Page 32 of Reckless Encounters

I'm doing my best not to gloat about how well my method is working, when another big gust whips past us and takes out the entire row we just completed. Ava and I try to grab onto the runaway string of balloons, but it’s a lost cause. They’re already up and over Eli and Quinn’s roofline.

Ava turns to me with a scowl. “I told you that wouldn’t work, but noooo, you didn’t want to hear it. Now we barely have any left.”

“Maybe you aren’t great at tying things. As you can see, my string didn’t unknot, but yours did.”

“I can’t with you… You are impossible to deal with!” she bellows, and although she’s mad, my eyes watch her cheeks pinken and chest rise in fall with frustrated breaths.

“Let’s just tie the remaining to the gate and call it a day.”

“By all means, go ahead, master knot tyer,” she says, waving her hand in that direction.

“Watch a pro. You might want to take notes.” I wink, and she flips me off in response.

Always a brat. I’ve never been one to find that type of attitude attractive, but partner it with a long pair of legs and pouty lips and… Nope, stop that train of thought right fucking there.

Besides, she seems to be enjoying Logan’s company.

Ava

“Sooo tell us more about this boyfriend of yours?” Quinn says, turning her head and narrowing her eyes on me. “And don’t even think I’ve forgotten about the other bomb you dropped on us earlier, but first, I want to hear about Logan.” She leans back in her Adirondack chair beside Sloan, waiting for my response.

The three of us sit around their firepit, looking out over the lake. Eli and Quinn’s moms insisted on putting the girls down and cleaning up so that they were able to enjoy some adult time with friends since all of us are in town. Their moms are two of the funniest people I know, and I’m so thankful they accepted me into their big family circle all those years ago. I almost begged them to let me help inside, just to avoid my best friends’ third degree, but I knew they would have no part in it.

“Okay, so first off, he’s not really my boyfriend. We’ve only gone on a few dates and the first one didn’t count because I told him it was just as friends.”

“You’re the one that called him that,” Quinn retorts, and she’s right. I’m not sure why I did. Maybe it was the reminder I needed, knowing I was going to see Parker here today.

“I know, that was a slip-up.”

I do like Logan. He’s hot, fun, and sweet, but there just isn’t that explosive chemistry I’ve been looking for over the last eighteen months. Recently, I've been wondering if that chemistry is overrated and not worth it anyways.

“Well, you must like him a lot if you’re accidentally calling him that already.” Quinn’s assumption makes sense, but even if I hate to admit it, that’s not the reason.

“Orrrr she’s trying to sell it so hard to someone else, she’s even convincing herself.”

Damn you, Sloan.

I slouch back into my seat and let out a huff. “Maybe,” I whisper. Being around him today has been as confusing as it has been frustrating. The lingering glances and the energy that always thrums between us causes me to forget about the way he has treated me.

“Okay, so now explain to us what’s going on there,” Sloan says, referring to Parker. After our balloon incident, I was annoyed, and my friends thought the best way to work out that annoyance with Parker was to fuck him, so I nonchalantly let it slip I may have already been there and done that.

“It was him at the opening night of Masqued, wasn’t it?” Quinn asks, narrowing her eyes.

Both these bitches know me too well.

I bury my face in my hands, trying to hold back a smirk. I may hate his guts, but both experiences I’ve had with him are the types you run and squeal to your girlfriends about. The fact I have been holding this in and not telling them has me ready to burst.

“Oh shit…it was,” Sloan says, and I see the light bulb go off in her head. “It was him you hooked up with on the speed dating night too, wasn’t it?”

When she asked how that night went, I brushed it off and said I had hooked up with one of my dates, but left it at that, bringing attention back to the fact I had an awkward experience with one of my dad’s associates to distract her.

So I proceed to tell them everything. All the nitty-gritty details. Well, most of them.

“I knew he would be amazing in bed… All that attitude has to be good for something,” Quinn responds. “But fuck him for treating you like that afterward.”

“I am not sure if his actions have to do with him losing his parents or if something else happened to him. Either way, it seems like he has been through more than most at his age.” Sloan always was the most rational out of us. Though I’ve wondered the same thing at times, especially after the girls filled me in on what little they knew about his parents. He may be the biggest asshole I know, but I still have a heart, and it aches for his loss.

Guilt suddenly consumes me at my avoidance of my own parents, who are still perfectly alive and well.

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