River's End (River's End Series, #1)(80)

Snapping her mouth shut, she quit looking up and instead, glared down into the river, watching the sunlight sway as it outlined the sandy river bottom with golden spider webs. It was so clear and pretty, the sight almost made her ache.

Finally, Jack’s feet dropped down to the rocks next to her. His boots splashed at the water edges where he was forced to stand in three inches of water. She hoped his socks were wet and soggy. Besides it was a hundred and seven degrees today, who else but Jack would have on jeans and leather cowboys boots? Even Ian wore shorts and flip-flops as he spent most of the afternoon with her and the boys at the river.

“Out, Erin. I have work to get back to.”

She glared up at him as she treaded water. She didn’t want to pull herself out with Jack right there, which was ridiculous. He, along with everyone else within fifty miles, had, at some point, seen her working a coffee machine in her bikini. But now, here, in this small, tight spot, soaking wet, she didn’t want to be on display for him. He stood there, his hands on his hips, frowning, as he waited for her to exit the water.

“You’re still an asshole, Jack,” she said as she scrambled up the rocky incline and stood right next to him. They were on a three-foot wide flat rock, which was the only stable spot to stand. She was way too aware of her wet body next to Jack’s fully clothed, dry body. She refused to look up at him. The air was so hot, her skin could have had steam evaporating off it.

“And you shouldn’t spend my money on such crap.”

“It isn’t crap. Charlie loves it. He swims until nine o’clock at night in it.”

“He does that down here too.”

“It’s his summer too, Jack. He can’t always be getting back to work. He wanted it.”

“Yeah. I know. He’s asked for it the last three summers. The thing is: there’s a perfectly good river less than a five-minute walk away with our own beach and swimming hole. There is no reason to put some oversized wading pool in the middle of a working ranch. And if you knew anything at all about parenting, you’d understand that I can’t grant every single desire or wish my kids ask for. Charlie wanted to light his own fireworks on the Fourth of July; think I should have let him do that too?”

She glared at her pink-painted toe-nails as the sun-laced water lapped over them. “No,” she said with grudging annoyance. “You still didn’t have to throw me off a cliff. Why would you do that?”

“Because,” he grinned and shrugged, “I’ve wanted to do it too many times ever since you first drove up my driveway. You don’t even know how much, Erin.”

She took her foot back and kicked his shin. All she managed to do, however, was hurt her toes. His boots were that high. She swore as she hopped into the water and fell backwards; then screamed in pain as the rocks hit her butt.

Jack’s hands came under armpits and he lifted her effortlessly out of the water. “You are one giant pain in my ass.”

Then he shuffled her around, and told her to get on his back, climbing up the rock as easily as he walked up his driveway. She shut her eyes, afraid to fall back onto the sharp rocks. They would scrape her skin if she fell. Finally, she felt his body shifting and saw they were on level ground. She opened her eyes and looked around. They were on top of the rock. The river rushed towards them, clashing into the rock and then turning nearly horizontally to keep flowing downstream. Mountains lined the view and the sky glowed in a blinding, bright blue. It was breathtaking to see in the dazzling sun. Then she felt the hot rocks beneath her bare feet, which might have been a hundred and seventeen degrees. Jack glanced at her feet when she made a whimpering noise.

“Oh, for the love of God,” he said and once again, flipped her up and over his shoulder, starting down towards the beach where the others waited. This time, she was silent even though she wanted to pummel his back. Her ass was heads up for Ian and the rest of the world to see. The tips of her hair dragged over the rocks and sand. She looked like a cavewomen being hauled around by the Neanderthal asshole, Jack Rydell. He finally flipped her over and her bare feet hit the hot, dry sand.

She straightened her back with as much dignity as she could muster in the situation. She had been manhandled, humiliated, and now stood soaking wet with all four males looking at her.

She turned on Ian. “You are the biggest, wimpiest, asshole I’ve ever met besides Jack. You and Ben. You’re big enough. You could have taken him. That pool was partly your doing too. Both of you insisted. But when the lord of the ranch, over here, comes home, you two cower like little pansy-asses. I hope to God no one ever needs actual help when you two are the only ones around, because you’ll probably throw them under the bus like you did to me.”

“Now Erin, calm down. I didn’t know what Jack was doing.”

“He had me draped over his shoulder like a throw rug. You could have done something.”

Ben glanced at his dad. “I did get the compressor to blow the top ring on the pool up.”

“I helped fill it with water,” Charlie added.

“And all of you put your big fat butts in it too!” She was so mad, she felt like she could breathe fire on all of them. She didn’t deserve the blame, or to be manhandled simply because she was the only girl, and therefore, weaker than the rest of them. She reached down, and before Jack could figure out what she intended to do, picked up a fistful of dry, fine, white sand. She stood up and threw it directly into his face. Straight into his eyes and mouth.