“I’m out, Jean-Michel!” Lily called into the kitchen. She poked her head in and found him elbows-deep in fondant.

He muttered into the concoction.

“Ridiculous, these wedding requests for plastic ‘frosting’—oh, mon dieu!” he exclaimed when he saw her. “Where are you going? More important, what are you wearing?”

She laughed and looked down.

“You don’t like it?” Decked out in tiny short shorts, a tight raglan shirt and baseball socks pulled up to her knees, even she’d been impressed that she’d managed to pull the look together.

“Like, it is not a word for it. By the by, it is clear where you are going today.” He arched a brow at her and smirked.

“Oh? And where’s that?”

“In English, I don’t know. We say faire une partie de jambes en l’air.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what that means. But I get what you’re implying.”

“And I am not wrong?”

“Anyway,” she said, “given that I’m not one hundred percent on what you said, I’ll just tell you maybe. But at the moment, I’m going to play kickball with Aiden.”

Jean-Michel snorted. “You disappoint me. Lily, you are the only employee I talk to. Why you cannot, how you say, bring the gossip for me?”

She laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“What is this kickball? Football? Girls, they should not play the football.”

“No, it’s not football. Or soccer, if that’s what you actually mean,” she said with a smile. “It’s like a game kids play at recess. But now there are intramural leagues so you can play for fun as adults.”

Jean-Michel sniffed. “Americans, you never want to grow up. Okay, have fun with your ball kicking.”

“Thanks,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”

As Lily headed toward the parking lot, her phone vibrated with a text from Aiden.

You on your way? You better not bail like the last 100 times! Everyone’s waiting for you!

OMW, she replied and rolled her eyes.

For years Aiden had begged her to play in his tournament. And for years she’d come up with excuses. But now that Cade had joined, there was some motivation to actually go.

She pulled up to Riverfront Park and shielded her eyes to gaze up at the carousel as she jogged by. So many childhood summers had been spent at that carousel. One of her favorite pictures was of her and her mom and matching white horses with big brass poles that made it look like they were riding unicorns.

Lily could see the teams in the distances, half of them with bright pink strips of cloth tied around their arms. As she jogged up to the spectator area, she spotted Elijah, Aiden, and Cade huddled together.

Thank God, she thought. It seemed that Aiden and Cade had gotten over the tiff between them.

The one I caused, she reminded herself with guilt.

“Hey! Lily!”

Renee bounded up to the small circle with a thermos in hand. Renee’s long golden legs shot out of her bright neon running shorts. One of the neon pink strips hugged her bicep tight.

“Renee! Uh … what are you doing here?” Lily asked. She crouched down beside her brothers and stuck her phone into her backpack.

Renee shrugged. “Aiden invited me.”

“Aiden?”

She looked down at her brother, but he wouldn’t make eye contact with her. Awkwardly, she hugged Renee and offered up smiles to everyone else. The last thing she wanted to think about was whether her best friend and brother were hooking up.

When her eyes caught Cade’s, she blushed and looked down to hide the grin she couldn’t stop from spreading across her face.

Last night in bed, she’d told Cade that he might be a firefighter, but she’d surely kick his ass at a recess game.

“You sound really confident,” he’d laughed. “Especially for someone who considers baking their primary form of fitness.”

“Hey!” she’d protested. “I’d like to see you carry a five-tier cake without wobbling.”

“I stand corrected,” he said. “You’re super buff.”

“Seriously, I bet my team will win tomorrow.”

“Okay, okay!” he’d laughed. “I’m sure you will.”

“Yeah, but I said I’d bet you.”

“Oh, yeah?” he’d raised a brow as he turned toward her. “And what are you going to bet? Because if it’s cars, sorry, but no. I have way more to lose.”

“Don’t be mean to Mariah!”

“Mariah?”

“Yeah, that’s the name of my car.”

“My bad. I don’t want the diva mad at me. So then tell me. What are you going to bet?”

“If my team doesn’t win, I’m willing to put a week of blowjobs on the table.”

“And if you win?” he asked. “Go on, you have my attention now. Literally, see?” He’d taken her hand and brought it over the sheets to his hardness.

“Don’t get cocky already,” she’d said. “If I win, the same. A full week of going down on me.”

“You act like either of these bets have losers. Or that it wouldn’t happen anyway.”

“You might be right,” she said with a grin. “But this still makes it more fun.”

“Hey, so when is the field ours?” Renee asked. Her lilting voice broke into Lily’s reminiscing about last night.

“Um, they should have been done ten minutes ago,” Elijah said. “So I’m guessing any minute.”

Lily squatted down between Elijah and Renee. It took everything she had in her not to let her eyes linger on Cade. Aiden already knew—or at least he knew there was something between her and Cade.

But how much did he know? Maybe he thought it was just a fling.

When Cade stood up and headed toward the restroom building, she watched him out of the corner of her eye.

“I, uh, should go fill up my water bottle before we start—”

“Me too, I’ll go with you,” Renee stood up to join her, but she shooed her back down.

“It’s okay, I’ll fill yours, too,” she said.

Renee gave her an odd look. “Well, okay. Since you’re so insistent on it. I won’t say no to being indulged.”

Lily trotted toward the small brick building. As soon as she turned the corner, she found Cade leaned up against the building. He pounced on her the second he saw her. Lily let out a squeal and dropped both bottles.

Cade pinned her against the wall and kissed her deeply. She felt the roughness of the brick tug at her clothes. He moved from her lips to her jawline and started to bite gently at her neck. Lily let out a moan and felt the familiar heat spread between her thighs.

“What, you can’t even make it through one game?” Cade pulled away from her and they both turned to see Aiden. His face was bright red. The anger made his jaw twitch.

“Aiden—” she started, but he held up a hand.

“Are you two so stupid that you’d do this in public? Where anyone could catch you—like Elijah?”

“Hey—” Cade began, but Aiden just shook his head.

“We’re about to start. You know, if you two would like to join us.”

As Aiden stormed off, Lily looked up at Cade. She saw her thoughts reflected in his eyes even before she spoke.

“We’re going to eventually have to tell Elijah,” she said. “It’s not fair, Aiden keeping this to himself.”

Cade let out a short laugh. “I don’t think he’s having any trouble letting out some steam. You know, considering the beating he gave me.”

“Actually, I think you’re kind of lucky,” she said. “Aiden’s one thing, but Elijah … I mean, he’s been your best friend forever. And they’re both protective over me, but Elijah is definitely the worse of the two.”

“Yeah,” Cade said quietly. “You’re right, I know.”

“I mean, what if it was Elijah that caught us just now?”

Cade chewed at his lip. “I can’t even imagine.”

“Let’s just … we need to figure out a plan. A plan to tell Elijah so we can stop all this sneaking around.”

“Yeah, but I have to admit, I’m kind of going to miss that.”

“Miss what?”

“The sneaking around part,” he said. Cade slapped her butt lightly. “You have to admit, it’s kind of a turn-on.”

“Well, I certainly hope that’s not the only thing that turns you on,” she said. “You still have a bet to lose.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“You go on first,” she said, and gestured toward the field. “I actually do have to fill up these bottles if our flimsy excuse to get away is going to be even halfway believable.”

She watched Cade jog up toward the field as she held Renee’s bottle below the fountain. With each step he made away from her, she could almost feel the happy little bubble they’d built around themselves start to burst.

Lily followed a few minutes later. Up the hill, she could see her team with bright pink armbands start to warm up as the earlier group dispersed.

The last thing I want to do right now is play a stupid game of kickball.

She joined her team and watched as Aiden offered a shoulder to Renee so she could balance during a stretch. He raised a brow at her and dared her silently to say something. Lily tossed the bottle toward Renee.

“Took you long enough!” Renee said. “Were you sourcing the water directly from Mt. Hood or something?”

“Nature called,” Lily said, and heard Aiden let out a bark of a laugh.

“Sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t laugh. After all, who am I to say whether or not you should be able to manage your animal urges?”

Renee gave him a strange look as she released his shoulder and swan-dived down to touch her toes. Aiden didn’t even try to pretend not to overtly check her out.

Lily’s cheeks burned, but she knew better than to say anything.