“Let them sleep some more.” I stared at her. I couldn’t stop myself from just looking at her face and into her eyes. Being with Riley made me feel happy. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other.”
“Well now that you’re a college guy, you just don’t have time for me.” She smiled, but I could hear the sadness in her voice.
“I figured you didn’t want to be bothered by me anymore. Now that you’re so busy with all those guys.”
She frowned. “What guys?”
“You know.” I tried to keep my tone light. “All your high school boyfriends.”
“What boyfriends?” She tilted her head and started playing with her hair. I felt a stirring in my stomach as I stared at her innocent expression.
“Don’t you call them boyfriends now?” I faked a laugh. “Are they all friends with benefits?”
“Friends with benefits?” She laughed. “What benefits?”
“You know.” My heart thudded. I wasn’t sure why I was going into this line of questioning, but I had to know if she was seeing anyone.
“No, I don’t.” She shook her head and then took a sip of water. I watched as her eyes widened and she looked at me in shock. “Hudson, you’re not asking me if I’m having sex with a bunch of different guys, are you?”
“No, of course not,” I groaned, and both of our faces went red.
“I don’t have any friends with benefits, Hudson Blake.” She leaned forward and hit me in the arm. “I can’t believe you would ask me that.”
“Sorry, I just thought...” I sighed and shook my head. “Forget what I thought. Eden told me something about you and that guy and I just assumed.”
She looked confused. “What guy and assumed what?”
“Well, it was a night you were playing seven minutes in heaven.”
“What?” She looked at me and laughed. “I’ve only played that once and that was ages ago.”
“Oh.” I looked at her lips again and sighed. So I’d gone and made a mess of things. “I thought you were practicing all your newly acquired kissing skills on other guys.”
“Don’t remind me of that night,” she groaned and looked at the table. “Thank you for humoring me that day.”
“I wasn’t just humoring you. I enjoyed it as well,” I said softly, and her breath caught. She looked up at me again and her brown eyes seemed to glow as we sought answers to unspoken questions. “I enjoyed it very much.”
“You’re just saying that.” She looked down, and I stared at her for a few moments before answering.
If she only knew just how much I’d enjoyed it, she’d think I was some sort of pervert. I’d thought about that night many times and I’d had dreams that that kiss had led to so much more.
“When have I ever just said something?”
“All the time.” She rolled her eyes. “Like when you didn’t call me an annoying brat when we were growing up.”
“You weren’t an annoying brat.” I laughed.
She looked up at me with laughing eyes. “Yes, I was. I cried all the time.”
“Then make it up to me.” I suddenly leaned forward. “Let’s go swimming.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head slowly. “I don’t have my bathing suit.”
“So?” I grinned, ignoring the warning bells that were going off in my head. “Neither do I.”
“But you’re a boy.”
“I’m glad you noticed.” I flexed my biceps and she grinned.
“You’re silly.”
“What’s new?”
“You shouldn’t have kissed me.” She blushed as she looked at me.
“What?” I licked my lips slowly.
“You shouldn’t have kissed me,” she repeated. “You have a girlfriend.”
“It was just an innocent peck,” I lied.
“I know that, but if anyone had seen, they would have thought something different.”
“Who?”
“Who what?”
“Who would have seen and thought something different?”
“You’re trying to be difficult, aren’t you?” She jumped up. “Let’s go.”
“Yes, Ms. Bossy Pants.”
“Whatever.” She flung her hair and walked towards the door.
I watched her walk for a few seconds before I put some bills on the table and followed her. I knew she was right of course. It had been wrong of me to kiss her and hope for something more while I was dating Clara. I sighed as I thought of Clara.
I wasn’t really sure how a relationship had occurred. It had just seemed to have happened. After the party, we’d kind of just kept hanging out on the weekends, and then one night, she got so drunk she couldn’t go home, so she stayed over. The next thing I knew, we were having sex and she was introducing me to her friends as her boyfriend.
It wasn’t that I had tried to stop any of it. I hadn’t. Not really. I felt that dating Clara made me a normal guy and not some pervert who was lusting over his little sister’s best friend. I mean, I used to tease Riley, pull her hair. She’d cried to me over the smallest, stupidest things. I’d seen her through pimples, braces, and awkward hairstyles, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful she was when she smiled.
A part of me regretted coming to the house this summer. I had a bad feeling that someone was going to be heartbroken by the end of the summer. Maybe Riley was right. Maybe we should just go back home and I’d avoid her as much as possible.
“Hudson.” Riley came running back into the restaurant with eager eyes. “Hurry.” She grabbed my hands and pulled me out of the restaurant with her.
“What’s so urgent?”
“I’ve decided I want to go swimming.” She laughed. “Now take me before I change my mind.”
I stared at her in surprise, my heart suddenly racing. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, let’s do it.” She stood by the car door, waiting for me to open it, and I felt my heart leaping.
“Shit, I’m going to hell,” I muttered to myself as I opened the car.
“Sorry, what did you say?” she asked me with eager eyes, and I shook my head, smiling back at her.
“Nothing.” I took a deep breath. “Nothing at all.”
We drove for about ten minutes until I pulled off to the side of the road and stopped the car.
“This part of the beach is pretty desolate. I don’t think many people come here, so we’ll have some privacy.”
“Sounds good.” She eagerly jumped out of the car and ran to the sand.
I followed her eagerly, wondering what sort of trouble I was getting myself into. Riley kept running, and I frowned as I saw her jumping into the ocean.
“What are you doing?” I asked, confused as I watched her jumping waves.
“I’m about to swim. Why?” she shouted back at me, looking very youthful as she squealed.
“Uhm, you have clothes on.” I pulled my shirt and pants off and ran into the ocean after her.
“You thought I was going to take my clothes off?” She looked so shocked that I laughed.
“I thought we were going to skinny dip.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened, and I saw them survey my naked chest.
“Yeah. Oh.” I shook my head and grabbed her around the waist. “Don’t mind me. I’m an idiot.”
“Put me down, Hudson!” she screamed as I swung her around in my arms.
“Sorry, what?” I grinned down at her as she clung to me.
“Put me down!” she screamed again, and I dropped her in the ocean. “Hudson Blake! Argh!” She splashed around in the water and I laughed. “I’m going to get you.” She stood up and started splashing me.
I tried not to stare at her breasts since her nipples were clearly visible through the thin, wet material. I turned away to stop myself from reaching out and touching her. I wanted to groan at the sudden tightness in my pants.