Playing Dirty (Risky Business, #2)(7)

The women were nice and easy to chat with as Troy steered us out onto Lake Michigan. Ryker reappeared with two beers, handing me one.

“Mooching off your friends?” I teased. I took a sip of the beer and tried not to grimace. It wasn’t my favorite drink, but I could choke one down if I had to.

He shot me a look. “You should see how much of my beer they drink when they come over to watch the Bears.”

I laughed and his lips lifted in a lopsided smile that made my breath catch. He’d taken off his tank and I got a real good look at Ryker’s sweat-dampened chest.

“Let’s see the suit,” he said, nodding toward my T-shirt. I’d gone shopping at the end-of-season sales and picked up a bikini I’d teased him about, but not let him see.

“Okay, but it’s fragile and for display only,” I warned him. “Don’t get me wet.”

Ryker’s grin widened and I blushed at my unintentional innuendo. He leaned closer. “No promises, babe.” His raspy voice in my ear sent a shiver down my spine.

I crossed my arms over my chest and tugged the T-shirt over my head. My apprehension over how the barely there beige crochet tie bikini looked was immediately set at ease when Ryker eased his sunglasses down to peer over them. His eyes drank me in and I didn’t hesitate to shuck the shorts, too.

Handing him my bottle of sunscreen, I asked, “Put some lotion on my back?”

“I’d rather put it on your front,” he teased.

“I’m sure you would.”

The guys all gathered together once the boat was out a ways and the women likewise were stretched out side by side on the deck.

“So where did you and Dean meet?” Amy asked me, adding water to Robin’s tippy cup.

I hesitated, wondering how this was going to go over. “He knows my boss,” I said. “I guess they used to be friends.”

“Who’s your boss?”

“Parker Anderson.”

Amy glanced over at me, her eyebrows raised. “Seriously?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Talk about a small world.”

Anisha had glanced over, too, from where she was stretched on the deck. “You work for Parker? What’s that like?”

I bristled since it was obvious that neither of them liked Parker. “It’s great, actually,” I said. “He’s a good boss. I love my job.”

My defensiveness must’ve shown because Sammy jumped in to defuse the sudden tension.

“That’s great,” she said. “Not everyone likes their boss and their job, right, Amy?”

Amy’s smile was forced. “Right.”

But Anisha wasn’t as easily placated. “You know the history between Parker and Dean, don’t you? What that * Parker did to him?”

“I know that it was in the past and it’s none of my business,” I said, getting to my feet. “If you’ll excuse me.”

Grabbing another crappy beer from the cooler, I popped the top and went in search of Ryker. He was in the middle of a conversation about a ’68 Mustang he was thinking of buying and restoring, so I just settled in next to him. Glancing down at me, he smiled and draped an arm over my shoulders.

I listened to them talk for a while, deciding about two-thirds of the way through my beer that hey, it wasn’t so bad after all. When I finished that one, I went and opened another.

Amy stepped up behind me as I was taking a swig. “Hey,” she said with a smile. “I just wanted to apologize. Anisha was out of line. We’re just all very … protective of Dean. That’s all.”

“I like him, too,” I said. “Or else I wouldn’t be here.”

“We were just surprised. We haven’t heard Parker’s name in a really long time.”

“So what happened?” I asked. “Why do you all hate him so much?”

“You really don’t know?” she asked, scrutinizing me.

I shrugged. “I’ve heard bits and pieces from both of them, and of course their sides of the story are vastly different. It’d be nice to hear from an outside party what happened.”

The wind had torn her hair from its braid and she took it down, tying it back in a ponytail as she talked.

“Well, it all started when they came back from deployment,” she said. “Troy and I were high school sweethearts and have been friends with Dean since forever. He and Troy lived by each other in that shitty trailer park. Parker was never really one of us, never really fit in, but Dean liked him, so we accepted him.

“Parker and Dean were inseparable,” she continued. “I don’t know what had happened to bring them together—neither of them would ever say—but they had each other’s backs all through high school and into the service. I didn’t think anything could ever come between them. Until they met Natalie.”

Natalie. The woman they’d both fallen in love with, the woman who’d committed suicide because of it.

“Tell me about her,” I said.

Amy shrugged, her face blank. “She was a little thing. Pretty. Delicate, kind of, I guess. Men like that sort of thing, or at least Dean and Parker did.”

“That’s all?” I asked when she stopped talking.

“It’s unkind to speak ill of the dead.”