mouth with the back of my hand. It had to be a hundred degrees today. The cool water beckoned but now I had to see this through before I could go for a swim.
“Or using our trigger finger.” Tyler shot a finger gun and we laughed. Reese’s face turned so red it matched his hair and for a minute I felt almost bad about teasing him. That quickly changed.
“Okay. You’re on.” He smirked. “I’ve got just the girl in mind.” I followed his gaze to a group of girls at the picnic table in a grove of trees dancing to a Black Eyed Peas song. My eyes zeroed in on Lila just like they always did whenever she was in my vicinity. She was wearing a green striped bikini that showed off… well, everything. Her taut stomach, suntanned legs, and boobs that hadn’t been there last summer. I watched, mesmerized as her hips swiveled to the beat and her long, wavy hair flew out around her.
I’d never seen her dance before, and now I couldn’t drag my eyes away. Before, I’d thought of her as girl-next-door pretty. But now what I saw was something different. Girl-next-door hot.
Watching her dance like this confirmed something I’d suspected for a while now. She’d become more to me than just my childhood friend.
I grabbed Reese by the shoulder as he lurched forward, ready to make his move. “Lila is off-limits. Any other girl but her.”
“Pretty sure your words were ‘Pick a girl. Any girl.’ Are you backing down now, McCallister?” He puffed out his scrawny chest. “Scared she’ll see that I’m the guy for her?”
“You’re not the guy for her.” I widened my stance and crossed my arms over my sweaty chest, confident that I was the guy for her. Not Reese. Not Tyler. Not that douchebag Kyle who was always sniffing around like a dog.
“Guess we’ll see about that. Hey Brody,” Reese yelled as my cousin climbed out of the bed of a truck I didn’t recognize and ambled down the hill toward us. Even in boardshorts and a T-shirt, he walked, looked and acted like a cowboy. He’d gotten involved in the rodeo and this summer he’d been competing in bronc riding. Which just went to show how crazy he was.
He ran his fingers through his longish dirty-blond hair and stopped in front of us, squinting against the sun. “What’s up?”
“Reese here claims he got a BJ from some chick on his family vacation,” Tyler said.
Brody snorted. “Sounds like a tall tale to me. You’ve got no game, dude.”
My thoughts exactly. Sometimes Brody and I were on the same page.
“I’m about to prove you all wrong. Watch me make my moves on Lila Turner.” He cracked his knuckles and rolled out his shoulders, psyching himself up for what I was sure would be a massive defeat.
Brody’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. He gave me an inquiring look that asked if I was cool with this. Pretty sure he could tell that I wasn’t.
When it came to Lila, we were in complete agreement. Nobody got to mess with her. Not any of the guys or the girls. We made sure of it. She was ours to protect.
“He’s going to get shot down,” Brody said. “Might as well enjoy the show.”
“Too bad he missed the memo that she belongs to Jude.”
“Not sure how he could have. Jude might as well have announced it over the school loudspeaker, it was that loud and clear.”
Couldn’t deny it. It was the damn truth. But Reese wasn’t overly bright. Nice guy, a few screws loose but he wasn’t a douchebag. Which was the only reason I stood back and watched from the sidelines, eyes narrowed, arms crossed over my chest, as Reese moved in on Lila.
“Oh, look at that folks, he’s going in. They’re looking this way,” Tyler said, narrating the play-by-play as if I couldn’t see it with my own two eyes.
Reese cupped his hand and whispered something in Lila’s ear. She glanced my way and smiled. I knew that smile. It was the devious smile she used when she was about to do something to piss me off. She leaned in and whispered something in Reese’s ear that put a smile on his face. He took the bottle of suntan lotion from her hand and she turned her back to him, sliding her hair over one shoulder to expose her suntanned skin. Only a string tied at her neck and her back held the bikini