Chapter 10

Delilah

“What’s he like?” Gigi asks as she looks down at her bikini top. Finding that it’s revealing enough, she turns her eyes to me.

I shrug. “I don’t really know. We haven’t talked much.”

Other than grunts and thigh clenching growling when I walk by, Lawson hasn’t said a word to me in the last week. It’s like we coexist without any actual interaction.

“Really?” She looks across the pool at him. Sitting with Drew on the edge, Lawson swishes his feet through the water. “He seems like he has a lot to say.”

“Not to me,” I mutter.

I’d imagined how my life was going to be after the first twenty-four hours, and how it actually ended up is nothing like I thought. I’d prepared myself for sexual harassment, and sickly find myself disappointed that he hasn’t continued what he’d started the first night he was here. If he didn’t watch me, lick his lips when I walk by, and groan when I reach for stuff in the top cabinet, I’d question if he even knew I existed.

“Does he talk to Sam?”

I shake my head. “Drew is pretty personable, but Lawson has kept to himself. I’m surprised he’s actually out here this afternoon.”

“I’m not complaining,” Gigi says with a small wave of her fingers in his direction when he looks over at us. “He’s got a body most boys would die for.”

Ivy snorts. “There is nothing boy about him.”

I laugh, remembering that he told me the same thing not long ago.

“They seem to be settling in fine,” I say to change the subject from his muscular arms and ridged stomach.

Why can’t he and Drew look alike? I can handle his younger brother’s gangly frame, but knowing now what’s under his clothes is its own type of torture.

“Is he a senior this year also?” Ivy asks as she adjusts her eReader on her lap.

“No clue. I was serious when I said we haven’t talked.” I steal a glance in his direction finding his eyes burning in my direction. His hands run up and down his thighs, and I can feel the echo of his touch on my own skin. I should’ve opted for a one piece.

“I’m sure your dad would know.” She stares, unabashedly in his direction. “All you have to do is ask.”

“I’m not that interested,” I say, making Gigi laugh.

“Yeah, okay.” The corner of her mouth tugs up. “Hot guy living in your house and you’re not interested. Lie to someone who doesn’t know any better.”

“Not everyone is a walking sex fiend,” Ivy says in my defense.

“Yes,” she says pulling her eyes from Lawson. “They are.”

Ivy shakes her head in disbelief.

“Seriously, everyone between the ages of thirteen and thirty thinks about sex constantly. It’s a statistical fact.”

Ivy and I both laugh before Ivy mumbles, “Like you know anything about statistics.”

“Hey, Lawson.”

My eyes dart to the entrance leading into the pool. My dad is standing there looking at the guys.

“We have an hour before we have to take off.”

Lawson nods, but the look on his face isn’t as tight as it was days ago. It seems my dad and he have settled into some sort of truce.

“Why is your dad dressed up?” Ivy whispers as he turns around and leaves the pool.

“I wouldn’t consider a polo shirt and nice jeans dressed up,” Gigi says. “But he’s fine as hell.”

“Gross,” I grumble. “That’s my Dad.”

“Who’s a total DILF,” Gigi continues. “My dream guy looks exactly like him.”

I watch as her eyes track Lawson as he stands from the edge of the pool. Leaning over, he whispers something in his brother’s ear. I try to swallow past the lump in my throat at the sight of the sun reflecting on his glistening skin.

“I wish you wouldn’t say stuff like that about my father,” I say ducking my head as Lawson rounds the pool.

“He can’t seem to get enough,” Gigi says absently, but she must not be able to tell that even though she’s on full display in a bikini her dad would never approve of, Lawson isn’t looking at her.

His admiring eyes run the length of my body, hand adjusting his package as he walks past.

“Bye,” Gigi says with a tone she seems to catch tons of boys with. “Always great seeing you.”

As hard as it is, I pull my eyes from his body, refusing to watch him walk away. When I look across the pool, I find Drew looking over at us with a wide smile on his lips. He shakes his head and slides off of the edge of the pool into the cool water. The look Drew just gave us makes me wonder what Lawson told him before his epic exit.

“Where are they going?” Ivy asks as Lawson closes the door to the indoor pool.

“No clue,” I answer.

“I think I need to stay the night tonight,” Gigi says almost absently. “I don’t mind digging deeper as far as Lawson is concerned.”

I roll my eyes. Gigi never wants to stay unless it’s because she thinks she can sneak out of my house easier than her own.

“Speaking of staying the night, Rachel texted yesterday and asked if the party was going to be a sleepover this year.”

Ivy snorts and Gigi looks put out. Rachel Grant is the only girl in school she sees as competition. They both like the boys that will undoubtedly break their hearts. They go in with eyes wide open but act surprised when they put out and then are told to get out, each one thinking they’ll be able to tame the bad boys they manage to cage for the night.

“Why would she ask you that?” Gigi practically spits. “You’re not friends with her are you?”

“Not really,” I answer.

“Then why?” Ivy is confused as well.

“Samson?” Gigi asks.

I shake my head. Samson’s obsession with the blonde bombshell isn’t even close to being secret. “I doubt it. Much to his disbelief, I don’t think the girl really knows he exists.”

Gigi narrows her eyes. “Has she seen Lawson? Does she know he’s living here?”

“Ohhh,” Ivy responds dragging the word out.

“I know Sam came home the other day excited like a little Chihuahua. He ran into her at the store, invited her, and she said yes.”

“Was Lawson with them?”

I shrug again. “No clue. Maybe?”

“It’s the only reason.”

“That’s not true. She came last year,” I argue.

“That’s because she found out it was in the clubhouse. She was here for Cerberus, not Samson,” Ivy says.

“Exactly,” Gigi says pointing at her twin.

“Cerberus wasn’t even in town that night,” I counter.

“She didn’t know that, but didn’t she leave after like twenty minutes?” Gigi searches my face for the answer.

“Come to think of it, she did. Samson was devastated.” Pissed was more like it. I think he punched a hole in the wall that my dads made him patch the next day.

“She’s going to go after Lawson. I just know it.” Gigi sits back with a huff and crosses her arms over her chest. “That bitch.”

The realization makes my skin crawl. I’ve never been attracted to anyone Rachel would consider hooking up with, but the thought of her coming onto Lawson makes me territorial.

“RBF much?” Gigi asks with a stupid grin.

“Huh?” I turn my head toward her.

“Just the mention of Rachel and Lawson and your claws are ready to come out.”

“No.” I do my best to relax. My resting bitch face is usually enough to deter anyone, but Gigi calls me out on it every time it shows up.

“You know I hate to agree with Gigi,” Ivy says. “But I could feel the tension rolling off of you, and I’m two feet away.”

“I just don’t want Samson to be hurt. We all know he likes her, yet he’s invisible to her.” I hope they buy what I’m selling, but it doesn’t sound convincing even to my own ears.

“Samson deserves better,” Ivy agrees.

“You can’t tell him that though.” I frown in Sam’s direction as he tries to teach Drew how to do a backflip off the diving board without belly-flopping into the water.

“Kids,” Gigi says with a soft voice like she’s older than my brother. “They have to get burned a couple times before they learn.”

Ivy and I shake our heads as Gigi slides her sunglasses down over her eyes and lies back on the lounger.

“You about ready to go?” My dad stands in front of us, blocking the sun.

“Hey, Pop,” I say looking up at my dad. “Where are we going?”

He shakes his head, his beard full enough to almost hide his soft smile. “I thought you wanted to do the shopping for the party.”

I sit up on my lounger. “Of course I do.”

“Might as well knock it out today.” I nod, excited to get away from the house. “You gals won’t be able to decorate the clubhouse until the morning of. I don’t want the guys to have to live in a teenage hell, or worse, ruin what you decorate.”

“You want to go?” I look over at Ivy.

She smiles, always willing to help with stuff like this. “Of course. Have you decided on a theme?”

“Not really,” I say and look over at Gigi. “You coming?”

She waves me off as Ivy, and I stand to go get changed. “Not interested.”

We begin to walk away when Gigi calls my name. “Just not weird stuff this year.”

“Ignore her,” Ivy says as we exit. “I loved the hippie theme last year.”

“She acts like it’s her party,” I mutter as we part ways at the branch in the sidewalk. “See you in a few.”

I straighten my spine and put a smile on my face. I won’t let the thought of Rachel going after Lawson, or Gigi implying I’m a baby, ruin my party planning.