Unmaking Hunter Kennedy (37 page)

30: lake swimming

Dustin

Dustin McHugh had landed back in heaven.

Mrs. Roth’s food heaven.

He felt right at home back in the Roth family cabin. Like he really belonged here. They’d given him his old room. Aunt Nan  said she was staying behind to catch up on cutting back her garden, but he knew she probably wanted a weekend of peace without a bunch of teenagers in her house.

Dustin had just gorged himself on Mrs. Roth’s famous jalapeño, roasted green-chili, cream cheese and scrambled-egg bagels. So damn good, and satisfying. Mostly because Mrs. Roth had left a note on the plate. Just for him.

For our dear, Dustin. Eat up. Fresh juice in the fridge.

He’d pocketed the little slip of paper and done exactly as instructed, eating until his stomach hurt.

Heaven. Definitely. Heaven.

And Mrs. Roth is my real live angel.

They’d all arrived late last night. Jenna and Vere most probably had gone to the lake for a swim. It was all they’d talked about on the ride up. That is, before Jenna Riley, who had taken the center seat, had fallen asleep all over his lap.

She’d drooled on him for the last hour of the trip.

At least it had amused Vere who’d giggled about it every five minutes.

Girl had the sweetest laugh.

He assumed Mr. and Mrs. Roth had long gone on a hike, doing what they called a
fourteener
.

Vere had explained the term meant a hike that involved a peak at (or higher than) 14,000 feet. Dustin had opted out, swearing he needed extra sleep. Charlie and the
perfect
Curtis, had also begged off the hike, and were still sleeping upstairs. He’d tried to read on the covered porch but the late morning sun had turned it into a sauna. He wished he’d brought along his guitar, but he’d left it at home.

He didn’t want Curtis or Jenna to know he could play that well, and when he had that beautiful old Strat in his hands he couldn’t resist simply playing it well.

After pacing around inside for a good half hour, he dashed up to his room and put on the swim trunks Charlie had lent him last time. He decided to walk along the lake loop to search for Jenna and Vere. And maybe swim or quickly cool off.

Maybe.

It didn’t take him long to locate the path Vere had shown him that first weekend. Within minutes he’d made it to the shoreline of the little jewel looking lake.

He scanned ahead and checked out the empty dock.

Perfect. I’m alone.

He made his way over to it, pulled off his plaid shirt, t-shirt, kicked off his shoes, and stared down at the water rippling in the breeze.

Maybe swimming isn’t such a good idea. Maybe sunscreen first.

He tucked his retainer and glasses into his discarded shirt, and grabbed up his bottle of sunscreen, slathering some on as he contemplated the dark water again. He hated that he couldn’t see the bottom. With a pool, he could always see the bottom.

But this...hell...

He watched as a stringy water plant and some dry, brown leaves drifted across the surface until they slid whisper quiet under the dock.

Creepy.

He shuddered and looked across to the other side. In the distance a large fish, a trout possibly, flung itself out of the water and flipped before it splashed back down.

Double creepy!

No way am I going in...no way!

A movement and a flash of color caught his eye to the left of the dock behind a large scrub oak. He caught his breath.

The lake, the dock, the mountains in the distance, all twisted into a grayish blur, blasting out of focus except for the sight of Vere—who appeared to be sound asleep—stretched out on the hidden flat rock that jutted into the lake.

Her giant sweatshirt had been turned into a pillow. Her hair, unbound, tumbled wildly across the rock and all around her. He had the strangest déjà vu sensation.

Have I dreamed this? Or IS this the dream?

He shook his head slightly in an attempt to right his thoughts, right the universe that now spun beneath his feet.

How could Vere just be here alone? Was that safe? Where was Jenna? Did the girl not fear being hit with a flying fish?

His clarity slipped again, as his gaze moved over the rest of her.

Hell.

This was not the fashion disaster, one-piece-nightmare swimsuit he’d expected Vere to own.

She was wearing a dark red bikini! A very small, very fashionable, impossibly sexy, dark red bikini.

He ate up the sight of her. She was gorgeous in it. He was dying to get a closer glimpse at what looked like a perfect, definitely oval shaped, tucked-in, super cute belly button in her flat, tan stomach!

Her bikini bottoms tied in a bow on each side.

They stretched perfectly over her hips as though the suit had been custom made just for her. He noted her long, slim legs didn’t look at all gawky like this.

Nope. Not in this outfit. Is a bikini an outfit?

Hell.

He felt all of his blood rush into his swim trunks.

He pushed back the sudden feeling of guilt for his uncontrollable attraction to her. Who could blame him?

How could the sight of her, or any girl for that matter, sprawled out in a bikini
not
get him all worked up? He was a guy, right? And she was a girl. A beautiful girl in a bikini.

And he hadn’t seen that in a very long time.

Sadly, she was not just any girl. He had no right to think about her like this. He had to remember that, but how?

She’d already exploded his heart last week with the guitar gift and now she’d just blown his mind by simply taking a nap!

Did she not understand the little puff of air from her sweet little mouth had just shattered him into ten million pieces of desperate longing?

You look like a gaping fool right now. Get your shit together.

He looked around.

Who cares. The girl of my dreams is the only one around and she’s asleep, not watching me. And it’s not as though I’m going to have the chance to see her like this again. I’ll look my fill, and then add the memory to my list of torturous things I can never explore further about Vere Roth. And be done.

He glanced around again, but then back at Vere.

Dude. You need to walk away. Right now. Walk the hell out of here. Let her sleep in peace...

The sudden simultaneous throbbing that had started up in his head, combined with what was already happening down in his swim trunks, must have robbed him of half his brain.

One more minute. Just a tiny bit longer...

She sighed in her sleep, a sound which stole away his ability to move one more inch.

He needed a moment to gather his...control. But damn her bikini top...and damn me for being a weakling...and damn that bikini top AGAIN...and how she fills it up like that.

Who knew?

If a bear, or a buffalo, or a mountain lion had trampled out of the woods just then, he would not be able to run or even attempt to save Vere. He was the one who needed saving now. He swallowed and craned his head forward and swallowed again. This was madness. He was full on ogling her like a creepy stalker now—and he couldn’t—
wouldn’t
stop.

But her skin...

He’d only ever seen her face and neck, maybe some arms, and kneecaps, but this—this girl—with
this skin
, all laid out being kissed by the sun. Plus every single, creamy curve of her? And all in one glance?

A strand of her golden-brown hair caught in the breeze and settled itself across her chest before it whipped up and caught against her lips.

Lips that have never been kissed. Remember that, dude.

Remember that.

His own reality came crashing back around him. The facts were that he was millions of miles away from ever being able to make contact, or deserve the kind of sweetness that made up Vere Roth.

He forced himself to look away.

He knew, without a doubt that he wanted her, but it wasn’t his usual understandable, physical kind of want. He wanted what he couldn’t have. He wanted her to be his, as in, his girlfriend. He wanted the right to
love
her.

He thought back to what she’d said to him on this very dock. How it was all supposed to be ‘easy and simple and full of butterflies’.

He’d mocked her then, but now he admitted the truth. He’d felt the damn butterflies from the first moment he’d seen her.

So, fine. They did exist for him and in huge amounts.

As for the easy part. That did not.

Not for his life, and not for him. He glanced back over at her and shook his head. Could he ever tell her just how deeply he’d fallen for her? Was he admitting he was full-on in love with her? And, if this was love, he needed to stop it.

It was bad enough that he’d almost seriously kissed her in front of Aunt Nan when she’d handed him the guitar; but now he had this feeling that his heart might implode. Explode.

Whatever. People didn’t just fall in love in a couple of weeks, did they? Delete the idea of love from your head.

She loves Curtis. You two are friends—that’s it.

Get over it and be happy you get to know this girl at all. You’d rather have a her for a friend at the end of this than nothing.

Nothing, he knew for a fact, was never worth it.

But damn...

He wanted to kiss her upper lip first.

The one she drove him crazy with every day when she chewed on it. And then he’d kiss her bottom one, because that poor lip was sorely lacking in his attention. And then again, after a long while of more kissing, he’d make her laugh, kiss the giggles right off her mouth. After that, he’d see if he could try to convince her to take that bikini top off and...maybe...

Maybe what? You ass.

She’d flip out. Take your freak fantasy and walk away.

As he turned, totally shaken now, he accidently dropped his bottle of sunscreen. The bottle
thwang-kathumped
, as loud as a metal drum, rolling across the dock,
thwang-kathumping
the whole way.

Vere stirred and locked gazes with him.

Karma.

He’d been silly to think he could head out after turning into an insecure, stalking ass, sporting a giant woody while ogling an innocent, unsuspecting girl!

Hell no. Now he had to pay.

Instead of shock, fear, or surprise, Vere simply sat halfway up on her elbow, shaded her sleepy brown eyes, yawned, smiled, and said, “Hey. Yay! You’re here.”

He tried not to groan out loud.

He was now in true, physical pain. Worse, she was about to notice why! Because she’d just doubled the problem in his swim trunks with her beautiful smile.

Hell!

“Thought you were too chicken to try this,” she added. Her voice had came out all raspy-sexy. Her eyes were heavy with sleep. A length of hair slid over her shoulder, curling around her tanned hips!

Tangling into the little red bikini bows!

Beyond hot. Shit!

He knew he was going to die, or at least go to hell for each and every one of the six-thousand, twisted thoughts bouncing through his brain right now.

He couldn’t answer her. Only blink like a fool.

“Must have fallen asleep. I need to switch sides or I’m going to get burned.” She flipped over to her stomach, totally at ease in front of him—and unaware of his extreme discomfort.

While she settled her head on her arms, and found his gaze again, some of her hair slid off the rock and spread like a fan of floating curls just under the surface of the water.

She looked like a real, live mermaid!

The remaining mass of hair billowed around her shoulders and trailed down her back, the ends of it resting just above her waist where his fingers longed to touch.

“What?” she asked, probably ramping in to the fact that he hadn’t uttered one word. “It’s so hot, isn’t it?”

Karma was unbelievably cruel.

Quickly, without a second thought, he took a huge breath and jumped into the lake.

He let himself sink slowly under the surface.

The cool dark water calmed him inside and out.

Plants, fish and other lake creatures were no longer frightening to him at all.

He pushed every ounce of breath out of his lungs and opened his eyes. Enjoying the silence under the water, he watched as his air bubbles wobbled up, popping at the surface.