smiled at me. He was just so dang tall. “Sure you don’t want to go back and sing a few rounds of ‘Cat’s in the Cradle’? We could do this another night.”

  “I think I could miss a night of singing.” I wrinkled my nose. “I really don’t like singing, anyway. I have a terrible voice.”

  “Really?” He seemed surprised.

  I nodded. “I can’t carry a tune. I sound awful when I sing. It’s really horrible.”

  He tilted his head to the side, his gaze locked on my face, his expression so serious. “You’re the only girl I’ve ever met who points out her own flaws.”

  I reared my head back, shocked by his statement. “Really? We all tend to think we’re pretty flawed most of the time. Even in ways that we’re not.” I had about a bazillion insecurities, and so did my friends.

  “Yeah, but no girl I’ve ever known actually points out her flaws to me. You’re always the first to say what you can’t do or what you’re not good at.”

  “Oh.” I winced. “Is that a bad thing?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He said nothing else, and I didn’t know how to react, what to say next. I was tempted to tackle-hug him for being kind of sweet, but that would be ridiculous. He was letting me know that I was dumb enough to point out my flaws. He wasn’t saying that he thought I was amazing or anything like that.

  Because I’m sure he didn’t feel that way. He couldn’t. Just because he wrote me a sweet note and folded it into a paper airplane didn’t mean anything. Or that he was so supportive last night, how he held my hand when we jumped off the ledge. He never let go, even when we plunged into the water. At one point, I’m pretty sure he was going to kiss me.

  But he didn’t. Which meant I was probably reading too much into what was really nothing.

  “So you ready for your swim lesson? Though I gotta say, you were pretty impressive last night, Annie. I still can’t believe you did that.” His words pulled me from my thoughts and I nodded, eager to get this going yet already sad that it would eventually end. After tonight’s lesson, we only had one left.

  I didn’t even want to think about that last lesson.

  Jake smiled. “Then let’s do this. We’ll start in the shallow end.”

  I followed after him, settling on the edge beside him, both of us dunking our feet into the water. I sat closer to him this time, our arms brushing, and he looked over at me, his gaze dropping to my chest. “You should take off your shirt.” He literally said this to my boobs.

  My cheeks went instantly hot and I socked him in the upper arm, shocked at how hard it was. His biceps were nothing but solid muscle. And what he just said could be taken so many ways. What did it mean that my brain filled with dirty thoughts?

  He laughed, like he could read my mind. “I only said that because we’re going to get in the water like, right now.”

  “Right,” I said, laughing along with him. “I think I’ll wait.”

  “Your choice.” He shrugged, the laughter dying on his lips before he said, his voice soft, “Tell me what happened to you when you were four, Annie.”

  I sat up straighter, all dirty thoughts fleeing my brain like they were being chased out. And they were, because I had a flash of memory. Of the water sucking me under, of me struggling.

  Of feeling like I was dying.

  “You can trust me with your secret, I promise. I won’t tell anyone else.” His voice was gentle, as were his eyes, and I pressed my lips together, not wanting to talk about it. It wasn’t a subject I was comfortable sharing, only because I hadn’t talked about the incident in so long. I’d rather forget it ever happened.

  “How about I tell you something that I’ve never told anyone else first,” he suggested.

  I raised my brows, surprised by his offer. “Like what?”

  He looked down, staring at the water. “My mom died three years ago, when I was fourteen. She had cancer. It came…really fast so she didn’t suffer for too long or anything like that, but it was so quick that it felt like one day she was there, and the next, she was just…gone.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I automatically said, feeling awful. I couldn’t imagine losing my parents. I don’t know what I would do, how I would react.

  “You don’t have to apologize. It was just…it was hard. I was scared and mad. Mad at my mom for leaving me, th
ough she didn’t have a choice. I was just really confused. My dad retreated. He didn’t want to talk about it, or talk about her. He acted like he wanted to just move on and pretend she never existed.”

  “That sounds awful,” I said softly.

  “It was. He didn’t know how to mourn, I think. It suddenly became the two of us on our own, and we didn’t realize what she did for us until she was gone, you know? He was never around. He became a complete workaholic, and I spent a lot of time alone.” Jake hesitated. “And eventually I got…into a lot of trouble.”

  I remembered the rumors I heard about him being a criminal, and how Presley had declared him even hotter when she heard that bit of gossip. I hadn’t believed the criminal stories at the time, and he’d been so sweet to me I hadn’t thought much about the rumors since, but here was Jake confirming everything. “Oh,” I murmured, not sure what else I could say.

  “Like, throw me in juvie, threaten me with jail and probation type trouble.” He turned to look at me, his expression serious, his eyes dark as he watched me. “I just wanted you to know the truth. In case that changed your mind about me.”

  I frowned. “Why would it change my mind about you?”

  “I don’t know. We had a rocky start, you gotta admit that,” he said wryly, his lips tipping up at the corners in an almost-smile. “I wanted you to find out all my dirty secrets from me, not from someone else.”

  “Oh,” I said again, at a loss for words. That my opinion of him mattered so much made me feel fluttery inside. “Well, I appreciate that.”

  “I just wanted to be up front with you.”

  “Do you still do those things? Whatever it was you did that got you in trouble?”

  He looked away, squinting as he watched the darkening sky. “Not in a while. I’m under constant watch by my uncle. That’s why I’m here, actually. My dad didn’t know what else to do with me.”

  His admission made my heart ache. Did he feel unwanted? If my parents shipped me off to camp because they didn’t know what else to do with me, I think I’d feel that way. At least he had his uncle here, but they didn’t seem that close. Now that he’d mentioned it, I never really saw him hanging out with friends or anything like that. Not really. He worked all the time.

  I’d seen him with Dane and knew they shared one of the staff cabins. At first he was hanging out with Kyle, but they weren’t around each other much anymore. He and Brian were friendly, too, but Brian had been spending all of his free time with Hannah lately—trust me, everyone in our cabin knew this, since Hannah left pretty much every night to be with Brian.

  Did Jake have any real friends here? I didn’t want to ask because I didn’t want to embarrass him. So I tried a different tactic. “Do you like working here?”

  He shrugged and looked away again. “I guess. I don’t know. I feel like I’m being forced to do this, so my heart’s not fully in it, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know. The summer is almost over, but maybe you should try. It’s not so bad here. And everyone likes you.” I leaned into him and nudged his shoulder with mine. “We should get the swimming lesson started.”

  He glanced down at where our shoulders were still pressed together before lifting his gaze to mine. “You still want to go through with this?”

  “Of course I do. I have to work on it so I can get enough courage to actually hang out at the pool with my friends and maybe even really swim.” At his doubtful look I added, “Or at the very least, I could become a really good doggy-paddler.”

  I smiled and he chuckled, and for the briefest moment, with us sitting so close, our shoulders brushing, the both of us breathing the same air, I thought he might…I don’t know.

  Try to kiss me again?

  But he didn’t. I don’t know if it was relief or disappointment I felt, but he stood, offering his hand to me, and I took it so he could pull me up, my fingers tingling in his grip. He let go as soon as I stood, and I fought the wave of disappointment that threatened. I was being ridiculous. I shouldn’t like Jake in that way. We were friends. That was it. That was all we could be.

  “Let’s jump in the shallow end and work on your kicks some more,” he suggested, taking his hat off and tossing it on a nearby chair.

  I could do nothing but agree.

  …

  JAKE

  This was pure torture, spending time with Annie, trying to focus on giving her instructions and encouragement when all I really wanted to do was kiss her for being so understanding about my mom’s death. Oh, and stare at her ass in those bright pink bikini bottoms. Maybe even touch that ass in those bright pink bikini bottoms…

  Yeah. Couldn’t do it. Couldn’t touch. Shouldn’t even think about it. I scrubbed a hand over my face and told her to turn around so she was facing me, her arms stretched out behind her as she still gripped the concrete edge of the pool, her chest bobbing above the water, giving me a perfect view of her…

  I closed my eyes and turned my back on her, dunking under the water to cool myself off as I swam all the way to the deep end before I turned around and swam back. By the time I popped my head out of the water, she was standing, clapping her hands and with a big smile on her face.

  “You are such a good swimmer,” she said, her voice wistful.

  “Dunk your head underwater and you’ll be halfway there,” I tell her.

  Her smile fell and fear filled her eyes. “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet,” she admitted in a whisper.

  “You did it last night,” I pointed out. “When you jumped in the water with me. And you did it that night I saved you at the dock, too.”

  “That was different.” She ducked her head, suddenly shy. I didn’t get her. She’d been so bold last night. I’d been so proud of her, she’d looked so pretty, I’d come scarily close to kissing her in front of freaking everyone.

  But I hadn’t. I’d been the chicken last night while she’d been the brave one.

  “Find some of that courage you had last night and use it right now,” I suggested, but she shook her head, remaining quiet.

  “Annie. The only way you’re going to feel comfortable in the water is if you completely submerge yourself in it. Like you did last night,” I told her, trying to keep my voice gentle. I didn’t want to yell or sound too demanding, but the girl needed some major encouragement. I knew that so much of her fear was mental, even if she hadn’t told me the story of why. And though I’d just spilled my guts, I hadn’t pushed. She’d reveal everything when she was ready. And maybe then, we’d have a breakthrough.

  For now, it was all baby steps, pretty much all the time. I’d never been the most patient person, but for Annie, I’d try.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It scares me.”

  “Do you take a shower?”

  She frowned. “Of course I do.”

  “How often?”

  “Why such a sudden interest in my personal hygiene?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “Once a day at least, sometimes twice.” She stared at me incredulously.

  “You stick your face in the water every time you take a shower, right?”

  Realization dawned and she scowled. “That’s totally different.”

  “Not really.”

  She sighed and pushed away from the ledge, wading closer to me. “Fine, you want to see me stick my face in the water?”

  “I’d frickin’ love to see you stick your face in the water,” I practically taunted.

  Annie waded closer as I floated out farther. She frowned as she followed me, getting chest deep before she stopped, her face so close to the water I thought she really was going to do it.

  She took such a deep breath I could see the gust of air ripple the water directly in front of her when she slowly exhaled. Her head bent, she closed her eyes, pressed her lips together, and actually…

  Dipped her face in the water.

  Her head immediately popped back up, her eyes sti
ll squeezed shut as she let out a shuddery sob. I rushed toward her, slicing through the water until I had her in my arms, her head tucked under mine and her face pressed against my chest. “Shit, Annie. You didn’t have to do that,” I muttered as I felt her body quake. She was crying. I could hear the hiccuping breaths, the little sniffles in between, and I felt like a complete asshole for pushing her so hard.

  I didn’t understand why she’d jumped into the water last night, yet tonight, she couldn’t even duck her head in the pool. We were safer here, right now, than we ever were last night.

  “I’m just so tired of being scared,” she whispered, her lips moving across my skin when she spoke, and I shivered because wow, even though she was sad and crying and a trembling mess in my arms, that brief touch of her mouth on me felt good.

  Too good.

  She looped her arms around my neck and clung to me, crying into my shoulder, and I just let her. Smoothed my hand over her hair, an all-out war happening within me as I wondered if I should touch her anywhere else. We were standing in the middle of the pool completely wrapped around each other, so much skin making actual contact, and here I was, almost afraid to touch her.

  “Don’t cry,” I said helplessly. It felt like she would never stop. I wasn’t used to crying girls, and I didn’t know how to deal or how to make her feel better. Her tears were breaking my heart, and I’d firmly believed I didn’t have one anymore after I lost my mom.

  “I’m sorry,” she said with a sniff, lifting her head away from my shoulder so she could look up at me. Her arms were still around my neck, her fingers absently playing with the ends of my hair, and I lifted one shoulder, trying to ease the shivery feeling her touch was causing. “I didn’t mean to fall apart like that.”

  “I think you pushed yourself too hard.” I’d helped with that, too, not that I wanted to admit it.

  “Totally.” She sniffed and smiled up at me even through the tears. “You were kind of a jerk.”

  “I was going for encouraging, but I don’t think it worked,” I admitted.

  “It’s okay,” she said softly. “Really. I’m not mad. More like disappointed in myself.”