The twins’ parents had a minivan precisely for this purpose, and since they had normal jobs requiring them to work tomorrow, my dad had volunteered to play chauffeur. Chaperone too, though he was currently holed up in the hotel room doing work on his computer.
“You see Spike and Moody? Thought they were right behind us.” Bodhi leaned back, stretching his arms. The guys had been lifting hard all year and he had his own little set of muscles to show off.
“Yeah, they’re coming. Spike seems to be up to no good though.”
Emmett chuckled. “What’s new?”
Cruz turned to me, and our knees bumped this time. “So, four goals today in the finals, huh? What’s the total then for the tournament?”
I shrugged. “I lost count.”
“Ha. Yeah right,” Bodhi called me out.
Cruz’s mouth curved in a small smile as he watched me. “How many, Hazel?” he asked again. Even the way he said my name made me want to melt into him.
“Twenty-three,” I whispered.
His eyebrows shot up. “That’s almost four goals a game.”
“You can divide,” I deadpanned.
Ignoring me, he added, “We didn’t even get that as a team.”
Emmett shook his head, agreeing. “Nope. Not even close.”
“Whatever.” I was proud of my accomplishments, but when I wasn’t in the moment, sizzling from the competition on the field, I wasn’t real big on talking about it. It sounded dumb, like statistics. It was nothing like the actual sensation of kicking a ball into the back of the net.
Spike’s hollering took the guys’ eyes off me. “We got this whole place to ourselves!” We turned to find him walking in, arms wide and a grin on his face, a water bottle in each hand.
Moody was right behind him, also with water bottles in hand and a mischievous little smile on his face. Oh boy. This was going to be an interesting night.
Cruz
Spike and Moody had managed to get some rum from guys on the U-18 team. They were driving back to Massachusetts tonight, and had half a bottle they were willing to unload to help us celebrate the win. They’d mixed it with Coke, and within an hour Bodhi, Spike and Moody were well on their way to wasted.
“Should we make Bodhi share a room with those two tonight?” I asked Emmett, who had only tried a sip or two.
Emmett sighed. “Nah, figure if he’s gonna puke from drinking for the first time, I should be there so I can hold it over him afterward.”
“That means I should babysit those two idiots.” I nodded at Spike and Moody, who were running up the steps to go down the slide. It was a pretty sweet hotel pool, and I was kind of surprised we’d only had one young couple join us briefly over the past hour. We’d been going back and forth between the pool and the hot tub, with Hazel, me and Emmett opting out on the rum and Coke. Keeping my dick in line around Hazel was already a struggle, I didn’t need anything lowering my inhibitions.
When Emmett got out to use the restroom though, it was just the two of us in the hot tub. She was across from me now and when her emerald eyes hit mine, my body instantly responded.
“Why are you ignoring me, Cruz?” she asked straight out. This was Hazel; she didn’t flirt, not like other girls her age. But she didn’t hide either.
“I’m not ignoring you, Hazel.” I almost laughed at her question.
“You haven’t said anything to me since you asked about how many goals I scored. And you’ve barely looked at me. What’s up?”
This girl. She had no idea how much power she had over me. Or did she?
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Hazel, I’m not ignoring you.”
I’ve been sneaking glances at you every time you get out of the pool. Memorizing the curve of your ass. The swell of your breasts. And praying I can hold it together until I get a cold shower later. There was no way in hell I was admitting any of that to the girl whose gaze was threatening to cut me wide open right now.
She narrowed her eyes right back at me. “I asked if you wanted to go down the slide together and you dove head-first down it without answering.”
Fine. She wanted some honesty? I?