LAUREN
The house was dark when I came inside. I figured Emerson had either called it a night already or was having another sleepover at Lucas’s place. So, when her voice shot out at me, I nearly peed my pants.
“And just where have you been, young lady?”
I yelped, trying to find her in the crypt-like room. “Em! You scared the bejeezus outta me!”
The lamp next to the futon flipped on, and Emerson’s face was bathed in its glow as she studied me. “Maybe you should’ve thought of that when you didn’t call to let me know how late you’d be.”
“Since when have you decided to keep tabs on me?”
“Since we’re living in a strange town, and you coulda been facedown in a ditch somewhere.” The look on her face said she was dead serious.
“Okay,” I told her. “I should’ve at least texted. If you must know, I was at a swim lesson.” Emerson knew how much learning to swim meant to me, she’d even offered to teach me herself. But even if I thought she could take it seriously, Em had never given a swim lesson in her life. And knowing how to swim and knowing how to teach someone to swim were two entirely different things.
She checked the time on her phone. “Swim? You? At midnight?”
Was it midnight already?
“So,” I started. “It was a lesson . . . followed by pizza and beer.”
That perked Emerson up. “So, what you mean is, you had a date?”
Laughing at the thought of Will and me on a date, I went to the bathroom so I could hang my swimsuit on the towel rack to dry. I needed it to be dry again for tomorrow night’s lesson. “No,” I hollered back to her. “I do not mean a date. I mean a swim lesson followed by pizza and beer. The end.”
Emerson followed me.
“Holy shit!” she cried, her fingers creeping toward my swimsuit like it might explode if she weren’t careful. “What the hell is that thing? When you said you were taking a swim lesson, I didn’t realize you meant you traveled back in time to take it.”
“Shut up!” I huffed, snatching the suit back down off the rack. I clutched the soggy red fabric to my chest. I knew I didn’t have a lot of experience in this area, but I was embarrassed that I might have gotten it so wrong. I chewed my lip. “It’s not that bad . . . is it?”
“Of course not. It’s great. If you’re trying to cover up that bulky chastity belt you’re sportin’.” She frowned at me. “Jeez, Lo, are you trying to repel the entire male species?”
I blew out a breath. I was definitely not trying to repel Will. Was that really the message I’d been sending with my swimsuit?
But Emerson had picked up on something else.
“Oh, my God. You’ve found someone, haven’t you? To . . .” she glanced down to my lady parts. “Go where no man’s gone before?”
“No!” I denied. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe someone. I haven’t decided yet.”
Sure, I’d crossed Will off the list right out of the gate. But this new Will, the one I’d seen over the past two days, definitely had me rethinking him as a possibility. He’d been sweet and endearing, and he’d called me beautiful.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the first guy I slept with had all those attributes . . . plus rocked a hard body to boot.
I dared a glance at Emerson, who was staring at me with her mouth hanging open as if I’d just confessed to having a thing for her dad—who, let’s be honest, wasn’t half bad in a dad sort of way.
“Stop. Is that really so strange? It was bound to happen eventually.” I scowled at her. “Besides. I said I haven’t decided yet.”
“Does this someone happen to have a name? Is he the one teaching you to swim, by any chance?”
I wasn’t ready to share too many details, but I nodded. “Yes. He’s giving me private lessons.”
“And you’re wearing . . . that?” She snatched it out of my hand. “Uh-uh. Over my dead body. You’ll never seal the deal in that thing. You gotta think . . . sluttier.” She turned and went to her room and started rummaging through her dresser drawers. Finally, she came back with a teeny, tiny string bikini. “This. This is the one. No man’ll be able to resist you in this!”
“Em, no. I can’t. No man will be able to resist because it won’t even cover anything.”
“Exactly. That’s why it’s perfect. Trust me. Wear this and he’ll be putty in your hands.” I held it in front of me and studied myself it in the mirror, while Emerson stared at me over my shoulder. “Just look at you.” She gave my shoulders a hard squeeze. “My little girl’s all grown-up.”