Chapter 41 Parker
“Park, are you sure you’re okay?”
Summer grabs my wrist as I reach for the doorbell at Melody and Zac’s city town house, before I can officially kick-start this torturous weekend.
Since Crystal Cove, I’ve dreaded my thirtieth birthday weekend for reasons entirely different from the ones that haunted me months ago.
Now, it’s about the miserable idea of having to keep my hands off Summer in front of our friends.
Holding in the I love you I couldn’t get out after finding out about the tour.
Keeping to myself that I know all about her grand plans, so that I don’t ruin what’s supposed to be a celebratory weekend for me and my sister.
Summer finished in fourth place at Crystal Cove, now sits in third place in the overall Surf’s Up standings, and I keep going back to it—the night she decided to enter.
She’d been in shambles over the things Denny said to her.
I can’t figure out whether she wants to make this tour because she wants it or because she wants to escape the solitude of home.
I catch Summer’s hand in mine. “I’m all right. Are you?”
She blinks up at me, a slight wrinkle in her brow. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Is it really possible?
Has she really not grasped that I’ll be following her around like a puppy desperate for her attention for as long as she lets me?
That if she ends up alone, then so will I?
We’d be alone together and, to me at least, that’s far from a sorry ending.
“You’ve been so quiet all week.” Her gaze darts to the windows framing the front door and, satisfied that we aren’t being watched, she wraps her arms around my middle.
“Are you bummed out about your birthday? The fact that you can’t call me your cougar anymore, because we’ll finally be the same age again? ”
“I’m hanging on to those five months of difference with all I have, Prescott.” I stare down at her stunning face—the bright green eyes, the single freckle hidden in her hairline. Just tell me, here and now. I’m always on your side. “Come on. Kiss me before the vultures get in the way.”
She pushes up onto her toes to kiss me, laughing when I don’t let her pull away. Every press of my mouth to hers is a silent wish, a prayer.
Love me back.
Tell me the truth.
Go, but don’t let me go.
“Parker, we’re two hours late to your own birthday weekend.
” Because she woke me up by climbing on top of me, and I refused to let it end.
She’s in a fit of giggles now, the breathless kind that makes me smile even as I continue to attack her with kisses.
“I planned this party—the decorations are in my bag.”
The door handle rattles. We spring apart just as it swings open, revealing Siena in a pair of white denim overalls with a nasty-looking green cocktail in her hand.
“I knew I heard something out here. Summer, I missed you!” The girls leap together, squeezing each other. “Thank God you’re here—Zac put me on cocktail duty. Look at this drink, it looks like we’re sipping on phlegm.”
Summer grimaces at the glass. “Don’t fret, your resident mixologist is here and ready to go.”
I clear my throat, injecting Siena’s bright tone into my voice. “And Parker! I missed you, too! Oh, and happy birthday!”
They laugh, finally acknowledging my existence. Summer’s shimmering eyes linger on me, dipping from my glasses to my dimples.
How can you look at me like that, then walk away like it’s nothing?
“Oh my God, you’re sleeping together.” Our heads snap forward to find Siena’s free hand clutching her chest. “You horny little devils. You’re totally sleeping together!”
“Gross, Cee.” Summer recovers quickly, shuddering in apparent disgust. And I know she’s just pretending, that she doesn’t mean it, but in my current state it stings. “That would be equivalent to sleeping with… Brooks. Don’t even want to picture it.”
“Hey—I am great in bed.” Brooks marches into view, eyes narrowed on us. He nudges his fiancée. “Tell them, babe.”
I raise my hand. “I’d like to be excused from that conversation.”
“And I’m really not the audience for it,” Summer says.
Siena pats Brooks’s chest, who’s still glaring at us both. “Eyes on the prize, Attwood. Your besties are banging. Trust me, I’ve got a radar for this kind of thing.”
Brooks turns an inquiring look on me, but I don’t give him anything.
Summer shrugs. “The radar’s gone wonky, Cee.”
“You’re really trying to tell us there isn’t even a teeny-tiny, itty-bitty little thing happening here?” She points between us. Summer shakes her head. I die a little more inside.
Siena breaks into a radiant, truly frightening grin. One that threatens a whole lot of suffering at the hands of a woman apparently incapable of letting horny little devils lie. She steps aside, letting us into my sister’s house.
“We’ll see about that, shall we?”
They’re all in on it.
All of them.
After Siena gleefully announced that I’d be sharing a room with Noah, and Summer with Shy—dashing any hope of sneaking into each other’s beds—Summer and I returned to the kitchen from our designated rooms to find it filled with not-so-covert stares.
But nothing—nothing—prepared me for the game they decided to play this weekend.
I was expecting some light teasing. For them to wedge themselves into every single second of alone time Summer and I managed to scrounge up.
Instead, all weekend, this scheming group of so-called friends have made it impossible to avoid Summer.
Seating us together at the birthday dinner Zac planned for Friday night. Quickly occupying every armchair and sofa cushion back at home but the one right beside me, forcing Summer to sit mere inches away. Giving us bedrooms right across the hall from each other, skyrocketing the temptation.
I’ve found myself wishing for the aforementioned teasing, which would’ve been only half as excruciating as existing in such proximity to Summer without touching her. Kissing her. Begging her to tell me why she’s kept her secret from me.
They’re trying to catch us in the act. To clock even the tiniest hand graze. A too-long stare. And I’m suffering from the worst physical and emotional blue balls of my entire existence.
“You all right over there, Woods?” Sadistic joy pours from Siena’s eyes. She surveys me from her spot sitting on the island in Mel and Zac’s kitchen on our final evening in the city.
For a moment I pity Brooks, who must never get a restful night’s sleep with this viper lying next to him. But then I catch him chortling at his fiancée’s antics, and I no longer feel bad in the slightest.
“Yeah, Park. You’re looking a little…” Melody wobbles on her feet, trying to come toward me but thwarted by the copious Summerpolitans she’s had tonight—the bright pink, incredibly strong cocktails Summer mixed up.
Zac catches my sister around the waist before she knocks into the island, chuckling to himself.
“Pouty,” Mel finishes with several seconds of delay, smoothing down her hair.
“Why would I be pouting? I’m here celebrating my birthday with my very kind, very supportive friends.
” Glaring, I toast them all with my glass—including Noah sitting at the round kitchen table and Shy who’s pouring herself a fresh Summerpolitan.
Summer is upstairs fetching my sister a sweater, giving my aching skin a reprieve from her proximity.
“We are kind and supportive,” Mel insists. “Even if there’s really nothing going on, consider this… a gentle nudge in that direction. Some innocent meddling.”
Something occurs to me. I narrow my eyes at my sister. “Was it you? Did you cancel the second room at Rocky Ridge?”
Melody blinks. “Which second room?”
“Hold up—are you telling us that you and Summer shared a bed that weekend?” Siena turns gleefully to Brooks. “I told you they’re doing it.”
I get to my feet, sliding my now-empty glass across the counter. “Believe it or not, we’re perfectly capable of sharing a bed without doing anything in it.”
Technically true. I fingered her in the hallway.
Noah deliberates over my point. “I guess that’s possible—”
“No, it’s not,” Melody and Siena say together.
Siena jabs a thumb over her shoulder. “Brooks and I were stuck sharing a room while we were still fake dating, and we absolutely—”
“I don’t need to hear about it.”
Mel nods in earnest. “And I was stuck sharing a tent with Zac before we got together, and we totally—”
“I definitely don’t need to hear about that.” I hear Summer’s footsteps upstairs, crossing the landing. “Can we all just… lay off the meddling for one damn minute?”
“No,” Zac says with a cheerful smile.
“Oh, Parker, relax. It’s just a bit of fun. Here, have another drink.” With a suspicious twinkle in her eye, Shy crosses the kitchen with a fresh Summerpolitan, glass extended toward me.
Then she stumbles and the pink liquid goes flying out of its glass, soaking the front of my shirt. “Oh, oopsies!”
Siena claps a hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh.
“Come on, Shy,” I groan, dabbing at my shirt with a napkin, but it’s hopeless. The entire cocktail got dumped on me. I catch Shy exchanging a look with my sister.
“Honestly, Shy, you are so clumsy!” Melody hurries forward just as Summer’s footsteps bounce down the staircase. She reaches for the hem of my shirt. “Quick, give that to me. It’s going to stain if I don’t get it in the wash.”
“What? What the hell, Mels—” I swat my sister’s hand but she persists, working the shirt off my body. Either I’m more buzzed than I thought or she’s alarmingly strong for someone so damn small. Melody manages to wrestle the shirt completely off me.
“Mels? I wasn’t able to find a white sweater, but this gray one is probably safer considering everything you’ve had to drink…”
I turn, following the sound of Summer’s voice, only for her to slam face-first into my bare chest. Something soft falls to our feet—probably the sweater in question, though I’m too preoccupied by the excruciating feel of Summer Prescott pressed into my naked upper body to check.
Dimly, I register a loud, collective gasp behind me. But Summer’s effect on me is instantaneous, like a fiery geyser coming to life. Tripling my temperature when she surfaces from my chest with lust-filled eyes.
“Hi,” Summer whispers with a smile. Then she blinks, remembering our surroundings, and staggers away from me with her hands held aloft like she’s just run them through mud. “Ew.”
“Ew?” I can’t stop myself from biting back. “Really, Sum? Ew?”
She sweeps Melody’s sweater off the ground. “Why are you standing around shirtless, you weirdo?”
“That’s a question for your friends.” Friends who’ve all gone suspiciously silent. I turn around to find all of them gaping at me. “What? What now?”
“Oh my God,” Summer whispers. I wheel back around to find her now staring in horror.
“Jesus Christ, Parker.” Brooks wipes a hand down his face.
“What?” I scan the room. Zac’s and Shy’s smug looks, Melody’s dismay. Noah’s breathless laughter. “Somebody spit it out.”
“Summer,” Siena singsongs. “Any idea what happened to Parker’s back?”
My… oh, hell.
The fingernail scrapes that’ve decorated my back since the first night Summer and I fucked.
Summer tips her head as though genuinely considering Siena’s question. “No idea, but I’d strongly consider a tetanus shot if I were you, Park.”
“It was a…” I reach for the soaked shirt in Melody’s hands, throwing it back on. It reeks of cream soda, and sticks to my skin. “I got into a scrap with a… stray cat.”
Every single person in this kitchen rolls their eyes. Summer’s is accompanied by a look that says, really? That’s the best you can come up with?
Glaring at them all, I jab a finger at Shy. “You. Pour me another drink.”