Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,9

I let myself think about him. Well, he probably wasn’t a boy anymore. He and my brother were having their thirtieth birthdays next year. Carter would be a man now, and that was something I desperately wanted to see.

I craned my neck to try catching a glimpse of him, but Billy rolled his eyes and gave my shoulder a light push. “Hot Carter? Since when did you think he was hot?”

“Since always.” I rolled my eyes right back at him. As the youngest child in a sarcastic family, eye-rolling was an art I’d perfected as a toddler. My brother was pretty good at it too, though. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t know I thought he was hot. I mean, I’m not blind, am I?”

“I didn’t know you thought he was hot.” Billy’s face contorted into a horrified expression. “I used to invite him over to come swimming all the time. Were you perving on my friend when he was there?”

“Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate before replying. Carter and Billy used to be on the swim team together. “Your afternoon practice sessions at our place are legitimately among my favorite childhood memories.”

He groaned out loud and slapped a hand over his face. “I really didn’t need to know that. Fuck. I’m going to have to send him an apology gift basket.”

I shimmied a little, smirking when it made him wince. “That’s a great idea. I’d fit in a basket if we got one big enough. What else would you like to send him?”

“Not you, for starters. It’d be a basket to apologize for your eyes violating my poor, innocent friend who only wanted to cool down and practice with me.”

“Your poor, innocent friend?” Yeah, my brother definitely hadn’t been paying attention in high school.

It wasn’t like I’d hide out in my bedroom and spy on them from there—well, not always anyway. Very often, I’d put on my bikini and join them by the pool. Billy’s poor, innocent friend had had roving eyes of his very own.

Sadly, those lingering gazes and afternoons filled with sizzling tension between us were as far as things had ever gone. It’d also pretty much been the height of my sexual experiences as a teenager. Being turned on by my brother’s best friend looking at me was as good as it had gotten back then. Yep. I was that kind of cool in high school.

Thoughts about Carter and the feelings he’d stirred up in my body had led to some pretty intimate sessions of self-discovery. Handheld showerhead, how I miss you.

I briefly considered torturing Billy by telling him about how I’d named said showerhead Carty after Carter, but decided against it when he gave me a puzzled look. “He was my poor, innocent friend. Wasn’t he? Please don’t tell me you two used to sneak around and make out when I wasn’t looking.”

“I wish.” Billy flinched, but I just shrugged. “No, really. You have no idea how much I used to wish I could be making out with him when you weren’t looking. Where is he? I want to see him.”

“I don’t know where he is, but I hope it’s far, far away from here,” my brother complained. “Why are you giving me grief about this now? I don’t need to know the details of your sicko teenage fantasies.”

“Why do those details qualify as being sick? He was really hot, not related to me, nice, funny, and have I mentioned really hot?”

Carter hadn’t been the number-one jock or heartthrob in high school, but he was the only boy who had ever made my heart—and other bits—throb back then. I’d pictured myself running my hands through his thick brown hair so many times I could practically feel the softness of the strands between my fingers even now.

In my fantasies, I’d conveniently left out the hair gel they all used to lather themselves up with. I didn’t want to have to contend with having to get that goop off my hands even in my wildest dreams.

No, I’d always imagined that Carter would’ve just washed it all out of his long hair especially for me, or I’d pretend he didn’t use it at all. Those luscious chestnut locks of his were always silky soft when I pulled my imaginary fingers through them.

He’d look at me with those gorgeous brown eyes, and his beautiful, sexy smile would spread across his lips just before he leaned down to kiss me. I must’ve gotten a dopey, dreamy look on my face thinking about