Chapter Ten #2
“What is Asher doing now?” Vivi asks from her chair. She slips her sunglasses down her nose to get a better look at us.
Calypso scoffs. “Being Asher—isn’t that enough?”
Vivi laughs but it’s Lexi who raises a glass mockingly. “True that.”
Calypso’s amusement fades quickly, as if remembering she has one more sibling to introduce.
She huffs out a breath then sighs dramatically. “Let’s get this over with—Liam,” she says and points at me before swinging her hand in her sister’s direction. “Vivi. You two have apparently met,” she says about Lexi and me. “Everyone knows each other now.”
Rolling her eyes playfully, Vivi ignores her sister. “It’s really nice to meet you. Knox and Lucas were excited for you to move out here.”
“You too,” I say. “I’m happy to be closer to them.”
Lexi looks like the cat who got the cream. “Nice to see you again.”
“How have you been, Lexi?” I ask. I can’t help but glance at Calypso next to me. She has her hands on the hem of her shirt, ready to strip down to her bikini, but she’s watching Lexi. I wouldn’t call the glint in her eye jealousy, but maybe a warning.
For what? Who knows.
“I’ve been great—just wondering when I’ll see you and Jake in Brighter Daze again.”
Reluctantly dragging my gaze away from the sliver of skin showing off Calypso’s toned stomach, I shrug noncommittally. “I plan my visits around Calypso’s schedule now.”
Calypso licks her lips and I swear there’s a sparkle of smug possessiveness in her eyes. I only get a flash of it before she’s looking away and stripping out of her white tank top.
Fuck.
Calypso is wearing a red gingham print bikini top that I will dream about taking off of her for weeks to come. She’s almost always wearing red, and she looks damn good in it. The thin straps rest on her shoulders, the memory of kissing along the skin there coming to the forefront of my mind.
Lexi laughs mockingly, but when I look back at her, there’s only amusement skating across her features. Not a drop of maliciousness. “I bet you’d plan your whole life around her, if she let you.”
Calypso gives Lexi a hard glare I can’t interpret but Vivi breaks the moment, standing and pulling her friend with her. She wears a chastising expression that looks slightly out of place on her kind face, but I remember she’s a second-grade teacher—It’s not totally unimpressive.
“We’re gonna check on drinks and ice. Do you guys need anything?” Vivi asks.
“No, we’re okay,” Calypso says. She turns back toward her bag and unbuttons her shorts.
The two friends walk to the house, linking arms and laughing about something Lexi says, but my eyes are glued to Calypso’s long legs as the fabric slowly slides down… down… down.
The bikini bottoms aren’t immodest by any means, but her round ass would look phenomenal in anything.
“None of that,” Calypso teases as she turns around and snaps her fingers, drawing my eyes back up. “Liam,” she says, laughing and shoving my shoulder when I focus on her tits instead.
“What?” I ask, feigning innocence. “Am I not allowed to check out the woman I’m dating?”
She crosses her arms, pressing her perky breasts together. She’s driving me fucking crazy, and I don’t think she even means to. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
“Trust me,” I practically groan, stepping forward until there’s only an inch between us. “I couldn’t forget that night if I wanted to—which I don’t. It only makes it harder to keep my hands to myself.”
Her throat bobs on a swallow. This close, I can smell her intoxicating honey butter scent. There’s only a hint of it in the salty sea air but it’s already become familiar to me—comforting and erotic all at once. Fucking addicting.
“You’d be so lucky to get me in bed a second time,” she teases. It sounds more like a challenge than a threat but I was serious—I won’t push the boundaries with her until she says it’s what she wants. It might kill me, but at least it would be in her presence.
“Trust me, I know,” I tell her. It’s sincere but there’s a flirty undertone, making her roll her eyes.
I take my t-shirt off and catch her slyly checking me out. She told me multiple times that she loved my tattoos while tracing her fingers along the floral design. It wasn’t the only thing she liked about my body.
Insecurities aren’t something I’m familiar with, at least not when it comes to my looks and body. I’m tall and muscular, but I’m not ripped. My arms are thick and I don’t have defined abs. Not quite a dad-bod but a little on the huskier side.
Calypso is tall and thin, clearly someone who works out regularly, and almost every man’s fantasy. She could have anyone she wanted. I’m lucky enough that I seem to be exactly her type. At least physically.
By the time we’re getting settled on a nearby picnic blanket with non-alcoholic drinks in hand, Vivi and Lexi are walking back with two bags of ice and join us.
Grady, Vivi, and my cousins come and go as the kids need their attention, but for the most part, we spend the afternoon hanging out under the large umbrella with her siblings and friends.
I came into the afternoon without any expectations, but genuinely enjoying the company of her and Lucas’s friends has a weight sliding off my shoulders. The real relief comes when I realize they seem to actually like getting to know me just as much.
There’s about an hour before sunset, and a lot of the other kids have started to leave.
After meeting Grady’s daughters, I’ve learned that Daisy, whose birthday we’re celebrating, is much more talkative than his eldest daughter Stella. Daisy and Matty’s friendship makes sense—he’s a shy, observant but fearless kid and Daisy is happy to fill in the silence.
Stella, on the other hand, is more reserved and cautious. When she isn’t playing in the sand with Jake, she is glued to Calypso’s side. It reminds me of my relationship with Jake. There’s a hundred coincidences and metaphors in that, I’m sure.
Jake, Matty, Daisy, her cousins and friends, are all playing in the ocean with Lucas and Blake, but Stella hasn’t even dipped her toes in. She looks at the water longingly every few seconds before glancing back at her dad, who is talking with a couple of the parents.
Calypso and I make eye contact, both aware of Stella’s desire to go into the water.
“Why don’t you go out there?” Calypso asks. “Your aunt is out there, and she’s the best swimmer in the group.”
Stella gives her a surprised look. “Better than Asher?”