Daring the Bad Boy (Endless Summer)(16)

“Who’s the girl standing behind you, Jake?” Bob crossed his arms in front of his broad chest, looking like he had all night to listen to my explanation.

Dread filled me but I stood taller, the cool night air rippling over my still-damp naked skin and making me shiver. I’d thrown my hoodie on earlier without a shirt and it was damn cold out here. “Ah, she’s…” Crap, I didn’t know her name. I didn’t know who she was. I knew she had a nice rack that filled out her bikini top to perfection. I knew she was a dumbass for jumping into the lake and that her friends were jerks to not try to save her.

“Um, it’s me. Annie.” She stepped around me, actually daring to say something when I told her to follow my lead. She was either gutsy or dumb as rocks. “From cabin G7A.”

Ah, crap. My uncle was going to put two and two together and think I was up to no good, and he was partially right. My earlier intentions with Lacey had been bad, so thank God I hadn’t gone through with it. Saving this girl’s life was the actual good part. But I’d probably end up still looking like a jerk and pissing off my uncle.

Bob frowned at her, then at me, then back at her again. “What are you doing out here at this time of night? There is a curfew, you know.”

“I know. I’m so sorry.” She sighed and tilted her head down, her entire face practically swallowed up by my hoodie. “I was just…missing my parents so much. This is my first time at camp and I was feeling homesick. I thought I’d come out and sit on the dock by the water and then I accidentally…fell in.”

I blinked at her, but she didn’t even look at me. She was saving her performance for my uncle.

Impressive.

“Well.” Uncle Bob’s voice was gruff as he scratched at the back of his neck. A sure sign he didn’t know how to react. He probably wanted to bust her, but she was saying all the right things. And she took the attention off of me. “Thank goodness Jake was out here, then.”

“Yes. He saved my life,” Annie said gravely. “I’m sorry, though, that I caused so much trouble.” She turned to look at me, her eyes wide and unblinking. “I hope you can forgive me.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” I muttered, not sure what else to say. She looked like a good girl, she acted like a good girl, but she could put on a damn good performance.

“Jake, walk this young lady back to her cabin,” he demanded before turning his attention to Annie. “Do you need to see the nurse?”

“Oh, no. I’m fine,” she said with a nod. “But thank you.”

“All right then.” He studied us both, his gaze razor sharp, head tilted, like he still wasn’t quite sure if he could believe us or not. He pointed at Annie. “I don’t want to see you out here this late at night ever again, young lady.”

“You won’t,” she said solemnly. “I promise.”

Uncle Bob made a harrumphing noise before he turned and headed back to his cabin. We watched him go, us standing next to each other, until he disappeared out of sight.

I finally turned to look at her. “Ready to go?”

She nodded, and we headed toward the girls’ cabins. “You don’t need to walk me the whole way,” she said.

“If you get lost or somehow fall back into the lake and my uncle finds out I wasn’t with you? There will be hell to pay,” I muttered. “I’ll drop you off in front of G7A and watch you walk through the door.”

“So Fozzie Bear is really your uncle?” She sounded surprised, though she also sounded like she already knew this. Rumors spread like wildfire around here. The older campers didn’t have their phones, so they sat around and gossiped instead.

“Yep,” I said grimly, not giving her any more information. Why add fuel to the gossip fire?

“Oh.”

We remained silent for a while, walking the path side by side, me kicking a rock off the trail and her sinking her hands into the front pocket of my hoodie. A hoodie I really wished I was wearing because I was freezing my ass off. Felt like the temperature was dropping with every minute that passed. It was worth giving to her though, because she looked pretty cute wearing it.

“I know you told me to follow your lead,” she said after a while, her voice low as we started to pass the cabins. “But I thought it would work better if the excuse came from me.”

“No, you’re right. What you said was—perfect.” She totally deflected Bob’s attention off of me, and I appreciated it.

“I’m glad I could help.” She sent me a sidelong glance. “Your uncle would be mad if he thought we were somehow…messing around or whatever, right?” Her voice squeaked a little when she said the words.

Cute.

“Definitely.” I nodded.

“And you…saved my life.” She cleared her throat, as if that admission was hard to make. “Thank you for that.”

“Anytime.” I wasn’t going to give her a lecture or make her feel bad. Forget that. When I first dragged her out of the water I had been scared—and mad. What idiot jumped into the lake late at night? Maybe she didn’t realize her friends were so shitty, but still. It was a bad move.

But I was over it now. She saved my ass, too, so we were even.

“It was really dumb of me to do that. I had a momentary burst of confidence, I guess, and thought I could pull it off.”