Chapter 66
LEX
Bull Shoals Lake - I think on the Arkansas side
Ready to finally have some fucking fun!
“Holy shit,” I mutter, glancing out at the massive bluff and the glass-like water stretching out forever. “Where are all the boats? Or the docks?”
“Quiet, huh?” Briggs says from behind the steering wheel of this absolute monster of a Malibu boat, a smug grin on his face.
Apparently, Zeke’s little I need to ask Briggs a question thing back at the penthouse was him securing an invite to Briggs’ grandmother’s gigantic lakehouse on Bull Shoals.
This place is secluded as hell. Surrounded by towering limestone cliffs and thick walls of pine and maple trees.
We’ve passed by a few small family docks but for the most part there isn’t a single mega-marina or crowded public dock in sight.
It’s just raw, untouched nature.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it, baby?” Bella purrs.
She’s in a tiny red and black bikini that has had Little Lex just begging to be released from my swim trunks. She leans back into my lap at the bow, her long, tanned legs draped across Cade as he rests a hand on her ankle.
I loop my arm around her waist and drag her back against my chest. The yellowing bruise on my eye throbs a tad under the hot sun. But being out here in the fresh air with our girl safely between Cade and me makes me forget all about Zeke’s fists.
“It’s perfect,” I mutter, inhaling her cherry-vanilla scent mixed faintly with the smell of her coconut sunscreen.
“Told you guys up at the house,” Ty calls out from the back. He’s on the sun pad, strapping his feet into his sleek black and teal Ronix wakeboard. “There’s no place like The Bull.”
“You ‘bout ready, Ty?” Briggs calls out, checking the mirror.
“Born ready,” Ty says. He drops backwards off the sun pad and disappears into the blue-green water with a loud, clean splash.
Brett leans over the side, chucking the neon-yellow wakeboard rope out toward him. Once the line slackens in the water, Brett sits back down on the wraparound cushions next to Haley who is sitting on Knox’s lap in that shimmering teal one piece with the cuts to her navel.
Brett reaches under the seat, pulls out a folded plastic rod with a bright orange flag attached. He hands it over to Ellie in her hot-pink strapless bikini.
“Here, Buttercup,” Brett grins, sliding it into her hand. “You man the flag today.”
Ellie rolls her eyes but takes it, holding it up with a mock salute.
Briggs hits a button on the dash and the boat’s massive Wet Sounds speakers kick to life. “Get Country” by Niko Moon bounces off the limestone cliffs as he cuts the wheel and aligns the Malibu with the center of the empty channel.
When the fucker turns his ball cap around backward and sits up on one knee in the seat, my hold on Bella tightens. Briggs deepens the throttle and the boat rears back. The engine groans with pure horsepower as it plows a massive, rolling wake behind us.
Ty pops right out of the water, keeping his knees bent and cutting hard to the left. Fucker carves effortlessly inside and outside of the white caps, spraying sheets of glass-smooth water into the air.
I watch him go. I’ve been in street fights, ring fights, hell, even the bloody trenches of The Blackout. But watching him glide over the surface like that looks like a goddamn blast.
“I miss doing that,” Cade sighs, his hazel eyes locked on Ty as he continues to cross the wake with ease. He turns his head slightly to look at Bella. “Sweetheart, remember when Cal and I finally did the tandem—”
“Cade!” Ellie yells over the roar of the boat and the bass. “Remember when you and Cal did that tandem ride off the coast of—”
“We were just saying that!” him and Bella echo back, laughing.
I blink, cutting my glance between them. “Wait. Babe, you can do that?”
Cade lets out a low chuckle as his fingers trace the skin on Bella’s ankle. “Yeah. We grew up on the oceans. Loved all water sports. Dad used to rent out entire private coves just so we could ride without any boat traffic.”
“How come I’ve never seen it?”
“When’s the last time you and I have ever been on a boat together, babe?” he laughs.
“Good point.”
Out on the water, Ty cuts inward with a sudden explosion of speed. He hits the rising lip of the wake and launches into the air, clearing the gap entirely before landing cleanly on the opposite side.
Haley lets out a loud squeal from the back, nails digging into Knox’s arm.
Marisol gasps too, gripping the vinyl edge behind Zeke’s head. “How the hell did he land that?!”
Briggs eases off the throttle a bit, letting the boat settle down into a low rumble. Ty glides up to the side and lets go of the rope letting himself bob in the water.
Briggs dials down the music so he doesn’t have to yell. “Anyone else wanna take his place?”
Bella nudges Cade with her elbow, her eyes bright. “Go on, babe. Show them how it’s done.”
Cade rubs the back of his neck. A rare trace of boyish shyness crosses his handsome face as he looks out over the water. “Nah, I’m good right here. Let someone else have a turn.”
I look at the rope floating in the flat water, then down at Bella’s face.
“Fuck it,” I say, unhooking my arm from Bella’s waist and sliding out from under her. “I’ll try.”
Turns out… I cannot wakeboard.
Although it’s not entirely my fault. I blame the board. And everyone in this boat yelling a million instructions at me all at once.
Lean back.
Let the boat pull you up.
No not like that, you’re trying too hard.
Yeah right.
When I leaned back, the water just rushed straight over the top of my board like a damn tidal wave and dragged my heavy ass under. When I tried to let the boat pull me up, the sudden torque yanked the rope out of my grip. Face-planted so hard it felt like wet concrete.
And when I finally did manage to stabilize my core and stand the fuck up, I rode for maybe ten seconds.
Max.
Next thing I knew, I was doing a violent involuntary-as-fuck cartwheel through the air. Problem was, my feet were still locked tight in those damn boots of the board and bending my limbs in directions they were never meant to go.
Jesus fucking Christ, that was embarrassing as hell.
I drop back into the lake with a heavy splash and cough up a mouthful of water. My sunglasses are long gone. Probably sitting at the bottom of the lake.
When I bob to the surface, the entire Malibu is full of relentless, echoing laughter of the assholes still on board.
Brett is damn near hanging over the side of the boat, slapping the fiberglass. “Yo, Lex! Didn’t know you did gymnastics! That was one hell of a cartwheel.”
I flip him off.
“Hold that flag up higher, Ellie!” Knox yells, his shoulders shaking as he cracks another beer. “Think we need emergency services for the King’s ego!”
I grab the rope, glaring daggers at the boat as Briggs idles to pick my pathetic ass back up. I look toward the front of the boat where Cade’s got one arm looped around Bella. She’s hiding her face into his chest. Her bare shoulders are shaking with uncontrollable and silent giggles.
“You good there, killer?” Cade calls out, not even trying to hide the smirk on his face.
“Shut the fuck up, Cade,” I bark, swimming toward the swim platform to unstrap the death contraption from my feet. I haul myself up like a drowned rat.
Bella slides out from Cade’s grip and walks down the center of the boat with a towel in her hand. She stops right in front of me and wraps it around my shoulders.
“You looked very strong right before you flipped forward,” she teases, biting her lip to keep from laughing right in my face.
I grab her by the waist and drag her tiny bikini-clad body flush against my chest until she gasps. “Keep laughing, baby. See what happens when we get back to the house.”
Cade’s hand claps me on the shoulder. “Promises, promises, babe,” he chuckles in my ear. “Alright, Caleb. I’ll give it a go.”
Cade isn’t just good. The motherfucker makes it look easy. Not to mention, sexy as hell.
Briggs drops the throttle and Cade pops up like a missile. He carves through the wake with this raw power, flexing every muscle in his arms and legs.
“Look at him,” I whisper into Bella’s temple as Cade launches into the air and nails a flawless backflip.
“I know,” she breathes, biting her lip.
He stomps the landing like it was nothing, spraying water into the sun.
Wet hair pushed back and a dark, cocky smirk on his lips—goddammit.
Watching him crush it sends an instant wave of heat straight through me.
Judging the goosebumps prickling Bella’s skin, she’s thinking the exact same fucking thing.
He rides for a few more minutes, pulling off two more jumps before letting go of the rope and coasting to a smooth stop. He hauls himself up onto the boat, barely even winded.
“Alright ladies,” Briggs calls out. “You girls wanna tube?”
Ty airs up this huge orange and blue tube with a high back so Bella, Haley, Ellie, and Marisol can all sit. I don’t think the damn thing is meant for four riders, but they cram in anyway.
Briggs tows them at a nice, easy cruise, passing this random-as-fuck lighthouse sitting on top of one of the bluffs.
“This is bullshit,” Brett says, standing up and slapping Briggs on the shoulder. “Let me drive.”
“It’s your funeral,” Briggs says before sliding out of the seat.
Brett kneels on the captain’s chair. He turns back to the girls and pumps his fist in the air. Ellie and Bella must know what’s coming because both of them start shrieking NO and shaking their heads in pure terror.
“Hey Z,” Brett says, his thumb scrolling on the phone that’s hooked up to the sound system. “Throw me a beer.”
“Here ya go,” Zeke says, tossing him a cold can.
Brett doesn’t even look up. He catches it blind with one hand. “Ah. Here we go.”
He sets the phone down. The opening beat to “Gasolina” by Daddy Yankee blares through the boat speakers.
Brett fucking floors it.
The boat rears back, the engine roaring as he cuts violent S-curves across the glass.
The tube whips sideways at terrifying speeds.
The poor girls are all four screaming bloody murder.
He cranks the wheel all the way to the left, crossing our own massive wake, and the tube hits the wave like a damn ramp.
All you see is four sets of tan legs flying upside down into the sky before four loud splashes hit the water.
I burst out laughing, launching the orange flag high above my head.
Brett swings the boat around tight, glides up to them, and kills the engine. A chaotic choir of soaked, pissed-off women all yell at once as they scramble up the swim platform.
Ellie is the last one back on board. She unzips her life jacket and shoots Brett a blazing glare.
“brETT WAYNE brIGGS!” she screams.
“What, Buttercup?” Brett asks, trying to look innocent and holding back a chuckle.
Ellie marches over and swings to slap him. But Brett catches her wrist, laughs, and scoops her ass up over his shoulder. She screams and beats her fists against his back as he jumps straight off the side of the boat, taking them both down into the lake with a massive splash.
“Unbelievable,” Haley mutters, drying her hair.
I wrap my towel around Bella as she drops her soaked jacket. “You alright, baby?”
“That was terrifying,” she gasps, grinning as she rests her wet head on my chest. “I’m ready to go again.”