Cassie laughed as I slid into the hot water beside her.
“Wouldn’t you like that,” she teased, stirring the water with her hands. The small motion was just enough to push her chest together, revealing the top of her cleavage—the same cleavage I’d worshiped last night, again and again.
“You’ve got your own slice of heaven out here, you know?” Cassie said, taking in the snowstorm and the glow of the full moon sitting at the peak of the mountains off in the distance.
“Yeah, there’s no place I’d rather be than Silver Creek,” I admitted, the memories I’d made growing up here playing back through my mind.
“I’m sure you managed to get into trouble all the time growing up.”
“Way more than you can imagine. All three of us McKinleys definitely kept my parents on their toes,” I laughed, thinking back to the chaos we caused as kids—and especially as teenagers.
“One summer, Colt and I were riding around the pastures, just trying to kill time. When we rode over to the lake, we were thinking about jumping in while sitting on the dock, talking. Out of nowhere, a bear came strolling out of the tree line, walking straight towards us. Colt and I combined our two brain cells anddecided the best plan was to charge at it, thinking it would scare the bear off.
“It didn’t. It only got madder—turns out its cub was behind it, munching on some berries. The bear came barreling at us full speed. We sprinted to our horses, barely making it on them in time. Our adrenaline was through the roof.
“Looking back now, it’s hilarious. At the time, we were certain we were about to be bear food. We decided not to tell our parents about that one. They might’ve made us stop riding out in the pastures alone and then we really would’ve been bored all summer long.”
Cassie just continued to smile and shake her head.
“I’m sure you were a good kid growing up,” I said, my mind drifting to what her childhood might have been like. Based on what little I knew, she probably had a lot of freedom—maybe too much.
“I kind of had no choice,” she said, exhaling slowly. “I was basically on my own since kindergarten. My mom spent most of her time at other people’s houses—her boyfriend-of-the-week, or some abandoned house she was crashing at, trying to score cheap drugs.”
“Who watched you when she was gone?” I asked, frustration bubbling at the thought of her rough start.
“Luckily, I had an elderly neighbor, Carol. She was retired, so she was home most of the time to secretly look after me whenever my mom wasn’t around. Honestly, I’m not sure why Carol never called CPS. She probably knew that sometimes foster care isn’t much better than what I had.
“Instead, she’d bring me groceries every week. Sometimes she’d throw in little extras—coloring books, fresh crayons, markers. She’s probably the only reason I didn’t go hungry most nights.”
I nodded, thinking about my own childhood and how different hers and I had been.
She perked up, trying to lighten the mood. “Enough about my shitty childhood. Why don’t we do something else… like playNever Have I Ever?” she said, a mischievous smile tugging at her lips.
“You start,” I said, nodding toward her. She thought for a moment before saying, “Never have I ever broken a bone.”
“That’s not fair. You know I have to put my finger down––because you’re the one who broke the bone.”
She giggled as I splashed water at her playfully, her cheeks glowing under the moonlight. “Your turn.”
“Alright. Never have I ever run someone over with my car.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “This game isn’t very fair if we’re asking things we already know about each other.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s switch it up.” I leaned back, pretending to think. “Never have I ever had sex in a hot tub.”
I watched her closely to see if she’d put a finger down. She didn’t.
Cassie lifted her chin, a slow smile spreading across her lips. “Alright, my turn.”
She dragged her fingers through the water, letting them brush against my knee before she leaned in a little closer.
“Never have I ever,” she said, voice dropping to a soft tease, “wanted to have sex in a hot tub with the person sitting right next to me.”
My heartbeat kicked up as I put my finger down. Cassie put hers down at the same time.
“Interesting,” she whispered.
“Never have I ever had sex in this hot tub with a smoking hot redhead named Cassie,” I said, keeping all my remaining fingers up.
