A Kiss Like This (Kiss and Make Up #3)(35)

“This is freaking work,” someone else complains, joining her against the wall.

We all laugh good-naturedly, half of us getting soaked by the waterfall Jenna had taken pains to avoid. After we pass it, she climbs back on her yellow tube, smoothing her dip-dyed hair back into its sleek ponytail.

Once more, we’re drifting along contentedly, letting the current and a bunch of random kids float us around corners, through dripping caves, and over several rippling tide pools.

“So what are we doing tonight?” Chelsea asks lethargically, trailing her hand in the water as she bobs along, her question directed at Shelby.

Shelby lets out a yawn. “I was thinking game night? Or we could just hang out and relax; do a bonfire.”

A bonfire sounds awesome.

Not everyone agrees.

“I thought we were going out downtown,” Miles’s friend Angelica says with a frown, a shadow of displeasure marring her pretty face.

“Naw. Blaze and I were talking, and we didn’t think the downtown area here sounded like much of a nightlife. Too many little kids and tourists. Too many gift shops with souvenirs and not enough bars. So we thought we’d grill out and sit around the fire.”

“Sweet,” Molly says, paddling her feet and kicking up a small splash. Her thin gold ankle bracelet catches the sun shining through the overhead glass ceiling. “Wes and I love a good bonfire.”

We round a bend of the lazy river, arriving at the beach entry marking the end of the ride. I don’t immediately climb out of the tube like the rest of the girls. Instead, I let myself float idly by as the others stand and wade their way to the fake concrete shoreline.

My hands dip beside the tube, fingertips grazing the warm water, and I glance up to see Molly wading back toward me.

She paddles out in the shallow water, grabbing my yellow tube by the handle to steady me in place. “Hey,” she says. “How’s it going?”

I smile. “Good.” Real good.

“So, I heard there was some funny business going down in the living room this morning.”

“You’re not very subtle,” I tease.

“I wasn’t trying to be.” She splashes me with water and gives me a wide, toothy grin. “So? Give me a quick rundown.”

“We watched a movie last night after everyone went to their rooms, fell asleep, and he woke up grinding me with his morning wood. It was amazing. Satisfied?”

Molly lets out a loud laugh and splashes me again. “Holy crap, I didn’t think you’d actually tell me.”

“I think it’s easy with him because he’s like me. You know, we’re both… awkward. It’s not intimidating.”

Molly bounces up and down in the water next to me, still holding the tube. “Plus, he’s easy on the eyes.”

“Plus, he’s easy on the eyes,” I agree, throwing my head back and letting it rest on the tube. Staring at the ceiling for a few silent minutes, I let out another long, content sigh and dramatically cover my eyes with my forearm as I float peacefully in the concrete lagoon. “The gap in his teeth is divine. It’s one my favorite things about him. Swoon!”

“It is?” a deep voice asks beside me, the low rumble laced with amazement.

My eyes fly open and my body jolts, the motion so abrupt that along with the small waves from the lazy river, the gesture tips the tube and dumps me ass-over-teakettle into the water.

I go under and come up sputtering, tipping my head back into the water to get the hair out of my eyes before rising to a stand.

Why, why, why is this happening to me!

The water is waist deep, and we’re in it alone.

My head whips around, frantically searching for Molly, whose bikini-clad figure is quickly retreating out of the wading area. With a jaunty little wave, the brat leaves me stranded to fend for myself.

“Caleb!” Water drips from my nose, and I wipe it away, mortified. “Where did you come from?”

He points to the opening of a water ride not thirty feet away in the opposite direction, that’s shooting large quantities of rushing water and guests out of its tunnel to the same area we’re standing in now.

He’s gloriously shirtless, water dripping from his seriously powerful chest, wearing that backwards ball cap and biting his bottom lip to stop himself from smiling with his teeth.

He couldn’t be any hotter right now.

I lied before when I said he wasn’t intimidating. A big fat lie, because seeing him standing there soaking wet… Guh!

“I think that was the last ride. Everyone is going to start getting ready to head back,” he says, stepping a little closer. “Unless you want to go down one more time?”

“I’m good.” Good, but dying inside from my earlier proclamation about his teeth. Dying. “We can go.”

He reaches out and grabs my tube, which had begun drifting away. I can’t help it; I watch his powerful biceps flex as he retrieves it, my blue eyes assessing him appraisingly when his ripped muscles coil inside his powerful arms.

Don’t even get me started on the rest of his body. Or the dimpled indentations in his back, above the waistband of his swim trunks.

I swallow and wipe the water out of my eyes, giving him a weak smile when he starts back toward me, clutching his tube and now mine.





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