36. Bay
THIRTY-SIX
bay
“Alright, alright,” I laugh through a sliver of anxiety that’s currently creeping through my body. “That’s far enough, dang.”
Mae and Ellie giggle, still piling and packing sand over my already covered body with everything but my head poking out.
Reeve, on the other hand, is sitting, handing out buckets of sand through my protests while he sucks on a green sucker. His muscled shoulders flex with each scoop of the bucket, causing me to look longing than what’s appropriate with my sisters around. That blonde surfer boy hair blows from the ocean’s waves and he’s just…absolutely swoon-worthy.
“I expect this from them, Reevie,” I chide lightly. “You gonna keep playing accomplice?”
He hands another bucket to Ellie and takes Mae’s to scoop more beach to lay on top of me. “They come to be more valuable, McQueen. Little soldiers in the making.” He winks at me, and I roll my eyes.
“You’re a traitor.”
“Bay, can I get some ice cream?” Mae’s knees slam into the sand beside my head, making the grainy substance fly into mouth from the impact. “There’s a truck that stopped.” I turn my head to spit it out, when the music to the truck turns on louder. “ Please !”
“Yeah, just unbury?—”
“Reeve, she said we could go!” Ellie shouts somewhere from my feet. “Hurry, there’s a line!”
So much for them being on the lookout for any potential ultra motives here.
Reeve replaces Mae’s previous spot the moment she rises and bends over to hover his face over mine. “I wouldn’t mind you being bound if I didn’t like your hands all over me when my cock was in your mouth. This would’ve been the perfect opportunity for me.”
I glower at him. “My sisters, butthead.”
“I know.” He leans in and kisses my mouth with two easy and pussy-clenching strokes. “But a man can dream about it. My cock already has.”
“Go get my sisters ice cream,” I order weakly, but I can’t stop the smile that forms on my lips. Reeve makes my brain erase into a blank canvas. No problems want to emerge when he’s by me. He’s like a vacation spot for my head.
“What do you want?”
“Surprise me.”
“Alright—” He straightens his spine. “Don’t move. Oh, wait…” His smile widens so much that I’m surprised it doesn’t crack his face. “You can’t.”
I attempt to my foot to kick him, even though it’s futile. “Get outta here.”
He laughs and saunters off with my sisters to go get their desserts, leaving me vulnerable in the sand and within my own thoughts.
Here you are, just hangin’ out with a leader of the Forsaken Crew like it’s any normal day.
With my sisters.
Well, you must trust him a lot, bitch. You literally let him run off while you’re buried.
Thing is, I do.
Maybe this— us —can end all of this turmoil between two towns that have been going at it for years. But is that a pipe dream? Is that naive that we could bring down a war where it’s been quiet lately?
But we can’t deny the fact that Emilio’s new group, The Void, was made for a reason. And it wasn’t to form a family or a bond, but for war.
Which means Torin and Reeve will still be fighting on the wrong side.
And I can’t stop that.
Reeve and my sisters come back shortly after, and the man that claims to want more sits at my side, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ice cream for him and a Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls for me.
“They still make those?”
Reeve shrugs, opening mine up. “Yeah…God knows how old they are, though.”
I laugh. “Ew.” The giggles of my sisters fill my ears and my heart warms. All of this—Levi and I making a huge stink over our fake relationship, running every time Emilio wants to see me, and risking my sanity over these boys, make it worth it. The demise of my sperm donor will make them safe. It’ll create Levi a path to freely expand and bring up South Shore.
My ice cream is offered to me from Reeve’s hand and my eyes flick to his. “Are you gonna let me out of here?”
“I can…” His hazels remain locked on to me. “For a price.”
“You and buying me out of shit.”
He shakes his head. “Just info.”
“What kind?”
“Things about you. You answer, I remove sand.”
I sigh. “Like what?”
“What’s your favorite color, for example.”
“Purple.” My Bubbles ice cream is brought to my lips for me to suck on and it feels amazing off the hot sun. “What’s yours?”
“Red. Favorite food.”
“Crab.” I look up at him for his answer, and he promptly gives it to me.
“Same.”
“Really?” He bobs his head, still holding out my ice cream and working on his, looking like a little kid and staring down at it intently. “What’s your favorite dessert?”
“Besides you?” He smirks, knowing he’s going to be met by my exasperated look, but spares me wih the words that follow. “I dunno…never got much as a kid.”
“Why? Your parents big on sugar?”
“Nah, my mother’s just a huge cunt.” I frown. As sweet and lovable as Reeve is, it’s hard for me imagine a woman being what he just said to him. I know his father is missing, and he hasn’t spoken much about it since he came to see me in South Shore that night. “We didn’t really celebrate much together unless it was for one of my mother’s parties or something.”
“And you didn’t steal anything from the tables or?—”
“No.” Reeve shoves the edge of his ice cream into his mouth, alluding that he doesn’t want to talk about his past anymore, using his newly free hand to remove some of the sand from my arms.
“You like the Raiders?” I fixate on his backwards hat, desperate to find another topic of conversation. No matter how lame it is. “Ever been to a game?”
“Raiders game?” he mutters through a full mouth before shaking his head for the answer.
“Wanna go?”
He pulls his ice cream from his lips and heaves a brow. “With you?”
“Vegas isn’t in my future anytime soon.”
“It could be. You like football?”
“It’s okay. Dad watches it a lot.”
“What’s his favorite team?”
“Pittsburgh. He’s from there originally.”
“Roethlisberger’s gettin’ old.”
“Don’t tell him that, he’ll shoot you on the spot.”
Reeve places his dessert back into his mouth and begins moving more sand. “I’ll remember that when I ask him for his permission to marry you.”
I’m beginning to lose count of how many times he’s said that and how serious he sounds when he does. At first, I thought it was him just trying to flirt with me. Filling my head with dreams that aren’t so important to me right now.
But this dude, he doesn’t flinch or stutter over them. It’s like he’s telling me what he did yesterday.
“Don’t give my dad another heart attack, Stanton,” I reply. “He even sees that I’m with someone from the Forsaken Crew, he’s going to flip his shit.”
“Doesn’t he already know?” Reeve presses. “We were at his house the other day and he was sitting pretty on the South Shore Titan seat.”
Fuckkkk.
Dad had a stroke, you stupid ass. Not a memory loss.
Reeve pats my head then like a child and chuckles deep in his chest. “Calm down, McQueen. We were nice.”
“Yeah, but why?” I blurt out without thinking about it. “He’s gonna?—”
“Because we like you, Geezus.” Reeve pushes my hand so that my ice cream is forced to go in between my lips. “You South Shore folks are fuckin’ crazy and paranoid as all shit.”
“Wouldn’t you be?” I counter as the cold substance hits my mouth.
“I’ve never been paranoid with you,” Reeve states matter-of-factly. “If you’re gonna fuck us over, then do it. The only thing the boys have against you is that you’re South Shore and have a bitch of a dad, big deal. Join the club.”
“You think this is real?”
Reeve sends me a glare that shocks me right to my core. “Isn’t it?”
“I…” He heaves a brow, and I hate that my first response is that I’m terrified.
“You have a lot to lose and two assholes who’ll make your life a living hell if you betray them.”
My stomach drops at his backup plan. “Yeah.”
“You want to get close to Emilio for other reasons?”
I meet Reeve’s curious hazel eyes and notice that he’s back to his normal, easy expression. “I don’t want to get close to him at all.”
“But you keep showin’ up.”
“Because I’m using him to see if he’s going to use me against South Shore.”
Reeve’s tongue darts out as he licks a melting drip of his Raphael turtle ice cream. “Would’ve been different, your life, but not for the best. He treated Torin like shit and Ramsey like a god.”
Torin never mentioned that the other day. “Because he’s deaf in one ear?”
Reeve stares at me for a second. “He told you.”
“Yeah.”
He’s silent for another moment before saying, “That’s pretty important information. Something many people don’t need to know.”
“I’m not going to say anything.”
“I know.” He tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear and watches his movement. “I guess he’s starting to see that.”
“Was…it bad for him?”
“Gonna have to ask him that, baby. It’s not my story to tell.”
“Was yours?”
Reeve’s hazel flick to mine, and I see a whole lot that he doesn’t want to talk about. “Nothing worth braggin’ about, and I’m asking the questions first to get you unburied. So, when did you lose your V-card?”
Typical Reeve.
“Are you serious?”
“Very.”
I watch his dirty blonde hair move with the ocean breeze, and I exhale a breath before saying, “Fifteen.”
“By who?”
“A dickhead.”
“Dickhead gotta name?” I avert my gaze. A wave of shame washes over me because the level of stupidity that I was as an early teenager was epic. “Eh, damn…not him.”
One of my wonderful decisions.
“He hurt you, McQueen?”
Not our first time, no. Matteo used to be sweet and optimistic.
Then he became a douchebag.
“No,” I reply honestly. “Not then.”
“I lost mine at twelve.”
My eyes widen. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you even know what your dick was?”
He chuckles and shakes his head. “Barely. Favorite position?”
“When they’re quiet,” I reply with narrowed eyes, and Reeve smirks, pointing his ice cream at me.
“Now, I know that’s a lie. You like to hear every dirty thought going through my head.”
“Reeve, look!” Ellie suddenly shows up at his side, stray dark waves of hair in her eyes as she shoves her upheld palm in his face. “I found shells for that thing you wanted.”
“Fuck yeah,” he beams, opening his own hand for her to dump them in. “This is perfect.”
“I’m gonna go find more.” She doesn’t wait for a response as she runs off down the beach toward the water to do just that.
“What are you making?” I ask as blue ice cream drips down my fingers. I’m making a damn mess.
“Something,” he deadpans, pocketing his newly found shells. “What are you doing Saturday night?”
“Hangin’ out with Dad and the girls.”
“Will you come with me to a party?”
“What party?”
“Cairo’s. It’s his birthday and we’re throwing him a surprise party. He’s gonna fucking hate it.”
“He hates me.”
“He doesn’t, baby. He just is in the same boat as the rest of us. Trust is a hard thing to come by.”
“What time does it start?”
“Nine. And show up when you can. I know you got the girls and stuff. I can pick you up if you need?—”
“I got it,” I reply. “It’s not a date.”
“Fuck no, that’s stupid. When I take you on one, though, it’ll be epic as fuck.”
“Let me guess…it includes fucking.”
“Head,” he shares placidly. “And food. And dancing…and sitting on the beach in complete silence to look up at the stars and just be.” Shit sounds nice. “You like all four, McQueen?”
I nod. “Yeah…it all sounds…perfect.”
Reeve helps me sit up, my body pushing away sand as Reeve’s mouth falls to mine in a soft and sweet kiss.
His tongue licks at my mouth, tasting the frozen treat, but he doesn’t drive between my lips like I desperately want him to.
This guy…has me fantasizing like a thirteen-year-old girl.
“You know I like you, right? That I haven’t fucked another girl since I met you.”
Geezus Christ, please tell me that’s not true.
The more he talks, the more I like this dude. That I want to take this a step further and fuck the rest.
“Get confident with it, baby. Because I see you and me and it’s going to be bomb as fuck.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Vibes.” He kisses me again. “Energy.” Another kiss. “And I like the way you look at me sometimes when I’m not talking about shoving my cock inside you.”
A small smile graces my lips. “You say it like it’s normal, like we’ve been doing it for years.”
Reeve chuckles. “Oh, baby, we are going to be doing it for years. I got you on that.”
Mae’s excitement of more seashells breaks through our kiss, and Reeve turns his head to look at my youngest sister with a smile so effortless that it can’t be faked.
Reeve is in this.
And I’m…deathly terrified.