Page 36 of Break Away
“Exactly that,” I said.
By the time we reached the lake, the sun had already started dropping behind the trees, turning the water copper and the sand warm under my sandals. Music bumped from somewhere near the dock. Someone had strung lights between pine trees and over the porch of the lake house, and the bonfire closest to the shore had already grown big enough to make everyone around it look prettier and more dangerous than they probably were.
Briggs saw us first because he had the observational subtlety of a golden retriever spotting a tennis ball.
“Bennett!” he yelled from beside a cooler, shirtless, damp, and holding what appeared to be a marshmallow skewer like a weapon. “You brought the council!”
“The council voted against whatever you’re about to ask,” I called back.
“I hadn’t asked yet.”
“That’s how efficient we are.”
Ryan stood near him in black swim trunks and an open button-down shirt, tattoos on display, his expression dry as sand. As usual, he looked like the ABCs’ collectively approved bad decision, our Chicano god of tattoos and sin. The man was so fine it made him untouchable.
“The council is smart,” he said.
Briggs pointed the skewer at him. “You’re only saying that because Charm is here and you get weird around expensive women.”
Charm slipped her sunglasses down her nose. “Expensive?”
Ryan’s mouth barely moved. “I get nervous around no women.”
Briggs made a wounded sound. “You’re supposed to deny it.”
“I’m comfortable with self-awareness.”
“Since when?”
“Since I became superior.”
Rider lounged in one of the low beach chairs near the fire, quiet as ever, his blond hair pulled back and his elbows resting on his knees while his attention moved over the party like he was collecting details nobody else would remember.
“That started today?” he asked.
Ryan looked at him. “Don’t participate.”
Rider lifted one shoulder, almost smiling. “You made it easy.”
I laughed because it was impossible not to, and then I saw Easton on the dock.
He wasn’t doing anything dramatic, which was offensive because he did not need help being noticeable. He stood near the end with a beer in one hand, shirt off, swim trunks low on his hips, and shoulders wet like he had just climbed out of the lake. The last of the sunlight caught in his pale hair and slid over the hard lines of his chest and arms, making him look carved out of every terrible idea I had ever had and several I had been too smart to try.
He looked at my face first. Looking at my body first would have been easier, but his eyes went to my face before sliding down and returning again, like he understood looking was a privilege and wanted me to know he knew exactly what he was doing with it.
I hated him immediately, even if my skin warmed in places the bonfire had not touched.
Bliss’s head turned slowly, following my line of sight. “Absolutely not.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You breathed slutty.”
Charm choked on her drink.
“I did not breathe slutty.”
“You did,” Charm said, coughing delicately into one hand. “It was subtle, but legally present.”
