“Would you stop being such a little bitch?” He reaches over and rumples my hair so hard my head knocks forward.
Ace steps in and pushes Warren flat on his ass. “Don’t you fucking touch her.”
Warren jumps up and lands chest to chest with Ace, both of them primed for some serious guerilla warfare as a small crowd gathers.
“Dude.” Warren butts his chest into Ace. “You don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. Reese knows I was shitting around.”
“Do you, Reese?” Ace doesn’t take his eyes off Warren, just presses in with a hard glare.
“Yeah, it’s fine.” I touch my hand to my throat. “I’mfine. No fighting, please.” I take a step toward the two of them.
“I’m going for a swim.” Ace sweeps over me with heavy eyes before wading in and diving into the lake.
Gavin comes back and helps Kennedy hook her phone up to his speaker until the sand vibrates to Coldplay’sYellow. Some kids from Yeats start swaying to the beat, and the mood elevates around us.
Warren speeds off toward the coolers, ticked as hell, and I watch as he pounds beer like water.
“Old lady, huh?” Brylee shoulders up to me. “I take it you didn’t break things off with him yet.”
“It’s kind of odd knowing I have to break up with someone I was never really officially with to begin with.” I spot Ace’s dark hair glistening in the lake.
A girl from Alpha Kappa crosses his path while doing the backstroke, and my insides feel like they’re being boiled in oil. She bumps into his chest, and I can hear her high-pitched laugh carry all the way over to my ears like a curse. It guts me to think he might find her pretty, that he might want her in general.
“You know, I think I’ll go for a swim.” The cool water runs up my thighs as I speed in and dive under. I move like a seal all the way over until I graze against Ace’s leg and pop up next to him.
“Hey, beautiful.” Ace gives his signature killer grin, and my insides melt like candle wax.
I blink the water from my eyes and glance to shore. Gavin and Warren are back on the sand next to Brylee along with a bunch of people I don’t recognize.
“I’ll race you to Boulder Island.” I cock my head, doing my best to flirt openly. It feels good to be with Ace in public even if I am a hundred feet from shore.
“It’s on, but you’ll never win.” His dimples dig in and out. “I’ll even give you a ten second lead,” he teases.
“Oh, I won’t need it.” I glide my fingers up the inside of his thigh. “Ready, set,go.” I dive toward the overgrown rocks and missile right past him. Our fingers touch the blue granite at the exact same time, and I laugh as I submerge myself one last time.
Ace helps hoist me onto the heated rock and starts leading me to the back.
“No, this is fine,” I say, pulling him to the flat surface that faces out toward Kennedy’s huge summer bash. “I don’t have anything to hide.” We find a spot that’s partially in the shade, provided by a lonely pine shooting from the center of the mass group of boulders and take a seat.
Ace scoots in until our shoulders touch. “I don’t like the way he talks to you,” he says it low as if there were a chance Warren might hear.
“I don’t either.” I make a half circle over the rock with my toes. “He’s just being Warren.” I shake my head as I pick up a twig that’s drifted from the pine.
“I don’t hear him talking to anyone else like that.” Ace cuts me a looks that lets me know he’d knife Warren’s balls off if I let him.
“Nor should he.” I swallow hard. The truth is, I don’t know how to get rid of Warren without turning this into some kind of familial and business meltdown. “I think we should change the subject.” I rock into him. “We should talk aboutus.”
“My favorite subject.”
“Mmm.” I moan into him. “You always know what to say. Is that what they’re teaching you down in Collingsworth? How to Treat A Lady 101?”
“Nope. With you it just comes natural. So what do you want to talk about?”
“I want to see if you’re still into doing this with me—you know—our special summer thing.”
“The non-fling?” He teases. “Hell, yes. You still on board?”
“Yes.God—yes. In fact, I’m ready and willing to press on.” I drip my gaze down his body and sink it into his lap a moment. “You know—really be with you.” I’ve waited my whole life to be with Ace.
