“Your turn.”
She grins, and then races straight toward me, plugging her nose before she jumps over my head, tucking her feet against her butt as she falls into the pool.
When she rises out of the water, her smile is radiant. “That jump of yours might have been more impressive than your abs,” she tells me.
“What about my pecs?” I ask, swimming toward her.
“What about them?” she asks, swimming on her back in the opposite direction of me.
I laugh aloud. Hadley rarely cuts me down, but she also rarely talks about my physical features, complimenting me instead on the pranks I pull, my reactions, football, and even the paper I asked her to proofread for me. I’m never quite sure if it’s because she’s working to fight the attraction between us as avidly as I am or because she’s resigned me to the friendzone, which Palmer would say is the silver bullet.
“I was worried the water would be freezing.”
“Another fear down to celebrate you kicking ass and overcoming public speaking. What other fears can we break tonight?”
She shakes her head, stopping when she can touch the bottom. “I don’t know that we’ve overcome my initial fear. The night’s still young. Plenty of time for cops to come and haul us off to jail.”
I remain a couple of feet back. “Tell me more about the speech. Did you feel good about it?”
She pulls in a breath, the hollow of her throat drawing my gaze there and then lower, her body distorted by the water.
“I don’t know if she gave me a pity pass, to be honest. I really was the only one stuck on the introduction speech.”
“Have you always hated public speaking?”
She visibly winces. “I had to give a speech in the seventh grade, and it was literally the thing of nightmares. I tripped in front of the entire class on my way to the front of the room, and it got worse from there. And I know that’s ridiculous, and I should be able to overcome a silly accident from a decade ago. But it’s like I’ve convinced myself that I’m going to look and sound like an idiot like I did that day. It’s paralyzing.”
“Do you think these past few weeks have helped? Are you feeling more confident? More comfortable?”
“Surprisingly, yes. I don’t know if it’s the repetition or watching others give speeches or the tips you’ve given me, but it’s getting a little easier. I’m still really bad, but my professor said I wasn’t the worst in class this week. So there’s hope.”
“You give your next speech on Monday?”
Her face splits with a smile as she nods. “And I’ll be speaking about how to make a public speech.” She laughs. “Think they’ll appreciate the irony?”
That smile hits me harder and faster than any tackle. All I can think about is how badly I want her and how she’s less than two feet from me, mostly naked and wet.
“Why do we keep fighting this? Why are westillfighting this?”
Her eyes dance between mine, the humor fading into surprise and nerves as she swallows. “Fighting what?”
“I like you and I am so damn attracted to you that I sometimes can’t think of anything besides kissing you again or bending you over the nearest piece of furniture and burying myself in you.”
Lust punctuated by desire flashes in her eyes. “I thought we were friends?”
“We are. We still can be.”
She blinks several times. “Wouldn’t that complicate things? We see each other nearly every day. Plus, I like hanging out with you. I like our jokes and pranks. Things would get weird if we started to hide behind the fridge and shove our hands down each other’s pants.” She peers sideways. “And weirder when one of us decides it’s over.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? What are you even suggesting? Hooking up? Casually dating?”
“Friends with benefits.”
“Friends with benefits,” she repeats. “What does that even look like? Would we still watch shows and movies together? Would we continue our pranks? What about Katie?”
“We’d still watch movies together, I’d just spend part of it with my hands or mouth on you, trying to make you come.”