“June,” Forty cuts in. “If there was a trophy for highest climb, I’d hand it to you, fair and square. Now c’mon down before you break your goddamn neck.”
June considers this dramatically, tapping her chin with her index finger. “I suppose I could try to climb down the way I came.” She looks down, grimacing as she stares at the path down the tree. “I don’t know. Seems more dangerous than just jumping in.”
Grace and Cooper glance at each other, then both take a step forward, looking frantically among the men in the pond and waiting for someone—anyone—to argue that statement. Forty, the most rational of all, has already stated the danger—why isn’t he screaming for her to shimmy down the trunk until she can get to a reasonable height? Anyone who has ever climbed a tree knows that’s the safest way to get down.
June doesn’t make any moves to do so, and instead looksdown at the watering hole, surveying. Cooper shakes his head, aghast, and cups his hands around his mouth to call out when someone sidles up next to them.
Crew’s arms are folded over his chest, the navy blue T-shirt he wears doingnothingto conceal the heft of his biceps, the sinewy lines that run across his muscles.
Grace is startled at his sudden appearance, partly because of the unexpected gun show, and partly because she has no idea where the hell he just came from.
“Are you seeing this?” Cooper asks, pointing upward to where June is now carefully getting to her feet, using the branch as a balance beam and relying far too much on its sturdiness. She’s bafflingly steady and graceful, almost on her tiptoes as she takes tiny steps toward where the limb drops off.
“Mm-hm,” Crew replies, now looking at his phone. “They bring the toilet paper?”
It’s Grace’s turn to be aghast now, and her mouth falls open in shock and horror that he’s thinking about something as inane as toilet paper when June is at risk of breaking a bone, or worse. “What? Yes! Raymond did—you need to get her down, Crew. She’s going to get seriously hurt if she jumps from that height.”
Crew huffs, attempting to do something with his overly large thumbs on his phone and apparently failing. “You’re probably right. Be a real shame.”
Cooper’s eyes widen. “Crew, what the fu—”
Grace gasps. “Oh my—”
They’re both cut off by June’s scream, and they whirl around to see her lithe form heading straight for the water, arms tucked at her sides and her feet pointed down. A zinging bullet aimedperfectly at a target. She’ll break her ankles like that. Maybe fracture her hips. It’s going to be catastrophic—
But then she dips beneath the surface like a hand sliding into a glove, the water parting and swallowing her all the way up. Grace is dumbfounded, the panic and anxiety and pureconfusionhitching her breath. A heartbeat later, June jumps up, hair plastered to her forehead and undergarments drenched, a beaming grin on her face. Cooper is so relieved it looks like his knees are about to buckle. Despite the misplaced shock and horror, Grace can’t help the little squeeze her heart gives at the sight.
“You fuckers willnevertop that,” June yells, and then she’s moving, whipping her arms as quickly as she can, splashing every one of them with a wall of water. The guys groan and fight back, and soon, it’s an all-out brawl as water flies in every direction. Mikey dunks Alec under the water; June makes a show of diving beneath the surface only to emerge with someone’s boxers in her hands. Caleb’s cheeks have gone perfectly pink as he slinks toward her, sheepish and—apparently—naked as the day he was born. Cooper eventually decides to join in the mania, stripping off his clothing as he stomps into the pond.
Grace turns on her heel to find Crew still behind her. Smirking. Now finally deigning to give her his full attention. “There’s a submerged cave,” he tells her, pointing to the back corner of the pond where June had jumped. “Nearly a hundred feet deep.”
Her eyes pinch together in suspicion and irritation, because how hard would it have been to justtell herthat before she nearly had a panic attack? Grace scoffs, stomping off, away from the pond and Crew. Her tent needs to be set up, and she may as well start gathering everything she and Forty will needto make supper. A self-satisfied laugh rumbles from behind her, and Grace whips her head around to see Crew’s shoulders bouncing, his head shaking. All too pleased with himself.Dick.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
They keep it simple fordinner—burgers and dogs grilled over a fire, a vat of brown sugar beans, and a smattering of pickled veggies soaked in Forty’s homemade brine. Everything hits the spot, the perfect meal for a summer night spent outdoors. After everyone’s good and stuffed, they sit around the fire in camping chairs, working their way through a case of Coors while also taking swigs of a communal bottle of Jameson. By the time the sun has dipped below the horizon and left the world covered in hues of navy and violet, they’re all perfectly toasted.
Mikey clears his throat, sits up a little straighter in his chair. “So, who’s going to start?”
A collective chuckle runs through the group, but no one raises a hand. On the opposite side of the circle, Cooper, Grace’s fellow newcomer to the summer and all its traditions, pipes up. “Start what?”
“Evidently, there is a universal need for everyone on this ranch to knoweveryoneelse’s sexual history and business,” June gripes, using her turn with the whiskey to take an impressively long pull. She exhales once she’s gulped it down and asks, “Whatever happened to truth or dare?”
“No,” Caleb says from across the fire. His eyes are glassy and he’s got a boyish smile permanently etched into his mouth. Drunk and content. “You know the rules.”
“Fuck the rules,” June bites back.
Raymond snorts. “Just because some of us have more embarrassing exploits than others doesn’t mean we just toss tradition in the trash.”
“But you already knowallthe exploits!” June barks, throwing her hands up.
Pierce cuts in now, and he must be tiring of all the bickering, because his voice rises above the crowd at a volume Grace has never before heard him reach. “The game,” he says, looking between Cooper and Grace. He waits until the rest of the murmurs die down completely before finishing his sentence. “Is called ‘Never Have I Ever.’ ”
“Not sure I’ve played that one before,” Grace admits. There aren’t many group drinking games shehasplayed, come to think of it. Parties and gatherings and any sense of camaraderie and inclusion weren’t exactly Braxton’s style.
“That’s fine,” Pierce says. “We’ll teach you. Now, everyone, please.” He urges everyone with a beckoning hand, then holds his up, fingers stretched out like he’s ready to give a high five. Everyone complies.
Even Crew, who sits to Grace’s left, though he does so with a throaty sigh that tells her he has probably been subjected to this game one too many times.
