“No one is a lost cause. Carl is really sweet. You just have to get to know him.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really have the time.”
“The time? What else do you have to do?” I questioned.
Kyle shrugged. “I’ve got finger painting at noon.”
I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I really wished Kyle weren’t so enjoyable to be around, especially now that I knew where his head was. While I was falling hard, he was standing up straight. Kyle liked me – that much was obvious – but he didn’tlikelike me. He’d thoroughly friend-zoned me, and after all the time we’d spent together in the last two weeks, if he didn’t see me as anything more than that, chances were he never would. Clearly I didn’t have the physical attributes he was looking for in a girlfriend. No wonder he’d had such a kinship with Aisha. She was the type of girl who probably got special treatment by the security guys at concerts. I’d been in those crowds once myself, desperately trying to stand out in a sea of leggy beauties. I’d watched as the pretty ones got called up and let through, as if they were chosen disciples of the rock gods. I plainly remembered desperately trying to make myself look hot enough to get the nod to go in and meet the singer, all the while instinctively knowing I would be left standing on the sidelines.
I should have realized he was far beyond my wooing capabilities. Lineage aside, guys with his looks and the personality to back it up didn’t go for nice girls with good, sturdy childbearing hips. They wanted sexpots… and, unfortunately, I hadlong-term baby mama writtenall over me. Maybe I just needed to give up my dreams of adventure and find myself a nice, boring Bigfoot enthusiast and call it a life.
Frustrated with my current predicament, I wondered why I always dared to dream bigger. Why hadn’t ‘good enough’ ever been good enough for me? I had to wonder if a wedding photograph of my parents that hung on the wall of my home was the reason why. How many hours had I spent staring at that picture? After Mom died, I sometimes even took it off the wall at night and propped it next to my bed. Their smiles and the way their eyes danced as they stared at each other, as if they were in on a joke no one else was… the affection that radiated off their faces… it really was a thing of beauty.
I suppose the reason I never settled was because I knew what love looked like. And I knew the devastation and heartache that came with it. My father’s adoration for my mother was so raw and so deep that the loss of her thoroughly crushed him. That’s when you knew you’d really, truly loved. If I was going to devote my heart and soul to someone, it had better damn well be worth it, because if I was going to lose that person someday, I didn’t want to settle for anything less than complete devastation. If I were lucky enough to have what my parents had, then I would be lucky enough.
To Kyle’s credit, he didn’t discuss my earlier admission, nor did he give me that standard brush off: ‘It’s me, not you.’ In fact, he managed to keep the awkwardness in check, and we fell back into our comfortable banter rather quickly. If he was willing to ignore, who was I to argue?
The others were gathered around the fire, the chill of the morning gradually being replaced by the sweltering heat that would bear down on us for the rest of the day. I plopped down next to Bobby, knowing that Kyle would have to find another spot to sit because, one, there was no more space, and two, he didn’t like the guy. Nobody liked Bobby; but we needed him for just a little bit longer, and then we’d cut him loose. Bobby was a dead man walking.
In recent days he’d taken it upon himself to woo me, presumably because he assumed that with my being female, I wouldn’t be able to resist his chiseled good looks. I had rebuffed his obvious ploys at persuasion on multiple occasions, although I had to admit that being pursued by a hot guy, no matter how nefarious his intentions, was an ego booster, especially after Kyle had only very recently crushed my fragile self-esteem into a million pieces. And now, when I knew Kyle wasn’t interested in more than just being a buddy, what would it hurt to do a little flirting with a smoking hot guy like Bobby?
“Kenzie,” he greeted, dipping his head in a sexy way.
“Bobby,” I answered back, mimicking his gesture.
“You were gone a while.”
“Did you miss me?” I flirted.
“As a matter of fact, I did,” he said, flashing me his hottest leading man smile.
“Kenzie had a bad stomach,” Kyle blurted out.
My mouth dropped open in shock as I shot daggers in Kyle’s direction. His annoyed expression confused me. Why would he care if I did a little innocent bantering with Bobby? “I didnothave a bad stomach.”
“Then what took you so long?” he challenged.
I just glared at him, unable to come up with any plausible excuse that didn’t include hanging out my dirty laundry for all to see.
Bobby looked back and forth between us, a smile forming upon his face. Obviously he was smart enough to see a crack in our alliance, and by the expression on his face, he was savvy enough to try to exploit it.
“You want to go swimming with me?” he asked, nudging himself up against me.
Ripping my angry eyes off Kyle, I turned to address Bobby. “I would love to.”
Bobby stood up immediately and offered me his hand. Kyle’s irritated expression didn’t escape me, but it also didn’t sway me. I was not about to continue wasting my time pining over some guy I’d never had a shot at in the first place. Of course, I guess I could say the same thing about Bobby. He was so clearly not interested in me. Seduction was a last ditch effort on his part to stay in the game. But what did I care what his motivations were? He was hot, and I was pissed.
I grabbed Bobby’s hand, stood up, and allowed him to lead me to the water’s edge. Once there, my smoking hot companion stripped down to his boxer trunks, leaving very little to the imagination. Still, I managed to find the inspiration to continue undressing him in my mind. Bobby was eye candy. Of course, that fact hadn’t escaped me before, but because I’d been so focused on Kyle and his dorky sexiness, I hadn’t really given the bad boy a second glance. But now? Ooh-la-la. Kyle who? Bobby was my new Man-crush Monday. Or was it Tuesday? I actually had no idea what day of the week it was. I shook my head. I was getting distracted.Focus, Kenzie. Hot guy, straight ahead.My eyes flicked over him in admiration, thinking of all the wonderful daydreams I could have him star in instead of that doofus up at camp, but then, like a bad movie… Bobby opened his mouth.
“You like what you see?” he asked seductively, and he actually ran his hands over his torso in a male-stripper move. I seriously wanted to barf.
So surprised was I by his vain comment and action that I couldn’t come up with anything to say, other than to grunt, “Huh?”
“I know you want it,” he grinned, just before diving into the gentle waves. As he reappeared, Bobby shook the water out of his hair. I felt like I was watching a shampoo commercial. I fought back a giggle. “Come and get it.”
Seriously? Did that really work on women? There was no way to continue to hold it back, and I laughed. I remained firmly planted on land. “No, thank you.”
“What?” he asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.
