by Penny Wylder
“Did you get all your classes in order?” she asks.
If she’s going to ask me a million questions about school, it’s going to be a long three weeks. I think she might be more excited for me to go off to college than I am. She always tells me that her college years were the best of her life and I should embrace everything it has to offer. And believe me, I plan to.
“You’ve asked me that three times,” I say, smiling at her eagerness.
“I know, and I know you’re an adult now and can take care of yourself, but it’s still my job to make sure you’re all taken care of.”
“All my classes are in order and I have my schedule ready to go.”
“What about housing? Did you find out anything about who you’ll be rooming with?”
I laugh as she twists her hair into a knot, something she does when she’s nervous. The dorms are coed. I’m sure she’s afraid I’ll end up with a boy in the room, but I’m fairly certain the university makes it a point not to put boys and girls in the same rooms together.
“Not yet. It’s the beginning of summer. I probably won’t find out anything about my roommate until the day we move in together.”
She sighs and the worry on her face ages her. She turns back around to face the front of the car. I hope she’s able to enjoy her vacation with all these questions filling her head. My dad, on the other hand, seems perfectly content to get rid of me. Not that we don’t have a good relationship or that he won’t be sad when I leave; I’m sure he will, but he doesn’t quite have the same empty nest blues my mom will have. I think he wants to finally have his wife all to himself. In a couple years, when my brother is old enough to go to college, I have a feeling my dad and mom will be making up for all those times my brother and I cock-blocked their nights together.
“Dad, do you think Annie and her family are at their cabin yet?” I ask, hoping to keep the conversation busy so my mom doesn’t come back with more questions about school.
Annie and I have been best friends for many years. Our parents are friends. We go on vacations together all the time and they even bought cabins on the same lake. But since Annie’s parents’ divorce, things have been different.
“I’m sure they beat us there,” my dad says. “Ben drives that Corvette as if it has wings. He probably arrived hours ago.”
My mom leans over the seat and whispers just loud enough for me to hear. “I think Lorain got the Corvette in the divorce. Ben’s probably driving something else.”
The muscles in my dad’s jaw flex with tension. I know he doesn’t like talking about his best friend’s divorce. Everyone had liked Ben’s wife, Lorain (except me—I never did trust her, and she was way too strict with Annie), and when they found out she cheated on Ben, they were devastated. What do you say to someone who’s been cheated on practically his whole marriage? When the details came out, we were all shocked. I always liked Ben. He’s sweet and funny, and when I got into high school, I couldn’t help but notice how hot he was.
I feel my cheeks heat up when I think about him. That happens a lot lately. The older I get, the more I notice him. It’s so bad sometimes I have to take a cold shower just to calm down. Annie would be mortified if she knew the dirty things that go through my mind when her dad is around, and that there have been times I went to her house just to see him.
I know I shouldn’t think about him like that, but I can’t help it. And I can’t help how excited I feel getting to see him every day while we’re on vacation. Especially now that he’s single. Though, it’s probably a good thing Ben’s cabin is further down the lake from ours so I won’t be obsessing over him the entire time.
I go back to scrolling through Tinder to get him off my mind, but the Wi-Fi is spotty as hell this far out into the woods.
My dad slows the car and I look up as my dad turns down the long dirt driveway. After about a mile of bumping along and kicking up dust, our cabin comes into view. And there’s a truck parked out front.
“Isn’t that Ben’s work truck?” my mom asks.
My dad’s forehead wrinkles with confusion. “It is.”
My heart starts to thunder in my chest. I always got a little excited when I knew I’d get to see Ben, but it’s never been this bad before. Knowing he’s single again has changed everything.
Ben climbs out of his truck, and so do Annie and Tulip and their younger brother. I’m so confused why they’re at our cabin and not their own.
My dad pulls up beside them and I can’t get out of the car fast enough. Annie and I run at each other and tackle each other into a hug.
“I’m so excited to spend the next three weeks with you,” I say to her excitedly. I can’t wait to show her my new black bikini. And Annie and Tulip are the best wing-women a girl can ask for when it comes to dating. They know where all the hot guys hang out and they are eager to help me pursue my goal of losing my virginity over this vacation.
“Don’t get too excited,” Annie says. When I pull away from our hug and look at her, she’s practically in tears.
“Why, what’s wrong?” I ask.
“What’s going on?” my dad asks Ben before Annie can explain to me what she meant.
Ben sighs and looks like he’s barely masking his anger. “Well, Lorain and I share custody of the cabin, and apparently she rented it out for the next month without bothering to mention it.”
“She did it on purpose,” Tulip mumbles under her breath. “I told her we were coming up here weeks ago.” No one else but me hears her, and I have to admit I’m not the least bit surprised that Lorain would do something like that. She’s vindictive. It wasn’t enough to cheat on Ben and hurt him, but now she has to go and sabotage his vacation with his daughters. What a bitch. Of course I don’t say that because I know Annie and her mom are still close even after everything Lorain did to her dad.
“Looks like the girls and I are going to be making other vacation plans for the summer,” Ben says.
“No!” I burst out so suddenly it startles everyone. Now they’re all staring at me, but I’m not the least bit embarrassed by my outburst. I’m not going to spend the next three weeks at this cabin without my best friends.
I look at my dad, pleading to him with the biggest puppy dog eyes I can muster. But I can tell by the determined look on his face that he already came to the same conclusion that I did.
“You’re not going anywhere. That’s ridiculous. I know these girls will start a mutiny if we try to separate them for the entire three weeks. There’s plenty of room in our cabin. You’re staying with us,” my dad says.
There isn’t plenty of room in the cabin and we all know it. It will be cramped quarters, but that will be part of the fun of it. I glance at Ben, dirty thoughts jumping into my head like pop-up ads at the thought of being in the same cabin with him for the next three weeks. He’s so good looking and he doesn’t really look his age at all except for a few wisps of gray hair at the temples. If anything it makes him sexier. More sophisticated, I guess.
“We couldn’t intrude—” Ben starts to say, but Annie interrupts him.
“Yes we can and we will.” She’s already grabbing her bags out of the truck and heading for the cabin.
Ben laughs. “I guess we’re staying.”
2
Jenny
My family grabs our bags and groceries out of the car. I leave a few things behind in the trunk because there’s too much to carry in one trip. Three weeks is a long time.
My mom is an over planner so there’s plenty of food for everyone. We could practically survive the apocalypse with the amount of food she brought. While I fill the pantry, my dad, Mom and Ben figure out the sleeping arrangements. There are only three bedrooms. One, of course, is for my mom and dad. Usually one is for me and the other for my brother, but that will clearly need to change. They decide to put Annie and Tulip’s little brother in my brother’s room and us girls in my room. Ben volunteers to sleep on the couch. I feel sorry for him because it’s the most uncomfortabl
e couch I’ve ever slept on. I’ve taken a nap on it a time or two and woken up feeling eighty years old.
Once everyone is settled in, us girls go into my room to unpack. We’ll be here for the next three weeks so we might as well get comfortable.
“We wouldn’t be in this mess if Mom wasn’t such a bitch,” Tulip says.
Annie’s head snaps up from her suitcase where she’s arranging her underwear into the drawer I gave her. “It wasn’t all Mom’s fault. Maybe if Dad had paid any attention to her, she wouldn’t have had to get attention elsewhere.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing from Annie. How can she defend her mom and blame her dad for her mom’s cheating? There’s no excuse. Lorain made a commitment to Ben when they married and then she broke it. It’s no one’s fault but her own.
Tulip snaps back, “Mom never cared about anything other than money and she was always out looking for someone who could give that to her. The divorce was her fault and now she’s punishing Dad for God knows what. And clearly she doesn’t care about us either, because she knew how excited we were for this vacation and yet she rented out the cabin anyway without saying anything. She’s a stone cold bitch.”
“Dad should’ve known the cabin was rented out. It’s his property too. He just wasn’t paying attention. Just like he doesn’t pay attention to anything. He should just sell it to Mom.” Annie makes a huffing sound. “As if he’d ever let go of it. He wants the disposable income that he can have the luxury of forgetting about.”
That doesn’t sound like the Ben I know at all. He doesn’t care about money. He cares about his family.
I’m sick of listening to them bicker. If I have to deal with this for the next three weeks, I’m going to snap. They don’t normally fight, but I think the stress of the divorce has finally gotten to them.
“Guys, come on,” I say. “This is supposed to be fun. Let’s drop it before one of you says something you’ll regret.”
“Fine,” Tulip says, rolling her eyes. “What time is it?”
She grabs my phone that I’d tossed on the bed. The screen lights up and my Tinder app is open. She laughs. When Annie looks at my phone her mouth falls open and she laughs too. I guess laughing at me is better than fighting with each other.
“Girl’s trying to get laid,” Tulip says. “Look at all these hot guys who liked your picture. Why haven’t you liked any back?”
I grab my phone from her and black out the screen. “I don’t know. They’re not really my type.”
“What is your type?” Tulip asks. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about a guy you like.”
“She likes the grandpa types,” Annie teases.
“I do not,” I say, laughing too now. “I just like them a little older. A little more mature, I guess.”
“Silver daddies can be hot,” Tulip says, taking my phone from me again.
After a while of scrolling, she says, “Let’s get out of here. This is boring. I want to meet real boys.”
“I don’t know …” I say hesitantly.
“Come on, Jenny, it’ll be fun,” Annie says. They both look at me with pleading eyes.
“Fine, but first I need to go get the rest of my clothes from the car. I need something to wear.”
I go down to the car to grab the rest of my things and see Ben doing the same. He’s carrying a box up the porch steps. He’s wearing a short-sleeve t-shirt and long board shorts. The ropes of muscle in his calves flex with each step and his arms bulge with the strain of the weight of the box. I try to pick my jaw up off the floor. He’s so fucking hot, it’s hard not to stare. But I try not to when he sees me standing near the front door. He’s better looking than any guy on Tinder, and I’m far more attracted to him than any of the eighteen-year-old boys flooding my inbox.
“Hey there,” he says, and sets the box down. He wipes the sweat from his brow and smiles his big beautiful smile. My heart leaps every time I see it. It makes me want to throw myself into his arms and beg him to kiss me.
“It’s been a while since I saw you last,” Ben says. “You get more and more beautiful every time I see you.” I blush profusely and can’t help the shy smile that comes to my lips. “I bet you have the boys falling all over you.”
I shrug. “A few of them, but I’m not into immature boys.”
He raises an eyebrow and smiles wider. If I didn’t know better, I’d say there might be a hint of attraction. But I’m too afraid to read into it. He’s the same age as my dad; their birthdays are just weeks apart. I doubt he sees me the same way I see him.
“I’m sure your dad is happy to hear that.”
My lack of enthusiasm after thinking that he may not have any attraction to me shows in my voice. “Yeah, probably.” I smile to try to make up for it.
I walk out to my car to get the rest of my things. I don’t even want to go out to look for boys anymore. My mood has completely changed and I’m feeling dejected. When I go into my room, Tulip and Annie are looking through their own Tinder apps, trying to find their perfect summer matches.
I need to stop moping over Ben. It’s never going to happen with him, as disappointing as that is. Even though I don’t want to hook up with anyone my age, I don’t really have a choice. And I’m ready to lose my virginity. Maybe going out is exactly what I need right now.
“Let’s do this,” I say, fishing out my sexiest summer dress. It’s more of a cover-up for my bikini than it is a dress. And it’s totally see-through. I put my new bikini underneath and Tulip and Annie start to whistle and catcall as I strut around, showing off the new curves I earned with all the time I’ve been spending at the gym lately.
Suddenly my bedroom door swings open without a knock. Tulip and Annie fumble with their phones to shut off their Tinder apps as my mom comes in.
She looks at me and frowns at my outfit with confusion. “Are you guys heading to the beach?”
“We were thinking about it,” I lie.
“Could it wait for an hour or two? The boys want to have a game of flag football, and I was hoping we could all have a nice dinner together for our first night together. I’m sure with everything that’s happened, it would make Ben feel comfortable and a little more welcomed since he seems to think he’s intruding.”
Annie rolls her eyes. She’s not getting along with her dad all that well, but Tulip and I agree. I don’t know anything about football, but my dad and Ben played in high school and college. They’re very competitive. This should be interesting.
“Get downstairs then, everyone is ready to play,” Mom says.
I stay in my bikini and cover-up since it’s comfortable and easy to move in. We go down stairs and when I see Ben standing next to my dad without his shirt on, I literally stumble down the first two stairs before I catch myself.
“Careful, clumsy,” Annie teases.
I smile and wave her off as I try to get my heart under control. Ben has the body of an athlete, all lean muscle and smooth skin. Nothing like my dad’s actual “dad bod”, that’s soft and doughy in the middle. Ben even has a six pack that ripples beautifully when he laughs.
I want to reach out and touch him, run my fingers along his wide shoulders. Touch his brown wavy hair, run my fingers through it.
“Hey kiddo,” my dad says, shattering my fantasy and bringing me back to reality. “You’re on my team.”
“Great,” I say. We’re definitely going to lose. There’s no way my dad will be able to keep up with Ben, and since I don’t know what I’m doing, I’ll be pretty much useless on our team.
My dad gives me a brief overview of the rules. It’s our family against theirs. Annie and Tulip are far more athletic than my mom and I, so we most definitely don’t stand a chance. Oh well. It’s just a game. Wish I could convince my dad of that, but he seems to have something to prove. He stares at the other team with determination, and when he comes back into our huddle, there’s nothing but fierce determination in his eyes. This isn’t going to end well.
&nb
sp; “The only one who will be able to keep up with Ben is you, Jenny-Bean. I want you on him like white on rice,” my dad says.
My cheeks heat up. He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I wouldn’t mind staying on Ben all night long. “On it,” I say.
Maybe flag football isn’t so bad after all.
So basically, all I have to do is run and grab the flag off Ben’s belt whenever he has ball. This should be easy, right?
Wrong.
Ben is fast. Like, Superman fast. And he has the stamina of someone half his age. I’m already out of breath. My dad keeps yelling at me to stay on Ben. I’m starting to get frustrated with his constant demands, so the next time Annie snaps the ball and Ben catches it, I burst from my line like a cheetah and head straight for him. I don’t think he’s expecting my speed and for me to suddenly be on top of him. I know it’s supposed to be flag football, but I’m caught up in the moment and I jump on him.
We tumble to the ground together, tangled in each other’s limbs. I roll on top of him, straddling him. I reach down and yank a flag from his belt. He laughs and tries to snatch it back, but I stuff it down into the cup of my bikini top.
“If you want it so bad, you’ll have to come get it.”
He freezes, and suddenly I feel that his dick is hard as a rock beneath me. To everyone else it looks like a friendly tackle, but I know differently, and judging by the look on his face, Ben does too. Ben stares into my eyes and we’re locked that way, both realizing this is now more than just a friendly game of flag football. My little stunt has taken it to the next level. And though he’s hard and obviously feels some desire toward me, I don’t know if it’s what he wants.
I start to climb off of him, but his hand goes to my thigh and he squeezes. My dad and mom are too busy celebrating our victory, and Annie and Tulip wallowing in their defeat to notice when Ben reaches into my bikini top and grabs the flag. His fingers brush against my nipple and they turn to small diamonds.
