Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Adam
We finish our food at the Beacon and I haul my pirate’s loot—that being my beautiful girlfriend—onto my boat with the guys.
When Zach called to suggest taking out the Chaparral, I didn’t need an excuse.
The sky is a clear blue, the temperature in the low eighties.
I welcome any reason to get out on the lake, particularly on a day like this.
And when he suggested picking up the girls, I might have dropped what I was doing and hauled ass to pick up him and Tyler.
Because, sorry sap that I am, I missed Hayden like crazy last night.
We’ve spent a few nights away from each other since I started working on her closet over a week ago, and I gotta say, I’m not a fan. I want to spend all of my free time with Hayden, but I need to chill. This is new, and I don’t want to freak her out. I’m out of my depth where she’s concerned.
I ended up hanging with Wes after Hayden said she had plans with Mira. We hit golf balls on the night range and drank beer. Like always, I had a great time with my brother, but when I saw Hayden from across the Beacon patio, my heart kicked in as though I were on the final sprint of a marathon.
I knew she’d be there; that’s why we came today.
But there’s something about her face lighting up the moment she sees me that feeds a void.
Because that smile is one hundred percent genuine.
I was surrounded by people with shallow motives in my father’s circle.
There’s no artifice with Hayden. She’s the real deal, which is how I know I can trust her.
Mira and Tyler lounge at the front of the boat, and Zach and Nessa are sprawled on the seats in the rear.
Hayden sits in the seat next to mine in shorts and a pale mint tank that’s loose over her curves.
She tucks her sunglasses on the top of her head and smiles as I start the motor and wave at the attendant on the Beacon dock.
“They just let you park whenever you want?” she asks.
“Sure,” I say as I back up and steer the boat through the no-wake zone.
Zach laughs from behind. “Cade has a pass to any dock on the lake.” I swivel my head and glower at him. “What? It’s true,” he says.
Hayden slips off her flip-flops and sits back in her seat. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Quit being modest,” Zach says from the rear. “It means, Hayden, that because your boy is a rich son of a bitch and everyone knows his father, he can go wherever he wants.”
“That’s not true,” I counter. “The Hyatt hates it when I dock at their north shore property.”
Zach laughs. “That’s because you crashed into their party yacht the summer after senior year.”
“It was a slight nudge,” I say, irritably. “And the driver of the other boat was high.”
Nessa props her tiny legs over Zach’s meaty thighs and points her face toward the sun. Zach absently places a hand on her thigh. “Rumor is,” he continues, ignoring my glare, “the guy at the Hyatt said you were drunk.”
I shake my head at Hayden. “I don’t drink and boat.”
She glances at the cooler Tyler is sifting through. “Never?”
“Well—I provide it—but no, I never drink when I’m driving the boat.
My brothers and I had the fear of God put in us when we were learning water safety.
” I chuckle. “We were taught by a Club Tahoe groundskeeper who was an ex-Navy SEAL. He put us through boot-camp torture before allowing us to operate anything on the water. Hunt is the most fanatical about boat safety, but the rest of us are as well.”
Hayden stares out at the water and smiles at a passing paddleboarder, her hands crossed in her lap. She looks relaxed and happy.
“We’ll have to take the boat out sometime without the rest of the gang,” I say in a low voice. She looks over. “Not that I want to change our normal setting, because I like your place.”
We’ve never stayed at my house on the lake, and I don’t miss it. But I miss the boat.
“I’d like that,” she says, and my chest fills with warmth. I’m on the lake with my girl, and I’ve never been happier than at this moment.
Hayden
Mira, Nessa, and I sip canned margaritas Tyler was kind enough to bring along with the beers as we bob lightly on the anchored boat inside Emerald Bay, the sun beating down on us. The guys have taken off their shirts and it’s a pretty, pretty view inside Adam’s boat.
Adam has one foot propped on the cooler, and he’s smiling at me. How am I going to talk to him about Blue while he’s looking at me like that? This relationship we’re building is different. It’s special, and I don’t want anything to come between us.
His smile slowly drops, as though he senses my thoughts. He leans forward and opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, the sound of splashing draws our attention.
Nessa reaches over the edge of the boat and splashes Zach. He’s already wet, so she must have gotten him a second ago too. They moved to the seats that face a small deck off the back of the boat, and the water is right at their feet.
Zach shakes his head like a dog, spraying water at her, and she laughs.
Nessa looks over, grinning. “Let’s get in the water. What do you guys say?”
“You don’t have your swimsuit,” Zach points out.
“I have on sturdy underwear.”
His eyes narrow. “You don’t own sturdy underwear—not that I’m complaining.” He grins devilishly.
“I have on my new boy-cut undies. They’re like a normal bathing suit, only cotton.”
He quirks his brow. “I’m game.” He glances at Adam and Tyler. “You guys in?”
Tyler answers by standing and stretching his arms. He steps up onto the side of the boat and dives overboard.
“Guess we’re going too.” Mira starts blowing up a floatie the size of a Frisbee.
“What is that?” I say.
She closes off the end and inserts her can of margarita in the center. “Floatable beer cozy.”
Mira gently sets her margarita adrift in the water, then removes her off-the-shoulder T-shirt, revealing a fitted tank beneath. She drops her shorts and dives in after Tyler.
Her damp head pops out of the water a second later. “It’s effing cold.” She flails around, presumably to warm up. “Tyler, get over here. I need your body heat.”
Tyler swims to Mira and wraps his arms around her, grinning at her teeth chattering and histrionics. She’s latched on to him like a koala bear.
Mira is Washoe, one of the indigenous tribes of Lake Tahoe, so I find it hilarious that she’s a total wuss in the water. “Mira, what happened to your native roots?”
“Don’t throw that in my face,” she calls. “Get in here and see how warm you are!”
Adam peers at me and raises his eyebrow.
“I can’t,” I say quietly.
“Chicken?” His tone is low.
“No. I’m just…wearing inappropriate undergarments,” I mumble. My face warms and I squirm in my seat.
He leans forward, suddenly very interested. “What do you have on under there?” His eyes dip down my body.
I shouldn’t be embarrassed. He’s seen what’s under my shirt many times, because we’ve been…active this past week.
I flip up my loose tank top, fast, to give him a glimpse.
His smile drops and his gaze lifts to mine in a heated stare. He breathes in and rubs a hand over his mouth. “Let’s get out of here. I can have them dropped off in ten, maybe fifteen minutes.”
I laugh. “Adam, we can’t.”
He reaches across the boat and pulls me onto his lap, kissing my neck and tugging down the tank to gain access to the bra I just flashed him. “Why not? Who cares about them anyway?”
“Uh, you do? Because they’re your friends?”
“If one of them was in my position, they’d dump my ass off faster than you could blink.”
I laugh and swat his grabby hands. One of his palms is sliding up my leg, and the other is stealthily squeezing the side of my breast from beneath my tank top. “You’re bad.”
“You can’t flash me like that and expect me to control myself.”
“You insisted on knowing why I couldn’t get in the water.”
He glances at me pointedly. “And now I can’t get the image out of my head.”
“Hey,” Mira calls. “What’s going on up there? You guys coming in, or what?”
“No!” Adam yells, at the same time I say, “Maybe.”
He shakes his head. “Hell. No.” He leans in until his mouth brushes my ear. “Your bra is see-through.”
“Well, I was thinking about you.” I wiggle to dislodge his hand from under my top, which has grown more daring with each second that passes.
His fingers are inside my bra and he’s doing unseemly things to my nipple that have my heart racing.
“I figured you’d be coming over later, and I might have dressed for the occasion. ”
“And I thank you for that. But there is no way I want my friends looking at your beautiful breasts.” The hand I managed to dislodge from under my top tightens around my waist.
“Should I go in with my clothes on?” I ask.
His gaze drifts to the side, as though he’s thinking. “Are the panties the same?” I smile, and he shakes his head with a growl. “You’re killing me. You realize that, right?”
I wanted to kill him with my sexy lingerie later, not while our friends were around.
“I have a solution.” He reaches for the T-shirt he tossed in front of my seat and throws it over my head.
I stand and Adam’s shirt drapes to just above my knees.
I do the girl thing and maneuver out of the tank top with the T-shirt still on, and pull off my shorts. “Good?”
In answer, Adam picks me up and jumps overboard. “Cannonball!”
I’m gasping, choking and laughing, and slapping his chest. “Damn you!”
He grins and swims away, diving under the dark sea-glass-colored water. He pops up a few feet from me.
Mira’s laughing, so I splash her, and she splashes me back. And Mira isn’t nice about it, either. A damned torrent of lake water goes up my nose and into my mouth and eyes.
I dip under the water to get away. When I pop back up, Nessa is facing Zach, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, and she’s kicking water with her tiny feet at Mira and grinning like a loon.
Tyler shakes his head at Nessa. “Now you’ve done it.”
Mira’s expression is all determination. I know that look, so I do what any sane person would, and back up.
Mira directs her hurricane hands at Nessa and Zach and all hell breaks loose. I’m watching it go down, congratulating myself on getting out of the fray, when something snakes under my T-shirt and grabs my ass. “Ahh!”
Adam emerges and whips his hair to the side, a huge grin on his face.
I wrap my arms around his shoulders, because Mira was right: the water is freezing. “You scared the crap out of me.” He holds me up and I kiss his cheek, which is slightly chilled and a little stubbly, but I love him…
Oh my God. My smile falters.
“What’s wrong?” he says.
I cut him a quick grin and blink. “Nothing.” I run my fingers through his hair, close my eyes, and kiss his temple, my lips resting there a second too long, but he doesn’t pull away. If anything, he holds me tighter.
This was coming. I knew this was coming, but I thought we’d break up before something like this happened, or that my first impression of Adam would turn out to be true.
But I can’t even see that man anymore. All I see is the one in front of me.
Laughing with me, holding me, and loving me in a way no one else has.
It’s hot and intense, and so gentle at the same time. And I never want it to end.
I need to ask Adam about Blue. Because I love him.
Not talking about work and what’s worrying me is beginning to feel like a lie. The last thing I want to do is lie to Adam.