“Do yours last.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously, yet him and Megan waited until Mum and Dad had opened their gifts. Megan went next, thanking me and Lee with a smile while holding up a spa voucher, then all attention shifted to Fletcher.
He grumbled and muttered about this being a set-up (because it was), then choked on an inhale and let out a booming laugh. “You got me a bag ofdicks?”
“A bag ofchocolatedicks,” I corrected. “Now when people tell you to go eat a bag of dicks, you can proudly tell them that you’ve been there, done that, and got the breath to prove it.”
“Well, Inever,” Mum breathed out while Dad failed to hide how funny he found it.
“Oh my goooooodd,” Lee groaned from behind her palm. “Really, Trav?”
And the part that had me laughing so hard that I had to set down my beer to hold my stomach? Megan eyeing the bag and urging, “Open them, Fletch! We can all have a Christmas dick.”
Lee lost her shit, wheezing with laughter so hard she curled into a ball, and Fletch, bless him, cracked up while shaking his head at his missus.
Yeah, I’d made up my mind about Megan; she wasn’t his usual type… she was so much better.
* * *
We hit Mum and Dad’s pool after lunch, and while we waited for the girls to change into their swimsuits, Fletch swam up to me with a stupid-as-fuck grin on his face.
“So, what do you think of Megan?” he opened with.
I glanced sideways at him. “You don’t need my opinion, bro.”
“I want it.” An expression I hadn’t seen on him before passed over his face. “She’s… different.More.”
I set my beer bottle behind me on the pool tiles and reclined on the first step. “Fine. You’re so much more relaxed than you ever were with Kate or Hazel. You’re not as douchy either.”
He shocked the hell out of me by laughing, then dropping his voice. “That’s because I took your advice.”
My focus cut his way and I squinted at him from under the peak of my cap. “What advice?”
His smile pulled wider. “About samplingothertastes…”
A wave of water radiated out from my body as I sat up quickly and leaned toward him.
“Where the fuck did you meet her?” I hissed as dread formed in the pit of my stomach. I sure as hell hadn’t ever suggested he go down to hooker town.
“At the speedway,” he whisper-exclaimed like it was some kind of outrageous confession.
A loud laugh fell from my open mouth. “Say it like it’s a sin, why don’t you?”
“But you were right, Travis,” he implored. “She’s uplifting and assertive without being a bitch. She’s wild and fun and down for anything—and I meananything,”he drawled and smirked. “And get this…” He leaned in and flicked his sunnies down so I could just see his eyes. “She has atattoo!”
I feigned a horrified gasp and pressed a ‘scandalised’ hand to my inked chest. “Not atattoo!How uncivilised!”
He brandished his middle finger while I leaned against the side of the pool to catch my breath.
“In other words, you’re fucked?” I wheezed after I finally stopped laughing.
His nostrils flared in annoyance. “Yes, Travis. I’mfucked.”
I took a long swig of beer and eased into the water again, this time sitting with my back against the pool lip. Our silence was filled with Ainsley and Megan’s voices in the background, then a hand appeared above the pool gate to unlock it from the inside.
Me and Fletch stared in silence, both barely breathing as our women entered the pool area wearing bikinis and sunglasses.
Ainsley never failed to make my heart lose its steady rhythm, and my mouth salivated while watching her test the water temperature with a dip of her pointed toes.