Chapter 7 Outside the Room #4
"Even after I tried to sleep with your boyfriend?"
"You asked," Kit said. "He answered. You told us."
Vina tilted her head. "You're hot, he has eyes, and you asked once. Tonight, we're good."
Jessa stared at her. "That may be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
Vina gave her a bright, dangerous smile. "Don't spread it around."
Jessa looked around the group. Luna stood close enough to catch her if the humor failed again.
Poppy had made room without trying to pull her farther in.
Kit's hand remained warm on her knee. Lucy watched with new calm.
Bristol still held mine. Vina looked exactly one joke away from starting trouble for recreational purposes.
"This is weird," Jessa said.
"You started a sorority relay at a family resort on a Thursday night so you could press your tits against the owner's son," Vina said. "Your standards for weird need work."
Jessa barked a laugh.
"Fair."
She finished the water, stood, and handed the bottle back to Poppy.
"I refuse to spend the rest of the night being treated like a wounded bird."
"Good," Luna said. "You're terrible at it."
"I'm magnificent at everything."
Jessa climbed onto the nearest diving block and raised both arms.
"Cannonball contest," she shouted. "Biggest splash wins whatever Sam is hiding under the counter. Anybody who pities me gets drowned."
Sam looked up from the bar. "I'm not hiding anything."
Sally reached beneath the counter, produced a bottle he had apparently hidden, and held it over her head.
"Winner gets this."
Sam stared at her. "How did you know that was there?"
"I know everything, Sammy. It's exhausting."
Jessa jumped before anybody could negotiate the rules. Her cannonball sent water over the pool edge and across Vina's feet. Poppy screamed, kicked off her shorts, and dove after her. Lucy appointed herself judge. Vina began heckling both of them before the water settled.
Jessa surfaced laughing.
The sting hadn't vanished. Neither had she.
Sam and Sally worked the towel station together while the contest grew. Sally passed him dry stacks before he asked. Sam caught the water bottle she nearly knocked from the counter and set it beside her hand. She bumped her hip against his in thanks.
They had gotten strangely efficient together.
I watched Sam lean down so Sally could say something into his ear. He laughed, and her hand stayed on his shoulder after the joke ended.
Sally caught me looking.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Correct answer. Go away."
I left them to their weirdly intense towel friendship.
Kit sat on the pool edge with her feet in the water.
I lowered myself beside her, and she rested her head against my shoulder.
Poppy swam past with Jessa clinging to her ankle and yelled that the judging was corrupt.
Vina changed the music. Lucy threatened to disqualify everyone.
Bristol stood at the deep end with Luna, both of them laughing at Jessa's attempt to produce a splash scorecard from a wet napkin.
Kit's fingers found mine between us. Her thumb moved slowly over my knuckles while her attention stayed on the pool. She rested against me and let the quiet contact stand on its own.
After a minute, she kissed my shoulder and went to rescue Poppy from Jessa.
Luna found me when the cannonball contest dissolved into arguments about whether style points counted.
She caught my hand and pulled me toward the quieter edge of the lounge, where the path lights thinned and the music softened without disappearing. Her ponytail had come loose. Damp blonde hair framed her face, and her white bikini glowed against the dark water beyond her.
"You took care of Jessa," I said.
"She's mine too," Luna answered. "Not like you're mine. But she's Kappa. She matters."
"I know."
Luna put both hands on my chest and rose onto her toes.
Her kiss started soft. Then her fingers slid behind my neck, her mouth opened, and her tongue met mine with enough confidence to bring every unfinished part of the night back to life.
I wrapped one arm around her waist. Luna pressed closer, warm now instead of pool-cold, and kissed me until the party disappeared behind the taste of her.
When she pulled back, she kept her mouth close to mine.
"I need you at Rosewater tomorrow," she said.
"For what?"
"You'll find out when you get there."
"That sounds suspicious."
"It should."
Her thumb moved along my lower lip.
"After lunch," she said. "Come alone."
"You asking for help or claiming my afternoon?"
Luna smiled, and Sundance showed through all the polish she had once used to hide her.
"Both."
"You don't have to ask twice, Sundance."
The nickname caught exactly where it always did. Her breath stopped for half a beat. Then she kissed me once more, slower this time, and let her teeth catch my lower lip before she eased away.
"After lunch," she repeated. "Don't make me come get you."
Luna let go and walked back toward the pool, leaving me shirtless in the dark with her taste on my tongue and Friday suddenly much too far away.