He blinked at her.
Apparently, the Elliott who made eye contact turned up that day. Still, he said he shouldn’t have kissed her. He wasn’t looking for a relationship. She shouldnotbe interested. But fuck, he looked good with his shirt off.
His hair was in a bun she itched to take down. Broad and beefy, his pecs pushed out from his chest, his abdomen looked hard as a rock—sans six pack. He was clearly muscled beneath a thin layer of softness, a testament to his love of food. Hell, if she could cook like him, she’d be much larger. It would be a great excuse to buy new clothes. It was a shame he was so... not interested. Though, to be fair, she wasn’t looking for a relationship either, not really.
“You all right, dude?” Elliott asked gently, rudely reminding Fern she was ogling a human being and not a marble statue.
“Mhm.” She dropped her gaze down his thick thighs to focus on the soft fuzz of hair covering his calves.
With a nod, he angled his feet as though he was going to turn away but changed his mind and stepped toward her. “Wanna go smoke before we swim?”
“Yes.” That was a no-brainer. She was serious when she told Liv and Noa she’d worn a thong. A little cannabis would make it easier to swim in front of the men with her whole ass out. She didn’t care when she went to the beach near the city, but this was different; there was a distinct lack of anonymity in Beckett Falls.
Ben and Liv had wandered over to the water, where he was making her stand with her arms up while he removed her shirt. Olivia hadn’t been kidding about him being overprotective. It was kind of cute.
“Should we invite anyone else?” Fern checked as Noa and Adam raced across the pond. Noa was definitely going to lose by nature of having legs a foot shorter than his.
“Nope.”
Grass squeaked beneath her sandals again.
“They’re already soaked. Lost their chance. C’mon, there’s a deck around back, and I need to keep an eye on the grill.” Elliott led the way, and Fern happily trailed along, ogling his well-defined ass through his swim shorts.
“Where are you going?” Liv shouted from the water’s edge.
Turning around, Fern walked backward as she pinched her thumb and forefinger together and lifted her hand to her mouth. Olivia gave her a thumbs up, but her expression turned to one of surprise a half second before Fern plowed into Elliott.
“Oh! Fuck.” She spun to face him, rubbing the back of her skull, then took one look at his split lip and felt the blood drain from her face in a wave of static. “Oh my god, are you all right? I’m so sorry. Here, come sit down or something. I don’t know, let me look at that.”
Elliott sidestepped, peering past her at the water. “No, um, I’m okay. It’s just a tiny nick.”
“There’s blood all over your face.”
“I’m totally fine, no worries.” He passed her abruptly, speed walking away. “It’s nothing major! It’s small.” She thought she heard him whisper-yell, “Help!” to his friends in the water.
With all the blood rushingbackto her face as embarrassment flooded her, Fern jogged after him. “Elliott, are you going to pass out? You’re acting weird.”
He stopped at the water’s edge and squatted down. “I’m really fine. With my rapid healing—”
Able, who’d swum over, cut Elliott off with a gruff groan.
“Your what?” Fern asked, a laugh bubbling up as she came to stand beside him. “Rapid healing?Are you a Pokémon? It looks like your whole bottom lip split, my god.”
“I’m really okay, I’ll be fine in like—”
“Shutup,Fitz!” Able scolded, splashing him and soaking Fern in the process.
She looked down at her white sundress and sighed before starting to strip it off. Then she remembered her thong, stopped, and let the soggy fabric drop. Elliott was squatting just to her left. She’d give him a face fullof butt—highly inappropriate stuff.
“Lovey, come here, I need to talk to you for a minute,” Liv called, patting a spot beside her on the big flat rock she’d claimed as a seat.
“Why? Am I in trouble?” Fern asked before turning to Elliott, who’d knelt to splash water on his face. “And you, are youreallyall right? That looks like it needs stitches.”
“I’m fine,” he reassured her. Truth be told, the cut did look better—maybe the cold water was pinching the skin together or something.
Using his arms for leverage, Adam swung himself out of the pond and offered to tend to the grill.
“I got it, Able, you stay,” Ben said, hopping up from his seat beside Liv before leaning down and asking her, “Do you have this covered?”
