Page 22 of The Rules of Playing with Fire

A young face flashed across my mind—a teenage girl with soft curls framing her face. A girl who knew a lot about stars, and I saw them in her eyes. I’d been fifteen, and it had been the first and only time I had lost sleep like this. I had thought about her all night, wondering if I could tell her how much I liked her. That girl had been my first love, and this felt exactly like that…

Mercifully, the annoyingly high pitch of my alarm brought me out of that dreaded thought. It had been only fifteen minutes since I’d closed my eyes. After I hit snooze twice, my mind shamed me into giving up.

I had a lot to take care of for the trip to the lake house, and suddenly, my heart leapt with joy at the prospect of seeing Sona again. Grumbling at the turmoil within me, I pulled myself out of bed.

Take and bake casseroles, check. Beer, wine, and scotch, check. Birthday cake, pick up on the way. Dad’s gift? From a closet, I pulled out the three-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle that I’d had custom-created. A collage of his pictures with Mom through the years, the gift was my way of annoying Dad, though I knew they would both enjoy working on it together.

I grabbed my packed suitcase and headed to my parents to pick them up. The plan was to reach the lake house by early afternoon to spend two carefree days and return Monday morning.

I had just pulled out of my parents’ driveway when Tara’s number flashed on my dashboard. “Hey, Tara.”

“Hi, it’s Sona,” I heard, and my face turned warm.

“Hey, Sona, what’s up?” I managed to keep my voice steady and casual but caught Mom, riding shotgun, studying me intently.

“Tara asked me to call and say we’re leaving in a few minutes. We still have to pick up Sameer’s parents and Riya, so we might be a bit late.”

“That’s alright. We just started. See you there.”

“What happened last night?” Mom asked promptly when Sona had hung up.

“Nothing, Mom. I dropped her off and went home. What did you think was going to happen?”

She shrugged. “We never know with you,” she said and threw a smile at Dad in the back.

“Nothing happened, and nothing’s going to happen.”

At the lake house, I slipped the casseroles and the cake in the fridge before carrying their bags to one of the several bedrooms in Grant’s home.

Grant and Mike were my oldest friends. Mike’s dad was a cardiothoracic surgeon. His mother, the Dean of the School of Psychology at Texas Western University, was the first African American and the first woman to hold that position.

Grant came from generations of wealth. As a kid, he had often come across as arrogant, but it wasn’t hubris so much as ignorance about a world with no money. He had no idea how the other side lived. Yet, he was the first to embrace the Black kid and the Indian kid in an elite private school full of rich white kids. We had been best friends ever since. Strangely, the three of us were still single, I mused as I settled Mom and Dad under an umbrella in the backyard.

The house was on the River Brazos, literally. The parapet that bordered the lawn was built into the water, and a pathway led to a sheltered dock that housed two small motorboats.

We had just settled down with cups of hot coffee when musical laughter reached my ears, and my heart gave out a single thud.

Damn.

The matter had now moved from my cock to my heart and it was a transition that troubled me deeply.

I answered the front door to find the happy family bawling with laughter at something I was sure was initiated by Riya.

“Dude,” she said, “this is awesome! Is that the lake?”

“It’s the river that feeds into the lake further south,” I said to impress Sona, but she was busy unloading bags with Tara and Sameer. I walked over to help.

“We’ve got this,” Sameer said as Sona looked up and smiled. Fuck, I hated that sweet smile. It made me weaker.

An hour later, the entire group was settled in the backyard with drinks.

“Sameer, you and Mihir take care of lunch today, and I’ll help Sona tomorrow. She’s making her famous Greek chicken and potatoes,” Tara said. “I got the rest of the stuff, but we need to get the chicken and lemons.”

“I can drive into town and get it tomorrow morning, or if Sona wants to come, I can drive her,” I said before I could rein in my big mouth.

Sona looked at me and smiled. “Sure.” But like me, she was intent on keeping her distance. Seemed like last night’s attempted kiss was a mistake.

I slid a casserole of chicken rigatoni in the oven while Sameer worked on the garlic bread. Since Tara had moved in with him, he’d become an efficient cook. After lunch, we gathered in the game room for a few rounds of poker. Grant had equipped the home with everything one would want on a getaway, but he mostly spent his time on the water or in his bedroom.

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