She nods, smiling sweetly. “Sure.”
With another cold glance at me, he walks away. I try to hold in the satisfied smirk, but it stretches across my lips. Dolly’s warm fingers collide with mine as she steals my margarita.
“Mmm. Yours is better. I didn’t know you were a bartender, Seymour.”
I look down, watching her with rapt fascination as she licks her pouty pink lips clean from the watermelon and sugar.
“Only on special occasions.”
“What makes today so special?”
“Hard to be depressed when you’re at the lake with your friends on a nice day, sis.”
She sticks her chin out. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that?”
“What would you prefer, ‘princess?’” I can’t hold back my grin.
She rolls her eyes. “Soo creative.”
“You act like a little princess,” I mutter.
“I do not,” she protests. “Quit trying to cock-block me.”
I narrow my gaze at her. I rest my hand on the wood pillar behind her, leaning down over her and lowering my voice. “Just watching out for you, Baby Red.”
She leans closer, peering up at me with big doe eyes. I can smell the coconut suntan lotion on her skin and count each individual freckle on her nose. My skin is tingling. I must be getting a sunburn.
“Hey, Seymour! You ready to take the boat out?”
I look down, suddenly aware of how close we are. I inhale one more dose of her before stepping back and turning to look over my shoulder.
“Yeah, we can go now.”
Grady and Jesse start heading toward the small boat docked down by the water. It’s only supposed to hold eight, but there are fourteen people here.
The annoying prick who I ran off earlier steps up to her, holding out a fresh margarita. “Here you go, beautiful. I put in extra watermelon.”
I grab it from him before Dolly has a chance to. “Just wanna make sure he’s not trying anything funny.” I gulp down half of it. It’s strong as hell.
“What the fuck is your problem, man?” His face is turning red again.
I shrug, handing the cup to Dolly. “She’s my best friend’s little sister, which makes her my responsibility when he’s off getting his dick wet.”
She rolls her eyes at me.
I watched Duke disappear into the house with two girls ten minutes ago. I move over to the margarita station to make myself a fresh drink and a much weaker one for Dolly before heading down to the boat. It’s about ten years old, but it’s been well maintained. My grandfather and I used to come out to thelake to go fishing on it every year for my birthday. I’m dreading it more this year than ever before. I shove the memories aside and survey the group of ten who decided to join.
“All right, we’re technically only supposed to have eight passengers, so a couple of you girls might need to find a lap.”
I toss Grady the keys because he’s the only one who hasn’t been drinking. I prefer to drive my own boat, but with the way I’ve been pounding margaritas today, that can’t happen. I climb on after Grady, taking the seat beside him in the other captain’s chair. I set Dolly’s new drink in the cupholder. Duke appears from the back door of the house, jogging toward us.
“Don’t leave without me, fuckers!” he calls out before grabbing a couple of beers from the cooler.
As everyone files on, Duke and Dolly are the last ones. He takes the only remaining seat behind the captain’s chairs Grady and I are occupying.
“Find a lap, Dolls—preferably a girl’s,” Duke says.
The prick who was flirting with her earlier gestures for her to sit on his lap. “You can sit here.”
