Page 53 of Breaking Free
“Yeah, looks like it. Jesus Christ. I’ve never seen so many nice houses in one place until I drove up here.”
“Hey! Hernandez,” Tim yells from the pool.
He raises his hand and starts walking over. I take a breath and try to remind myself not to stare at him too closely when he takes off his shirt to get in the pool.
After a few minutes, Dex gets out and grabs the inflatable volleyball net and ball, and we divide into teams and play a couple games. Me and Dominic end up on opposite teams, which sucks because now I have a perfect view of his muscled body glistening with water. How am I not supposed to stare?
When we stop for a break, Dominic climbs out, and his shorts are plastered to his thighs, making a certain part of him very visible. My eyes linger for a second before I meet his gaze. He winks and I turn away, thankful nobody was paying attention.
“I’m starving,” Renzo complains.
“I ordered pizza,” Dex says. “It’ll be here soon.”
“Dude, we need to go back to Toast. I want to try that bull again,” Tim says.
“Your ass could barely hold on the first time,” Shea replies with a laugh.
“Exactly. I’ll try it sober this time.”
“These two did pretty good,” Shea says, pointing at Jay and Dominic.
“We were so fucking drunk,” Jay says. “I don’t know how we stayed on for as long as we did.”
“Which was only a few seconds,” Dom adds.
“When do you turn twenty-one, Campbell?” Dominic asks me.
“In a few weeks.”
“Let’s plan to go then,” Dom says, looking at the rest of the guys. “We can get Campbell drunk.”
Everyone agrees to go out on my birthday weekend, then we start talking about different topics, the conversations breaking up into groups.
Dominic stands next to me as I sit in one of the chairs and asks me if I’ve seen some movie. When I tell him I have, we make fun of the plot, but then he says, “The guy was hot, though.” I almost agree, but instead laugh.
Jay’s nearby and says, “Well, it looks like you two kissed and made up.”
“What?” I question.
He laughs. “Don’t even act like you weren’t being standoffish and weird around him.”
“I guess I was just in a mood. I don’t know. It’s not a big deal.”
“I’m pretty charming,” Dom jokes. “It’s hard not to like me.”
I shake my head, but refuse to look at him because I may blush.
Dex’s dad comes out wearing an expensive looking suit, carrying pizzas. “Dex, I gotta get back to the office. Someone’s threatening to quit.”
Dex takes the pizzas from his dad. “Who? Why?”
His dad shakes his head. “One of the secretaries, and I don’t know why.”
“Okay.”
He says bye to everyone before rushing off, his phone already to his ear.
The rest of us sit around and devour the pizza. I find it’s not too hard to be around Dominic. Yeah, my eyes keep finding their way to him, and yes, I can’t stop thinking about how much I want to kiss and touch him, but at least I’m not acting it out. At least nobody’s caught me staring when I shouldn’t be.