Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,17

Meaning that Nathan and I spent a lot of reluctant time together. And one time Nathan brought Eerie to this party, and she automatically decided that she was going to hate me. No ifs, ands, or buts. The moment she walked in the door, she started glaring. And then she moved to our high school, so things got even worse. She hated that the boys’ and girls’ softball teams traveled together, because she was convinced that I was going to steal her man. It got to the point where she didn’t trust me—and yes, you notice I say me, as if I was going to spike his drink and have my way with him while we were traveling for an away game—and decided to become the team’s water girl, so to speak. I got so tired of it that my senior year I almost quit. When the coach realized that it was either Eerie or me, she got rid of Eerie. And Eerie went out of her way to make sure that I knew how much she hated me.”

Hastings snorted. “What happened with Nathan and her?”

I glanced over at Nathan where he was drinking a beer on his own tube.

His cleft chin had a droplet of water in it, and I wanted to lick it off.

“Nathan and her broke up because Eerie is a controlling bitch that couldn’t fuckin’ let bygones be bygones.”

“She hated Reggie.” Nathan swam back up to the cooler, got yet another beer, and pushed away again, reaching up high to snag the ball before it could make it into Sammy’s waiting hands. He launched it back at Louis who had to dive to catch it. Louis came back up laughing and tossed the ball back our way. Only, this time his aim was way off and hit me straight in the face.

Chapter 7

Blow me. I’m hot.

-Coffee Cup

Nathan

“What’s going on?” I asked as Reggie practically dove off of her tube and disappeared into the water.

I looked back at where Sierra was gasping and looking for her friend, then back at the football that was floating nearby.

“Oh, shit!” Louis cried as he bailed out of his tube and swam Reggie’s way.

Reggie finally came back up for air but immediately went back down again.

I slipped out of my tube, handing my beer to Sammy to hold, and went in search of Reggie.

I found her with blood running down her face and her eyes filled with tears.

“I dropped my bag!” she cried out.

Before she could dive back under again I took her by the waist and pulled her into me, wiping the blood off and rinsing it off in the water.

“What bag?”

“The bag that was holding all my shit,” she growled. “My license. My ring. My keys!”

My brows rose. “Your ring?”

She slashed the air in front of her. “Don’t fucking ask me. I knew I should’ve taken the purse out of my bag, but I was terrified to leave it in the car. There were about a thousand signs there saying not to leave valuables in the car, that the cars get broken into.”

That was true.

There’d been a police officer saying that, too.

But her ring?

That hadn’t been cheap, that was for sure.

Before I could ask anything else, she went under the water again while I watched.

She surfaced, her face alight with horror.

“It had my ring in it,” she repeated, her face finally realizing that it was probably gone.

Now I understood.

That ring had cost a whack.

“Shit,” I grumbled, looking down. “I hate to say it, but it’s gone, honey.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t call me honey.”

My brows rose. “I thought we were going to play nice. Act like we don’t hate each other.”

That was the truce we’d called on the way to the river, right? Or had I made that up?

She sighed and looked down at the water one more time, then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as if to center herself.

“I’m just mad,” she admitted. “I should’ve tested it before I thought it would work in a godforsaken river.”

I agreed, but that was not what she needed to hear right now.

“Are you okay?” Louis asked.

I wiped Reggie’s nose again and nodded. “She’s fine. Just dropped her bag in the water.”

“Oh, shit.” Louis sighed. “I’m sorry, Reggie.”

Reggie shrugged as if it wasn’t that bad. “It’s okay. It was only like ten bucks.”

Liar.

But I knew that she didn’t want him feeling bad. It was an accident.

“What’s going on?”

I turned to Malachi and explained.

“Reggie dropped her waterproof bag. And