Spring Fling (23 page)

“So? Who says you have to date just one guy? Go out with him. Have some fun.”

“Would you do that?”

Ava sighed. “You‟d think I‟d follow my own advice, wouldn‟t you?” She gave her words some thought. “I think every situation is different. You have to do what feels right for you.”

“Mindy!” Wanda called from outside. “Minnnnnndeeeeee!” Mindy opened the sliding glass door leading onto the patio and stuck her head out.

“Yes, Wanda?”

“Bring me some bug spray. The mosquitoes are driving me crazy.”

“Right away.”

“What are you, her slave?” Ava asked as Mindy started rummaging through the kitchen cabinets, searching for bug spray. “Has she never heard of the word
please
?” Mindy found the bottle of bug spray and emptied half its contents.

“What are you doing?” Ava asked.

Mindy chuckled as she refilled the bottle with water and sugar, shaking it up.

“Wanda needs to find out what it‟s like to be sweet, don‟t you think?” Ava laughed. “Remind me to never get on your bad side!”

“Here you go, Wanda!” Mindy sang out as she walked out onto the patio and gave her the bottle. “Spray away!”

Thirty minutes later, a mosquito-bitten Wanda ran into the house, vowing not to go back outside for the rest of the day. “Those bugs are eating me alive!” she shrieked as she ran up to her bedroom.

“Looks like the coast is clear for you and Damian,” Ava told Mindy.

“At least for a little while,” Mindy said. “I‟m sure Wanda will make a reappearance at some point. Or get all of us to come inside.”

“Then I say take advantage of her absence. Go!”

Mindy found Damian in the pool doing laps. When he saw her sitting on the side with her feet in the water, he swam over.

“My girlfriend returns,” he said.

“I‟m not your girlfriend.”

“Shhh!” Damian whispered, pressing a finger to his lips. “We‟re pretending, remember?”

“Was that kiss pretend?” she asked, wondering if Damian had felt what she had.

“That kiss was real,” Damian said. “And you know it.”

“It was also the kiss that I owed you,” she pointed out. “I guess that means our debt is settled.”

“Paid in full,” Damian agreed.

Mindy splashed Damian with her foot. “Of course, if you wanted to kiss me again, I wouldn‟t have a problem with that.” She was wondering if that first kiss had been a fluke.

There was only one way to find out. “After all, we are supposed to be boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“We do have to make it look real for Rick, don‟t we?”

“We do.”

“Then I guess I have no choice. I‟ll have to do what any guy would do when his girlfriend is sitting by the side of a swimming pool.” It took Mindy a second to realize what Damian‟s next move was going to be. When she did, she tried to jump up and run away, but she was too late. Damian grabbed her by the legs and pulled her into the pool.

“You rat!” she cried as she broke the surface of the water after she had been dunked, pushing her wet hair away from her face.

Before she could say anything else, Damian swam over to Mindy and pressed his lips against hers, giving her another kiss.

Once again, Mindy found herself melting…

Cooper watched as Damian kissed Mindy in the pool. He wouldn‟t say he was
jealous.
More like envious. He wished he could be kissing Ava the way Damian was kissing Mindy.

Or the way Ava had kissed him that morning.

He still couldn‟t believe that Ava had kissed him.
She
had made the first move and taken him totally by surprise.

But it was a nice surprise.

At least for him.

As for Ava…

Cooper sighed. He knew she regretted what she had done. Not only because she‟d frantically apologized but also because she was keeping her distance. Since she‟d arrived at the party, he‟d barely seen her, and now she was hiding inside.

He didn‟t want to go searching for her. If he did, it would only freak her out.

Eventually, she‟d come back outside. But even then, he would keep his distance and wait for Ava to come to him. She was probably trying to figure things out.

He knew the kiss had been unexpected. He didn‟t think Ava had
planned
it. It had just happened. And then
he
had kissed her and she
hadn’t
pushed him away.

That had to mean something.

Didn‟t it?

Of course it did!

What Cooper really wanted to do was talk with Ava. Tell her what he was feeling.

But he could tell she had been caught off guard not only by what had happened this morning but the entire week. As much as she didn‟t want to admit it to herself, she was falling for him.

The last thing Cooper wanted to do was pressure Ava, but there was something going on between them. Something was developing. He knew it. Ava knew it.

Only one question remained.

What were they going to do about it?

“I don‟t believe it!” Danielle gasped the following morning as she walked into the kitchen.

Ava, who was right behind her, asked, “What don‟t you believe?”

“Take a look around!”

Ava pushed past Danielle and studied the quiet kitchen. “What am I missing?”

“There‟s no mess!” Danielle pointed out. “The kitchen is spotless. It‟s just the way we left it before going to bed last night.”

Ava took a container of orange juice out of the refrigerator and then went over to a cabinet to get a glass. “You‟re right!”

“I guess Lindsey taught Howie not to tangle with us!”

“What did I do?” Lindsey asked as she walked through the kitchen‟s swinging door.

Danielle couldn‟t help but notice the way Lindsey was dressed. While she and Ava had just rolled out of bed—and looked it with their messy hair, unwashed faces, and oversize sleep shirts—Lindsey was dressed to perfection, wearing a white halter top, pink short shorts, and cork wedge sandals. Hmmm. What was up with that?

“You taught Howie a lesson!” Ava declared.

“Howie‟s not here?” Lindsey asked.

Was that a note of disappointment in Lindsey‟s voice? Danielle wondered. Things were getting more interesting by the second…

Ava peered closely at Lindsey‟s face. “Are you wearing makeup?”

“Just a little lip gloss and mascara.”

“And blush!” Danielle pointed out.

“And blush,” Lindsey admitted.

“So early in the morning?” Ava asked as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

“Why would you do that?”

“Because she was hoping Howie would be here!” Danielle exclaimed.

Ava sputtered on the orange juice she was sipping. “What?!” She stared at Lindsey in disbelief. “You
like
him? I thought you couldn‟t stand him!”

“I don‟t like him!” Lindsey quickly stated.

“Then why do you look the way you do?” Danielle shot back. For once, Lindsey was going to be the one who got grilled!

“A girl can‟t fix herself up? Spring break is almost over. Why should the two of you have all the fun? Maybe I want a spring fling of my own. Maybe I want a little romance, too!”

“With Howie?” Danielle teased.

“Not with Howie!” Lindsey exclaimed.

“I wouldn‟t say I‟m having a little romance,” Ava said, sitting down at the kitchen table. “More like making a big mess!”

“You‟re being too hard on yourself,” Danielle said, taking the seat next to Ava. She knew Ava had kept her distance from Cooper at Mindy‟s pool party, making sure she was never alone with him and always in a group. “Cooper knows you‟re trying to figure things out.”

“I‟ve been trying to figure things out all week and I still haven‟t!”

“Maybe today‟s the day that you‟ll have your breakthrough,” Lindsey suggested as she poured some orange juice for herself.

“Maybe.” Ava sighed. “I need to decide what to do. It‟s not fair of me to keep Cooper dangling.”

“Are you hanging out with him today?” Danielle asked.

Ava shook her head. “No. I need to be alone so I can try to sort things out.”

“But you‟re coming to the Miss Spring Break contest, right?” Danielle asked, a note of panic in her voice. “You, too, Linds?”

“I wouldn‟t miss it!” Ava promised.

“I‟ll be there,” Lindsey said, sipping her juice.

Danielle sighed with relief. “Thanks, guys. I need all the support I can get. Jade and Crystal are coming, too. They‟re giving me a ride.”

“What time do you have to get to the beach?” Ava asked.

“Twelve o‟clock.”

“Are you nervous?” Lindsey asked.

“Of course I‟m nervous! I‟m petrified! I‟m going to be parading in a bathing suit in front of a bunch of guys!”

“You love the attention!” Ava teased. “Don‟t deny it!”

“It‟s been a fun few days,” Danielle admitted. “But it‟s going to be over soon, and then it‟s back to the books.”

Lindsey groaned. “Haven‟t you learned anything while we‟ve been away? You‟re allowed to have some fun. You don‟t always have to have your nose to the grindstone!

Besides, aren‟t you going to be busy with Ethan once we get back home?” Danielle shrugged. “I don‟t know. Am I?”

“He likes you!”

“And I like him. But we haven‟t talked about what‟s going to happen after spring break. For all I know, I‟ve just been a spring fling to him.”

“It didn‟t look that way last night!”

Danielle blushed. She and Ethan had been joined at the hip throughout Mindy‟s party. When they weren‟t swimming and splashing each other in the pool, they were in adjoining lounge chairs, hands intertwined as they talked or just laid in the sun. After the party had ended, Ethan had driven her home and then walked her to the front door, giving her a good-night kiss that had lasted a bit longer than most good-night kisses did! He‟d still been kissing her when Jade, Crystal, Ava, and Lindsey had gotten home and found them on the front porch. The kiss had instantly ended, Ethan left, and she‟d been subjected to endless teasing once they‟d gotten inside.

“That was last night,” Danielle said.

“Ethan will kiss you like that every night if you let him!” Lindsey vowed. “Come on, Danielle! Loosen up!”

“I‟ll worry about Ethan and loosening up later,” Danielle said, rising from the table and heading back upstairs to start getting ready. “Right now I‟m too busy worrying about the Miss Spring Break contest!”

Three hours later, Danielle was waiting to walk down the runway.

There were twenty girls competing for Miss Spring Break. They had been arranged in height order, from shortest to tallest. Danielle was standing toward the tall end of the line. She was wearing her red bikini—everyone said it made her look fab, so why not wear it? She was going to need all the help she could get!—and had slicked her hair back with gel so it looked wet and sleek, adding only a pair of silver hoop earrings.

A week ago, if any of her friends had told her she‟d be in a beauty contest, she would have laughed at them. Danielle Hollis never worried about her hair and makeup; she never worried about how she dressed. The only thing she worried about was her grades.

Now here she was, getting ready to strut her stuff!

And worrying about it!

Danielle checked out her competition and once again wondered what she was doing here. She had to be crazy. The girls surrounding her were gorgeous. She didn‟t stand a chance against any of them! She should just leave. There was still time.

“We‟re ready to start!” a guy called out.

And then, before Danielle could step out of the line, she was hustled along with the other girls through a gauzy white curtain leading out to a runway set up on the beach.

As she walked out into the sun, Danielle could see there were rows and rows of guys. They were hooting and hollering. Laughing and whistling.

And they were all staring at her!

She tried not to look out at the audience, but it was hard. Instead, she focused on the high-heeled sandals she was wearing. She hated heels, but they
did
make her legs look good!

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ava and Lindsey rooting for her.

Standing next to them was Jade, who had a huge smile on her face and was proudly pointing her out to Crystal, who gave her a wave.

But there was one person she was specifically looking for.

One person whose face she wanted to find in the crowd.

Where was he?

She tried not to be obvious as she searched for him.

And then, at the back of the crowd, she spotted him.

Ethan.

As soon as she saw him, she felt less nervous. Because she knew, to him, she was the prettiest girl there.

And that meant a lot.

She could feel his eyes following her every move as she reached the end of the runway, paused for a moment, gave some attitude the way Tyra Banks advised her wannabe models on
America’s Next Top Model
, then turned and walked back the way she came.

Seeing him had given her the boost of confidence she‟d needed.

After all the girls had walked down the runway, they waited in line before being broken into groups of five. The emcee of the contest explained to the audience that one girl would be picked from each group. Whichever girl in each group got the most applause would make it to the next round. Those four remaining girls would then be competing for third place, second place, first place, and Miss Spring Break.

Danielle was in the last group of girls. She watched from backstage as the audience applauded for each girl until the first three were picked.

Then it was Danielle‟s group‟s turn.

The first girl to walk down the runway was a leggy brunette wearing a one-piece gold swimsuit. She got a nice round of applause. The second girl was a redhead wearing a black bikini. She got as much applause as the brunette.