Unknown (The Secret Life of Cassie Martin #1)(26)

“That’s a fair point. I don’t know of anyone that can break in except you, but anything is possible. What is your suggestion?” Lucca smirks at me.

“I was thinking we write what we want people to know even if it’s misleading. We then verbally talk through the pieces with each other so we all know the truth.” I hope they go for this. I’m not in any rush to tell them my life story, but I’m in even less of a hurry to let strangers know about it.

“I like that idea.” Parker and the rest agree.

Decision made, we spend the rest of the morning writing fake memoirs.





CHAPTER ELEVEN





About an hour later, chuckles echo from several of the guys. I lean over to peek at Lucca’s essay, but he covers his paper with his arm.

“Cheater!” Lucca yells at me in Italian and nudges me away.

I end up falling into Parker who just pushes me back against Lucca. Lucca nudges me again, and I go back and forth between the two a few times before I suddenly lean back. Unprepared, the boys end up knocking their heads together.

I giggle at both of them. “You should always be prepared.” While they’re still rubbing their heads, I jump up and grab Lucca’s paper.

Lucca leaps to his feet and chases me around the table. “Hey! Give that back to me. I’m not done yet.”

“I want to know what you were laughing about. That and I’m ready for a break. Who uses a pen and paper anymore?” I jump over a bench to try to get away, but he’s too fast. He grabs me from behind and hauls me up over his shoulder.

“You’re in trouble, now. How did you prepare for this scenario?” He laughs at me and walks toward the water.

“Lucca! You wouldn’t.” I drum my fists on his ass in panic. The paper crumples in my fist. “I’m still holding your paper! You’ll have to start again!”

“I don’t mind a pen and paper. Starting over won’t bother me.” Undeterred, Lucca keeps walking. “What are you going to do when you’re wet for the next several hours?”

At this point, we’re dangerously close to the water. I look up and see the other boys with their arms crossed, laughing at us. I didn’t even think to ask them for help.

“I’ll make sure you get wet, too. You just won’t know how I plan on doing it,” I threaten, knowing the only way to get him wet would be to hug him or sit on his lap. I’m good with both those possibilities.

As he steps up to the water’s edge, he changes his hold to cradled me in his arms. I can’t kick my way out of this. I’ll definitely end up in the water that way. He shifts, and I think he'll drop me, but he turns around and walks back up to the picnic table.

“Gotcha!” He winks at me as he puts me back on my feet. “If I were willing to hold Mindy in my arms, I’d throw her in the water, but I’m too nice to do that to you.”

“Yeah, right! I know you were just worried about your paper. Here you go, by the way.” I hand him back his essay as a form of truce, but I won’t forget about this. I just need to be sneaky about my revenge.

“What are you grinning at, missy?” Parker’s eyebrow rises. Maybe he can read minds. We’re all special in some way. Nah, that only happens in comics.

“Nothing.” I smile as sweetly as I can at him. I’ll make him sweat, too. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I put my hand on his chest and look up at him. “You shouldn’t be so paranoid.” I then snatch his paper out of his hand and climb the nearest tree.

“Ha!” Noah points up at me. “We have a monkey on the team.”

“Now what are you going to do?” Parker asks as he sits back down on the picnic bench.

“I’m going to boycott until we can take a break.” I lean back against the trunk and close my eyes. “If I have your paper, you can’t work on it.”

“We are taking a break. So now that we’ve done that we can get back to work.” Parker throws back at me.

“I want to take a break and listen to your stories. We’ve spent a whole week together almost, and I don’t feel like I know any of you well.” I keep my eyes closed.

The more I think about it, though; the more serious I am. They’ve known each other for years, even if it was only for a few months at a time during the summer. I’m starting from scratch.

“You’re right.” Jay makes his way to the base of the tree. “Come on down, and let’s talk.”

Climbing about halfway down, his hands grip my hips, and just like that, I’m back on the ground.

I glance around at them. “Can we sit on the hammocks and talk? I promise not to fall asleep again.”

Nods of agreement come from everyone, and they abandon their writing to stand. As we make our way to the hammocks, I hand Parker back his paper, then reach up and run my fingers through his hair. “How’s your head?”

“I’ll live. This time.” Parker climbs into the hammock first, and I scoot over next to him. Jay climbs in on the other side of me.

Parker waits until the others settle in the hammock facing us before he asks, “Who goes first?”

“Well, since you asked, you get to.” I poke him in the side, then settle down. “Can we each tell two stories? I know we don’t have time for our entire background, but we should have time for two. We can do one sad, scary, or serious and one that’s funny or happy?” I didn’t mean for the last statement to be a question, but they all nod in agreement.