When I found the courage to turn around, my eyes locked on his . . . and his eyes locked on mine too. Grinning, he jogged until he was right in front of me. His eyes didn’t leave mine the entire journey. I wanted to cry with relief. I wanted to cry with the love I had for the guy standing in front of me, a love that, inconceivably, grew each day.
“Go for a swim with me,” Jesse said, grabbing me and hoisting me up until my legs tangled around his waist.
“Now? No sun tanning to warm us up before we jump into that glacial water?”
“Nope. I need to go in now.”
I grabbed Jesse’s upper arms and held on as he started toward the end of the dock. When we passed Jolene, he acted like he didn’t even know she was there. Her on the other hand? She definitely knew he was there. She was running those eyes all over there again.
“Why? What’s the rush, Walker?” Not that I cared, but we both knew the water would feel like tiny needles pricking our skin until it went numb.
“I need to cool down.”
My eyebrows pinched together in confusion. His hips rocked gently into me, and I understood. “Super. Now I’m in need of cooling down.”
“Good timing, then.”
“Good timing for what?”
Jesse’s arms tightened around me before he leapt into the air. “For this!”
That water wasn’t just glacial; it was something else. My skin was unable to decide if it was closer to burning or freezing, but I couldn’t have cared less if my skin was actually on fire. When Jesse held me that close, nothing else seemed important. When our heads burst to the surface, we sucked in gulp of air. Jesse let me have a second breath before his mouth covered mine. I didn’t even realize we were in water anymore, let alone that it was freezing cold. I loosened my legs around him just enough to drop a few inches. From the feel of it, the water wasn’t cooling him down much.
“Hey! I didn’t sign up to watch the two of you suck face all afternoon. Detach and behave yourselves,” Josie shouted from the dock.
“Then don’t watch!” I broke away from Jesse long enough to yell back. “We didn’t sign up to have a third wheel times three this afternoon!”
Josie waved dismissively. “Whatevs. Get over yourselves and your all-consuming love for each other thingy. We get it already.” Josie stood, stretched, and tested the water with her toes. “Let’s do something fun.” Jesse and I lifted her eyebrows. “Fun for all of us. Not just the horn-dogs in the bunch.”
“You look like you’re having a blast up there on that dock,” I said.
“I’m bored, and we’ve been here a grand total of two minutes.”
I don’t know why Josie had been so eager to tag along. She knew we were going to the swimming hole. As far as entertainment went, she needed to get creative.
“What did you have in mind, Josie?” Jesse asked, swimming us toward the shore until we could touch bottom.
“Ooo, I know!” Jolene interjected in her excited voice, with her excited face and her excited eyes. Excited. Bleh. “Let’s have a camel fight.”
Could the girl get anymore Girls Gone Wild? First the slow, porn-quality strip, and now this? A camel fight? Jiminy Christmas.
“Sold. That sounds ten times better than sitting on this rickety old dock just waiting for it to sink.” With that, Josie tossed her sunglasses aside and jumped in.
Jolene took a minute longer, having to take off her ankle wrap and pull her hair into a bun. After adjusting her swimsuit—for the bajillionth time—she hurried to the shallow end of the dock and stepped in where the water was at knee level. The way she’d booked it down the dock further confirmed my theory that she was milking her ankle injury for all it was worth. Especially if it was worth a ride in Jesse Walker’s arms.
“Are we really doing this?” I asked Josie when she paddled up to Jesse and me.
“You better believe your grumpy ass we are.”
“I call shoulders since I’m temporarily handicapped,” Jolene said, wading toward us.
She was going to wind up permanently handicapped before the week was over.
“Well you’re not riding my shoulders because that ass of yours might be bony, but you’re as tall as an Amazon. Find another pair of shoulders,” Josie said.
“Looks like it’s you and me then, Jesse.”
And just like that, we’d all walked right into her web.
“Hello.” I waved. “There is one other person here.” As much as I knew she’d like to ignore me.
“Oh. Yeah. I know. Sorry, Rowen, and no offense, but”—Jolene’s smile screamed condescension—“you’re the littlest of us. I didn’t think you’d be strong enough to take me. Why don’t you ride on Josie’s shoulders?”
I had to bite my lip. I had to bite it so damn hard to keep from spewing what I wanted to reply. I hadn’t missed her choice of wording with take me, and from the tilt of her brow, she hadn’t wanted me to miss it either.
“Lean down a bit, Jesse.” Practically shoving onto his shoulders, Jolene finagled her way up them in two seconds flat. Sprained ankle, my ass. “Hold on tight to my legs. The tighter the better because I do not, and I repeat do not, want to get my hair wet.”
Jolene was just rising to every one of my cliché standards for her.
Jesse gave me that look, one I was getting familiar with. The look that said Is this okay? The one that asked What do you want me to do? That look endeared him to me that much more.
Replying with one nod, I practically dunked Josie while climbing on her shoulders. Josie grumbled a few words, gave me a hard pinch, and grabbed hold of my knees.
“I hope you don’t mind the wet poodle look,” I warned Jolene. I capped my warning with a smile as Josie marched toward Jesse and Jolene.
“You obviously don’t.” Jolene capped hers with just as overdone a smile.
Jesse was holding her ankles and his forehead was wrinkled like he wasn’t sure there’d ever been such a bad idea.
“You’re going down.” I extended my arms, eager to knock Jolene from her high tower atop my man’s shoulders.
“No. You are.” With that, Jolene’s arms thrust forward, and her hands landed square above my swimsuit top. I was falling through the water before I’d even gotten out a scream.
When I resurfaced, Jesse was rushing my way with Jolene still atop him. “Rowen? Are you okay?”
Josie sputtered to the surface beside me. “I’m okay,” I said, spitting out a liter of lake water.
“She’s okay,” Jolene repeated, grinning down at me. “Again?”
“Again.” Climbing on top of Josie again, I felt something new trickle into my veins. Revenge? Resolve? I didn’t know, but it couldn’t hurt. “Hold on tighter, Josie.”
Josie huffed. “Yeah. And don’t take a direct hit like that next time.”
“One, two, three, four. I declare a camel-fight war,” Jolene sing-sung as Josie and I came at them.
“It’s war, all right.” That time, I wouldn’t underestimate how long her go-go-gadget arms were. Or her strength. She might have puny arms, but I’d forgotten how strong ranch life made a person.
“Yes, it is”—Jolene dodged my arms when they came at her—“and you’re the loser.”
That time, I took the hit to my abdomen. My back actually stung from how hard I slapped the water. I’d never felt anger how I felt it when I broke through the surface. I ignored Jesse’s concern and Jolene’s triumphant expression when I climbed on top of Josie for the third time. I wouldn’t be the first to go down again. That was final. I didn’t care if she ripped out my hair or broke my collar bone. I wasn’t losing to Jolene.
“Get that bitch off her high horse, Rowen,” Josie muttered up at me, sliding wet streaks of hair from her face. “Or off your hot boyfriend.”
“Planning on it.”
Jolene had her hands on her hips as Josie and I came at them. “If you could’a, you would’a.”