The Summer I Fell (The Six Series) (14 page)

I WOKE UP, COCOONED IN
a comforter that smelled like Ace, and winced when my head thumped like a bass drum. Never again. Never again would I touch that much liquor.

The bedroom door opened and then closed, carrying in the smell of toast. It wafted across the room, and my stomach clenched. I pulled the comforter up over my head with a groan.

“Uh-uh, Riley. You need food, headache medicine, and to hydrate.”

“Go ’way, Ace.” I lifted my hand and shooed him.

“Not gonna work.”

The comforter was pulled from my death grip, and Ace hauled me into a sitting position. “Trust me. You’ll feel better after you get something in your stomach.”

I screwed up my face, but took the cup of coffee from him. The first sip tasted good enough that I took another one. Ace took the cup from my hands and handed me a piece of toast.

I grumbled my way through it, but felt relieved when the heavy feeling I’d woken up with receded.

When I finished both pieces of toast and my coffee, Ace took the empty plate to the kitchen as I got our bathing suits out for our day at the Hole.

I could hear the guys in the kitchen; their voices had started out low as they waited for everyone to wake up.

I looked up when Mark’s door opened, and he looked at me with bleary eyes. Behind him, I could see Paige’s hair spilling over the side of the bed.

“She okay?” I asked.

He turned to look back at her and rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. “Yeah, but it’s gonna suck when she wakes up.” He tried for a smile that fell flat as he closed the door behind him and made his way to the bathroom.

Ace stuck his head into our room, “Jared said you can use his bathroom if you want.”

I nodded, grabbing my bathing suit, shorts, and tank top. Jared’s bathroom was attached to his bedroom. His parents added it when they realized that six boys and one bathroom wasn’t such a good idea.

I changed, ran a washcloth over my face and arms, and then headed back to Ace’s room. My eyes were still sensitive, so I grabbed my sunglasses and a canvas tote bag to stuff some snacks in. When I got to the kitchen, I pulled one strap off my shoulder and held it open as the guys loaded the bag down with snacks. We’d done this so many times that it was like
a routine.

Mark came down the hallway, still in the T-shirt and shorts he’d slept in. “I’m gonna stay here in case Paige needs anything. We’ll meet you down there in a little bit.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair and blew out a long breath.

“If you need anything, just call my cell,” Jared said, unplugging his phone and sticking it in the snack bag.

“Thanks,” Mark said. He gave a half wave and wandered back down the hallway to his room.

Outside the screen door, I heard the sound of ice being dumped into a cooler. The ice machine had been delivered two years ago during one of our summer stays at the cabin. Having an unlimited supply of ice on hand was nice, especially with the brutal heat of summer. There were days when I wanted to climb inside the opening and lay on the ice just to cool off.

Josh carried the blanket we always used to spread out under the sweeping boughs of the oak tree on the bank of the Hole.

Aiden shoved bottles of water and a few sodas into the cooler, and gestured for Eli to grab one side. Together, they lifted it and carried it across the yard. We always walked to the Hole, since it wasn’t that far from the house, maybe a half mile at the most.

Ace pulled the bag from my shoulder and laced his fingers through mine. A lazy day in the sun sounded good.

We were halfway to the Hole when Jared’s phone rang. Ace pulled it out of the bag and handed it to him.

“I’ll catch up with y’all,” he said and then answered the phone as he walked away to talk privately.

Ace and I looked at each other, both not sure what to make of it. Jared never made anything private. He’d always been an open book. Sometimes too much information spilled from him and you wished he had an off button. When I looked back over my shoulder, I could see him rubbing at his neck as he paced. Something wasn’t right.

By the time we reached the Hole, Josh already had the blanket spread out. The cooler was placed off to the side of the tree, and the guys were running down the dock. Aiden hit the water first with a splash. Eli and Josh jumped at the same time, sending a wave of water over Aiden’s head when he surfaced. All bets were off, and it became a water war for a solid ten minutes.

I still didn’t feel a hundred percent, so I opted to sit on the blanket and watch their antics. Ace stretched out beside me and leaned back on his arms, crossing his legs at the ankle. I tilted my head back and inhaled the fresh air as a warm breeze drifted over us. If the temperature of the morning had any indication of what the afternoon would be like, we’d spend the majority of the day in the water. The heat was brutal. Summer had arrived.

“Come on, you guys!” Josh flailed his arms at Ace and me.

Ace stood and put his hand out to help me up. “We better go before they come get us.”

I let him pull me up, but stopped him so that I could pull my shorts and tank top off. I watched his jaw clench and his nostrils flare when my shorts slipped past my hips and fell to the blanket below.

Before I could pick them up and fold them, Ace had me in his arms, running for the dock.

“Ace!” I shrieked, but he kept going until his feet left the dock and we were falling into the water.

I shot up to the surface, and Ace reached for me. Kicking backwards, I cupped my hands and attempted to hit him with a wave of water. He laughed and dove down, coming up behind me. When his hand settled on my hip, he pulled me against him and swam us close enough to the bank where I could touch.

I heard Jared’s four-wheeler and turned as he backed the double trailer down to unload the Jet Skis. He jumped off the four-wheeler, unhooked one, and shoved it off the trailer. His leg went over the machine, and then he was out on the water like a slingshot.

“What the hell?” Aiden jumped on the four-wheeler as Josh unloaded the other Jet Ski and tried to tie it off to the dock, but Jared’s wakes were making it impossible.

Pulling the four-wheeler away from the water, Aiden parked it.

I leaned against Ace, as we watched Jared rip around the Hole like the Devil chased him.

Josh waited until Jared slowed a little bit, and the water calmed to tie up the other Jet Ski. The guys knew when not to mess with Jared. He’d need time and a little space to work through whatever had upset him. It didn’t look like it would be something he’d be able to just shake. His shoulders slumped as he rode and there was a set to his jaw. I could see it as clear as if I were right beside him. Jared needed to get whatever it was out of his system before he hurt himself.

“Hey.” I turned to Ace. “Can you grab me a water?”

Ace looked down at me and squinted, as if he knew I was up to something.

I batted my eyelashes at him. “Please?”

He wrapped his arms around me and nibbled my neck. “How can I say no to that?”

He released me, and I turned to watch him make his way to the cooler. When he looked back over his shoulder at me, I waved my fingers at him. He shook his head and the second he looked forward again, I lunged for the Jet Ski and took off before anyone could stop me.

My name rolled along the air when Ace hollered for me, but I wasn’t turning back around. Jared needed someone, and I was probably the only one he wouldn’t deck right about then. I brought the Jet Ski to a stop about five feet from where he passed. His head whipped over in my direction and he made another pass by me, shooting a rooster tail that hit me dead on.

“Oh yeah! Two can play your game, Jared!” I hollered at him.

I cut him off, and he killed the switch on his machine. He cursed me as I looped around him and hit him with a wall of water from the side of the Jet Ski. It sent him bobbing along the choppy surface until he fired his up again and zipped around me in circles. I jumped the wakes he left behind, keeping up with him, until he realized I wasn’t going away.

When he finally stopped, I brought mine up beside his, and we bobbed like corks along the surface of the water.

He ripped his sunglasses off and ran his hand down his face, growling when he spoke. “What, Riley?”

“Are you seriously gonna try to pull that shit with me, Jared?”

He heaved a sigh and gave me a look that would terrify any other girl. I just shrugged. “What’s going on with you?”

“Can’t you just leave it alone, Riley?”

“Uh, no. You don’t get a choice with this, so you might as well spill it, Jared.”

“Leave me alone.”

It felt like a slap. Jared was an ass most days, but he’d never spoken to me like that. And it pissed me off.

I shot up and grabbed his handlebar. My other arm poked him in the chest. “You have a lot of nerve! I just came out here and risked my freakin’ life because you need someone to talk to. Do you know what the other five are gonna do to me when I get this parked?” I stabbed my finger at the machine that rocked under me, threatening to dump me between where the rubber bumpers kept banging into each other. My hand slipped off the handlebar and my shoulder slammed into the front of his Jet Ski. Jared had me back in my seat before I could understand what happened.

“Damn it, Riley! Alright, Jesus, I’ll tell you. Just sit the fuck down.” Jared tipped his head back and let a slew of curses spew.

“Feel better?”

“Shut up! Ace is gonna have my ass for this,” he said.

“I’ll give him mine instead.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. He fell back on his seat and laughed. His hand clutched at his stomach, and he wiped his eyes.

I waited for him to stop laughing, watching as his body relaxed and a spark of humor replaced the anger from earlier.

When he sat up and draped his arms over the handlebars, I tried again. “Talk to me, Jared. What’s going on?”

He pushed himself off the bars, dropped his hands into his lap, and stretched his foot out to bring our machines closer. I turned on the seat and hooked my heel on the edge of his footboard to keep us from floating apart.

When he spoke, he ran his hands down the legs of his shorts. “The band I signed on with?”

“Destroying Doubt… yeah?”

“Their lead guitar player left earlier than they’d planned for. They have concerts lined up and can’t fulfill their contracts right now. They need me. They want me to fly out to California this Friday.”

“But… that’s in two days.” He could be gone in just two days.

Jared’s laugh was laced with frustration. “I told them no.”

“You did? But why? That’s your dream!”

“Funny that you say that. My manager said the same thing, along with a reminder that the contract I signed clearly stated, in the fine print, that if Kit James didn’t stay, I’d be given a forty-eight hour notice. If I failed to uphold my end of the deal, I’d pretty much be blacklisted from the music industry and sued on top of that. Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to tell the guys?”

Hurt. Jared was hurt, and there wasn’t a damn thing any of us could do about it, except support him. “Jared?” When he looked up at me, his eyes were swimming in tears. “The guys will understand. This is important to you, whi
ch makes it important to them.”

He looked away as a tear rolled down his face, and he swatted at it angrily. “What if I’ve changed my mind? What then?”

“Have you? Have you really changed your mind? Music… being in a band, it’s all you’ve ever wanted. It just came a little sooner than you expected.” I gave him a slight shrug and nudged him with my foot. “You have to follow your dreams, Jared. Everyone else is.”

“You’re not.” And just like that, my heart shriveled.

I crossed my arms and felt myself stiffen. “That’s not fair. You know that’s out of my control.”

“Fair or not, it is what it is. I have a deal for you.” He slipped his sunglasses back on and gave me his trademark, crooked smile.

“A deal?”

“Yep. I’ll follow my dream, if you follow yours. That means you have to accept help, even if you don’t want it.”

“No, Jared. I won’t accept help. I’ll figure it out.” I waved off his argument, but he barreled on.

“Sorry, Riley, but I’m helping you regardless, so you might as well just get used to it. Besides, why should you sit here and watch all of us set off to follow our dreams and be left to rot in this place?”

I bit my lip to keep from telling him he could push the issue all he wanted, but it didn’t mean I’d accept it. I pulled my leg over the seat, and Jared pushed us apart.

“Race ya back!” He took off before I could catch up with him. Emotional boys were mentally exhausting.