Chapter 15
The Bad: I ran into Mary Moore yesterday and accidentally let slip about the wedding, so our little bubble of privacy is probably gonna pop soon. The Ugly: Mom made me sample twenty-five different canapé recipes last night.
Sybil: That’s not ugly, that’s literally the dream. Free tiny food = true love.
Willow: Ooh. Tell me everything. Moistness levels? Crumb structure? You know I care about these things. Document it all for science.
Emma: “Moistness”??? God, Willow, I think you just foodie sexted me.
Nikki: Anywayyyy. I feel like I’ve aged a decade since I’ve been home. Nate walked in on me in the bathroom yesterday applying wrinkle tape.
Emma: Speaking of aging… T-4 days until the Dirty Thirty!!!
Willow: Yay! Can’t wait to have you finally join the club, Niks!!
Nikki: Ughhhh don’t remind me. Ok I gotta go. I’m probably late for another one of my mom’s Wedding Meetings.
Sybil: Wait I want to hear more about this Nate guy… Also, I’m a visual learner so maybe a few pics?
“BABE, UGH, NOOOO,” I overhear Cara saying before I even enter the kitchen the next morning.
I’m in a chipper mood, having organized the bud vases I bought yesterday into a box hidden in my makeshift guestroom.
I am looking forward to Cara’s surprise at what I chose.
It’s not that bad, but I do crack myself up sometimes.
“Farmhouse Chic” totally means vases in the shape of little farm animal figures, right?
I look forward to putting the pig at her place setting.
Hearing Cara and Cooper bicker—even a little—puts me in an even better mood. Get rid of her! I want to say, but instead I just put on a perky smile as I round the corner. “That fresh coffee I smell?”
“Nikki,” Coop says, turning from the coffee machine to face me in the doorway. “I’ll give you a cup of coffee if you help convince Cara to get out on the boat with me today.”
I laugh and look between the two of them.
Cara is sitting at the kitchen table in a bathrobe over her pajamas—wait, is that my mom’s robe she’s borrowing?
Her blond hair is tangled with bedhead, and she’s nursing a mug of coffee.
I’m taken aback by it—by how comfortable she looks in my home.
Especially since, unlike her, I’ve already done my hair and face for the day—in a sleek ponytail and minimal makeup, just a hint of a dewy glow.
“Um, first of all,” I tell Coop, “you will give me a cup of coffee regardless, because I am your wonderful big sister. But second of all, I’ll go! It’s a perfect day for it. Maybe the kids want to come, too, and we can get the tubes out.”
“You read my mind,” says Cooper. “They’re already suited up.” He nods his head toward the porch windows where we can see out to the lawn. William and Anna Carol are playing by the shore, while Linney lounges with a book nearby.
“Great! I can go anytime,” I tell him. I’m already wearing my bathing suit under a pair of white-and-blue striped shorts and a white top.
It’s a particularly flattering emerald-green bikini, to be specific.
I’d been thinking of seeing whether Nate would be up for a swim.
I don’t see him out by the gazebo or doing repairs on the deck, so maybe he’s still asleep…
“Cara, you have to come with us though,” Cooper says, cutting through my wandering thoughts. “It’s tradition!”
I smile at her. “Anyone who doesn’t want to go out on a boat on a beautiful day like today has lost their mind!” I say it cheerily, but the dig is not lost on Cara.
“Not me,” Cara says, not taking the bait. She heads to the coffee maker for more. “I don’t do great out on the water. Especially if there are any waves.” Her face almost looks green just thinking about it.
“Really? That’s too bad. Our family loves being out on the water. It’s like an essential part of being a Bennet,” I say, grabbing an orange from the fruit bowl.
Cooper raises an eyebrow at me. I just shrug and juggle the orange in one hand.
He turns to her, wraps an arm around her. “Babe, it’s okay if you’d rather stay back,” he says. “I mean, I’d be disappointed but—”
“And don’t worry, we won’t do too much talking about you behind your back!” I cut in. Cooper shoots me a warning look this time. “What? I’m joking, obviously. Jeeeez! Trouble in paradise?” I start to peel the orange.
Cara smiles back at me. “No—there’s no trouble in paradise. I just didn’t grow up on the water, and my sense of balance sucks.”
“Oh, that cannot be true,” I goad her. “Didn’t Nate say you were a black belt in something? Tae kwon do?” I pop an orange piece into my mouth.
“Karate and jujitsu,” she corrects, and for a moment, I’m startled mid-chew—and even a little intimidated. That’s actually quite an intense combo. I’d sorta thought Nate was exaggerating.
“Well then,” I reply, recovering quickly. “You’re an athlete. You’ll be fine on an inner tube. It’s like waterskiing for dummies.”
“Cara’s not a dummy,” Cooper says.
“I never said she was!”
“You know what? I’m in,” Cara says. She throws me a big, megawatt smile. “I’m sure Nikki’s right. I can handle it. And if it’s really a Bennet family tradition then of course it’s something I need to try.”
Ugh. I didn’t actually want her to come with us; I just wanted to make her feel like a loser for hanging back. But it turns out this girl can take my punches—and throw them back. Maybe she has a black belt in good old-fashioned Southern spite too.
“Amazing!” I lie.
“You won’t regret it, babe,” Cooper tells her. “Hey, do you think Nate would want to go too?”
“Actually, he’d probably love it,” Cara admits.
“I can check for you,” I volunteer. “Since it looks like you still need to get dressed.”
Before she can muster a reply, I slurp down my coffee and take the rest of the orange with me out the screen door.
The sun is bright in my eyes as I head down the worn dirt path toward Camp Bennet, finishing my orange as I go. By the time I knock on Nate’s door, I’m sweating.
“Come in,” he says in a gravelly voice when I knock.
“Rise and shine,” I say, popping my head in.
The cabin is hot, and Nate is sitting on one of the bunks. Shirtless, in just a pair of boxers. Which means I have a direct view of his toned abs, the V that forms just above his waistband. The size of his bicep as he rubs the back of his neck with one hand.
“I—um… Morning,” I say, trying to swallow, though my throat has gone suddenly dry.
He smiles and squints. “Yeah, it is that, isn’t it. Your brother Pete kept me up last night with a bit too much tequila.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, Tripp, too. Those guys are hilarious.”
“I had no idea you guys were hanging out last night.” Or I would’ve joined. Linney had said the kids could watch a movie, and I ended up curling on the couch with them, suggesting The Parent Trap. We made popcorn and watched it together, and then I went to bed early.
Nate shrugs. “Just guy stuff. Ragging on me about Auburn’s football team. It was fun though.”
He smiles again, and I get this weird jittery feeling in my chest at the thought of him bonding with my family.
It all feels like it’s happening so fast, the Lancolms going from perfect strangers to becoming fixtures.
But while with Cara it feels unwelcome—like invasive beetles have taken over the tomato plant garden—with Nate, it’s different somehow.
It’s like his confidence around the men in my family makes him…
hot. I remember Willow saying something like that once.
That a true test of a guy’s compatibility with you is if he can hang with the people you love.
I think about the various guys I’ve dated in LA.
None of them would’ve enjoyed being holed up in my family’s grody old camping cabin and shooting the shit with my brothers.
They’d have complained about the lack of a good gym nearby, or the fact that local nightlife around here consists of backyard hangouts and Big Jay’s karaoke bar.
Nate stands up and stretches, giving me a luxurious excuse to stare at his naked chest—somewhat tan, but not as tan as his arms are. Tufts of golden hair in his armpits, his strong pecs and biceps. “So, what’s up? Am I needed for something?”
“Needed?” I swallow. “No. Just wanted. Er, I mean, we wanted to know if you want to come on the boat with us. Me and Coop and the kids are gonna do some tubing. Oh, and your sister’s coming.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Cara? On a boat?”
I shrug, feeling a touch guilty. “She said she was game for it.” Which isn’t untrue.
“Huh. Okay, cool. Well, I’m definitely in. I just need to throw on a bathing suit.” He hooks his thumb into the waistband of his boxers, and I swallow again. Wow, that orange left my throat mysteriously parched.
“So I guess that fabric isn’t double duty like your shorts were the other day.”
He laughs softly. “Wouldn’t want to find out.”
I clear my throat. His thumb is still in that waistband, as if he’s about to pull them off right now. I can feel my face getting hot.
“Okay, well, I’ll leave you to it. See you in a few.”
He lifts his free hand in a wave. “See you real soon, Nikki.”
OUT ON THE WATER, the breeze tugs at my hair and cools down the heat of the sun on my skin.
Once we’re far enough out on the lake, Cooper cuts the engine.
Nate sidles up to the steering wheel.
“Any good fishing spots out here?”
“Yeah, near that old, submerged stump about half a mile from that little island,” Cooper says, pointing out toward the far end of the lake. “You gotta cut the engine and drift, though, or the pressure drop spooks the bass.”
“Nice.” Nate nods down to the throttle. “So, what kind of engine you working with?”
“It’s a stern-mounted V-8 through a V-drive with an extra-long shaft to the propeller.”
“And how long would you say the shaft is?” Nate asks.
“One hundred sixty-four centimeters,” Cooper replies.
I clear my throat. Bonding with my brothers is one thing. Discussing shaft lengths is quite another. “Who wants to get on the tube first?”
Nate volunteers.