Page 33 of One Pucking Destiny

“I believe I’ve heard that before.” She raises a brow, referring to the promise.

But this promise is different.

I release her hand and wipe a wet strand of hairfrom her face. “I’m not letting anything happen to this pretty face.”

Max calls out the score and serves the volleyball to the other side. The teams go back and forth, and despite our side having—let’s be honest—one less player, we hold our own. As promised, I stay close to Ari and intervene when a ball comes her way. I even get Beckett to agree to let me serve for her by giving some excuse that her wrist hurts. I took a play from her seventh-grade playbook for that one. We all know Beckett only agreed because she’s Elena’s daughter, but a win is a win.

It helps that Cade and Iris are wrapped up in their love bubble. When they’re hugging all over one another between balls, we quickly serve without waiting for them to be ready. Eddy and Beckett call cheating. I say Cade and Iris need to get their head in the game.

Beckett grumbles at his sister and best friend. “Seriously? We’re going to be on stupid dish duty. Save it for the bedroom!”

“Rude!” Iris laughs, splashing water at her brother.

I serve the ball over the net, and Beckett lunges to hit it back toward us. We volley back and forth a couple of times until Eddy jumps up, spiking the ball into the net on their side and giving us the final point we need to win.

“Winners!” the four of us roar. Huddling in the middle of the pool, we jump up and down in celebration.

“I can’t believe we won!” Ariana shrieks, a huge smile on her face.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” I ask.

“It feels great!”

“We just might make an athlete out of you yet.” I take hold of her waist and spin her in the water.

She laughs. “I wouldn’t go that far. You know I never touched the ball, right?”

“All team members are important,” Max says. “You played your role well.”

None of us mentions what that role was specifically because none of us knows, but we’re celebrating nonetheless.

After a few minutes of rubbing our win into the other team’s faces, we retract the volleyball net.

“Sean, beer us,” Beckett says to Logan.

Logan stands from the lounger. “Raise your hand if you need a drink!”

Eight hands shoot up in the air.

We swim to the side of the pool, where Logan waits with the cooler. He supplies each of us with a beer. Some of the others climb up on to floaties. Max, Ari, and I sit on the built-in ledge seat at the end of the pool.

“What’s the plan for tonight?” Max asks.

“I think we talked about playing that poker game,” I answer.

Ari sits between us, and her leg rests against mine. The movement is intentional. Otherwise, she’d retract it. I don’t move my leg, afraid she’ll retract hers. The small connection is soothing.

“Great. I love losing money.” Max pushes out a laugh.

“You never know. You could win,” I say.

“Are you kidding? Either Gunner or Beckett wins every time,” Max says before his attention shoots to Jaden across the pool. I’m not sure what Jaden said, but Max isn’t happy. He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.” He takes off toward the other end of the pool.

“And then there were two.” Ari dips her beer bottle toward mine, and they clink together.

I nudge my knee toward hers. “Tell me something about yourself, Ari.”

“What do you mean?”

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