Page 49 of When We Were Reckless
“Holdthe bottom and wrap your lips around the top. Take it as far as it can go and slide it in and out. No teeth, though. Just lips. Unless he deserves it, then feel free to sink your teeth in.”
I was laughing so hard I nearly choked. “I can’t do this. This cucumber is too fat.”
Evie shrugged. “You said he felt big.”
“Yeah, but… I mean…” I stared at the cucumber in my hand. We’d peeled the top half but left the skin on the bottom. Evie claimed it would make it easier to grip. I wrapped my lips around the cucumber again and sucked on it before I bit off the top, making Evie laugh.
“Do you think this is dick-sized?” I waved the cucumber in the air as I floated past her on my giant inflatable donut. Pink with sprinkles. Evie was on the chocolate donut with sprinkles.
She grabbed the cucumber from my hand and studied it before taking a big bite. “It depends on the guy,” she said. “But don’t get your hopes up. He won’t taste like a cucumber. We should have rolled it in salt. How weird is it that we’re expected to suck on something that guys pee with?”
My nose scrunched up. “Ew. And how weird is it that you’re eating something I was sucking on?”
She wrapped her lips around the cucumber and pushed it into her mouth as far as it would go, her cheeks hollowed before she slid it out. “I’m deep-throating a cucumber. This has to be an all-time low.” She shook her head like she couldn’t believe it and tossed the cucumber across the pool. “Look. It’s a floater.”
We both cracked up as we watched the cucumber bob past us in the water. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt, and I nearly capsized my donut.
“Have you given Ridge a blow job yet?” I asked a few minutes later. Obviously, I had sex on the brain.
“I’m not going there. Too many girls have already been up close and personal with his dick.”
I thought about that for a minute. “So you want to be someone special to him?”
She shrugged and trailed her hand through the water, staring into the blue depths. “I shouldn’t even be hanging out with him.”
“Why not?”
“We’re too alike. We come from similar backgrounds. It could never end well.”
“But that’s a good thing that you’re so alike.” The fact that she knew that about Ridge meant that they must have talked about important things. They’d opened up to each other enough to know that they had a lot in common. “Who says it has to end?”
She sighed. “He’s going to San Marcos State to play football. This is his big opportunity. His chance to do something better with his life. I don’t want to be the girl standing in his way.” She spun around on her donut and then faced me again. Her green eyes were almost translucent in the sunlight, dark hair slicked back from her face. “Besides, I have my own plans for the future, and I can’t get sidetracked by some guy.”
In the fall, Evie was starting the nursing program at the community college in Austin. She didn’t want to leave Wren, so she’d be living at home and commuting. She wanted to be an ER nurse, and I knew she’d be amazing at it. Evie was tough and strong, but she was caring too. When I had my second kidney transplant, she was there for me. That’s how you learned who your true friends were. They were the ones who showed up in good times and bad, and they lifted your spirits even when you weren’t much fun to be around.
“San Marcos is only a forty-minute drive from Cypress Springs,” I pointed out. “Why couldn’t you have it all? The futureandthe boy.”
She shook her head, empathically denying my words. “Life doesn’t work that way. You can’t have it all.”
Sometimes she was so pessimistic, and it made me want to shake some sense into her. I wanted her to dream big, to believe that anything was possible, but I knew it was hard for her to see a bright future for herself. “Youcanhave it all, Evie. You like him, right?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Meh.”
I splashed water at her. “Lie to yourself all you want. But admit it to me, at least. I’m your best friend,” I reminded her. “I told you all about Jesse.”
“Fine. He’s okay, I guess.” But a little smile tugged at her lips, giving her away.
I grinned. “Oh my God. You’re such a liar. You really like him.”
“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes, but she still couldn’t hide the smile. “I don’t want him to know. His ego is already as super-inflated as this donut.”
I laughed. “You’re ridiculous. So… are you going to have sex?”
“I’m not… we’re not… Quinn, he’s…” She clamped her mouth shut and pursed her lips like she was trying to keep the words inside and regretted saying as much as she did, which had told me absolutely nothing.
“He’s what? What is Ridge?”
Evie studied her nails, painted black cherry, her signature color, and refused to meet my eye. “You know how he is. He’s a total player.”
