He reaches into a cooler behind him and tosses me a can, fizzing it all up. I glare at him as he lifts a dark eyebrow, challenging me. Lucas is a tad shorter than I am, but he’s still a muscular guy. I’ve recently taken to calling him “short stuff” just to mess with him.
“Just tease your curls out a bit. Then you’ll reach my height.” I crack open my drink while dodging Lucas’s very physical counter attack as he lunges for my legs. The man’s never been great with words, much like the lot of us boys from south Mississippi, but his physical prowess has improved. Probably due to continued boxing matches with Jared.
Speaking of which, the hulk of a man is standing by with his arms crossed, most likely placing a mental wager on who would win out of me and Lucas.
As if reading my thoughts, he laughs. “Money’s on Lucas, Stone. I’ve been training him up well over the past year.”
“Truce!” I call. “I take it back, Lucas. You are not short stuff. You are a reasonably tall stack of handsome.” The brown-eyed man rolls his eyes.
“Where’d your girl go?” Jared asks, scratching the back of his faded hair. Since getting that haircut, he’s looked less like a burly boxer and more like a man who stepped out of a military movie. Think John Cena.
It’s intimidating, even to a tall, broad man such as myself.
“My woman,” I say with a pointed look, “went to socialize with the girls so that I could see what you two menaces were up to.”
Jared raises an eyebrow and bumps Lucas’s arm. “You hear what I’m hearing? We are more interesting than his girl. You ever heard of that happening before?”
”I don’t get to meet his ladies, much less determine how he acts around them. This is a first for us. Let’s not scare the animal off, J.”
I shake my head at my two so-called friends. To be honest, they are more like brothers to me. Lucasismy brother-in-law, but even before he married my sister two years ago, the man has always been in my life.
“Laugh it up, guys. Y’all are lucky I even brought her home to meet the clownish lot of you.”Lucky indeed, I chide myself. Not wanting to expand the lie any further, I redirect. “So, Jared. How’s it feel to have your little sister married off to that man?” I point to Tate, who is also like another brother to me and closer in age than the two guys standing with me. Tate is a school friend while these two are family-bound friends. “He’s the one who was suspended for a week for reworking the art design of our mascot, Rudy the Reindeer, to include nudity and a mullet.”
Naturally, I helped him. But I ran faster and was through the fence before the police made it to the scene of the crime—inside our school gymnasium.
Jared shrugs, taking a sip of his drink. “Her decision. She’s her own person. Plus, he’s matured. We all acted like heathen kids in high school at one point or another.”
”Remember that time when…” Lucas begins to tell a story of a prank he and Jared pulled on the principal during their senior prank week. I was a freshman at the time, taking notes to go bigger and better my senior year.
I scan the crowd as they reminisce, my eyes locking with the pretty hazel-eyed, red headed woman who resembles a spring goddess in that open-back baby blue dress. That color looks stunning on her, and I recall her wearing a similar dress, though much less formal with more coverage, when she came into the center to ask about our job listing.
Her hair was up in a styled bun, and though she walked the floors with intentionality in every click of the white heels she was wearing, I could still tell she was nervous. She had one arm slung across her chest holding her other forearm, her fingers lightly tapping to some rhythm in her head, much like she’s doing at this moment.
“Hold on, boys. Let me go check on Lucy.” The words exit my mouth before I even comprehend they were knocking on the door and asking to leave. I turn my attention back to the guys. Lucas has a dropped jaw while Jared holds his can to his lips, frozen mid-sip.
A miffed laugh from somewhere deep in my throat emerges, and I have the sudden urge to defend myself against the action ofcaring.“Just to make sure my sister isn’t harassing her about campaign stuff, that’s all. No big deal.”
Not that I truly care about Lucy in a romantic way or anything, but I have to act like I do. And any boyfriend worth his salt would look at his woman and know when she is anxious or worried or uncomfortable.
I do care about her as a human. And an employee. And as someone I kissed senseless andtouchedonly a couple of hours ago.
Without another glance at my brother-in-law and Jared, I catch Lucy’s attention again and begin walking towards her. She seemingly dismisses herself from the women and starts heading in my direction, a relieved smile playing at her lips.
Lucy is relieved at the sight of me…?
That’s new, but I guess being in a crowd of unknown people while playing pretend will do that to a person.
When we are about ten feet apart, somebody decides to hit the slow motion button on life’s video view.
Tate’s grandmother is backing up, holding her phone in front of her as she positions a picture of Abram, Jared and Gracie’s son, with Tate. Lucy is walking right into her path, but neither of them are aware of the other. On the other side of Lucy is the deep end of the pool.
I quicken my steps and hold up my hands in an attempt to get Lucy to stop, but she takes one more step forward with a confused expression on her face. Tate’s grandma pushes into Lucy, and Lucy wobbles on her heels, arms flailing in circles as she tries to steady herself. Her wide, horrified eyes scream for help before she crashes into the pool with a decent-sized cannonball splash.
Right on time, I stop the older woman from tumbling in herself and steady her before whipping around to the undulating water.
Seconds pass as the pool calms; the gathering of people ceases all conversation. Sunlight reflects off the ever-smoothing surface, sparkling like a million diamonds.
Murmurs begin to fill the silence as kids laugh at the spectacle.
