“Okay,” she agrees easily. “I’ll put some on your shoulders too.”
“Thanks.”
“Who’s going to put sunscreen on my shoulders?” Blake complains, glancing up at the deck to, I assume, Finn and Scottie. I imagine he’s feeling kind of third-wheelish, seeing as all the friends around him are falling in love and stuff.
I laugh a little and jerk my chin up at Lexi, who’s so smart she makes chatting people up while leaning on the deck rail look like a way to tell IQ. Scottie and Finn, God love ’em, look hopelessly dumb compared to her. “How about Lex?”
From the deck, Lexi glances my way at the sound of her name but doesn’t engage. Blake looks like a pig in shit at the suggestion, though, since he’s been crushing on Lexi from the first day he met her at the beginning of fall semester last year. Think brilliant, older woman running the Double C show and in her last year of grad school and the sophomore star quarterback smitten from the moment she didn’t give a shit about who he was, and you pretty much get the gist of Lexi and Blake.
“Now, that’s an idea, buddy,” Blake says with a grin. “One I approve of wholeheartedly.”
Obviously, he’s still very much smitten with Lexi Winslow.
Julia laughs and rolls her eyes, and it makes me wonder if she would do the same if someone told her I was in love with her. For the first time since watching Blake pursue Lexi to great ruin at a Double C event, I find myself rooting for him.
So what if he’s the underdog? So what if Lexi is too smart for him? So what if it’s the longest shot since the first person brought up going to the moon?
A man in love deserves a chance. A man in love—
“What time are the fireworks set to go off tonight?” Julia asks, interrupting my runaway delusion. “The real ones, I mean. I heard plenty of verbal ones between your dad and mine in the kitchen this morning before the rest of us got up.”
“My dad says at dark.”
Julia nods toward the dock, so I swim and hold on to her flamingo at the same time, bringing us both close enough that she can climb out while I hold her float steady. She grabs the mesh bag of sunscreen while I heft myself onto the hot Trex surface of the dock and set my pool noodle to the side. She hands me the bottle of SPF 30, and I squeeze a blob into my hand to rub on her shoulders.
Down the dock, Jude unties the canoe while chucking in a pair of oars, and from the house, my dad and Gunnar burst through the back door like a cartoon duo. My dad’s in swim trunks that sayFUCK YEAHacross the crotch, and Gunnar’s sporting a full Joe Dirt mullet. Naturally, they’re carrying a box of fireworks so big it requires co-parenting. There’s a verbal exchange between my dad and my mom that only God knows the meaning of, I’m sure, and then they head toward us and Jude and the canoe.
Jude screams something. Thatch barks. Gunnar howls.
It’s like watching the evolution of man in reverse. Frankly, it’s the most insane exchange I’ve seen from men of their age and wealth, and as I gaze into the future, it shrivels my balls a little bit. I’m going to be responsible for all of them for the rest of my life.
“We’d better watch that Julia’s dad doesn’t rig the canoe to explode when Thatch rows out to set the fireworks off,” Blake says as Thatch and Gunnar make their way down the dock stairs toward us.
Julia and I both laugh, but internally, I groan. I’m more than ready for the feud between the two of them to be over, so I can restore some glory to the Kelly name. Right now, I don’t think Kline Brooks would let me propose marriage to his fucking driveway, let alone make a bid to spend the rest of my life with his daughter.
“Things are easing up,” I say, my tone blatantly hopeful.
Julia pats my shoulder. “They’ve been friends since before we were born, and your dad hasn’t changed. My dad is temporarily tired, but he’ll get his energy up again. It’s going to be okay. I mean, we’re all here together, aren’t we?”
I nod, even if it’s just to make Julia feel better. She doesn’t know the fast-talking I’ve been doing behind the scenes or the promise I made to my dad to handle anything that comes up with Gunnar for the next month if he could just behave himself while we’re here to keep the peace.
“I’m glad you decided to come, Blake,” I say, spinning around to face him. The change of subject and direction are both warranted—to cure my depression and my growing hard-on. I swear it’s like my dick’s never seen Julia in a bikini before. “Seeing as you’ve been too good for us the rest of the summer.”
He chuckles, unoffended. “Listen, Ace, some of us have shit to do other than bounce from party to party and hang out with our friends.”
“Oh, please. I bet you’ve been sleeping your way through Manhattan.”
He pauses briefly, glancing to Lexi before his shade-covered eyes come back to me and move back and forth. “Nah. I’m laying low. Focusing on football and academic pursuits.”
“Academic pursuits?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve been broadening my knowledge base on a lot of topics…primarily the viability of takeout spots around campus.”
Julia groans. “Now, that’s research I can get behind. I’m starving, but I’m scared to go up to the house while our moms are still talking on the deck. They’re being…suspiciously civil.”
I think it’s a good sign that our moms are still sitting with each other and talking despite our dad’s rift, but the opportunity to show off some of my boyfriend-worthy qualities is too good to ruin by sharing that with Julia.
“I’ll go up and get you some food. Anything you want in particular, or should I just surprise you?” I ask, making sure to touchon all the positives of our lifelong relationship—I’m both considerate of her wants and needs but knowledgeable enough to get something good if she doesn’t want to have to think.
