“What the hell?” Aiden jumped on the four-wheeler as Josh unloaded the other Jet Ski and tried to tie it off to the dock, but Jared’s wakes were making it impossible.
Pulling the four-wheeler away from the water, Aiden parked it.
I leaned against Ace, as we watched Jared rip around the Hole like the Devil chased him.
Josh waited until Jared slowed a little bit, and the water calmed to tie up the other Jet Ski. The guys knew when not to mess with Jared. He’d need time and a little space to work through whatever had upset him. It didn’t look like it would be something he’d be able to just shake. His shoulders slumped as he rode and there was a set to his jaw. I could see it as clear as if I were right beside him. Jared needed to get whatever it was out of his system before he hurt himself.
“Hey.” I turned to Ace. “Can you grab me a water?”
Ace looked down at me and squinted, as if he knew I was up to something.
I batted my eyelashes at him. “Please?”
He wrapped his arms around me and nibbled my neck. “How can I say no to that?”
He released me, and I turned to watch him make his way to the cooler. When he looked back over his shoulder at me, I waved my fingers at him. He shook his head and the second he looked forward again, I lunged for the Jet Ski and took off before anyone could stop me.
My name rolled along the air when Ace hollered for me, but I wasn’t turning back around. Jared needed someone, and I was probably the only one he wouldn’t deck right about then. I brought the Jet Ski to a stop about five feet from where he passed. His head whipped over in my direction and he made another pass by me, shooting a rooster tail that hit me dead on.
“Oh yeah! Two can play your game, Jared!” I hollered at him.
I cut him off, and he killed the switch on his machine. He cursed me as I looped around him and hit him with a wall of water from the side of the Jet Ski. It sent him bobbing along the choppy surface until he fired his up again and zipped around me in circles. I jumped the wakes he left behind, keeping up with him, until he realized I wasn’t going away.
When he finally stopped, I brought mine up beside his, and we bobbed like corks along the surface of the water.
He ripped his sunglasses off and ran his hand down his face, growling when he spoke. “What, Riley?”
“Are you seriously gonna try to pull that shit with me, Jared?”
He heaved a sigh and gave me a look that would terrify any other girl. I just shrugged. “What’s going on with you?”
“Can’t you just leave it alone, Riley?”
“Uh, no. You don’t get a choice with this, so you might as well spill it, Jared.”
“Leave me alone.”
It felt like a slap. Jared was an ass most days, but he’d never spoken to me like that. And it pissed me off.
I shot up and grabbed his handlebar. My other arm poked him in the chest. “You have a lot of nerve! I just came out here and risked my freakin’ life because you need someone to talk to. Do you know what the other five are gonna do to me when I get this parked?” I stabbed my finger at the machine that rocked under me, threatening to dump me between where the rubber bumpers kept banging into each other. My hand slipped off the handlebar and my shoulder slammed into the front of his Jet Ski. Jared had me back in my seat before I could understand what happened.
“Damn it, Riley! Alright, Jesus, I’ll tell you. Just sit the fuck down.” Jared tipped his head back and let a slew of curses spew.
“Feel better?”
“Shut up! Ace is gonna have my ass for this,” he said.
“I’ll give him mine instead.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. He fell back on his seat and laughed. His hand clutched at his stomach, and he wiped his eyes.
I waited for him to stop laughing, watching as his body relaxed and a spark of humor replaced the anger from earlier.
When he sat up and draped his arms over the handlebars, I tried again. “Talk to me, Jared. What’s going on?”
He pushed himself off the bars, dropped his hands into his lap, and stretched his foot out to bring our machines closer. I turned on the seat and hooked my heel on the edge of his footboard to keep us from floating apart.
When he spoke, he ran his hands down the legs of his shorts. “The band I signed on with?”
“Destroying Doubt… yeah?”
“Their lead guitar player left earlier than they’d planned for. They have concerts lined up and can’t fulfill their contracts right now. They need me. They want me to fly out to California this Friday.”
“But… that’s in two days.” He could be gone in just two days.
Jared’s laugh was laced with frustration. “I told them no.”
“You did? But why? That’s your dream!”
“Funny that you say that. My manager said the same thing, along with a reminder that the contract I signed clearly stated, in the fine print, that if Kit James didn’t stay, I’d be given a forty-eight hour notice. If I failed to uphold my end of the deal, I’d pretty much be blacklisted from the music industry and sued on top of that. Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to tell the guys?”
Hurt. Jared was hurt, and there wasn’t a damn thing any of us could do about it, except support him. “Jared?” When he looked up at me, his eyes were swimming in tears. “The guys will understand. This is important to you, which makes it important to them.”
He looked away as a tear rolled down his face, and he swatted at it angrily. “What if I’ve changed my mind? What then?”
“Have you? Have you really changed your mind? Music… being in a band, it’s all you’ve ever wanted. It just came a little sooner than you expected.” I gave him a slight shrug and nudged him with my foot. “You have to follow your dreams, Jared. Everyone else is.”
“You’re not.” And just like that, my heart shriveled.
I crossed my arms and felt myself stiffen. “That’s not fair. You know that’s out of my control.”
“Fair or not, it is what it is. I have a deal for you.” He slipped his sunglasses back on and gave me his trademark, crooked smile.
“A deal?”
“Yep. I’ll follow my dream, if you follow yours. That means you have to accept help, even if you don’t want it.”
“No, Jared. I won’t accept help. I’ll figure it out.” I waved off his argument, but he barreled on.
“Sorry, Riley, but I’m helping you regardless, so you might as well just get used to it. Besides, why should you sit here and watch all of us set off to follow our dreams and be left to rot in this place?”
I bit my lip to keep from telling him he could push the issue all he wanted, but it didn’t mean I’d accept it. I pulled my leg over the seat, and Jared pushed us apart.
“Race ya back!” He took off before I could catch up with him. Emotional boys were mentally exhausting.
ACE WAS FURIOUS WHEN I pulled the Jet Ski up beside the dock. He shot Jared a dirty look and waited for me to climb off. I slid back on the seat and slapped my hand on the open spot. He climbed on in front of me, took us out to the middle of the Hole, and let us drift. I could feel the tension in his body rolling off him. “That was an incredibly stupid idea. I never want you to put yourself in that position again.”
I slid back on the seat. If we were gonna have it out, I wanted to see his face. “I wouldn’t take that shit from Jared. Why would you think I’d take it from you?”
“Riley…”
“No. Don’t you dare try to use that tone of voice with me! I’m not a child. You have no right to tell me what I can and can’t do. Jared is our friend, and he needs us right now. I took a chance that he’d talk to me, and I was right.”
Ace spoke through clenched teeth. “He could have hurt you!”
“But he didn’t.” I looked over to where the guys stood on the dock. They were focused on Jared. I could tell by the jerky movements he made that he was breaking the news about leaving in two days’ time.
“What’s going on,
Riley?” Ace asked me as he watched the scene on the dock.
“Jared’s leaving Friday.”
“What? Why?”
“The phone call he got was from his manager. Kit James walked and Jared has to go, or he’s in breach of his contract.”
Ace’s chin hit his chest, and I wrapped my arms around him as he soaked in what I’d told him. “We have two more days with him. Let’s make the best of it.” I ran my hands up his side and kissed the spot between his shoulder blades. Shivering, he rested his hands briefly on mine. His anger deflated, and he took us back to the dock.
THE FUN HAD BEEN SUCKED out of the day. We didn’t need that. If anything, we should have been making enough crazy memories to last until the next time we were together.
We were sitting on the blanket, spread out, looking out over the water, when Mark shouted behind us. “Y’all look like a bunch of old porch dogs sunnin’ themselves, minus the sun.”
I looked up, and Paige gave me a ‘what the hell is going on’ look.
Josh pulled a leg up and draped his arm over it. He stared at the water but spoke to Mark. “Jared’s leaving on Friday.”
Mark staggered, bumping into Paige. She steadied him and kept her hand on his arm until they made it to where he half sat, half tossed himself to where he could come to terms with the bad news Josh delivered.
“It’s really happening, isn’t it? We’re all going our separate ways.” His words were filled with heartbreaking disbelief.
Paige sat down beside Mark, leaning against him until he looked at her. A look passed between them and Mark shifted, pushing on Paige’s legs until he had his head in her lap. He crossed his ankles and closed his eyes.
Paige pulled her fingers through his hair, as she chewed on her lip. I could see a thought brewing, and then she broke the silence.
“I don’t know why y’all are sad about Jared leaving. If anything, you should be pissed. He’s gonna be getting more ass in one month than all of you will get for the rest of your life.”
It went dead quiet for a beat of three seconds when everyone whipped their heads to look at her with eyes widened. She ignored them and shot a toothy grin at Jared. When she winked at him, it broke the spell holding everyone speechless. It took the guys a while to get their laughter under control. They heaved deep breaths and when one would start up again, it set all of them off. They laughed until they clutched at their stomachs. Paige never spoke like that. Sure, she cussed, but she’d never joked or talked like that in the last four years she’d known the Six. Paige was the prim and proper one of the bunch, and she’d just shot the hell out of her perfectly coiffed image. All bets would be off with the Six. She’d sealed her own fate.
“I knew she was one of us!” Jared howled.
Mark reached up, put his hand behind her neck, and pulled her down for a kiss.
It made the guys howl out and try their hardest to embarrass her and Mark.
Ace nudged me with his shoulder. When I looked at him, he wore a goofy grin. “What?”
He shook his head and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Hugging me against him, he leaned in and spoke against the side of my neck. “Leave it to Paige to snap us back to reality.”
The mood around us shifted as everyone accepted that life, no matter how much we didn’t want it to, was changing for all of us.
After that, the afternoon was filled with cannonballs, Jet Ski races, and people being tossed in the water. It was perfect.
AIDEN DROVE THE FOUR-WHEELER, loaded with the Jet Skis, back to the shed they’d been stored in. The rest of us collected our stuff and walked back to the cabin. Jared mentioned steak, and we’d hurriedly packed up so we could stuff our faces.
When I made it inside the cabin, Jared had the steaks out on plates and was pulling the spices down to season them. He glanced over at me and spun the lid off the garlic salt. “You can use my shower if you want.”
“I planned on it,” I said, setting my bag down. There was a handful of empty wrappers and a half-eaten bag of chips. I tossed the bag on the counter, turned the tote upside down over the trash, and shook it.
He spun the lid back on the garlic salt and reached for the pepper as he mumbled, “Saucy wench.”
I purposely walked around the table and hip-checked him. He hadn’t expected it, and his forehead banged into the top cabinet. I darted away from him before he could touch me with the same hand he’d flipped the raw meat with. I heard him chuckle to himself as I made my way down the hall.
Ace walked into the bedroom and eyed the shorts and underwear I’d tossed on the bed. He leaned against the doorframe as I plucked a T-shirt off the hanger. “I’m gonna grab a shower in Jared’s bathroom.”
He pushed off the doorframe and dropped a kiss to my lips. “All by yourself?”
“It’s how I’ve done it these last fourteen plus years, so yeah, I think I can handle it.” Once the reply left my mouth, I realized what he meant, and the telltale blush of embarrassment tinged my cheeks a bright red. I busied myself by turning away and picking up the clothes I’d set on the bed.
“Yeah, but there’s always that one spot that gets missed no matter what angle your arm is bent.” His arm shot out in front of me when I went to walk past him. “So really, I’m doing you a favor by coming with you. Ya know—to make sure that one spot gets clean.”
I hugged the stack of clothes tighter to my chest. “Oh please, did you honestly think that would work?”
His eyes crinkled at the corner and he brought his hand up, pinching his cheeks to keep his lips from curving into a smile.
“You gotta come up with better lines,” I said, pushing his arm down so I could walk past him.
The room swirled around me, and I ended up pressed against the wall. My clothes fell to the floor, and my hands landed against Ace’s chest. “How about this…? I’ll wash your back, and you can wash mine.”
My mouth opened and closed several times as he stood there in front of me, waiting, caging me in as my short breaths pushed my chest against his.
Ace’s eyebrow kicked up as he moved back a step, and then bent down to pick up my clothes. When he handed them over, my underwear was hanging from his finger. I went to snatch them, but he pulled them out of my reach. “So what do ya say?
My voice came out a husky whisper when I gathered the nerve to answer him. “I still think you need better lines to get a girl to share her shower.”
“Challenge accepted, Riley. I’ll work on that later, but right now… shower.” He grabbed clean clothes, took my hand, and rushed me down the hallway to Jared’s bathroom. When the bedroom door closed behind us, Ace turned the lock in one swift movement.
My feet felt like they were glued to the floor when Ace walked toward me. Prowled was more like it. He pulled at the clothes I clutched tightly to my chest. They fell from my grip, and I wobbled back a step. I wasn’t scared, not in the least. No, I was so wound up that the tiniest of touches from Ace would shatter me. He watched me through hooded eyes as he maneuvered around me into the bathroom. The shower turned on and seconds later, steam rose up above the glass doors. I clasped my hands together in front of me, twisting my fingers together as I wondered if I should bolt, chiding myself for being unsure.
Ace twisted at the waist, and I watched the way his skin stretched over his chest, bunching the muscles in his back. His hand came out, inviting me to make the first move—to go to him on my own. I took one step, and then another. Before I knew it, he had a tight grip on the bottom of my shirt, lifting it over my head. His lips found mine and he kissed me, as he tugged the strings holding my bikini top in place. His hands spread out over my back, fingertips digging in as he pulled me close. As he slid his lips along my neck and down to my shoulder, his left hand raked down my side, while his thumb hooked at the waist of my bottoms, dragging the material over my hip. He smoothed his hand up along my ribcage and switched hands, tugging the other side of my bottoms until they puddled at my feet.
I reache
d out with fingers that shook, ran my hands along his sides, and brought them around, wedging them between us and untying his swimming trunks. Ace sucked in a hiss when I grabbed the top corner of the Velcro and yanked it apart. My hands ran back and forth across the bottom of his stomach until I trailed my fingers under the waist of the shorts, pushing them down and over his nicely shaped backside.
I waited as he took a deep breath and then released it as he stepped back. He held my stare as my top fell to the floor. I stepped out of the tangle of material at my feet and followed him as he walked backwards into the shower. He never broke eye contact once, as he backed me up under the steady pounding of water coming from the showerhead. His touch was light, tracing his fingers up my arms, over my shoulder, until he held his hands at the base of my neck and used his thumbs to tilt my head under the water.
Dropping one of his hands, Ace lifted mine up in between us. My eyes snapped to his when he placed a kiss against my palm and then moved me out from under the shower spray.
He turned away, grabbed the shampoo, squeezed some in his hands, and then stuck his head under the water. Scrubbing the shampoo into his hair, he rinsed it. I had to lean against the shower wall, as I watched Ace turn, lift his arms, and rinse the shampoo from his body. The water ran down over his face, along his neck, over the chiseled perfection of his chest, and…
“Riley?” Ace had been watching me watch him. He had a handful of shampoo that he rubbed between his palms. The shower was huge, but Ace’s presence shrunk it down when I turned to stand in front of him. His fingertips against my scalp made me sag against him until he turned me to rinse the shampoo from my hair. Water ran off us and hit the tiled floor in loud splashes with every move. I closed my eyes and soaked in every touch of Ace’s body against mine. The creaking sound of a bottle opening snapped me out of the haze he had put me under.
The Summer I Fell (The Six Series) Page 10
