Ace pauses before taking up his boat and walking toward his house.
“Waterman!” Brylee calls for him and my adrenaline picks up. “Get over here. Dude, where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you in like a week.”
Shit. Brylee is such a fucking troublemaker.
Ace tilts his head at her a moment before dropping his boat and heading on over.
Perfect. I’m sure Brylee would want nothing more than front row seats when I finally pour my heart out to Ace. But Warren is here, and, in the event she hadn’t noticed, we have a faux engagement I’m still pretty ticked over.
“And what about you?” Warren kicks my foot as he gets up on his elbows. “Ken said you were with Whitney Summers and those airheads she hangs out with. You guys have fun?” Warren’s face is clean-shaven, his hair trimmed close to his head on the sides. He looks like a poster child for prep schools everywhere, and Ace sports the perfect five o’clock shadow, his wet hair is almost down to the base of his neck.
I cut a quick glance up to Ace. “Yeah, we had fun.” Shit. It’s not that I want to lie to Warren but I’m pretty sure he’d slit Ace’s throat if I told him the real story—that a faux honeymoon was involved—that nonstop love making ensued for the last eleven days. My insides throb with grief at the thought of not having Ace on command.
“Are you sure you were with Whitney?” Brylee winks into the sun as she studies me with that shit-eating grin locked on her face. “I mean, I thought I saw her last week in Collingsworth, but I could be confusing her with someone else.”
Crap.
“Yes, I’m sure.” I give her a hard stare. “I was there. I would know who I was with.”
Ace turns his head a moment before getting up. “It was nice seeing you guys. Gavin’s hauling me out to Medford. There’s an entire forest of Redwoods with my name on it.”
Warren glares at him. “Season that shit right this year would you? I’m tired of listening to my parent’s bitch about it. Tell Gavin he’s about to lose the entire lake if his ass doesn’t shape up.”
“Will do.” Ace holds my gaze a moment before taking off down the shore. There he goes, drifting further away from me, his body turning into a fierce shadow.
“Wait.” I jump up and run after him. “Medford is far,” I pant while my heart tries to pummel its way out of my chest. I glance back at Warren and Brylee as they chat in the sand. “And I’m sorry what I said about Whitney.” I press my lips together to stave off tears. “I wanted to say it was you.”
Ace shakes his head just barely. “Why would you say it was me?” His sad eyes pull toward his cabin, and he starts heading that way again.
“I go back to school on the fourth.” I match him stride for stride. “Kennedy wants to get settled, so we we’re going back a week early.”
“Got it.” His eyes widen as he nods into the idea. “You want to pencil in a few more trips to the boathouse—no problem.”
“No.” My heart drops at what I might have implied. “It’s not that.”
“No?” He arches a brow, still making his way down the lake, and I follow. “I must have not impressed you.”
“Believe me—you impressed the hell out of me,” I pant, struggling to keep up with him. “When you come back, do you think we can get together?”
“Yeah, sure.” He lifts his canoe up over his head and hikes toward the narrow trail that leads to the main road. “See you around.”
“Ace?” I call to him but he’s already in the thick of the holly bushes that line the walk.
See you around. That’s what you say to a friend.
And my heart breaks.
Ace
Gavin is at the house by the time I get there, and I try not to start beating up the furniture and smashing the windows the way I want. Instead, I toss the canoe into the bushes and stick my face under the garden hose for a solid minute.
“You ready?”
“Not yet.” I turn off the hose and glance back at the north side of the lake where I see three small dots in the same place I left them.
“So how’d it go? She everything your wet dreams promised she’d be?”
“That and then some.” I lean on the Cougar a moment as I set my gaze in her direction.
