I wish so hard he would just drop that goddamn nickname.
“You don’t look okay.” He grabs hold of my chin and frowns. “What did you guys do to her?”
“It’s Kirk, man.”
“That piece of—”
“Stop,” I grumble, my face still clasped between Lane’s hands.
He squints at me. I do my best to avoid eye contact. I hate when they talk about Kirk like that. They don’t even know him. They’re all chronically single, anyway. What would they know?
“Just drop it already, okay?”
He curls a lip and glances over at his friends. I hear one of them pushing out of the pool behind me, but I’m too busy focusing on the light shifting in Lane’s eyes.
“Can I give you a piece of advice, Heartbreak?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“But—”
“I said I’m good!”
“Okay…”
He lets go of my face and raises his hands in a shrug as if to warn me I asked for this. Before I know it, arms are snaking around my waist, and my feet are lifted off the ground. I’m doing my best to cling to his chest, and the next thing I know, I’m underwater. I resurface a second later, spluttering.
“F-Fuck!” I can’t stop gasping for air. I dog-paddle my way over to the side of the pool, where the guys are laughing. “Are you kidding me?”
As I struggle to heave myself out of the water, a hand catches hold of my ankle and pulls me back. Furious, I whip around to find Lewis laughing, splashing water straight into my face.
I lunge for him. “You’re fucking dead.”
I have younger brothers just as annoying as this guy, and though I know the only way to deal with it is to pretend they don’t exist, I’ve never actually been able to keep my cool. I grab Lewis’s hair with one hand and press down on his head with the other, wrapping my legs around his hips, throwing all my weight into ducking him under.
“What is shedoing?” Donovan asks from behind me.
“She can’t get enough of me!” gushes Lewis.
“Lois?” There’s a curious edge to Lane’s voice.
“Urgh!”
I take another shot at drowning him, but Lewis is way more ripped than my brothers, so I give up, dashing through the water to the opposite side of the pool, putting as much distance as I can between me and this bunch of jerks. I walk along the poolside with my wet clothes clinging to me, and as if that isn’t embarrassing enough, I pass by Kirk, sitting still as a statue on the edge of the bleachers, his blue eyes pinning me to the ground.Great. He caught every second of that.
“Here!”
Donovan tosses a towel over my head, and I battle against the folds.
I start towel-drying my hair. “Proud of yourselves?”
They’re standing there in a row in front of me, arms folded over chests, sporting wide grins and nodding in time. I peer at them one by one, and despite myself, a smile is spreading over my face.Traitorous lips!
“You just made me look bad in front of Kirk,” I sigh, toweling down my arms.
I can feel the draft through my dripping clothes, and I shiver.
“Trust me, Lois: Kirk doesn’t think you look bad. Not today,anyway,” Lewis quips. He looks at me knowingly. “He just didn’t like how you had your thighs wrapped around my godlike body. Right, Lane? Tell her he was pissed.”
