“Lucy. I don’t give a sh—” I was going to say something else, but looking at her makes me feel like she’s too sweet fo
r cuss words, so I correct myself. “Crap. I don’t give a crap about the hair on your legs, and no one else will either. Look, I’ll prove it.” I reach out and grab her foot, pulling it and her leg out from under her. Before she can protest, I run my hand gently from her ankle up her shin to her knee, and I can tell you one thing, I really don’t give a crap about the hair. I meant for the gesture to be playful and funny and break the ice between us, but instead, I feel sparks flying off my fingertips. Not good to have that strong of a reaction to a woman I need to stay away from.
I slide my eyes up to her face, and her mouth is open, eyes wide, cheeks crimson red. “I. Can’t. Believe. You. Just. Did. That.” She blinks at me and then at the place where I haven’t moved my hand from her knee yet. I need to move it. I SHOULD move it. But I don’t want to. Her skin is warm beneath my palm, and touching her feels different than I’ve felt with anyone else. “Goodness, you really are a flirt.”
Her words act like a bucket of cold water. She doesn’t think I’m being genuine, and also…Drew’s sister. I can’t act this way with her.
I smile and pull my hand back. “Sorry. Not trying to seduce you, I swear,” I say, emphasizing the word to remind her of her earlier ridiculous statement. Time to tug us back into the friend zone—probably my least favorite of all the zones. “But now that I’ve not only seen, but also touched your hairy legs and you don’t see me running away screaming, you have no choice but to come cliff jumping with us.”
“Cliff jumping?! No.” She’s vehemently shaking her head. “No, no, no. I don’t do that kind of thing.”
“By ‘that kind of thing’ you mean exhilarating fun?”
“Don’t make me remind you about my book. I go on all kinds of exhilarating adventures in those.”
I scoot a little closer without meaning to. “I would argue that books give the illusion of fun. But believe me, there’s nothing like the real thing.”
She lifts a brow, and I could swear she scoots closer too. “I’ll argue that you’re wrong. Studies show that reading a book actually increases serotonin in your brain and reduces stress.”
“You know what else releases serotonin and reduces stress?” I watch Lucy swallow, and her eyes dip to my mouth. “Cliff jumping,” I whisper with a smug smile.
The corners of her lips curve up so softly as she continues staring at mine, making this moment feel oddly intimate and charged. I wonder if she’s feeling the same pull I’m feeling.
“Cooper!” Bailey and her friend Jessica both singsong at me from in the water. “Come on! Let’s go to the cliffs.”
“Yeah, Cooper.” That’s Drew now, mocking their flirtatious voices. “Let’s go! I need you to hold my hand while we jump!” His voice sounds ridiculous, and it’s followed up by an oof. I imagine Bailey and Jessica both hitting him in the stomach.
I look back at Lucy, and her new closed-off expression pokes at me. “You guys go without me.”
Her brow furrows tightly together, like she can’t fathom that I would want to stay on this boat with her rather than go off with the others to the cliffs.
We both hear footsteps on the boat and look up to see Bailey making her way toward us, dripping and not bothering with a towel. She comes to stand right in front of me, and I’m honestly nervous she’s going to try to sit in my lap or something. That’s classic Bailey kind of stuff and exactly the sort of slightly overbearing personality I’m getting tired of. I was never drawn to women with that personality before Janie, and like Lucy is a spotlight shining on my life, I can see with perfectly clarity all the places I’ve lost touch with myself over the past year.
Thankfully, Bailey remains standing. She does, however, playfully reach out for my hand and try to tug me up. “Come on. I need you to come with me! I’m too scared to jump on my own.” No, she’s not; she’s playing coy for attention. I know she has no problem jumping off those cliffs because I’ve seen her do it many times before.
“Nah, y’all go on. I don’t want to leave Lucy alone,” I say, making Bailey’s awareness suddenly shift to the beautiful woman sitting scrunched up in the corner, cover-up pulled tightly down over her knees.
“Oh. Well…Lucy, do you want to come too?” To her credit, Bailey actually does sound welcoming.
“Uh, no thanks.”
“You sure?” Bailey asks, that blinding smile aimed at Lucy. I can practically see Lucy shrinking away before my eyes. What in the world does she think she has to be intimidated about?
“Yep. I’m good.”
Satisfied, Bailey shrugs her shoulders and tugs my hand harder. “Okay, well, she said she’s good, so let’s go.” I don’t budge, and Bailey gets desperate, starting to look around the boat. She spots Lucy’s book laying on the other seat, grabs it, and tosses it onto Lucy’s lap with a patronizing smile that grates on me. “There. That looks like a fun read! Now you have something to do while we’re gone.” She grabs my wrist again, yanking harder. Now I’m just annoyed. “Come onnnnn, Cooper! I need you to jump with me!”
Something shifts in Lucy’s eye as she looks from the book, to Bailey, to me. Finally, she tosses the novel aside and stands up—eye level with Bailey. “Actually, cliff jumping sounds like fun after all. I’m in.”
I’m NOT in. So very not in. In fact, I’d say I’m pretty solidly out.
With every single step I climb up this cliffside, I question my mental stability more and more. Obviously, there are some cylinders not firing correctly in my head to have so easily succumbed to jealousy. One minute, I’m blissfully reading on the boat. The next, Cooper is beside me, sending electrical currents through my body with a single look, and then I’m jumping up like the underdog in a movie, challenging the mean girl for a guy who is WAY out of my league.
Now, I’m almost to the top of the cliff, and all I want to do is drop to the ground and spread my body out to grip the earth as much as possible. This is terrifying. And SO high up! Worst part of all, I’m up here alone, with everyone down below, floating in the water and chanting my name. Super. I love when people chant my name to get me to jump off fifty-foot cliffs.
Should have stayed home.
I reach the top, and my legs wobble when I look over the edge. Ohhhhh no. I can’t do this. Did I mention I’m deathly afraid of heights? So afraid that I even avoid the glass railings on the second floor of the mall. I’m an idiot for agreeing to this—for letting Cooper’s hypnotic aqua eyes coax me into adventure. I HATE adventure. If there were a shirt with that saying, I’d buy it and wear it every day with a matching hat.