Between the Girls (The Basin Lake Series Book 3)

by Stephanie Vercier

  “That’s pretty cool,” he replies, easing at the mention of the girlfriend.

  Definitely a little jealous, and I kind of like the idea of it.

  “You’ve got your entire future planned out,” he tacks on.

  “Planned, but not set in stone. If I don’t get into U-Dub, then I have to be flexible enough to settle for something that isn’t my top pick.”

  Tyler remains quiet and briefly looks further out and toward the north end of the lake and the rental cabins and tourists shops that dot the shore.

  When his attention refocuses on me, he says, “I have a friend in Seattle too—his name’s Sam. I knew him back in Denver.”

  “Oh, yeah? You think Sam will talk you into wanting to move there?”

  I’m interested because as much as I hate the idea of a relationship messing stuff up for me in high school, I can’t help but hope I might get to see Tyler again once I leave this town.

  “He’s mentioned it,” Tyler says somewhat shyly. “He actually goes to U-Dub—he’s a sophomore.”

  “So, he’s a Husky!”

  “Yeah,” he laughs.

  “And a sophomore, a couple years ahead of you then.”

  “Older brother of a guy I grew up with,” Tyler says, his eyes drifting away for a few seconds before returning to me.

  “Well, that’s cool. I like having older friends. It keeps me focused on what comes after.”

  “After?”

  “After high school. I get some pointers from my older sister, but being able to ask Court and Denny about stuff in Seattle, about pre-med and med school… well, that’s pretty much invaluable.”

  He nods. “Sam is pretty helpful too I guess… with life stuff.”

  “Maybe we should go on a field trip to Seattle and see them sometime.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Only if you wanted to.” I swim out a bit, then turn back to him, and by the somewhat serious look on his face, I feel like I’ve gone too far in mentioning going to Seattle together after that disastrous Spokane trip. If I’ve made him tense, I want to break that, so I splash as much water as I can at him.

  “Hey. You didn’t even warn me!” He’s laughing and swimming toward me, trying to get me back.

  I’m too fast for him, having spent every summer here as a kid. I could even beat Paige out, and she’s a runner. But I’m not as fast as I think I am, because there’s a hand brushing against my back and then clutching to my shoulder and forcing me to turn around.

  Tyler’s face is less than a foot from mine, a beautiful, masculine face framed by that thick, dark hair and made alive by his deep brown eyes.

  “How did you catch me?” I ask, glad that he did.

  “I’m fast.” His hands are on my hips under the water, his eyes intense.

  My heart is beating so quickly, and even though the water is cold, the place below my abdomen warms with anticipation. He draws me closer to him, my legs wrapping around his longer, hairy ones. I dare to touch his side, feeling the strong muscle beneath his skin and what feels like a long, smooth scar that wraps around to his back. I know we’re about to kiss, the anticipation of my lips touching his even stronger than the feeling I’d had right before I lost my virginity to Austin. Closing my eyes, I wait for the connection.

  But it never comes.

  Opening my eyes, he’s loosening his hands from my hips and swimming away, nothing but the dark thick hair of his head visible as I tread water, stunned.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  TYLER

  “Did you guys have fun at the lake?” Mom asks, having moved on to painting the hallway by the side door I’d hoped to slip into without being noticed.”

  “Yeah… uh… we went swimming.” I just want to get to my room, but Mom is basically blocking my path, and I don’t want to be a dick and push past her.

  “Swimming?”

  “That’s generally what people do at lakes, Mom,” I say, knowing just where she’s going with this.

  “Well, of course, but—”

  “Mom, can we talk about this later? I’d just really like to take a shower.”

  “Yes, that’s fine. We’ll talk later then,” she says. It’s easy to see how concerned she is, and I hate being the reason for that.

  As soon as I’m in my room, I lock the door behind me, whip my clothes off and hit the shower. Once underneath the cascade of hot water, I picture Claire in my head, bouncing up and down in the water, those beautiful breasts of hers breaking the surface and her complete and total innocence about it, not trying to be tempting, just having fun and being herself.

  But I had been tempted, so very, very tempted. I grab hold of myself, continuing to picture her face and remembering the feel of her body. She’d made me rock hard just looking at her, but then actually touching her and feeling her soft, silky legs against mine—it was just too much. She’d aroused me to the point of pain, and I pulled away, not wanting her to think I’d presume she wanted me that way but also afraid that, if she did, she might not like what she saw.

  I’m almost ashamed relieving myself while I think of her, as if I’m reducing the thought of her to something that is only sexual when there’s a great deal more to her. That shame is heavier when I think about Laney, like somehow I’m cheating on that sliver of hope for she and I while basically shitting all over the possibilities for me and Claire.

  After I dry off, a little embarrassed and a little pissed off, I throw some boxers on and fall into my bed, stretching my arm out behind my neck. Staring up at the ceiling is pretty damn boring in itself, but I’m mostly thinking. Preparing to leave Denver at the beginning of the summer, I’d also accepted any hope for Laney and I was dead. I figured she hated me, but the day before the U-Haul was packed and ready to go, she’d stopped by the house, flooring me.

  “So, you’re really going?” she asked on the front porch of our house, in a cute summer dress like the one Claire wore today.

  “I pretty much have to.” I still had difficulty looking Laney in the eyes after what we’d both done—she’d cheated on me and broken my heart, and I’d scared the living hell out of her.

  “You might still come back though, right?” Just then, she’d looked at me with those doe-like eyes of hers, her shoulders slightly slouched, one hand behind her back, the other moving up until she was tracing my forearm with her fingers.

  “Laney—”

  “I miss you sometimes,” she said, dropping her fingers away from me and locking them into her long blonde hair and twirling it. “It would be cool if you can come back… maybe go to CU. That’s not so long, right?”

  I swallowed hard, hadn’t known what to say. Laney and I hadn’t talked since the day she’d admitted to cheating on me, and there she was, beautiful as ever, telling me she missed me, that she wanted to see me again.

  Lying in my bed now, I’m not sure what my exact words were back to her. I’d been so thrown off and confused at her presence that my brain had basically turned to mush. But I know that, in so many words, I’d told her that I’d be back and that I’d hoped we could talk in the meantime.

  Grabbing my phone off the other side of the bed where I’d thrown it when I came back inside, I scroll through to the last text message Laney sent a few weeks back.

  Laney: We’re officially seniors. It’s weird not seeing you walk the halls. Don’t break too many hearts in Basin Lake.

  Me: Not likely to happen.

  Laney: Good. Then I don’t have to share.

  I shake my head, still as confused about Laney now as I was when she’d shown up on our old doorstep. Over the summer, mostly through texts and a couple of emails and snap chats, neither of us had laid down any ground rules about what our relationship was or if it would even be rekindled if I moved back to Denver. I still loved her, but I didn’t want to expect anything and have my heart ripped out again like it had been the first time. But then she’d go and send messages like that, make it seem like she wasn’t done with me, make it seem like
she wanted a future.

  When it’s time for dinner, I tell Mom and Dad I’m not feeling well. I promise Dad I’ll start work again on the stumps after school tomorrow, and I scrounge for leftovers in the fridge once they’ve both gone to bed. With so much on my mind, it’s no surprise I dream of Laney and Claire both, Laney with her hand stretched out and trying to pull me back to her, Claire making a sharp turn on her heel and walking away from me.

  I wake up with a cold sweat with no idea what it means.

  First period on Monday is easy enough. Nobody bugs me, and I just do my work and get through it. But second period will be tough, and it’s made even tougher when Mr. Turner announces another group experiment and pairs Nick and I with Nina and Claire again. I consider asking him for a switch, but the truth is that I want to see Claire… I want to be close to her.

  But she obviously doesn’t want the same from me. Once Nick and I gather our stuff and join her and Nina at their table, she barely looks at me and makes no effort to send a word my way. I shouldn’t be upset or even surprised since I’d done something similar at the lake yesterday. After I was so close to kissing her that I could taste it, I’d headed back to the shore and hastily thrown my clothes back on. She was close behind me and wanted to know if she’d done something wrong. I told her it was nothing and that I just needed to get home.

  She must think I’m a complete and total dick, if not just a freak.

  “Is something going on here?” Nina asks out of nowhere, her eyes wide, her perfectly manicured eyebrows raised.

  “An experiment is going on,” Nick reminds her, but she’s not looking at Nick–she’s looking at me.

  “You and Claire in a fight?” She’s zeroed in on me like a missile on its target, and she’s not letting go.

  “Just leave it alone,” I say, sounding harsher than I’d wanted, at least for Claire’s benefit, though I don’t even have the nerve to look at her and see what she might be thinking.

  “Oh, so there is something.” She claps her hands together, then focuses on Claire. “I had no idea you guys were actually dating. So, you and Austin are really finished?”

  “Why are you even in this class, Nina?” Claire snaps at her.

  “What?” Nina’s voice sparks.

  Though I’m trying to focus on the directions for the experiment, that’s pretty much impossible.

  “This is advanced chemistry, Nina,” Claire says. “We are here to learn and do work. Some of us actually want to go to college and make something of ourselves, not get dragged down into petty drama… or relationships.”

  That last part has been directed at me like a knife—I just know it.

  “Do you need a tampon?” Nina slides back, looking awfully proud of herself.

  “Do I need a what?” Claire sets the beaker down she’d just filled with saline solution and crosses her arms over her chest.

  “You heard me.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, Nick looks ready to say something, but, like me, he doesn’t seem sure as to what would be appropriate.

  “I can’t believe you,” Claire says, lowering her voice when Mr. Turner looks over at our table.

  “Well, believe it.” Nina straightens her posture and raises her chin. “You’re acting like you’re on the fucking rag, Claire. I just asked a simple—”

  “Please don’t talk to her like that,” I butt in, not willing to just stand by and let Nina turn this into some kind of joke.

  Nina turns to me, exasperated by my intrusion it seems. “God, where is the sense of humor in this room?”

  “Is everything all right over here?” Mr. Turner is at our table, eyeing all of us. “Do we need to switch anyone out?”

  “Everything is just spiffy,” Nick says with an exaggerated smile.

  “You sure about that? Miss Vargo? Miss Kessel?”

  “Spiffy… just what Nick said.” Nina says, obviously a little rattled and turning her attention to the experiment sheet we’d all been given.

  Claire nods when he stares her down, and I do the same when he turns his attention to me.

  “Very well,” he says. “Get on with it.”

  “The sooner we start, the sooner we finish,” Nick reminds all of us, especially Nina and Claire who are headed into a deep freeze.

  “Maybe you and I can lead this one,” I tell Nick, then turn to Claire. “You’ve been doing more than your share for the last few.” I’m hoping to relax her, hoping to get her to look at me and at least smile.

  “Fine,” she says, without even lifting her head. “Lead.”

  As Nick and I head the experiment, Claire dutifully follows the instructions I give her with very few words and almost no eye contact. She’s so obviously pissed at me, and I’m desperate to know exactly what she’s thinking, but I steel myself against trying to force a response. She just needs some time, and I’m not going to make any headway with her when she’s still so upset. Besides, I could use some time myself, to try to get a grip on the fact that I still have feelings for my ex while I’m incredibly attracted to Claire in ways I’ve never experienced.

  We’re halfway through the experiment when Claire clears her throat and scoots her stool away from the table. “I’m sorry, but I need to step out,” she says.

  “Oh… okay,” I mutter, but she’s already across the classroom and then out the door.

  “I think she really is on her period,” Nina says like Nick and I are two girls.

  “Grow up, Nina,” Nick says with a disappointed edge in his voice. “Don’t you believe in girl power… chicks before dicks and all that?”

  “Not when she comes at me like she did today,” Nina replies, following along with the experiment while still running her mouth. “I realize she got like a 3.8 last year because of Austin and him fucking her head up, but isn’t that her problem? Shouldn’t she figure out a way to have a relationship and do well in school too?”

  “Why is it any of your concern?” Nick asks the question before I can. I’m again tempted to say something in Claire’s defense, but I have a feeling Nina will rattle on regardless.

  “Because I’ve known her forever, and I don’t want her to wake up in her mid thirties one day and find herself all alone, because that’s what will happen. Med school takes like forever, and Austin—”

  “Can we please not talk about Austin?” I bark out, not wanting to hear another word about the guy who, at the very least, still wants to get into Claire’s pants.

  “Oh, yeah,” Nina practically coos. “I heard about the fight.”

  “You’ve got a nice shiner there,” Nick adds. “I didn’t want to say anything, but now that it’s out on the table.”

  I look to the door, willing Claire to walk in. Once she does, this chatter will stop, but there’s no sign of her.

  “I’ve never had a guy get in a fight over me,” Nina pouts.

  “Yeah, because that should definitely be on your bucket list.” Nick rolls his eyes.

  “He needs to leave her alone,” I say, defensively and with more harshness than I’d meant to vocalize.

  “You going to kick some ass again?” Nina purrs.

  I shake my head, not caring to explain how the fight happened or what it was over or that it wasn’t the first time I’d lost my shit on a guy like that.

  Before Nina can press any further, Claire walks back in. She’s tall and proud, and I don’t avert my eyes, enjoying watching her walk across the room in her skirt, blouse and black high heels. She still looks more like she should be an incredibly hot teacher and not a student, and even if she’s upset with me, I can’t help but be aroused at the sight of her, something I do my best to calm since advanced chemistry isn’t a good place to get an erection.

  “Big sister is back,” Nina says before beginning to hum, like that’s what she’d been doing the entire time Claire was away.

  “Everything okay?” I ask Claire, willing her to look back at me.

  “Everything is fine,” she says abruptly, only g
racing me with her gaze for a few seconds before she gets back to work.

  CLAIRE

  It’s hard to hide my anger toward Nina or my annoyance with Tyler for all of second period, but somehow I do. I need the break in between, just to get away from them for five minutes, to drink some water, to get some fresh air, to clear my head. Back in the room, I work diligently on the experiment and help clean up when we finish. I’m thankful when Tyler and Nick head back to their table, and I just fiddle with my phone and ignore Nina who keeps mumbling things under her breath. When the bell rings, I’m the first one out of the classroom, already halfway down the hall when Tyler catches up to me.

  “Claire… hey, can I talk to you?”

  “I only have a minute,” I say, stepping off into an alcove and trying to look up at his handsome face and not feel something, not be reminded that he’d all but ignored me after we’d come so close to kissing at the lake.

  “That’s all I need. Look, I’m really sorry about yesterday.”

  I shrug, still pissed at how he left things with us at the lake and equally afraid I’m about to be forever friend-zoned.

  “My mom asked me this morning if you wanted to come to dinner one night this week. She said I should ask you as soon as possible.”

  “Your mother wants me to come to dinner, but not you?”

  It sounds a lot like one of the consolation prizes you get when you don’t win anything good.

  “I didn’t say that.” Tyler’s face goes dark for a moment, and it reminds me of why I hate this, why I hate trying to have something with a boy when it all just ends up being arguments and misunderstandings.

  “Do you want me to come to dinner?” I clarify.

  “Yeah, of course I do,” he says without hesitation, and that at least seems like a good sign. “I would have asked you even if my mom hadn’t reminded me… it’s just…” He pauses. “I feel like I should explain something to you… about yesterday.”

  “Okay,” I say, not wanting to be late to third period but willing to be if Tyler has something important to share.

  He drags one of his hands through his thick hair, and the muscle of his neck flexes. “I don’t like to talk about my scars,” he says quietly. “When we almost kissed… which… I think we almost did, right?”