Ember #2
“Um, yeah. I’ve only ever been with one guy and …” Cassidy then bursts out laughing. “Oh shit, my husband has been with more people than me.” She starts laugh-crying.
“I’m so sorry,” Violetta says, consoling Cassidy.
“It sucks,” Cass tells her. “I’m also scared.”
Violetta reaches out and takes her hand. “I can only imagine. But you are a beautiful woman, and any man would be lucky to fuck you.”
“Thanks,” Cassidy says. “I want to get fucked.” I stare at my best friend, this is the first I’m hearing this. “Six months it’s been.”
“Oh baby,” Violetta consoles her. “That is devastating.”
“It is,” Cassidy says.
“What about you, Ember?” she asks.
I don’t know what to say.
“She’s the same,” Cassidy answers for me.
That may be true, but I’m not sure I’m ready to be with someone else.
“You poor women. I am so sorry. When we get back home, we must remedy that. I know so many men who would happily be with you,” Violetta tells me.
“You sound like a pimp.” Harper chuckles.
Violetta looks stunned. “I’m not,” she says quickly. “You don’t have to do anything but flirt. I would never push someone into doing anything they are not ready to do.”
Cassidy smiles. “I know,” she says, reassuring her. “I feel like I’m a virgin again and I kind of just want that first time over with. I’m starting to build it up in my head, you know, I’m overthinking it. I don’t want to panic.”
It’s exactly how I feel, and that’s why I don’t think I’m ready to do anything.
“Aw, Cass, there’s no need to panic,” Harper tells her.
“It sounds irrational, but I’m not eighteen anymore. My body has changed, and as much as I do look after myself, I’m still … older,” Cassidy tells them.
“Men don’t look at women the way we look at ourselves,” Violetta says. “Look, I’m not suggesting you hook up with the first man who shows interest in you. What I’m saying is you need to get out there again.”
Maybe she’s right. There probably never will be the right time to start dating, and I know I’m not ready for that. But going out as a single adult for the first time, maybe we should test the waters, delicately.
“I mean, look we are surrounded by gorgeous men,” Violetta states. “You could practice flirting with them, they’re safe.”
“Um, they are our brother’s teammates,” I tell her.
“So?” Violetta shrugs.
“There are rules, V. You don’t touch a teammate’s sister,” Harper tells her.
“Really? Doesn’t look like any of them have listened though?” Violetta adds.
This makes me giggle because she’s not wrong. My own brother broke that golden rule, as did Fish.
“I mean, Sully and I …”
I still. I forgot she’s hooked up with Sully.
“You’re not a teammate’s sister, you were fair game,” Harper teases.
“Ew, that’s right. You hooked up with my brother.” Cassidy gags.
“Oh, yes, it was just a bit of fun, and boy was it fun.” Violetta giggles as Cassidy continues to look ill. “Your brother gets a gold star for fucking.”
“I’m going to be sick.” Cassidy groans while the others laugh.
Flashes of Sully’s lips on mine in the dark, his hands tangling in my hair as he fucks me come to mind.
I can feel my cheeks heat. I haven’t thought about that day in so long.
Nope. Not thinking about it, that was a lifetime ago.
I concentrate on the beautiful surroundings instead of the illicit images running through my mind.
Eventually, everyone starts coming back to the boat.
“Ready for the show, girls?” Violetta whispers.
Show, what show? Then I realize what she was referring to as we watch the men climb out of the water, muscles tensing as they grab the ladder and pull themselves up out of the water. Droplets of the sea cascade down athletically toned bodies. Cassidy and Violetta giggle away as each man emerges.
First out is Bouch, he hauls himself up the ladder and shakes the water off, and it looks like an aftershave commercial.
"And that is a French-Canadian center, ladies," Violetta narrates under her breath like a nature documentary.
He's objectively a beautiful man, all shoulders and easy grin, and I can appreciate it like art in a gallery. Look, admire, but no urge to take it home.
Nelly is next, and the ladder genuinely creaks.
"Okay, the goalie," Cassidy says, tilting her head. "I take back every joke I've ever made about him. The man is built like a Viking longship, and I wonder if he has a longship," she jokes.
"Cass!"
"What? I'm just saying if he wasn't basically a Labrador, I'd be having thoughts."
"He’s sweet. Sometimes the sweetest ones can also be the kinkiest,” Violetta adds, which lights up Cass’ face.
Pierre and Felix come up one after the other, and it's honestly unfair that one family got all of that.
Married and taken, respectively, and both looking like the reason romance novels have covers.
Then my brother hauls himself out next. Fish climbs out after Emmett, taking a bow like the whole bay was watching, and I realize there's only one of them left in the water.
Sully is the last one in the water, and he doesn't hurry. He swims in slowly, plants both hands on the platform, and lifts himself out of the ocean in one long pull.
And my brain just stops.
Water sheets off his shoulders and runs down his back, every muscle in it working, and he's big in a way I've somehow never let myself register.
Broad shoulders, thick arms, a defenseman's body built from years of hitting people, standing on a swim platform in the Maine sun like it's nothing.
My drink stops halfway to my lips and stays there.
I have known this man most of my life. I've seen him in swim shorts a thousand times, at lakes and pools over the years.
But the last time I touched him we were teens, and the man standing on that platform is not a boy anymore.
"Gold star," Violetta murmurs beside me, appreciatively, to no one in particular.