Chapter 9 Liam
Chapter nine
Liam
By week’s end, something had shifted. The group that rolled into Cedar Hollow five days earlier wasn’t the same crew now sprawled around the pool.
That first day? Half of them clutched their towels like armor, wide-eyed at every bare ass and sunburned shoulder like they’d stumbled onto a nudist colony by mistake.
Now?
Now, it wasn’t just Harper, Renzo, and me embracing the clothing-optional lifestyle.
I lounged in a deck chair, drink in hand, a fresh pair of flamboyant sunglasses shielding my eyes from the late afternoon sun, watching everyone at once without really meaning to.
The last hints of tension had melted from everyone’s shoulders, replaced by golden tans, louder laughter, and the kind of ease that only came when you stopped caring what anyone thought.
Max floated nude in the deep end, arms spread like he was auditioning to be painted as a queer water god. “I swear, this is the most at peace I’ve felt in years,” he called lazily, eyes still closed. “No emails or clients. Just sun and dick.”
Evan chuckled from his spot at the pool’s edge, utterly content, his legs swaying in the water like he hadn’t a care in the world. “Put that on a mug,” he said, flashing a grin equal parts charming and indecent.
Tess sat cross-legged on a pool lounger in nothing but a bucket hat and sunglasses. He snorted, “Already ordered. Etsy had three options.”
Ezra sat at the edge near Tess’s chair, a towel slung over his hips, feet dipping into the water. He looked relaxed, sun-warmed, and calm. He flipped through a dog-eared book someone had abandoned at the lending table near the bathhouse. “Next year, we need custom merch. Team Nude vs. Team Modest.”
“Please,” Avery called from the shallow end, where he was chest-deep beside Harper, “you were Team Modest until yesterday. That strip-down was a full character arc.”
Ezra blushed but didn’t deny it. “Some of us take time,” he said.
Harper and Avery were waist-deep across the pool, locked in an intense and questionably-competitive game of water volleyball.
Harper, nude since day one and looking like a bronzed god who had just stepped off the pages of Essence’s summer issue, smiled over at Ezra.
“Ezra, sweetie, I saw you checking your tan lines this morning. You’re in it now. ”
Renzo and Elliott sat side by side on the pool steps, the contrast between them almost comical.
Renzo, completely nude and utterly unashamed, lounged like a sun-drenched sculpture, his arm draped casually behind Elliott.
Elliott, still wearing his swimsuit, looked more relaxed than I’d seen him in months, shirtless, sun-kissed, and clearly enjoying the view.
“Remind me again why we can’t do this every weekend in the summer?” Elliott asked, tilting his head back against the pool ledge.
“Because we’re not independently wealthy,” Renzo replied, handing him a fresh drink. “But if anyone wants to start an OnlyFans to fund the next trip, I’ll volunteer as tribute.”
“Only if you promise to use your ‘daddy’ voice,” Tess chimed in.
Renzo gave a dramatic baritone growl, “Take off those trunks, boy.”
Laughter exploded around the pool. Max nearly sank, cackling too hard to keep himself afloat.
“God,” I said, smiling behind my glass, “y’all are unhinged.”
“You love it,” Evan said, nudging me with his foot. His wet hair curled at his temples, softening the sharpness of his grin.
“I do,” I admitted. “I really, really do.”
I walked to the stairs at the end of the pool and stepped in. “Make room, sluts,” I said as I pushed my oversized sunglasses up my nose and took a long sip from a bright pink drink in a Mason jar.
“We saved it for your royal bare-assedness,” Tess said without looking up.
“Bless you.” I said, settling in with a satisfied sigh. “I see we’ve achieved full liberation.”
“Not quite,” Evan said, nodding toward Elliott.
Elliott raised his middle finger. “I’m the elder statesman. I get to keep my swim trunks and my dignity.”
Liam winked at him. “You’re keeping it tight, old man. The trunks are a crime.”
Elliott smirked. “That’s what I like to hear come out of my fiancé’s mouth.”
Ezra and Tess mock-gagged in unison while the rest of us cracked up again.
“Has anyone heard from Noah?” Ezra asked casually, adjusting his towel.
Heads turned toward Evan, who was sitting at the pool’s edge, feet in the water, wearing those flamingo briefs that had become almost legendary over the week.
“Yeah,” Evan said, trying to sound breezy, but there was a flash of something softer behind his sunglasses. “He messaged me last night. His work trip’s awful. Flights got delayed, meetings are a mess.”
Tess raised an eyebrow. “But he texted?”
“He said he wished he was here,” Evan added, almost offhand. “Which… surprised me.”
That earned him a chorus of “awwws” and a playful splash from Avery.
“Oh, look at you getting all soft,” Harper taunted.
Evan shrugged, smiling to himself. “It’s the sun. And the drinks. And the fact that I’ve seen most of y’all naked now.”
He paused, then added, “Though he did say, and I quote, ‘I don’t do serpents, Evan.’ So there’s your reminder that he’s not about to go camping anywhere near actual nature. He’s still recovering from that white-water rafting trip.”
Renzo snorted. “He really said serpents?”
“Capital-S Serpents,” Evan replied, chuckling. “He has a dramatic flair when it comes to anything without legs… or with too many.”
Liam lifted his drink. “To be fair, I get it. I watched that man nearly launch himself out of the raft because someone said they saw a snake on the bank. Sam and I were barely holding him down.”
Sam laughed, nodding. “I still don’t think he’s forgiven us for not letting him abandon ship mid-rapids.”
“Well,” Elliott said, raising his beer, “may we all find someone who regrets not joining us at gay summer camp.”
“To gay summer camp!” Max called from the deep end, raising his arm like a trident.
The group echoed it back with cheers, laughter, and clinking of plastic cups.
I was just sitting there in the middle of it all.
Half-drunk, a little sunburnt, surrounded by the people I loved most. Everything was loud and vivid and somehow finally lined up.
And I couldn’t stop smiling. Whatever we’d walked in with, tension, shame, insecurity, fear, it had been left somewhere back on the road.
Out here, we had each other, the sun on our backs, and no expectations but to just be.
And Sam? I noticed him the second something changed.
Sam wasn’t wearing his trunks anymore.
I clocked it immediately, before I could talk myself out of noticing. Not just because it was Sam, but because… fuck. He looked good.
I blinked, caught off guard. At some point between drinks and laughter and that last volley over the net, he’d quietly shed them.
He’d worn those blue ones all week, modest, dependable, just like him.
And now, without fanfare or warning, they were gone.
I hadn’t seen it happen. One second, he was wading in the water, the fabric clinging to his hips, and now…
now there was only skin, sun, and the soft confidence of someone who had finally let go.
And damn if that didn’t do something to me.
Sam had always had one of those solid, dependable builds, the kind that made him strong without looking like he lived in the gym.
Thick thighs, a broad chest with the right dusting of hair, soft stomach definition.
He was built like a man who could chop wood then carry you to bed after a long night out.
I was used to seeing him shirtless. We had vacationed together plenty of times before.
But this?
Seeing him fully bare, stepping into the pool like it was nothing, shoulders loose, relaxed, his body golden in the late afternoon light?
That was new.
My eyes drifted down, taking in every new, unguarded detail.
His penis caught my attention: uncut, with hefty balls that seemed to swing slightly as he moved, nestled in a trim patch of dark pubic hair.
The thick and veiny shaft itself was impressive, and for a moment, I found myself transfixed by the sight.
But I caught myself, tearing my eyes away from that particular view as I reminded myself to focus on the rest of him.
I took a slow sip of my drink, looking on as he waded toward Harper and Evan, the muscles in his back flexing slightly as he moved.
His ass?
Yeah. Perfect.
Ezra and Max both gave him a nod of approval, a silent welcome to the club.
Sam rolled his eyes, sinking into the water, unbothered.
He was laughing at something Renzo said, head tipped back, his hand pushing wet hair off his forehead, every trace of tension from earlier in the week gone.
I felt my lips curl into a slow smile before I even realized I was doing it.
“Your plan worked,” Tess remarked beside me, nursing a frozen cocktail that was roughly the size of his head.
I turned toward him, lifting a brow. “What plan?”
He let out a laugh. “To get everyone to stop being so uptight. Look at them. Relaxed, naked, actually enjoying themselves.”
I smiled, tipping my drink toward the pool. “I told you. It just takes time.”
Tess snorted. “And pot gummies.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I took another sip, letting my gaze drift back to Sam, still laughing and at ease.
Maybe it was the week of being unplugged. Maybe it was the place itself, somehow sacred and freeing all at once. Maybe it was the gummies kicking in, loosening him up just enough to let go. Or maybe… Maybe this was Sam.
And maybe I was noticing it for the first time.
I didn’t know where Tess got the edibles. Didn’t really care, either.
All I knew was that by the time we were back at camp, sitting around the fire on our last night together, everyone had passed them around, and we’d all taken just enough to make everything feel a little looser.
Renzo was halfway through a story about his worst hookup ever, barely able to get through the details because he was laughing so hard.