life quarantined into sections. There was Before Nicole, After Nicole, Army, Special Forces, and Triple Canopy. Segmented into partitions, times, and places I refused to allow myself to go. Before Nicole was one of the sectors I vehemently rejected. Therefore, I wouldn’t remember a time when life was fun, carefree, or silly.
“Jason and Carter first, they’re the closest,” Hadley told me, pulling me from my musing. “Once they’re hit, Nick, Ethan, and Jackson will move in and we’ll nail them.”
“You take Jason and Carter,” I amended, less than enthusiastic about throwing water balloons. “I’ll take the others.”
“Brady?”
“Yeah?”
Those damn eyes locked onto mine, and I saw it.
Sadness.
I fucking hated, despised, loathed when she looked at me like that. The wordless pleading gutted me.
“Never mind,” she murmured.
I was impatient by nature, but as with all things Hadley, my impatience was exacerbated as were my finely honed observational skills. I knew when the woman was close, not because I was clairvoyant, but because when she was in proximity, everything intensified. All cognitive thought narrowed to just her.
“Spit it out, Hadley. What’s on your mind?”
“You don’t have to humor me. I just thought it would be fun.”
She turned to leave. On impulse, I reached out to grab her hand. Though when I did and I felt her soft fingers curl around mine, I was taken aback. The curl was immediate like it was natural, intuitive, automatic. I wanted to drop her hand and put much-needed distance between us but I was caught in a web of awareness.
A dangerous web spun by a girl who was too young, too innocent, too sweet for the likes of me. I’d snuff her beauty and steal the good she had in her.
But before I could turn away, water hit me in the face.
Hadley shot forward and her body collided with mine as she tried and failed to avoid getting doused. We were sopping wet, holding on to each other. Teenage laughter rang out but I ignored Carson’s loud giggles, as well as her father, Ethan’s, encouragement. Like always, I tuned in to Hadley. Her scent, her breasts pressing against my chest, her soaking-wet hair that still looked silky even though it was plastered to her head, her body shaking against mine with laughter, the way her hands gripped my sides. I seriously needed to get the fuck away from a very wet, very beautiful, very sexy Hadley Walker.
“It’s on!” Hadley shouted, and thank fuck she pushed off of me, reached inside her pail, and started rapid firing balloons.
Her aim sucked.
She missed Carson more than she hit her. But her face was lit, her smile so big and beautiful, I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing a balloon and launching it at Ethan.
My aim was true.
I hit my next three targets and soon the backyard birthday party was mayhem. Carter rushed forward and scooped up his daughter Emma as she toddled around and just as quickly, he reached for his nephew, Hudson, as Ethan ran to his daughter’s side and took the hose.
Squirt guns, buckets filled with water, and more balloons came out. Six grown men engaged in a hostile water fight.
Six—seven if you included the teenage girl—against Hadley and me. The women stood off to the side, cheered their men on, and laughed themselves stupid. Usually, this would cause my chest to burn with jealousy and I’d abruptly excuse myself and leave the party I hadn’t wanted to attend in the first place. But with Jasper, Clark, Lenox, or Levi’s urging, I always went. My bosses refused to allow me to be the loner I enjoyed being. They pulled me into the fray, into their family.
“Watch your three o’clock, Nick’s coming in hot,” Hadley announced.
Coming in hot.
Cute as fuck.
It was then I let go and had fun.
It didn’t take long for Hadley and me to lose what Delaney had deemed the Water War of the Century. We were soaked to the bone, all of our ammo was gone, and we stood hand-in-hand while the others pelted us by any means they could find.
Of course, I could’ve charged one of the guys and gotten us more balloons, but I’d take a pelting anytime if it meant I got to stand next to Hadley and hear her excitement, see her smile, smell her flowery perfume, breathe in her innocence.
I was royally fucked.
2
“Can’t tonight, Addy,” I told my sister as I balanced my cell between my ear and shoulder.
“Mom’s making twice-baked potatoes,” she returned.
If anything could get me to hightail my butt