“Thank you.” I took the cup and sipped from it, wrinkling my nose when I tasted it.
He laughed. “Not a fan of beer?”
“I guess not.”
Erin grabbed a cup too and winked at me, pointing out where she was going. “You okay?” she asked.
I nodded.
Mitch moved closer. “You look so hot,” he said.
His arm brushed mine, which felt nice. He kept saying things to make me laugh, and it was working. The more sips of beer I took, the warmer and lighter I felt. Mitch looked cuter and said funnier things, and when he kissed me, it felt nicer than I remembered a kiss feeling.
It wasn’t like when Brady Lawrence kissed me at summer camp two years ago. That had been clumsy, a peck and then a hide-and-seek of tongues. Neither one of us knew what we weredoing. I had since talked to Goldie and Erin and knew how to do it better, and Mitch definitely knew what he was doing.
His hand slid around my waist, tugging me closer. My heart hammered with excitement and the rush of being at this party with beer and older boys and my streak of rebellion at doing something I knew my parents and brother…and Camden…wouldn’t approve of.
When one of his hands moved down to my backside and the other moved over my breast, I squeaked and tried to push him back, but he only pressed harder.
Until suddenly, he was gone.
I blinked in shock as Mitch staggered back when someone punched him in the nose. Blood ran down his face immediately. And, standing in front of me, his fists clenched and his eyes burning with fury, was Camden.
For a second, all I could do was stare.
He looked like an avenging angel with his fist still propped up as he breathed hard, his eyes locked on Mitch as if daring him to move.
My first thought was relief, sharp and undeniable. Why, I wasn’t sure. That Camden had seen me. That he’d stopped Mitch from going any further. But then the relief twisted to fury.
How dare he?
“Are you kidding me?” I snapped.
I stepped between Camden and Mitch before Camden could swing again.
Camden’s head whipped toward me. His jaw clenched. “He was all over you. You didn’t want that.”
The worst part was, he was right. I hadn’t wanted things to go that far. But that didn’t mean he got to swoop in like some kind of self-righteous bodyguard.
Behind me, Mitch cursed.
“So what?” I shot back, heat making my cheeks hot. “You think you get to just punch whoever you want? You don’t even care about me, remember?”
“I do care,” he growled, low enough that only I could hear it.
I clenched my fists to keep from shaking.
“Ten-foot pole, remember?” I muttered as I shoved past him.
My stomach tightened with every step. I wanted to scream at him and…something else entirely. I could feel his stare burning into my back all the way across the sand.
I stormed away from the fire, my feet sinking into the cool sand as I went. Erin got in step next to me.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. This is the reason I go to bed at eight thirty.”
We both laughed.
