Page 83 of Send It
London Boy stands off to the side and I can tell he’s waiting for Stas to walk back up with him, so I allow her to walk inside with him and hang back with Colson.
Reiss has already started loading the stuff into his truckand it’s the first private moment we’ve had all day. His cheeks are a little red from the sun and it makes me reminisce on summers past, back when he had braces, pimples, and a buzzcut. Even then my entire world revolved around him.
“Why are you gawking at me like that, baby Bane?” He walks toward me on the dock with a pack of Trolli gummi worms in his hand. My eyes rake over his body as I think about last night and how amazing it was.
I reach into the bag to grab one of the sour worms but he yanks it back, “No way, you don’t even like these that much.”
“Stop being stingy,” I demand. “Give me one of those worms right now!”
I stand there with my hand held out and he just grins. “I got a worm I can give ya.”
Charging him, I do my best to grab the bag of candy from his hand. He dodges me on the skinny dock and I poke his ribs, causing him to lose his balance. His feet teeter on the edge and, just before he goes into the lake, he yanks me down with him.
We both fall into the water with a giant splash and the candy wrapper floats on the top, empty.
“Good job, dipshit.” I laugh, the nickname earning me a splash in the face. “Now neither of us can have them.”
He splashes me again and I wrap my arms around his neck, trying my best to playfully push him under. He grips both of my ass cheeks as I wrap my legs around his waist. We’re both thrashing around and giggling when Reiss clears his throat.
He stares at us, but his eyes fall straight to Colson. The second they do, Colson releases his grip on my sides and Ifloat away from him. He quickly swims to the edge of the dock and lifts himself up.
“Let’s go,” Reiss demands. “I need to get to the track, that is, if you’re done groping my sister.”
I nod firmly, knowing the furrow in his brow means he needs to get behind the handlebars so he doesn’t do something stupid.
“I’m coming. Let me go tell Stas bye.”
I pull myself up onto the dock and wring my hair out. Colson gives me a reassuring look because he can see the worry in my eyes over what Reiss just said about him groping me.
I stare at them both for a second and grab a towel out of my bag before taking off up the stairs into Lakeside.
When I walk inside, Stassie is sitting at the bar with two empty shot glasses in front of her, looking absolutely miserable. London Boy is nowhere to be found.
“What happened to Drew?” I ask, taking the stool next to her.
She only shrugs, never looking up from the empty glass. Her blonde hair is tied back in a slick bun so I can see her eyes and I swear they have tears in them.
“Stas…” I whisper “What’s wrong?”
She shakes her head and quickly wipes away her tears, not wanting me to see that they were even there.
“Nothing, okay.”
My chest is tight with emotion. I don’t like seeing her upset.
“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
She pushes the stool away from the bar and stands up, “I don’t want to talk right now. Can you call me later? Ineed to get home before my dad realizes his boat keys are missing.”
I narrow my eyes at her, classic Stas to take the boat without permission. She just laughs through her tears. “I’m fine, I promise.”
I don’t press, knowing that sometimes it’s better to just give someone space. That’s exactly how I felt the night Jackson came into my room. I didn’t want to talk to my brother about it, I didn’t know how to talk about it. I still don’t.
Something tells me that there’s a lot more going on with Reiss and Stas than we all know and I hate that he is hurting her with Mira.
Twenty minutes later we are pulling the bikes out of the shop and gearing up to ride. Colson has been on his leg a lot today and doesn’t feel like riding so he’s working on the bike trying to finish putting it together. It’s just going to be me and Reiss this time.
“I want you to push me,” Reiss says. “Like more than usual.”
