Page 18 of Like You Know

I hadn’t bothered checking in with Mom when we landed. She’d probably forgotten where I was as soon as the car had turned out of our driveway. I hadn’t heard anything from her, no missed calls or messages demanding to know I was OK.

My friends were the closest thing I had to family. But Donna and Harlow were sisters and Mena was their cousin. They actually were family. I’d always be the extra. I knew they didn’t see me like that, not really, but I couldn’t help wishing I was tied to them by blood too. I wanted that irrefutable connection they had to each other.

I took another drag of my cigarette. I didn’t want to be thinking about this shit. Didn’t want to be feeling ...things.

I grabbed my phone, put the cigarette out after one last puff, and snapped a photo of the paradise before me, making sure to position my legs just so and get them into the shot. Ignoring the countless notifications, I posted it. My followers loved the vacay posts, probably because of all the bikini shots. Two separate swimwear companies had already reached out to me, offering to pay me to wear their stuff. I couldn’t be bothered dealing with any of it until we got home. Instead, I opened my reading app and lost myself in an epic romantic fantasy.

It did the trick getting my mind off everything, and an hour flew past before I realized. My friends had been in and out of the water, chatting and messing around while I was absorbed in my book. Now most of the girls were lined up on the sand tanning, and some of the guys were in the shallow water throwing a ball around.

I got to my feet, pulled my bikini wedgie out of my ass, and wandered down to the water. I was sweaty and overheated from sitting in the sun for so long, but the ocean in the Bahamas always felt perfect. The softest sand ever squished between my toes as I stepped into the refreshing waves.

I’d waded up to my thighs when one of the guys threw the ball too wide and it landed with a splat right next to me. In the next moment, Luke and Jet both leaped for it, jostling and flailing all over the place, splashing the shit out of me.

I squealed, the shock of the water enough to startle me despite its mild temperature.

Luke and Jet turned wide eyes to me, the ball bobbing between them. Then they both burst out laughing.

“Fucking hell, Amaya! I thought you were dying!” Luke said through chuckles.

I huffed and leaned back into the water. “You startled me!”

Jet smacked Luke in the junk. “What he means is, we didn’t mean to get in your way. Sorry.”

I’d managed to avoid Jet on the trip so far ... sort of. We spent most of our time as a group, so it wasn’t too difficult to keep at least three people between us at all times. We hadn’t had any “alone time,” and I’d hardly had to speak to him directly at all.

His presence was still distracting though. I was constantly aware of him—talking to all my friends, roughhousing with the guys, having long conversations with the girls, going for runs on the beach while most of us were still in bed. And he was goddamn shirtless most of the time! All that toned muscle and tanned skin constantly in my face. He seemed to always be around whenever I got to a spicy part in my book. Which frustrated me in a whole other way.

I wasn’t so stubborn that I couldn’t admit the dude was insanely hot. But I was my mother’s daughter and determined not to make her mistakes. I refused to chase men. Especially ones that dated so much and always managed to avoid sharing anything about themselves in any detail.

But I couldn’t avoid noticing him—especially in this setting.

Most of the time his eyes looked so dark I’d thought they were black. But in the bright sunshine and the turquoise water all around him, I could see streaks of warm, rich brown. It was kind of mesmerizing.

I tipped my head back to wet my hair (and avoid licking him with my hungry eyes).

“Whatever.” I waved them off as I got to my feet. “I’m all wet now anyway.”

Jet cleared his throat and looked to the side, his lips pressed tightly together. Luke’s shoulders shook and his face went red with the effort to hold back his own laughter.

I rolled my eyes. “Grow up.”

They both lost it, the laughs busting out.

“Are we playing ball?” Drew called from behind them. “Or are you two just going to stand around and listen to Amaya talk about how wet she is?”

Trust Drew to take a double entendre and ride it even harder—pun totally intended. I flipped him off as Luke scooped the ball up and turned back toward the guys.

“Second option!” Jet called and threw me a heated look. “Every damn time.”

Before I could process or respond, his eyes widened as if he hadn’t meant to say that out loud—or at all. He turned and splashed past Luke in an awkward water run. Was he flirting? Or running away from me?

I raced after them and jumped onto Luke’s back. With the element of surprise on my side, I wrestled the ball out of his grip but also managed to send us both splashing into the water.

I joined the guys for a while, trying to keep up with them. They tossed me around almost as much as the ball and lifted me into the air to make catches when someone threw it extra high. It was good exercise—and a good distraction from Jet and his perplexing behavior.

My mood had significantly lifted by evening. The melancholy I’d been feeling earlier completely vanished, chased away by the sun, sand, and splashing around with my friends. I wasn’t even bothered by hanging around Jet all day.

A smug little voice in the back of my head suggested it was probablybecauseI’d been hanging around Jet that my mood had lifted. That it was because he’d shared his fries with me at lunch, because he’d made me laugh when he cracked a joke about Nicola and Donnie looking as if they were on the verge of another breakup. That it was because he’d picked me up and thrown me around in the water more than any of the others—and I liked it. I’d stayed in the sun without reapplying sunscreen way longer than I would’ve at any other time. I liked his hands on me. A little too much.