Chapter Twenty-One
Avery figured that they’d be thrown out of the pool area before long. They were being pretty loud, and even though the pool was across the parking lot from the hotel, she was sure someone would complain. Also, she was pretty sure her father would be doing a room check around midnight.
For a while, they played ice balls, where balloons were filled with ice water and everyone had to throw the ball between themselves above their heads until invariably it broke and gave someone an icy shower.
Before too long, Avery and Lucas were the last left in the pool. Her stomach knotted with the need to touch him. She couldn’t figure out why she was longing just to have his hand brush hers. She’d swam away from him when he’d jumped in with her, because all she wanted to do was wrap herself around him, and that just wouldn’t do. She wasn’t a PDA kind of girl, and she knew the guys on the team would give him hell if they thought he was hitting on her. And the way he’d left her hanging that last Saturday when everyone interrupted the most earth-shattering kiss, she figured he felt the same way.
Everyone else had thrown their stupid bottle tops into the pool, and she was anxious that a kid might get in the pool the next morning and hurt themselves on their jagged edges. So she’d started diving for them after everyone had got out. Lucas had joined her. They hadn’t said a word to one another, even as the rest of the guys had either gone to their rooms, were asleep on the sun loungers, or were too busy finishing Digger’s beer.
They dived one after the other, pushing the bottle tops they’d gathered onto the side. And then as she was reaching for a few on the bottom of the pool, she felt him next to her. As she scooped up the tops, he swam between her legs, making her jump, giggle, and flee to the surface as she lost all the air she was holding in her lungs.
As she clung to the side, he popped up behind her and reached over her shoulder to deposit his haul, too. In a second, she realized his whole body was pressed against her back as he did, but before she could say anything or react, he dived again. This time, she followed him.
The bottom was only illuminated by dim pool lights, but she tugged his leg, just as he was reaching for more tops, rendering them out of reach. He spun around and caught her, pulling her close. Their arms and legs twisted and slid against each other’s until they had to pop to the surface again. They emerged, facing each other, breathing heavy from holding their breath.
She held onto him, their gazes fixed on one another. He didn’t say anything but gently and slowly tugged her under again, giving her time to hold her breath.
As soon as they were submerged, he pulled her to him and kissed her. Her heart wanted to high-five everyone in the world. He’d kissed her again. She didn’t have to wonder anymore if he would. His lips were gentle on hers for a second, and then as she opened her mouth, he pressed all of her against all of him, and everything changed.
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him closer. But just as quickly as it had started, he pulled away from her and propelled her to the surface. She took a breath. Everyone was where they were before; no one had noticed, even though it felt like every feeling in the world was flowing out of her pores.
Lucas made his way to the surface by feeling his way up her leg.
She giggled quietly and grabbed his hand to pull him up. He had a hand full of bottle tops. Jesus, how much had everyone been drinking? One dropped, and she grabbed it and moved to the side to put it up. Lucas did the same as before and stood behind her, touching her as he reached around her.
His head was over her shoulder as he leaned in and sneaked a wet kiss on her neck. “I want to kiss you again. But somewhere we won’t die if we kiss too long.”
Every bone in her body wanted to take him straight to her room, but she knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. God, really it was such a good idea—she could be alone with him, talk to him, kiss him, do…other…things. And that’s why it was a bad idea.
She turned around and gently pushed him away. “I want to…” She swallowed hard, digging her nails into her palm so she didn’t say anything she shouldn’t. “…but I really can’t do that with someone who for all I know likes episodes one through three of Star Wars. It’s just not a risk I’m willing to take.”
He laughed and stepped away. She didn’t want to lose his closeness, so she grabbed his hand under the water. She really wanted to kiss him again. To feel him pressing her against the wall of the pool, to feel the heat of his body against the nighttime coolness in the air. She just couldn’t find the words to say that. At least, of course she could, but she was embarrassed to say them out loud…again.
She gave him a half smile and squeezed his hand and let it go. She swam over to the steps and hauled herself out, something that shouldn’t have been so hard but for some reason she was breathing hard already. Lucas stayed in the pool as she grabbed a towel and threw all their rescued bottle tops into the trash.
He was climbing out as she found Lexi, curled up on a plastic sunbed between Colin and LeVonn. “Hey, girl. You ready to go to the room?” she asked, using her big toe to nudge her leg.
“Huh?” Lexi tried to open her eyes. “No. M’okay,” she muttered.
“How much have you had to drink?” She averted her attention to LeVonn and Colin. “How much did she drink?”
“I mean…I wasn’t watching,” Colin said. “I’ll get her some water.” He got up and rummaged in the cooler to no avail. “I’ll find a vending machine.”
“She’s okay. She didn’t drink a whole lot. Not like she has before. I think she’s more tired, honestly,” LeVonn said.
Lucas turned up and grabbed a towel as Avery picked up one of Lexi’s arms and half-heartedly pulled on it. Lexi just pulled it away and groaned. “Okay, she’s on you now,” she said to LeVonn. “You’ll make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid?”
LeVonn pulled a face but wrapped his arm around Lexi. “I can’t promise that, but I’ll look after her.”
“Okay. I’m going to my room. G’night,” she said as she wrapped her towel around her. She gave a half-apologetic smile to Lucas.
“Night,” he said, looking like he’d stepped right out of her daydreams. He was half naked, rubbing his hair dry with a towel, and she’d never felt the urge to reach out and touch him as hard as she did right then. It took everything inside her to walk away. What was wrong with her?
…
Lucas grabbed his clothes and went to follow Avery, hoping that maybe he’d catch up with her. But he stopped, cursed himself, and went back to LeVonn and Colin. “Look, I don’t mean to sound like a douche, but I don’t know you guys. I mean, I don’t know Lexi, either, but is she okay with you here?” He winced, but he’d already dug his grave here. “She’s drunk, and I want to make sure that nothing’s going to happen to her tonight.”
LeVonn heaved his 6’5”, two hundred-plus pound frame out of the lounger he was sharing with Lexi and stood two feet in front of Lucas, forcing him to look up. “Are you asking if we’re going to be, like, inappropriate with her?”
Lucas took a breath. “Yeah, actually, I am.” He clenched a fist, waiting for a swing, and immediately his brain started strategizing how he could get Lexi back to her room.
Colin laughed and stood up, too. Oh shit. Lexi stayed asleep.
A huge grin broke out on LeVonn’s face. “You’re all right, man,” he said, holding out his hand to shake.
Colin clapped him on his back. “Lexi, LeVonn, me, and obviously Avery go back before first grade. We’re all best friends. No one here would do anything to hurt her. Hell, no one on the team would.” He looked back at Lexi with a strange look on his face, though, like he was just understanding something for the first time, which with Colin could mean anything.
LeVonn tipped his head to one side. “Prolly no one in town would dare, either—but that’s more because her daddy’s the DA. And of course because I’d have to beat them down. ’Preciate you checking, though. We all look after our own here.”
Lucas didn’t want to make more of a deal about it, so he nodded and told them good night. He ran for the elevators and caught one just as the doors were closing. The elevator doors juddered as they re-opened. Avery was standing there, in her towel, holding a soda.
Her mouth dropped open, and he grinned and stepped in and positioned himself on the opposite side of the car to give her room.
She didn’t say anything but offered him a drink from her soda. He was going to reach for it but remembered the fucking crazy direction his brain had traveled when he’d drunk from the same straw as her before. That direction had been his pants.
“I’m fine, thanks,” he said, draping his towel over his shoulders.
…
The door binged on her floor. Shit. She spent too long thinking about it, and now she had run out of time. “Good night,” she said and looked at the floor as she went to step off. She couldn’t believe she’d pro/conned herself out of kissing Lucas. Maybe if she walked slow enough, he would grab her and kiss her anyway.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he asked, concern furrowing his perfect brow at her slow progress to the doors.
Great. Now he thinks I’m sick.
“Nope. Fine. Good night!” she said brightly. Well, fake brightly. She held up a hand in a terse greeting and left. She walked down the corridor and put the keycard in her door. She looked back to the elevator. He was leaning against the doors, jerking as they tried to close.
He held his hand up in the same goodbye she’d given him. “Just making sure you didn’t have a heart attack in the hallway,” he said in a low whisper.
“Unlikely,” she hissed back.
He ducked back in, and the doors closed.
Damn, why was she acting all pissed at him? It wasn’t his fault he didn’t want to kiss her. That he didn’t find her attractive enough to kiss on a freaking elevator, in private, with no one to disturb them. Oh my God. My pity party is a spiraling devil. She had to snap out of it.
She put the shower on and threw her wet towel on the bathroom floor and looked at herself in the mirror.
There was a knock on the door, and she smiled. Excitement jumped in her stomach. She ran to the door and pulled it open with a grin.
It was her father. “Everyone okay here? Where’s Lexi?” he said, peering around the corner of the room.
Avery was so taken aback that she couldn’t even form the words. She pointed into the bathroom, where the shower was still going.
“Okay, sleep well,” he said. “And lock your door.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied, closing the door and locking it audibly behind him. She waited a few seconds before she quietly unlocked it again so Lexi could get in later. As soon as she heard the soft click, there was another knock on the door. Shit. Her father had heard her unlocking it.
She opened the door. It wasn’t her father. It was Lucas.
She peeked down the hallway and saw the very back of her father standing in the doorway doing another room check. “Shit.” She grabbed Lucas’s T-shirt and pulled him in fast and then quietly closed the door behind him.
“Er, okay. I wasn’t expecting that. Is everything all right?”
“My dad is on his rounds. Making sure everyone is in their rooms,” she said, finally taking a breath and realizing that Lucas was in her room, standing close. Like really close. She looked around, thinking she should back up, but then she’d be backing up into the part of the room where the beds were, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. She swallowed hard. “Why are you here?” she whispered as she heard a door closing outside and her dad knocking on another door.
“I got the feeling you were pissed at me for something, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t do anything, you know, to make you that way?” he said, suddenly looking less certain of himself.
She liked the confident, assured Lucas, but the Lucas who was suddenly unsure was even cuter. Damn. There was a flutter in the back of her mind about her father’s job and coaching Lucas to take them to the playoffs and her planner and her future…but like the flutter of a bird’s wings, it was easily crushed by the falling anvil of hormones and a few beers. Her heart pounded.
“So what was it? What pissed you off?” he insisted.
Embarrassment flared as the beer in her blood opened her mouth and started talking. “We were in the elevator together, and you didn’t kiss me. It’s like…” She paused.
He couldn’t have looked more surprised.
“It’s like you only want to kiss me when someone might see. Why is that?” She had no idea what she was talking about now, but as she said the words, she realized that it was true.
He hesitated. After a long second, he took a step back toward the door. “You’re wrong. I only want to kiss you when I’m awake. Like, every minute.”
Damn him. He was so smooth with his answers.
A true, shit-eating grin spread over his face. “And if you ever, ever want me to kiss you, darlin’, you just have to as—”
“Kiss me,” she said fast. She closed her eyes for a second and swallowed. She’d never, ever said anything like that to anyone else before. And it was the second time she’d said those words to Lucas.
He lifted her chin with his fingers and stared into her eyes for a second. “I like it when you say that,” he whispered.
And then his lips were on hers.