Page 48 of Objection to Love

“Add it to the list of apologies.”

Noah laughed.

Well, this was getting awkward. Em knew she should go. But she couldn’t be sure where the guys’ voices were coming from, and she really didn’t want to interrupt them now. She leaned against her tree, holding her folded clothes against her stomach. The bark was rough against her back.

“Anyway, you were about to tell me why you and Em aren’t dating.”

“No I wasn’t.”

“Well, you are now.”

Garrett laughed, and Em imagined his wide grin. She couldn’t help the smile that spread across her own face. How would he respond to Noah?

“She doesn’t want to be.”

That was true. And yet…

“Again, not what it looked like when we found you on the trail.”

“Yeah, well, thanks to your bad timing, we’ll never know what she wanted. We should head back. I don’t want Jenica to eat Em. She might not want to date me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care if she becomes the witch’s latest meal.”

She heard their steps retreating; luckily, it seemed they’d been ahead of her. Em counted to ten before following. What part did Jenica play in Garrett’s past? She was beautiful, though her insides clearly didn’t match her outsides… and something about her made a drop (or seven) of jealousy settle in her stomach.

The trees thinned, and Em spied the guys standing about fifteen feet from Jenica.

Garrett turned as she came up to them, then froze. She watched as his eyes began to travel down the length of her black swimsuit before shooting back up to her face. That morning, she had run to the store and purchased a simple suit, but a picture sent to April had confirmed she looked good in it. The look on Garrett’s face just now made the rushed shopping trip worth it.

He grabbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat. “Ready?”

Em nodded, her eyes taking him in as he had her. It should have been criminal to have that many muscles. She almost counted his abs, but that would have been weird.

Now it was her turn to clear her throat. “Is it cold?” Eight. He had an eight-pack. Jeez.

Something twinkled in Garrett’s eyes as he walked close to her, looking down into her face. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

“What?”

With impressive speed, Garrett grabbed her around the middle, hoisting her over his shoulder.

Em screamed, pounding his back as his arms braced across the back of her thighs. She pounded harder, but there wasn’t much space until the lake, and he ran the final few steps to the water.

Then he threw her, screaming, into the lake.

The waterwascold.

Jerk.

Unfortunately for Garrett, though, Em had spent her first decade of summers at Grandma’s with neighbor kids and older cousins. And this was not the first time she’d been thrown unwillingly into a body of water. By age nine, she had found the perfect way to get revenge on the person who threw her.

She gulped a breath of air, then ducked under the water, kicking her legs.

15...14...13...12…She enacted phase two and went limp, face down in the water, floating away from the edge.

5… 4… 3…All was quiet and still for a frigid moment. Any second now…

Then—

Loud splashing warned Em seconds before Garrett grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, kicking his legs back until he was able to reach the bottom. “Em! Are you— Em!” He shook her frantically, and Em couldn’t hold back any longer.

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