Chapter 26

Rory shot up in bed, sweat pouring down his face. He lifted a hand to wipe the hair out of his eyes and realized he was shaking.

Just a nightmare.

Just another stupid fucking night terror that felt all too real.

He threw off the covers. His skin felt as if hundreds of spiders were crawling all over it. He had to move. The best thing he could do when this happened was exercise. Rory needed to push his body to the breaking point and feel anything but this terror that had seized his heart.

Seeing Summer in Jean-Paul’s arms last night had unsettled him. Of all the guys she danced with, why did JP set off warning bells?

Then what Kevin had said kept running around in his head. Everyone said the Whitman twins were trouble, and hearing that JP had stolen the girlfriend of one of his supposed friends was stone-cold. Maybe they were evil. Or, more likely, they were the kind of privileged pricks who thought Daddy would take care of any mess they made.

What really bothered him was that Summer knew their reputation much better than he did, and she’d still accepted JP as a dance partner last night. JP must have said something that Kevin had overheard because Rory had noticed his face change a few moments before he went after the offending twin.

Summer hadn’t exactly looked pleased, but she hadn’t removed herself from the situation, either.

Rory dressed and got off the boat. He ran back to the motorhome, where he drank a big glass of milk and ate half a bag of mini-doughnuts. He then woke Sean and Jace because he’d rented jet skis for the morning, but neither of them wanted to get up—they were hungover.

Rory went out to see if anyone was up and found Gigi and Stacy at their picnic table.

“Hey, ladies. I have two jet skis with your names on them. Want to join me?” Rory asked.

They thought that would be an excellent idea, and everyone went to put their swimsuits on.

“Do you have a toothbrush I can have? It tastes like an animal died in my mouth,” Summer said to Willy, who was mopping the deck.

“Rough night?”

“You could say that. Have you seen Rory?”

“He left about an hour ago. I saw him go out on the lake with two girls on jet skis not too long ago,” Willy said as he opened a supply closet.

He rummaged through it and found a new toothbrush for her.

“When he comes back, please tell him I went back to bed,” Summer said.

She brushed her teeth, drank a big bottle of water, and took some painkillers. She hadn’t felt this hungover in a while.

As she crawled back into bed, Summer slammed her fist into her pillow.

“Fuck!”

The next time she saw Jean-Paul, she planned to kick him in the nuts. While she was grateful that Kevin had punched him, she was equally mortified that he’d basically called her out as a cheating skank.

Why had she agreed to dance with the walking hormone? He and his brother would charm and then dump any girl who was dumb enough to think she could change either of them.

The problem was that had they not been such completely skeevy dirtballs, they would be precisely the type of guy she would go for. Sleeping with one of the twins would be like sleeping with the hot gardener: it would be fun until people found out about it.

That was probably the main reason she’d gone for Rory. Despite her first misapprehension that he was a gardener or pool boy, Rory cleaned up nicely. He also had a killer body and just enough bad boy in him to make him fun. It didn’t hurt that Rory had access to a ton of money. The clincher was he made her feel things she’d never thought possible.

Those were all the outside reasons she liked Rory. As she’d gotten to know him, she’d found he was a loyal, caring, and good person who could stand up to her.

Summer knew herself, and getting a couple hours of sleep before talking to Rory was critical. If she did it feeling like this, her bitch face was more than likely to come out.

They’d found a cove with a sandy beach to park the jet skis so they could get in the water. Then someone splashed Rory in the face, and the water fight was on. Stacy and Gigi would act as a team. While one splashed water at him, the other would sneak up behind him and try to dunk him.

Rory didn’t fight the dunking too hard because it included a teenage girl wiggling her body against his, making his dick harder than jail time. The game changed when Rory pulled Gigi to him and kissed her. She broke free, and Stacy took her place.

It took a while for his teenage brain to think of more than his dick. Suddenly alarms were going off ... he was about to cheat on Summer.

“Hang on,” Rory said as Gigi rubbed her hand over his dick. “I’m with Summer ... I think.”

“What do you mean, ‘you think?’ Is she still holding off on committing to you?” Stacy asked.

“No. We’re supposed to spend the night together to seal the deal after the boat docks tonight. It’s just that after last night...” Rory trailed off.

Gigi let out a long sigh.

“I hate to say this about JP, but he loves stirring the pot and trying to break couples up. What he did to Kevin might be a blessing in disguise because if his ex would dump him for JP, they were never that serious.”

Rory knew no guy would feel ‘blessed’ when his girl dumped him for someone else.

“I am starting to seriously wonder if Summer is worth all this drama. Either she’s into me, or she isn’t. After last night, I think she may be using me until something better comes along,” Rory reasoned.

“You’re overthinking the shit out of this,” Gigi said firmly. “Teenage girls have no idea what they’re doing when it comes to boys. Summer is just afraid of the unknown. Once she starts dating you, she’ll settle down, and I predict the two of you will be the perfect couple.”

“What should I do?” Rory asked.

“Talk to Summer,” Stacy said.

Gigi nodded.

“And don’t make her feel bad about dancing with my brother. She already feels bad enough. Trust me on that,” Gigi said.

“Thanks. That makes sense,” Rory said.

“We need to get back,” Gigi said.

“And you have to make us breakfast,” Stacy said with a trace of a smile touching the corners of her mouth.

Rory knew Stacy could cook, but the rest of The Valley crew shocked him. They would starve if there wasn’t someone to cook or they couldn’t hit the country club for a meal.

Rory noticed the time and decided on something quick. He put two cans of biscuits into the oven to bake while he took his shower and got dressed for the morning/afternoon boat trip. Today they would go where all the boats tied up to party, which called for shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt.

When he was done, he made bacon and cheesy scrambled eggs. He put together a platter of breakfast sandwiches, saving four back, and took them out to the picnic table, where everyone had gathered.

Stacy and Gigi had found mini-doughnuts in their motorhome, along with orange juice and milk. Everyone was devouring those when Rory put the platter down.

“Real food!” Nick announced.

Rory was glad he’d held some sandwiches back because the platter was cleared in a flash.

After everyone had eaten, they jumped into cars and drove to the boat.

Sophie woke to the taste of vomit rushing up her throat. She tripped out of bed, tangled in her sheets, but managed to find the bathroom before she made a huge mess on the floor. It was all watery and tasted like acid, but eventually, it was gone. She somehow managed to brush her teeth to eliminate the awful taste and then stumbled back to bed.

She noticed that she wasn’t alone. When she saw his broad back, she remembered Elon joining her. From there, it all got fuzzy. Her head throbbed with the pain of a thousand nails being driven into her skull. By the position of the sun, it looked to be mid-morning.

“I need to piss,” Elon announced as he crawled out of bed in all his glory.

Sophie wasn’t so out of it that she didn’t stare at his body. Watching his butt as he walked away woke up something inside of her. When he was done, he walked naked out to the cabin and brought back bottles of water and painkillers.

Sophie sat up and accepted her water and two pills. She drank half the bottle in one go. The water was so cold in her throat that it almost burned, but she felt much better after drinking it.

Elon stood beside the bed as he drank his water. She noted that he was half hard.

“Did we...?” Sophie asked.

“No. I just had beer spilled on me by some drunk girl and didn’t want to sleep in wet clothes.”

“Can I get a morning kiss?” Sophie asked, glad that she’d brushed her teeth.

Elon smiled and put his water on the bedside table. He crawled into bed next to her, and she kissed him softly. He moved both of his hands to her waist and rolled Sophie on top of him, and she kissed him harder.

He lifted her up and flipped her over onto her back, then leaned over her and bent his head so they could continue kissing. He was careful to hold his weight off her by keeping himself in a push-up position.

Elon lifted his head up so he could look her in the eye.

“I’m back at college at the end of the summer, and I don’t want to have a long-distance relationship. Are you sure you want to do this?” Elon asked.

Sophie reached up and wrapped a hand behind Elon’s neck as she tried to pull him back down so she could kiss him and make him shut up. She didn’t want to think about the future; she wanted him right now.

Elon was apparently strong enough to resist her efforts because he seemed to want an answer. He pulled back, lifting Sophie off the bed. She let go and flopped back to see his amused smirk. She gave him a quick jab with her palm into the crook of his right elbow. Elon wasn’t expecting it, and his arm gave out, causing him to fall on top of her, just as she’d anticipated.

Sophie wasn’t going to miss her opportunity, so she put him in a lip-lock as she wrapped her arms around his naked body. She wrapped her legs around his waist at the same time he tried to roll himself to one side.

Then the universe conspired against them: there was a knock at the door. It must have startled Elon because he jerked to get away from her. The fact that she was partially tangled in the sheets caused them to fall out of bed—her, flat on her back, with Elon on top of her.

The shock in Elon’s eyes made Sophie giggle. Before anything else could happen, the door burst open.

“Are you okay ... oh ... sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Rory said.

“You’re not interrupting anything,” Elon said as he started to get up.

“Nice butt, big brother,” Gigi called from the hall.

Elon froze because if he stood up, he’d expose himself to his sister. She laughed and left Rory at the door. Rory set a bag on the edge of the bed and then closed the door to give them privacy.

While Elon found his boxers, Sophie opened the bag and found two breakfast sandwiches.

“My brother left a peace offering,” Sophie said as she handed one to Elon.

“Mmm...”

The sandwich was gone in ten seconds flat.

“Wow, fat ass, you want mine too?” Sophie joked.

When he made a grab for it, Sophie stuffed hers into her mouth, which caused them both to laugh. She nearly choked as she did but managed not to.

Summer heard a knock on her door.

“Come in.”

Rory had brought her breakfast and another bottle of water.

Usually, the passion in the depths of Rory’s irises excited Summer almost as much as his touch. But something was different this morning. It was as if he were treating her the same as any other friend ... not his girlfriend. Summer had been nervous about seeing him, but his nonchalant attitude frustrated her and put her ill at ease. Why wasn’t he yelling at her?

“Did you get enough sleep?” Rory asked neutrally.

“I did. Did you go jet skiing with Sean and Jace?”

“They were too hungover, so Stacy and Gigi went with me. We had a good time.”

While she gave him points for telling her the truth, it still caused butterflies in her stomach. Summer was vibrating like a too-tight guitar string, fraught with tension because she knew both girls were interested in her boyfriend.

“That’s good,” she said, trying not to sound bothered.

“Gigi gave me some advice.”

“What was it?”

“Not to let Kevin and JP ruin what we have.”

It took her a second to understand what he’d just said, and then her face broke out in a big smile.

“You mean that?”

“I do. Let’s get through the rest of the day, and then we’ll spend the night here on the boat.”

Summer couldn’t contain herself. Until that moment, she hadn’t seriously contemplated Rory not dating her. She began to see how close she’d come to messing everything up. She jumped into his arms and gave Rory a serious kiss.

“I can’t wait until tonight,” she promised.

Rory helped check people in. The ratio for the midday cruise was about nine to one in favor of girls. They were mainly teens who went to Valley Prep, and Summer made it a point to let them know that she and Rory were together.

Gigi had arranged for there to be plenty of wine coolers, beer, and water ... nothing more potent than that for the teen crowd. She’d also had a sandwich bar catered for when people got hungry. There was no DJ, but the sound system was still in place, so Gigi docked her phone and set it to her favorite playlist.

As they got close to where the boats were tied up, a cheer went up from the other boats when they saw all the girls dancing on the top deck. Rory was glad they had security to repel drunken boarders. One party dad—seriously, the guy had to be 40—took a tumble and ended up in the water, and everyone cheered his misfortune.

Summer got her dance on and pulled Rory out onto the dance floor. He couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon than dancing with a hundred teenage girls in bikinis, trying to out-sexy each other. It was by far the most fun he’d had since he got there.