Dead of Summer - Page 101

“I have never, not once, kicked you out after—” I break off as he fixes me with an interested look.

“After…?” Kinsley leans forward, one elbow on the table. “I don’t want to hear about the sex stuff or anything, but if you guys are trying out any new kinks that we could appropriate?—”

“I hate you. And we?—”

“Sometimes I try to expand her horizons,” Kayde interrupts easily, being so conversational that we could be chatting about the weather. “Last night I was just happy to see Summer, so I was a little boring. I gave her a back massage, though.” He glances at Liza, one brow raised. “This is probably the part where we compare night activities.”

“No, it’s not,” I’m quick to amend. “Liza, don’t you dare. Kins, I’ll divorce you.”

“Might have to do that anyway,” Kinsley sniffs. “Kayde doesn’t seem like he wants to share.”

“I am a little selfish,” Kayde agrees solemnly. “I’ll send you a gift box in apology, Kins.”

I grumble under my breath at him, and surreptitiously try to slide the sausages back onto his plate, only for Kayde to smoothly block me with his fork. “Eat the protein, sweetheart,” he says without looking at me, his eyes on the kids we’re still supposed to be supervising. “It’s good for you.”

“I hate you,” I only sigh, and mime stabbing him in the hand with my fork.

With my feet in the water and my sunglasses firmly in place, it’s easier to keep my eyes on all thirty-six kids in the pool from where I’m sitting than it would be from the chair where Daniel looks half asleep. Kinsley sits beside me, her toes wiggling in the water, and I can clearly see Shawn in the lifeguard’s seat. Though since he’s also wearing sunglasses, I have no idea exactly where he’s looking.

“We should go camping this fall,” Kinsley muses, kicking water up into the air lightly.

“Because we don’t get enough of that here?” I point out, brows raised over my sunglasses. “Or are you just a masochist?”

“Tent camping,” Kinsley amends. “We haven’t gone tent camping in the mountains in years.”

I don’t answer her right away. But I do consider it. We’d spent a lot of summers in the Great Smoky Mountains as kids, pitching our cheap department store tent in our little camping spot with my mom in the RV close by in case we needed anything. Or in case it rained.

“We really haven’t,” I agree, my tone thoughtful. “You’d want to go again?”

“We should get a dog. Not just for, like, tent security. But because I want a dog.” Kinsley turns to grin at me, tapping her fingers on the cement under her.

“Does Liza want a dog?” I ask, half-teasing.

Kinsley’s grin turns sly. “We may have talked about it, yeah.”

“And how many kids does she want?” My grin widens, and it seems my dreams of being a maid of honor for Kins and Liza are getting more and more real by the day. Especially if they’re already talking about buying a dog together.

God, they’re so adorable it’s unreal.

“How many kids does Kayde want?” Kinsley snips back, her own smile growing just as wide and feral as mine. “Does he like dogs, or cats? Where will you two be buying your first place, hmm?” as she speaks, I can feel my bravado fading, until finally she’s taunted me into silence.

So all I can do in response to her tirade is huff and admit defeat.

“Summer!” The fact that Melody sounds like she’s full of irritation when saying my name makes me think this isn’t the first time she’s said it. Though it’s certainly the first time I’m hearing it.

“What?” I ask, turning to look at her. “If you killed someone, Mel, I’m not bailing you out of jail.”

The glare she gives me is withering, at best. She rolls her eyes, hands on her hips in the water. “We want to have a chicken tournament.” she demands, rather than asks.

Kinsley shifts beside me, frowning. “Fink said no more chicken tournaments,” she points out, earning a glare from Melody that could melt steel.

“Fink also says no weed,” I mumble, not looking at her and instead studying my fingernails as Kinsley turns her glare on me. “Not like we’ve ever gotten hurt during chicken.”

“You’re as bad as them,” Kinsley informs me. “Give me one good reason to agree.”

Smiling, I lean over and whisper to her that I’ll take over her walk around tonight in order to give her more time to spend with Liza.

Which is how, fifteen minutes later, she and I are the last remaining team standing for the girls, while Daniel and Shawn circle us in the pool. I brace myself, grinning, on Kinsley’s shoulders as she turns slowly, my arms going back out in preparation for slapping at, or maybe punching, Shawn. Daniel is, maybe, better at being the lower half of the team than Kinsley is. He’s steady in the water and never seems to falter or lose his balance.