“You’ll get used to it,” Jackson murmurs beside me, his voice low with amusement. He must notice how rigid I’ve gone, arms crossed like a shield over my chest.
“Doubt it,” I reply under my breath.
He chuckles, and I can feel his eyes lingering on me, like I’m some puzzle he hasn’t quite figured out yet.
Before he can say anything else, a tall blonde with legs for days and a body that belongs on the cover of a swimsuit calendar glides up to us. She doesn’t acknowledge me. Not even a glance.
“There you are,” she purrs, voice syrupy and sweet. Without hesitation, she presses herself into Jackson’s side and leans in, lips brushing his like they’ve done it a hundred times.
His hand finds her waist automatically.
I look away. It’s an intimate moment I don’t want to witness. Not because I’m into Jackson. Hell no. He is nowhere near the type of man I would go after. He’s all playboy. No, intimacy often makes me uncomfortable. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t held enough as a child, who knows? Nudity and sex aren’t something new to me. I’m not a virgin, but I am also not very experienced.
Most people think because my mom was a stripper, I’m comfortable with public displays of affection or how I must have sex all the time. News flash, a stripper mother doesn’t mean any of that shit.
At all.
“Peyton, this is Laura,” Lee introduces us, then guides me away from the couple. “Let’s go find you an actual drink, sis. I can only take so much groping from them.”
At least Lee is wanting to stay by my side. Pace disappeared pretty much as soon as we arrived, and I haven’t seen Colter since I walked away from him earlier. Besides Lee, Jackson is the only one I know, and he is now otherwise occupied.
“What are you wanting?” Lee asks.
“Oh, umm…another lemonade is fine.”
Lee’s scrunches his eyebrows but gives the bartender my drink order while he gets a whiskey, neat. “You’d like the whiskey. Our Kentucky counterparts own a distillery. Some of the best you’ll get in the south.”
I shake my head. “I’m not much of a drinker.”
“Why not?” Lee asks when he hands me my cup.
“When your mother is an addict, you learn to stay away from things like drinking.” Because her addiction is what killed her. It might not have been the alcohol which did it, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t drink. My mother was a mean drunk. Especially if she were also high. Same for the men she brought around. I can’t count how many times I had to place my dresser in front of my bedroom door while I was home to protect myself from not only her newest junky boyfriends, but also her. I have more than my fair share of scars.
The problem is, I couldn’t stop loving her. She was my mother. The woman who, when sober, was the most stunning mother a girl could ask for. Those moments never lasted very long, but I cherished them when they came around.
“Right…” Lee coughs awkwardly before taking a sip of his whiskey. “Sorry. Dad told us, I just…”
I shrug. What’s done is done. “It’s okay.”
Lee clenches his jaw but doesn’t say anything more.
My gaze turns back to Jackson, who is talking to Laura. She has her body flush against his, tilting her head back to look up at him, a smile on her face. Her hair hangs in thick, luscious blonde waves down her back.
“Be careful with Laura,” Lee warns me, drawing my attention back to him. “If she thinks you are trying to poach him, she can get nasty.”
Poaching is the last thing on my list of things I want to do this summer or at all. Jackson is a playboy, and I don’t want anythingfrom him. Even if he didn’t have a girlfriend, men like him don’t want in for the long run.
I take a drink of my lemonade. “She doesn’t have anything to worry about,” I assure him. “Jackson Shaw isn’t my type and even if he was, I have bigger things on my plate than worrying about a man. Plus, have you seen her? She’s a bombshell.”
“And you aren’t?”
I roll my eyes. He’s technically my brother and supposed to have my back. Of course he is going to tell me I look good.
“Lee.” A gorgeous brunette walks up with nothing but a blue thong bikini bottom on and perfectly tan skin. She wraps her arms around Lee, her bare chest pressing up against him. I shift on my feet awkwardly. “You didn’t come to find me like you promised.”
Lee gives her a small smile. “I’ve been busy.”
The girls dark eyes cut to me, her gaze quickly assessing me as if I am competition. “Not sure she’s worth being busy for. Leave her and come swim with me.”
