Page 88 of Crash Course

“The drivers are staying here.”

“WHAT?!” Megan screeches.

I send a pic of the pool with my legs in it.

Theo: My room or yours?

“Fuck!” I hurry to unsend it, but it’s too late. Wrong Ashford.

Jameson: You mean to send Theo a picture of your legs?

Shay: I did not. As a concession, yours has tits too.

I take a new picture and send it.

Jameson: I told the driver if we’re not there soon, I’m taking over.

Shay: Bring swimming shorts.

Jameson: Too late. You’ll have to take me without them.

Did he just send a devil emoji? Be still my heart.

There’s a lot at stake this weekend. But first, there will be a riot if Jameson Ashford goes skinny-dipping in this Miami pool.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Megan muses over my shoulder.

“Do what?”

“Keep both Ashfords in line.”

“I don’t have to. Theo and I are friends. Jameson and I are…something else.”

“So, Theo just backed off.” She cocks her head.

“Why wouldn’t he?”

We’re still friends. I’ve done everything in my power to assure that.

“God, you’re naive.” She drops into her chair sideways to face me. “Let’s recap. The second-fastest driver in school—possibly on the planet—has a thing for you. You decide you like his brother more, and he said, ‘My mistake, yeah, Jameson can have first shot at you like he’s had first shot at literally everything else’?”

I frown. “You say ‘first shot’ like there’s going to be a second shot.”

“Not the point. The point is, you’re not the first thing both Ashford boys have wanted. You’re the first thing Theo actually had a chance at winning.”

“We’re going to change and go for a drink in town. Want to join?” Megan asks an hour later, nodding toward Zane and Raj, who are fighting over a lounger in the pool.

“I was going to wait for the drivers to get in.”

Megan and I are staying on the first floor, which means we have patios facing the front of the building. I’m planning to head to our shared room to take a shower and wash the chlorine off me, because Jameson Ashford is on his way here and I have an entire hotel room to myself.

“Oh, I see how it is.” Her grin widens.

“That’s not it.” Except it totally is.

Five minutes later, I’m stepping into the shower when I see it.

Big. Dark. Possibly fuzzy and definitely occupying the corner I was about to put my bare foot in.