Chapter 38
Tanner
Present day
My eyes flick across to the other side of the lake, to where our friends are currently on their second haul-down from the campsite that we made part way up the mountain. We’re all going to be disbanding tomorrow – with the guys who have graduated starting up training with their respective sports teams, and the guys who will be back to college in the fall heading home before school starts again – so we’re having one final day soaking up the Larch Peak lakeside summer.
I keep my gaze on Aisling as her brother drops his camping gear and scoops her up, giving her a big brotherly bear hug as she laughs and shoves him off of her.
My heart swells in my chest.
My beautiful girlfriend .
I would be over there right now if I didn’t have something damn important to do here at the lake house, but I’ll join them later in the afternoon, or as soon as Jace and I can get the drywall fixed.
I turn my attention back to the black truck that’s just pulled up beside the porch railing, and I give Jason Coleson a jerk of my chin as he heaves himself out of the driver’s side, shaking his head at me in amusement.
He’s one of my dad’s closest friends from the start of his military career, and even though Jace is no longer in the army he still stops by when my dad returns home from deployment.
Now he runs his own company, Coleson Construction, and seeing as he was heading to Carter Ridge today, I asked him if he could lend a hand.
“What the hell did you do, Mason?” he says as he starts making his way up the porch steps. He’s got a toolbox in one hand and a decent sized piece of drywall in the other. The smirk tugging at his mouth makes me grin back at him, feeling like a kid again.
I rub my palm over the back of my head, neck burning red as I lead him inside.
“Uh, nothing,” I rumble, sharing a grin with him as he chuckles. “Could use a little of your expertise though.”
He huffs out a laugh and squints at me as we mount the stairs.
“You tryna flatter me?” he asks, and I hold my palms up in surrender.
“I’m being dead serious,” I tell him. “I’ll pay anything to get this fixed today.”
We trudge across the landing, Jason following behind as I lead him down the corridor.
“One, I’m not asking for compensation,” he says gruffly, stepping over the threshold as I jerk my thumb toward the affected drywall, “and two…”
He blinks down at the area a few feet away from the door, slowly tilting his head to the side as he frowns down at it.
After a long moment he glances back to me and repeats, “Uh… what’d you do?”
I breathe out a nervous laugh as he crouches in front of the dent. His eyes slide to the soft faux-fur rug beside his boot – as in, the rug which I made love to Ash on the second that we got back to Larch Peak – and after a slightly amused, slightly pained glimpse in my direction, he jokingly moves a few inches farther away from it.
I rub awkwardly at the back of my neck. Yeah, I should have thought to move that before he got here.
“Jesus, Mace,” he mumbles, setting down the piece of drywall and his toolbox. He gets a measuring tape from his pocket, takes a mental note, and then finds his utility knife.
He turns to look at me over his shoulder, gesturing for me to take a look at what he’s doing.
I crouch down next to him, nodding as he explains the procedure, and grateful as hell that a damage this small doesn’t require a full wall upheaval.
“We’re gonna replace the damaged area with a new piece of drywall,” he says, “putting in a little wooden support before we slot in the new square. After we’ve screwed the support in, we’ll use some joint compound to fill in the edges and scrape away the excess with a putty knife.”
I nod. “Got it.”
“Tomorrow morning you’re gonna use this sanding block” – he holds it up to me – “and brush it over the area so that you’re left with a smooth surface. You might need to add some more joint compound and repeat the sanding process, but it just depends. Then all that’s left to do is paint the area to match the rest of the wall. You got the paint that was used in this project?”
“Yeah, Ash has it.”
He glances over at me. “Who’s Ash?”
“The chick who owns this house.”
He stares at me for a beat. “And you put a hole through her wall?”
I wince and grip the back of my neck. “It was an accident.”
Jace gives me an amused, kind of pitying look.
“She mad at you?” he asks, while he places a ruler beside the dent. He pencils a faint line to create one side of a square.
I shake my head, looking down at my locked fingers.
“Not even,” I admit. “She was, like, real sweet about it. As long as I get this fixed for her I think everything’ll be okay.”
“Sounds like a very understanding girl,” he says quietly, brow low in concentration as he finishes marking up the area.
“She’s the best,” I murmur, clearing my throat as I duck my head.
Jace gives my shoulder a fatherly shove and I glance up at him, pulling myself from my thoughts. Thoughts about how much Ash has grown this summer, how much trust she’s put in me – and how, for the first time in four years, she’s started wearing her heart on her sleeve.
Jace holds the utility knife between us and raises his brow in a question.
“You wanna do the fixing?” he offers. “I’ll make sure you don’t mess it up.”
I breathe out a laugh and take the knife. “Trust me, I won’t be doing that again.”
He laughs, quiet and kind, and then we get to work on fixing the wall.
*
It’s late in the afternoon by the time that Jason packs up to leave, having shown me how to fix up the wall and then offering to survey the rest of the house for before Aisling’s mom comes by tomorrow.
I quickly sent off a text to Aisling to see if she’d like him to check out the house, and she immediately came over, looking beautifully sun-kissed and super shy. She settled down on one of the couches with Jace for around ten minutes before saying that, if he was happy to, she’d really appreciate him looking over her first ever renovation.
And to say that Jason was impressed, given what I told him the original state of the lake house was in when we first arrived, would be a damn understatement.
I’m so freaking proud of everything that Aisling’s achieved this summer.
Afterwards, seeing as Jason runs a construction company of his own, Aisling asked for his business details so that maybe she could link up her family’s company with his for her upcoming ventures.
When they finished talking, I caught a glimpse of our group heading down into the lake for one final get-together before we all leave, so I gave Aisling a gentle kiss on the temple and suggested that she head out there with everyone else, and that I’d join them as soon as Jason and I had finished up here.
We went back to check on the drywall and Jace reiterated what he’d already told me this morning – that I need to wait until tomorrow morning to paint it, and then hopefully it’ll at least look dry in time for Aisling’s mom’s visit.
Jason drops his toolbox on the floor in front of the backseat of his truck, closing the door and then pulling open the drivers’ side.
“Can’t tell you how grateful I am right now,” I tell him, not sure how to fully convey my gratitude. “Seriously. Thank you so fuckin’ much.”
“No problem,” he replies, clasping my hand, and then hunching down to settle inside of his truck.
Before he closes the door he jerks his chin in the direction of the lake, where the sounds of my teammates and my girl are filtering through the air.
“She did real good, especially for a first project. She should be proud.”
I nod in agreement as he closes his door, before stepping back as his tires begin crunching over the gravel.
He rolls down his window as he slowly manoeuvres over the rocky terrain.
“Will I see you in Carter Ridge after you’ve finished up here?” he calls out.
A smile pulls at the corner of my mouth and I nod my head in case he can see me in his mirrors.
“Yeah, fingers crossed Ash and I will be over to see y’all in a few days,” I call back to him, breathing out a laugh when he sticks his giant hand out of his window and gives me a quick thumbs-up.
I raise my hand in a saluting wave until his truck reaches the tall larch tree canopy, and then I turn around, eyes on the lake as I begin heading down the shore.
The late afternoon sun is bright and golden, reflecting off the warm water as my friends splash around in the lake. They’re bellowing with laughter as they throw around a football – hockey guys on one side and football guys on another.
Hunter has Fallon on his back with her long legs wrapped around his middle, his hands holding her firmly as she reaches overhead for the ball.
And Caden has Winter’s back plastered to his front, his face nuzzling into her neck, making her scream with laughter as they mess around in the middle of the fray.
Ash is the only chick splashing on her own for the ball, and I pause on the shoreline as I watch her fucking go for it.
She jumps up onto Austin’s back as he tries to hide the football from her and she claws the ball into the water, jumping down from him so that she can grab it. Then she throws her arm backwards, laughing and shouting for Logan to go long before she hurtles the ball through the air, slapping her hand against the water in excitement when he catches her shot.
Regardless of the fact that they’re playing football without any fucking rules, my chest swells with warmth as I watch Aisling howl with laughter.
My eyes trail down her body – semi-submerged in the water but exposed from the waist up – and I tug a hand through my hair as I take in her soaked khaki bathing suit and sparkling golden skin. Her hair is down and drenched, covering her entire back, and she grins widely as she catches the ball again, readjusting the cap that she’s wearing before hauling the ball over to her brother.
It’s that khaki cap that I was wearing when we first met, and watching her play with the brim that she’s got on backwards as she splashes around with all of our friends is doing crazy things to my heart.
I kick off my boots and socks, dropping the pair of swim shorts in my hand down onto the dirt beside them.
Aisling’s back suddenly straightens. As if she senses me, she slowly glances back at me over her shoulder.
We get lost in each other’s eyes for a long, beautiful moment.
Aisling’s eyes are sparkling and rimmed with the longest black lashes – even from here I can see the unbelievable contrast between the golden shade of her skin and the stunning hue of her irises.
With her eyes on mine, I rip my shirt off over my head.
She blinks quickly up at me, suddenly a little less interested in the game of football than she was ten seconds ago, and I flick open the button on my jeans before shoving the denim down my quads.
Her eyes go wide as she watches me stand on the shoreline in nothing but my boxer briefs, and I almost smirk at how nervous she looks, obviously forgetting the fact that all of the guys here are accustomed to getting naked in a locker room.
Standing out here in my underwear comes pretty natural to me.
She blinks fast, fiddling with her cap, and I hit her with a wink before grabbing my shorts and tugging them on.
I’m trudging into the lake before she’s taken her eyes off my crotch.
“Hey,” I say, smirking as she wades backwards, enticing me closer. I give her a once-over and murmur, “I fuckin’ love this colour on you.”
She turns around slightly, glancing over her shoulder and then back to me. Her teeth are biting into her bottom lip as she tries to tell me with her eyes stop flirting with me, asshole, or everyone will see .
My chest heaves impatiently, not exactly pleased at having to hold back with her on the most beautiful evening that’s ever existed – especially when she’s soaking wet and wearing an outfit that I’m pretty sure she chose for me.
I shove both of my hands through my hair, pushing it backwards, letting the clear lake water stream down my neck and chest.
I give her a subtle shake of my head, telling her that I don’t want to hold back with her in front of everyone anymore – but, if that’s what she wants, I’ll continue going along with it.
Even if I’m not damn pleased about it.
Austin tosses the ball to Caden, who holds Winter higher in his arms so that she can reach for it, and then Winter hurls it over to Fallon, who jumps as high as she can on Hunter’s back, squeals, and then screams her lungs out as the momentum of the ball tips her backwards.
Hunter’s forearm whips around behind him, steadying Fallon from a fall, before re-locking his palms around her thighs and hauling her back into place.
“You good?” he pants gruffly, turning his head slightly to check on her. She wraps her arms around his throat, practically burying his face in her rack, and Hunter grunts quietly, his neck turning crimson.
“I’m good,” Fallon whispers back to him, pressing a grateful kiss to his cheekbone.
Hunter’s chest starts pumping up and down, and he just nods, no longer capable of speech.
Fallon scopes out the positions of the guys in the water and hauls the ball back to Austin, who is immediately laughing as he grabs it and shoves his elbow into Logan’s gut.
I drop my eyes back down to Aisling as we wade closer to our friends. When the water finally reaches the bottom of her ribcage she lifts her chin and turns around, pulling her hair down over her shoulder.
I stumble over a rocky patch, lurching forward an extra inch as my gaze locks in on what Aisling is showing me.
Not only is her swimsuit khaki. It’s also fucking backless.
So with her dripping hair now pulled around to her front, her entire flawless back is exposed to me. Every inch of golden skin, every dip and curve – it’s all right there, wet and ready to be touched.
“Ash,” I rumble quietly, hands finding her perfect waist beneath the lake’s sparkling surface and squeezing her roughly as I press myself up behind her.
She slaps at one of my hands, light enough that I know she doesn’t really want me to pull away.
“You’re not allowed to touch me in front of everyone,” she whispers, and I can’t help but grin, hunching low so that my chin presses into her shoulder.
“I’m not allowed to touch my girlfriend in front of everyone?” I ask her, my voice deep and amused. “You wore a goddamn backless swimsuit for me, baby. How in the hell am I supposed to keep my hands off of you?”
She stomps on my foot and I try to restrain my smirk.
“Try.”
“I am trying,” I laugh.
“Try harder,” she hisses, her eyes frantic as she glances over at her brother.
I give her waist another squeeze, my thumbs rubbing firmly into her lower back.
She fucking melts against me.
“Everyone here knows that I love you,” I murmur to her, gently scraping my stubble back and forth over her warm, water-speckled skin.
She pouts nervously, a little frown between those perfect eyebrows.
“But they all think that I hate you,” she whispers back to me. “How’s it gonna look when I go back on everything that they thought they knew about me? It’ll look disingenuous. They’re not gonna know what to think.”
I press a kiss to her cheek, keeping it chaste but pressing it hard.
“Listen to me, baby,” I tell her, wrapping my arms around her waist as she shoots worried looks toward her brother and my teammates. “One, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about you. Your opinion on your life is the only one that matters. Two, showing your real feelings is the least disingenuous thing in the world. People’s thoughts and feelings change, and that’s damn well okay. It’s more than okay – it’s growth. It’s maturity. It’s being true to yourself in a world where everyone is trying to impress everyone else. It’s being kind to yourself – making yourself happy. And that’s the most important thing of all.”
I press another kiss to her cheek, loving the way that she turns in closer, wanting my touch.
“That’s my priority,” I murmur. “Making sure that you’re happy.” I rub my thumb over her gorgeous little love-heart freckle and say, “You can wear your heart on your sleeve, baby. And I’ll always be here to look after it.”
She looks up at me over her shoulder, meeting my eyes, and hers are so full of fear of the unknown that I almost drop my forehead to hers, wanting to show her that everything will be alright. But while she doesn’t want me to be so obvious about our relationship, I just press another kiss to her shoulder, palm her hips, and then move back a step.
Like, a really fucking small step, because I don’t actually want to hide this thing from anyone. But, you know – compromise.
Aisling looks down at her freckle, frowning slightly, before glancing up and suddenly meeting her brother’s eyes.
Her brother’s kind, knowing, smiling eyes.
He’s holding the football in front of his chest and he tosses it easily over into the fray before wading over to us.
We’re still next to everybody but closer to the edge. It’s a little more private over here.
The sunlight pours over the lake right behind him and his smile is as warm as the rays on the water.
“Ash,” he says, his eyes flicking between hers and mine. He gives her chin a little rub and says, “Ash, everybody knows.”
She stares up at her brother, unblinking, and then fiddles with the brim of her cap again.
“Everybody knows what?” she breathes out, her voice sounding husky as hell, the way that it does when she’s getting nervous.
I can’t lie, I find it really hot, but I just bite back my smirk as her brother shoots me a knowing smile.
“Everybody knows about you and Tanner,” he continues, laughing gently as Aisling’s jaw drops to her chest. “It’s obvious, Ash. You two are clearly crazy about each other.”
I share a half-grin with Connell that has warmth spreading through my chest. Having gotten his growing seal of approval over our summer by the lake has been a blessing that I wasn’t expecting but that I’m unbelievably grateful for. Has he been teasing me senseless about how down I am for Aisling over the past couple of weeks? Yeah. But I wouldn’t change that for anything, knowing that we’ve built a solid brother’s bond based on mutual trust and understanding as a result of it.
Smile creases appear beside his eyes as he grins back at me, satisfied by the fact that I’d do anything for his sister.
Aisling on the other hand? Yeah, she still hasn’t grasped the fact that Connell knowing about us is a good thing.
She brings her palms to her chest, cheeks flushing as she pants.
“You heard us?” she gasps, looking absolutely mortified, and this is the part where I have to stifle a groan.
Because Connell is simply telling Ash that everyone can tell that we’re into each other. That they’ve seen us playing around and they know that we’re head over heels.
But does Aisling understand that? Nope. In fact, Aisling has immediately jumped to the worst conclusion possible.
That they must have heard us in the forest when she was on her knees in my tent.
Which, seeing as no-one mentioned it, they definitely fucking didn’t.
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
God save us both.
Connell squints, laughing and looking a little confused.
I mentally face-palm the shit out of myself while trying to simultaneously transmit to Aisling: baby, I love you, but you need to shut the fuck up, right now .
“Heard what?” Connell chuckles, but then he blinks a couple of times and his smile drops.
His wide eyes flash to mine, jaw steeled as his irises flicker.
“Heard what ?” he repeats darkly, biceps flexing as he cracks his knuckles.
He looks about five seconds away from breaking my jaw, so that’s fucking awesome.
Because Connell may be cool with me dating his sister but he won’t be so cool with me banging her when he’s barely twenty feet away from us.
I wrap both of my palms over Ash’s sun-kissed shoulders, making Connell’s glower flare, and I breathe out the most convincing over-confident laugh that I can muster, trying to diffuse her slip-up.
“She’s kidding,” I tell him, casual as fuck, even though this is probably the most tense moment that I’ve had all goddamn year. My dimples are fucking twitching as I try to keep my easygoing smile in place.
Ash turns around to face me, eyes still wide, because she hasn’t yet realised that her brother had not, in fact, heard us fucking in the forest.
“Tanner,” she breathes out, panicking like crazy. “If they know,” she whispers, “then they must have heard–”
I pull my dimples tighter and grip the side of her neck. Hard.
“She’s kidding,” I reiterate, eyes staring pointedly into hers. I see the exact moment that she comes to her senses, her lips popping open as she breathes out a tiny ohhhh .
If her brother wasn’t standing right behind her I would probably be chuckling right now, but seeing as he is right fucking there I just press a small kiss to Ash’s cheek, a simple display of yeah, this is how PG we’ve been keeping things, man .
I doubt that Connell buys it but, seeing as the alternative is to realise that I’ve been making love to his sister while we’ve all been staying at Larch Peak, Connell breathes out a deep sigh, rolling his shoulders back as he gives Aisling a nod.
His eyes slide to mine, not exactly pleased, but he gives me a nod too before clasping a hand over my shoulder.
I try not to wince as I meet his eyes, feeling a little guilty but hoping that he won’t hold it against me.
“We good?” I ask him, my voice deep and gravelly.
He nods. Thank fuck. “We’re good,” he says in agreement. Then he gives me a brief half smile, before squishing one of Aisling’s cheeks to make her giggle.
Then he rejoins the game and I breathe out a shaky exhale.
That wasn’t so bad.
Could’ve gone worse.
When he’s just out of earshot Winter, Caden’s pink-haired girlfriend, sidles up beside Aisling.
She whispers in her soft Kentucky twang, “Yikes, girl. That was close.”
A burst of laughter ripples out of both of them and then Aisling is burying her face in her hands, giggling her little tush off.
She peeks at me over her shoulder with her big bright eyes and I shake my head at her, amusement tugging at my mouth.
“Not funny,” I tell her, even though now I’m smiling too. And the second that she wraps her arms around my neck, in front of fucking everyone, I’m full-on grinning because she’s just made me the happiest guy in the world.
Showing everyone who’s close to us that we’re officially together.
Showing them that she’s moved past our history – and that her future is all mine.
Heat and happiness spreads through my chest, making it swell in size as I bend to nuzzle my face in her neck.
“My beautiful girlfriend,” I murmur to her, making her giggle harder, her water-slicked chest shaking against mine.
I keep my hands just above her waist and over the lake’s surface for her brother’s sake, but Ash doesn’t follow the same rules, leaving only one hand wrapped around the back of my neck. Her other hand reaches down between our bodies and grips the thick ridge of my cock, making me grunt like an animal as my shaft grows harder and heavier.
Even worse than that, I’m really goddamn tall, meaning that I have to drag us deeper into the lake otherwise everyone is going to see what she just did to me.
From the wolf-whistles and cheering going on over to our right, I can tell that the guys must have all noticed that Aisling and I are finally officially making this thing public.
But whether I’m in a lake full of our friends or not, I only have eyes for Aisling.
She’s everything to me.
I walk backwards, the scorching early-evening sun beating down on the breadth of my shoulders, and I drag Ash in front of me, hauling her deeper into the lake, all of our friends far off behind her now.
Aisling’s not a total shortie but she’s petite compared to me, so once we reach a spot that’s deep enough to cover the large tent of my erection I haul her up by her thighs, not wanting her to struggle if the water gets any deeper for her.
I continue walking backwards, enjoying the way that the sunlight behind my back is bringing out all of the sugary sparkles in her stunning irises. I turn three-sixty, giving her a little spin, and she laughs gently as I stroke my palms over her thighs.
“Mmm,” I murmur against her neck, “you smell so sweet. You’re like my own personal little cobbler.”
She squeezes her arms tighter around my shoulders, giggling quietly.
“Alright, that’s enough!” Connell calls over to us, his tone tough but I can tell that there’s no real malice in it. “Get your asses over here! Ash, we’re losing without you.”
Aisling glances over her shoulder, shooting her brother her perfect smile.
“Shock,” she calls out to him, flicking her hair over her back.
Connell jabs his thick pointer finger in my direction and I nod at him in understanding, giving him an easy smile because I’ve definitely pushed my luck with him enough today.
Aisling turns back around to me and before I can smile down at her she’s grabbing my face and kissing the life out of me.
My chest swells on a deep inhale, and I grunt into her mouth, almost stumbling. My hands grip tighter around her thighs and I groan in anguish as she parts her lips for me.
“You tryna get me murdered?” I rasp against her, before moving back in and taking her lips once more. And yeah, crowd or not, I can’t help but slide my tongue inside, my cock suddenly so long and heavy that it’s practically scraping against the floor of the lake.
“Goddamn,” I pant, flicking her tongue with the tip of mine. “Ash, baby – we need to fucking stop.”
Devious as hell, Ash pulls back with an innocent smile. She slips her thighs from around my middle and splashes down into the water, giggling as she pulls me back toward our friends.
My brain is so fried that I don’t register one thing that the guys say to me.
It takes around ten minutes before I’m fully conscious again and, as soon as I am, I’m pulling Aisling more firmly into my arms, not caring that I’m stealing her from the game.
“So this hasn’t been, like, a total disaster,” she laughs, smiling up at me as I press hard kisses against her forehead.
“What hasn’t?” I ask her.
“Like, letting everyone know,” she says. “Wearing my heart on my sleeve,” she adds quietly.
“Yeah?” I ask, grinning at her realisation, and grateful that our friends have been so solid about our relationship’s hard-launch.
She nods, eyes on the large muscles of my chest, before they suddenly slide over to my right, to where Caden is loving on his girlfriend.
She makes a thoughtful hum, her eyes trailing over his body.
“He has so much ink,” she whispers, taking in the tattoos on his forearms and thigh.
I glance over at Caden, those inked arms wrapped tight around Winter’s waist.
“Yeah,” I say, absentmindedly wrapping Aisling’s hair around my fist. “He gets them for her.”
Aisling’s eyes shoot up to mine, her eyebrows raised in intrigue.
“He gets them for her?” she asks huskily, her breathing suddenly a little shallow.
I look down and meet her eyes, a half-grin tugging at the corner of my mouth.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “You like that?”
She looks quickly away from me, one hand reaching up to play with her cap.
“I mean… well… I hadn’t really thought about it before,” she whispers quickly, eyes flicking to my arms and my chest – big, tan, and with a fuck-tonne of surface area to ink.
I smirk and yank her hips against mine, dropping my forehead to hers so that no-one else can see her turned-the-hell-on expression.
“Want me to get some ink for you?” I murmur, but she frantically shakes her head, cheeks getting warmer and more pink by the second.
“I love your body,” she whispers. “You don’t need to do that for me. I mean, if… if you want to… because with or without it I would, you know… I love everything about your body so…”
I don’t think that my ego has ever been this goddamn big. I smirk like a motherfucker as I dip my hand beneath the lake’s surface, groping her ass.
“I can get some ink for you,” I tell her and she does a full-body shiver. Grinning, I add, “This year we had to talk Caden down from getting his nipple pierced.”
Aisling’s eyes flash to mine before she lifts her palms to my pecs, giving them a gentle massage, and breathing out a little oooh .
A chuckle rumbles through my chest as I rub her hips.
“Obviously, that’d be a fucking terrible idea with the amount of full-body clashing hockey players do,” I tell her, but, with the innocent, intrigued look that she’s now giving me, I suddenly understand how hell-for-leather Caden was about wanting one when he was thinking that maybe Winter would be into it.
I mean, if Aisling asked me to get it done then maybe…?
“But if you had a barbell then I would only be able to lick it, not bite it,” she whispers suddenly, “so maybe… maybe yes to a tattoo, but no to a piercing.”
I cup my palms around her face, bringing us nose to nose.
“You are a very smart woman,” I rumble, crushing my mouth straight down on hers.
She giggles against my mouth and I hold her tighter, my heart fit to burst.