Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Ace
Movie night on Lake Mercury turns out to be the worst possible environment for a man trying not to fall too hard, too fast, for a woman.
Mostly because Chrissy is floating beside me in an inner tube wearing a red bikini top that has reduced my IQ by approximately twenty points.
The giant inflatable screen bobs gently near the swimming cove while Jaws plays across the water.
Around us, people drift lazily in clusters of tubes with drinks in their cupholders and glow sticks around their wrists.
Somebody farther down the cove screams dramatically every time the music changes.
Joel keeps intentionally splashing Rayna during the suspenseful scenes.
And Chrissy is laughing. Turns out, she loves scary movies. And somehow, that makes her even more beautiful to me.
But what doesn’t?
Yep. I'm completely screwed.
"You're staring," she says quietly.
"It’s your fault for being so damn beautiful.”
The words leave my mouth before I can reconsider them. Chrissy blinks at me like she wasn't expecting that answer. Honestly, neither was I.
The teasing grin she usually throws at me softens around the edges. "That was smooth."
"I wasn't trying to be smooth. Just telling the God’s honest truth."
The water shifts beneath us as our tubes drift together. Her bare foot brushes lightly against my calf, and the contact sends heat straight through me. This woman has become a serious problem in less than a week.
“You want to hear something weird?” she asks.
“Hit me.”
“I no longer think of you as a peacock.”
I waggle my eyebrows and grab her ankle. “Am I more of a shark?”
She laughs. “No, you’re kind of a teddy bear.”
She expected me to be some cocky lake guy who flirted with anything that moved and forgot names by morning.
And maybe she wouldn't have been completely wrong a month ago.
I've dated. Had fun. Kept things easy. But somewhere between the sunrise race and relay practice and watching her steal fries off my plate at Mercury Slice, something shifted.
Now every part of my day feels arranged around when I'll see her next.
I wink at her. “Don’t tell anyone. You’ll ruin my reputation.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
Chrissy shakes her head, smiling despite herself. Then her expression softens as she looks out across the lake. "Thanks for inviting me to join the team," she says quietly. "I missed it more than I thought. Racing. Training. Having something to work toward."
I study her profile in the flickering movie light. "Why'd you stop?"
She's quiet long enough that I think she might not answer. "My dad got sick during my sophomore year of college. I came home to help take care of him. After he died, everyone thought I would go back to college. But I didn’t. It just didn’t feel like the right path anymore.”
We watch the movie in silence for a bit before she says, “Are you a teddy bear?”
“Not with everyone,” I admit. “But with the people I care about, yeah. I think my friends would say I am.”
“So, you care about me?”
I shift closer, reaching out to steady her tube with one hand. "Yes.”
Her breath catches.
And then we're both looking at each other instead of the movie, instead of the lake, forgetting that we’re surrounded by dozens of people in the dark.
My hand slides from the edge of her tube to her bare knee, almost without thinking.
There’s a tiny hitch in her breathing that heats the blood in my veins.
Her eyes flick down briefly to my lips before lifting back to meet mine.
"You're trouble," she murmurs.
"Yeah?"
"You know you are."
"Funny." I lean closer slowly, giving her every chance to pull away. "I was about to say the same thing about you."
For half a second, neither of us moves.
Then Chrissy closes the distance herself.
Our lips meet and the electricity between us crackles like summer lightning.
I slide my hand up into her damp hair as she kisses me harder, and somewhere in the background Jaws is still playing and people are still watching it and none of that matters at all.
We may as well be the only two people on the lake.
When we finally break apart, cheeks flushed and gasping for air, Chrissy whispers, “I totally beat you in that first race.”
I laugh against her mouth. “Whatever you say, Speed Racer.” And then I kiss her again.