He comes back up, spluttering, swiping water out of his face. “You think that bothered me?”
“Not you, but maybe the shit in your pockets,” she laughs.
“Fuck!” he exclaims, pulling himself out of the pool. I can’t help but admire the clothes plastered on his body. He drops his wallet, keys, and phone in front of me on the table. “Something funny, Pretty boy?” he asks, ripping his shirt over his head and dropping his shorts. I’m lucky he has on a snug pair of boxer briefs, or his cock would have been right in my face. He advances on me, and I narrowly miss his grab by jumping up from my chair.
“Gage,” I warn, laughing. He keeps advancing, and I take a step back, running right into Alessa. I turn pleading eyes on her. “Baby?” She grins and starts advancing from the other side. I sidestep Gage, and they both have me cornered, and I know I can’t outrun either of them.Shit.
“Throw him in the pool!” Mateo yells, and I shoot him a look of betrayal.
Gage rushes me, dropping his shoulder, and hits me in the midsection with a tackle that rivals a professional football player, and we both go into the pool. Luckily, all I have on is ball shorts with a shirt, and my phone is sitting on the table. We both break the surface at the same time to see Alessa execute a perfect dive in abright orange bra and panties set. I don’t even worry about Evander and Mateo seeing; it covers more than her bikini.
“What the fuck?” Ryder asks, walking outside with beers and looking into the pool. He sets two of them in front of Evander and Mateo.
Alessa pops up behind me, wrapping her arms and legs around me. “The water’s warm,” she says, patting the water with a laugh.
“I’m good,Il mio sole,” he says with a chuckle, sitting down where I was sitting. He picks up Gage’s dripping phone with a raised eyebrow.
Gage shrugs. “She pushed me in.”
She punches him in the arm. “Because you are an overgrown man-child that won’t stop with the stupid pranks.”
“Don’t start that shit again,” Ryder warns, pointing at Gage.
“Does anyone have a picture of the pink hair?” I ask.
“I do,” Alessa and Gage say at the same time, dissolving into laughter.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Don’t turn your back. Gage is a dirty fucker with pranks.”
Gage’s mouth pops open. “Me? You super glued my fucking shoes to the floor.”
“That was high school,” Ryder defends himself, but I can see his lips twitch.
“He had to call my dad to bring him shoes!” Alessa says, now wheezing from laughter.
“And you,” Gage says, rounding on Alessa. “You put icy hot in my lotion. Set my fucking ass on fire.”
“Literally,” she says, now howling with laughter again.
I wince. “The lotion you…?”
“Yeah, the fucking lotion I jacked off with,” Gage says, unashamed.
“I remember that shit,” Ryder says with a laugh, and I think it’s the first I’ve heard the sound. “We all got a forty-five-minute lecture from my dad and Luca about how our pranks were getting out of control.”
“While Gage was blubbering, thinking his dick was going to fall off,” Alessa says, wading back through the water.
Gage moves faster than a blink, grabs her, hefts her up, and tosses her into the water. She comes back up laughing. “Is my dick going to fall off?” she fake cries mocking Gage. She lets out a shriek when he dives for her.
I hate that I missed that part of them, the time in their lives when they seemed more carefree even than they are now. I missed out on a whole lifetime with her that Gage and Ryder got to have. I can’t help but feel a little out of place.
“You’re telling our secrets to the enemy,” Ryder says, jerking a thumb at Evander and Mateo, but I can tell he’s joking.
“Put icy hot in lotion to torture enemies. Got it,” Mateo jokes.
“It works!” Alessa yells, shrieking again, still dodging a grabbing Gage.
“You will surrender,” Gage declares.
