something.”
“That’s right!” Logan proclaims in better spirits. “It’ll just take me a minute. I’ll be back in a jiff,” he adds before sprinting across the street back to his house.
"Maybe we should take you shopping for some new clothes, kiddo. Give your wardrobe a San Antonio makeover. What do you say?”
“I’d like that, Dad. Can we go after I come back though? I’d really like to see this river my new friends want to show me,” I explain, hoping he takes the hint on how important it is to me that the boys are here inviting me out.
“Sure, kiddo. We can go after you come back. We’ll make an afternoon of it. Have some lunch at the mall. Maybe even see a movie.”
“We like movies. Can we come?” Quaid interrupts my dad unashamedly.
“How about you boys enjoy Valentina’s company this morning, and leave the afternoon for me, okay? We can do a movie night some other time,” my father retorts, trying hard to keep his goofy smile in check at my new friend’s eagerness.
“Okay,” Quaid mumbles dispiritingly, kicking the air at his feet while Carter just scoffs behind him.
“Desperate much?” Carter taunts under his breath, low enough not to grab my father’s attention, but I hear the reprimand just fine.
“I think it’s sweet,” I quip, promptly coming to Quaid's defense.
But my knee jerk reaction to come to the green-eyed boy’s aid only makes both he and I blush profusely, as well as gain a deep scowling black look from Carter.
“See? She thinks I’m sweet,” Quaid rebukes over his shoulder.
Before I’m able to set him straight, since the same sudden need to protect Carter is just as strong, Logan shows up all smiles carrying a small plastic bag in his hand.
“This was the only one I could find that seemed small enough to fit you. I hope I didn’t mess up,” Logan states sheepishly as he hands me the bag with my borrowed swimsuit.
“I’m sure you didn’t. I’ll just go upstairs to put this on.” I give all three boys a glowing smile and then discreetly tilt my head over to my dad so I can have a word without the boys listening in. “Be cool while I’m getting ready, okay? Don’t scare them off, Dad. Promise?”
“I’ll be a total angel,” he replies, going as far as drawing an invisible halo above his head.
I slant my eyes at him and point a menacing finger in his face, before turning around and heading back upstairs to my room. I’m still halfway there when the following words leave my father’s lying mouth, “So boys, who wants to see my gun collection?”
Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
He's going to scare the bejesus out of them. As much as my dad wants me to have all the friends in the world, I knew that three boys showing up at our doorstep would set off my father’s alpha protector side. No way around that, so I just better hurry up before he starts loading the rifles to make his point.
I drop the contents of the bag onto my bed, and it takes me a minute to know which piece of fabric goes where. A moronic thought springs into my head, and I hate that my mind sometimes goes there.
This is where having a mom would help.
Just as fast as that horrid sentiment popped inside my head, I push it furiously away.
“You can figure this out on your own, Val. You don’t need her.”
Once I establish what goes on the top and what goes on the bottom, I cringe putting the damn bikini on. Logan said this was the smallest thing he could find, and he wasn’t kidding. It barely covers my butt! I make a mental note to look for a one-piece swimming suit when I go on this afternoon shopping spree with Dad. No way will I feel comfortable in anything else, and this bikini just proves it. When I fasten the strings of the top half behind my back, I see that the two yellow triangles are way too big for my small boobs. Mother Nature hasn’t taken its course with me yet, so aside from my big bootie, everything else on my body is incredibly small.
“Yep, this is not going to cut it,” I mutter again to myself.
Never one to call defeat, I rummage through a drawer and pick out a t-shirt that I can get wet in and not feel too bad about ruining it with river water. I look in the mirror just