Chapter 5 #2
And she did something deeply out of character, turned away from him and toward a group of four of the tall, shirtless guys, and introduced herself. “I’m Lila. Do you want to be in my boat?”
The smiles that she got did something to her self-esteem. Oh. There was something to this.
She was so used to being around guys who had gone to school with her, or guys who had grown up with her. These guys had never laid eyes on her before. And they seemed delighted.
“I’m Jason,” said the tallest one, with a bucket of brown hair tipped over his head. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“Lincoln,” said another, also tall, even though not as tall, dark-skinned and with close-cropped hair.
“Very nice to meet you.”
After that, she also met Jaden and Jalen, and by the time they all loaded up in the raft, they were fast friends.
She was sitting in the point position in the front, with the crew in the back.
They had paddles for if they got into trouble, but mostly this would be floating down the rapids, and the rapids were not very elite.
It would be marginally thrilling, but not dangerous in any way.
And that meant that there was a lot of beer drinking and general horseplay happening on the raft.
And normally, Lila would be a little bit of a heavy about that.
But she was committed to having fun. And Jason seemed committed to sitting as close to her as possible and accidentally brushing up against her.
When he brushed against her thigh for the second time, she looked up at the raft ahead. At Nolan, who looked up and back right as her eyes landed on his. He half-smiled, creating a deep groove to one side of his mouth.
And she deliberately moved her thigh a little bit more firmly against Jason’s bicep.
She looked down at him as he looked up at her and smiled.
Oh, they were flirting. They were for real flirting. Like he would probably get her number, and he might want to kiss her.
That was a revelation.
She felt giddy, like she’d just won some kind of a poker game.
This was way better than last night. She was stone cold sober and this guy thought she was cute. He was cute, not someone she’d be grabbing onto just because she was desperate or something.
Then they hit a low point in a big rapid, and she bounced up in the boat, her ass coming up off the edge. And only her leg muscles saved her from going overboard.
Jason, for his part, grabbed hold of her ankle. Not that it did anything to help her stay in the boat. But it did remind her of yesterday. When Nolan had put his hand on her ankle.
Just remembering that made Jason’s touch feel slightly more sensual.
And that was interesting. It meant that she could work with this.
Maybe she would have to think about Nolan a little bit.
Maybe she needed to quit being so unwilling to do that.
Maybe she needed to accept that for her, until she managed to free herself of this years-long crush, she was going to be making comparisons.
And that actually the comparisons might help.
And at the same time, Jason was a hot guy.
So maybe eventually she would feel that just because it was him.
She was getting way ahead of herself, but it was all interesting.
She looked up again, to find that Nolan had his eyes on her—again.
There was something hard in his gaze.
And she realized he wasn’t looking at her so much as he was looking at Jason’s hand.
This was like having Cody on a trip. He was probably getting ready to be chivalrous and lecture Jason on the fact that she was a lady. Or perhaps would be doing that if he was close enough to the boat. But he couldn’t, and he had to keep focused on the journey, so she was going to ignore him.
There was a lunch planned further up the river, and then they would go down another mile or so where the van would pick them up.
She had a feeling Pike would be driving the van, which meant that he would be talking everybody’s ear off while they made their way back. Which was fine. Pike was fine.
But the idea of anyone else filling up the space when she wanted to get a reaction out of Nolan was somewhat irritating.
Perhaps not fair, since the entire scenario was made up in her head at this point.
When they got close to where they would be taking the raft out, Lila bailed out of the boat and dragged the raft toward the shore.
Jason moved up toward the front of the raft, so that he was eye level with Lila’s hip. “It doesn’t seem like you should have done that by yourself.”
“Oh, I’m more than capable. But thanks.”
“Just because you’re capable doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have had the strapping lads in the boat do it.”
“I would have had to explain to the strapping lads how it’s done. And that really seems like more trouble than it’s worth.” “I don’t know, there are contexts where giving instructions can be rewarding.”
She blinked. She had a feeling that this was a double entendre of some kind, and she was reaching, trying to figure out exactly what it might mean, but not fully coming up with anything.
“Sure. Like in Uno. Which is a great card game for if you want to make enemies out of your friends.”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Yeah. Uno. Or maybe other things too.”
“Oh yeah. Other things.” The raft reached shore, and all the guys got out of the boats, and Nolan began to walk toward her, and she broke off in a different direction, making her way to where the food was.
Jason followed her, and she ended up sitting on the same blanket as him and the rest of the group from the raft.
“So, are you from here, Lila?” Jason asked.
“Be careful with him,” Jalen said. “He’s flirting with you. Just so you know. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t be asking you about you, he would just be talking about himself.”
“Hey,” Jason said. “What’s the opposite of a wingman? Because that’s you.”
“A cock blocker,” Jalen said. “And hey, if it needs to be blocked.”
Cock. Block.
Lila gripped the can of soda she was holding a bit more tightly. It made her think of Nolan because he’d said those exact words to her this morning.
She didn’t want to think about it, not in that context. What she should be paying attention to was the fact that in this context it seemed to imply that Jason wanted to get his cock near her, and that should be the big takeaway.
Not Nolan saying that word. Not Nolan then talking about his dick.
“I am from here,” Lila said, speaking a little bit too loudly because she was trying to drown out her own thoughts.
“Which means I can take care of myself. Didn’t you see me pull the raft out of the water?
” She lifted her arm up and flexed her bicep.
Which she knew was pretty damned impressive at this moment in time.
Jason reached up and squeezed it and made an approving sound when he found it firm.
That made her cheeks feel a little bit warm.
Oh. Maybe she was enjoying this.
Just maybe.
“Everything going good so far?”
She looked up from her sitting position, way up, to see Nolan standing there, arms crossed over his broad chest.
He had on a pair of swim shorts, and a black T-shirt that was molded to his torso. She licked her lips, not really meaning to, but then feeling incredibly self-conscious that she had done it, and warm at the pit of her stomach.
He looked down at her, there was something about this angle, and it was hard to breathe.
“Everything’s good?” he asked her directly.
“Yes. Everything’s good. Thank you.”
“No issues?”
She took a sip of her soda. “None.”
“Good.”
Jason leaned in. “Is he your brother?”
Something evil gripped Lila, and she smiled. “Yes. He is. My older brother.”
She saw Nolan’s shoulders go straight, his spine activated. But he didn’t turn around or give any kind of indication that he’d heard. Why should he care? If he wanted to play the part of annoyed big brother, then she was going to claim him as such.
And remind her body that that’s exactly what he was to her. Or exactly what he should be.
“A little overprotective?” Jason asked.
“No. He’s just a dick.”
Jason barked a laugh. “All right. Well, as long as he’s not going to show up at our hotel room with a sawed-off shotgun or anything.”
“Oh, no. Those are illegal. Nolan probably has a .30-06.”
They didn’t really find that funny, and she was a little bit irritated that they didn’t seem to get the nuance there, but she didn’t need Jason to understand the finer points of firearms to be a potential bedmate. She was changing her perspective on that.
“Are you from here? I mean, I know you’re not from here, but do you live far away?”
“No. We’re just in Bend.”
A rush of relief overtook her. “Oh. That’s not far at all. But we thought this was a good place to celebrate Chad.”
Chad. Of course, the groom’s name was Chad. They were indeed a pack of bros, but she didn’t hate that, or them. They were nicer than many packs of bros, and much better looking.
“Well, it is a great place. And I’m not just saying that because I grew up here, and because I’m part owner of the ranch.”
“Whoa. You own this place?”
For the first time, she realized that might actually seem impressive to somebody who didn’t know the whole story. To somebody who hadn’t known her forever. Was she just wasted sitting in her own small town all this time, letting other people’s preconceived ideas of who she was shape her?
“Yeah. Me and my brothers. We own it and we run it. I manage a lot of the really boring things, but I also do things like this. Right now, Nolan and I are creating a new trail for people who want to do longer trail rides.”
“How do you make a trail?”
She ended up entertaining the group with stories of how she and Nolan were making the trail, and she just felt really good about herself in the strangest way.