With sounds of Van Morrison floating through the speakers, I raise the red solo cup to my lips, and relish in the cold and deliciously familiar vodka cranberry. My toes involuntarily dig deeper into the warm sand as my senses fill with only pleasantry.
The sun that hung in the middle of the sky was warming my skin all over while my cold drink hydrated me. Tess was lying in the middle of the floating dock in the water as she tanned and the guys were currently invested in a very important game of beer pong by the house, which left me soaking up the sun beside the lake.
It felt as if everything was going so right that I half feared something was about to go wrong. However, I pushed the discomforting feeling of foreboding into the back of my mind and thought again of how amazing the past two days have been with the perfect weather, company, music, and drinks.
As I continue lounging, I let the lapping of the water mix with the soft instrumental sounds until they lull me into relaxation.
My perfect background music is cut through by the guys hooting and hollering from the picnic table by the house and, seconds later, I hear my name being called.
“Lauren!” I recognize the slight slur in Asher’s voice as he beckons me toward the picnic table. “Get your butt over here!”
I peer at the boys from the top of my sunglasses and see the scattered cups on top of the picnic table in front of them. They all call me over in the same manner and I grab my drink before pulling myself out of the beach chair so I could head over.
“We were playing one on one but it’s easier with two against two,” Vincent explains as I approach the table.
“So can you play with us?” Nathan finishes hopefully and with his most charming smile.
Little did they know, I spent all summer last year playing this exact game with Luke and Cole, and I was basically a trained professional. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. So, upon hearing their proposition, a wicked grin appears on my lips.
“Okay,” I agree gleefully. “What are the teams?”
Asher suddenly reaches out and grabs Nathan’s arm, yanking him toward his side of the table, and cries, “I call Nathan. Vincent sucks at pong.”
Vincent, the only one not in sunglasses, narrows his eyes at Asher. “I do not suck.”
Nate and Asher begin laughing mockingly and I roll my eyes at them. It was just going to be that much sweeter to beat them if they were going to trash talk my partner.
“Come on Vince,” I say confidently. “Let’s kick their ass.”
Vincent and Asher begin resetting the cups on their respective ends of the table, but Nathan just stands there with his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his lips. “Those are fighting words, sweetheart.”
“Didn’t I say we were going to be a couple that doesn’t use pet names?” I ask rhetorically with raised eyebrows. “And besides,” I smirk at him once more. “I can talk big if I’m going to win.”
Nathan welcomes my challenge with one of his own in the form of a threatening step toward me. “We’ll see about that.”
“We will,” I say confidently as I match his step, bringing us toe to toe. “Good luck. You’re going to need it.”
Nathan smirked at me as if my sureness merely amused him, and he leans down to me until we were inches apart, and I felt my confidence waver. My breath hitches as he brings his lips toward mine, but they brush past mine and instead I feel his breath fan across my ear.
“By the way,” His breath is hot against my ear, cocky and sure of himself. “Kitten is a pet name, kitten.”
I narrow my eyes at him, but before I can argue with him, Asher groans. “Save it for later, you two. Nathan, we have a match to win.”
So we played. And Nathan was good, that was for sure. But I was, too. Vincent was a better teammate than Asher gave him credit for, and we held our own against Nathan and Asher, always the same or ahead in score, right up until we both had one last cup sitting on the table.
Nathan threw the ball toward the last cup, but as it left his hand, he muttered, “Left,” And, sure enough, the ball went just left of the cup.
Vincent fishes the ball out of the cup and hands it to me with fire in his eyes. “Finish it.”
We both knew it would be up to me because 1. The stakes are high and 2. Vincent was becoming progressively worse with each beer he had. By now, Tess had stopped tanning to come watch the spectacle, and had been cheering me on ever since.
“Go Lauren!” She cheers brightly. “Show these boys who’s boss!”
I look at the cup evenly and shuffle my feet until I’m lined up with it from across the table. My gaze shifts from the cup to the person standing with his arms crossed behind the table: the one and only Nathan Rhodes. He’s watching me and for once, his expression isn’t sadistic; he looks impressed.
My gaze flickers back down to the cup and, a little tipsy from the previous beers, I threw the ping pong ball right into the cup. Some beer swished out of the side of the cup and onto Nathan’s shirt with a resounding puh. I grinned to myself, hearing Vincent’s and Tess’s cheers of celebration, while I looked up at Asher’s disappointed expression.
“That’s my teammate! Oh yeah! Who sucks now, Asher? Huh?” Vincent drunkenly taunts.
Asher narrows his eyes at him. “You still suck. It was all Lauren.”
Vincent had nothing to say back to this other than: “I won, you lost! Ha!”
With a shake of his head and a sigh, Asher let out a long string of curse words under his breath. I laughed a little at the boys, and then looked back at Nathan.
“Nicely done, Lauren.” Nathan compliments, bringing my attention to his genuinely impressed smile.
Although I’m thoroughly impressed by myself, I know that it’s not over yet. I glance at the cup and remind him, “You have a redemption shot.”
“Nathan, you fucked it up last time,” Asher reaches into the cup and grabs the ball. “Its mine.”
Asher sizes up the cup for a second and then throws somewhat carelessly, which can be owed to his drunkenness; after all, this game was probably his third or fourth. The ping pong ball flew far past the cup, and with the failed redemption shot taken, I high-fived Vincent and Tess.
“Shit,” Asher muttered, not so quietly.
“Now we both fucked up,” Nate says stoically, and then cracks a smile when our gazes meet. “Good game.”
I grin widely. “Told you I’d kick your ass.”
He shakes his head and holds back a smile as he begins restocking the cups on his side. “Double or nothing.”
“Don’t know when to quit, do you Nate?” I mock him with a smirk, and he rolls his eyes.
“Or you’re nervous I highered the stakes.”
I raised my eyebrows in question. “And what are these stakes, exactly?”
He smirks, and I know by that smirk that it’s something stupid. “If I win, you’re sleeping on the couch tonight. If you win, I’ll be exiled to the couch.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “It was my room first!”
“So you’re scared you’re going to lose, then?” Nathan taunts. “I would be too. Your win was a fluke, and I’m ready to even the score.”
The threat, like he knew it would, got to me. I knew that he was hitting a nerve with assaulting my stubborn pride on purpose, and it worked. I looked at him challengingly, just staring silently for a moment, and then spoke with complete and utter confidence.
“You’re on.”
. . .
“Maybe you should move your suitcase back downstairs,” I suggest smugly as I size up the last cup.
Nathan rolls his eyes, and then watches as I throw the ball into the cup. Only, it doesn’t go in. It goes in front of it, bouncing a few inches in front of where the cup was situated. I blame this on my newfound lack of sense of depth, thanks to the many drinks I’d been drinking over the past two games.
Asher and Vincent tapped out of this game, swearing that it was a personal vendetta between Nathan and I that we had to solve on our own. So here we were, in crunch time again, both with one cup on either ends of the table. This time took a little longer than last, probably on account of the both of us feeling all of the beers we’ve downed.
Suddenly, the ball flew into the cup in front of me, and I blinked at it blankly. And then I looked up at Nathan, who was smirking widely at me. “I hope the couch is comfortable, babe.”
I look back and forth between Nathan and the cup before spluttering, “Redemption shot!”
He chuckles and motions to the cup. “By all means, take it.”
A little too eagerly, I reach into the cup and throw it to the other side of the table, where it goes far right of where the cup is, missing it by a large margin.
“Damn it,” I mutter under my breath.
“You gave a valiant effort,” Nathan noted thoughtfully. “We would make a great pong team.”
I look up at him and can’t help but smirk a little at his tone. “Yeah, maybe one day we can join forces and take on the world.”
With amusement dancing in his eyes, Nathan responds, “I look forward to it.”
And right then, my stomach growls.
Loudly.
Nathan chuckles, and I start giggling too, thankful that my inebriation kept me from being embarrassed. The others had gone inside ten minutes ago when dinner was ready, but we stayed outside to finish the game.
“Let’s go eat before we take on the world,” I suggest.
He agrees, and we abandon the empty red cups and head inside. Tess had made lasagna earlier, and the smell of cheese floated through the house deliciously the second I stepped foot inside. A lazy smile reached my lips and I continued walking, following the voices in the kitchen until I finally reached the end of the hallway.
Vincent, Asher, and Tess were sitting at the kitchen table with plates of lasagna in front of them. There were two empty plates on the table for Nathan and I at the end, beckoning me to fill both up for myself. Asher noticed us first, glancing away from his food to the doorway, and he grinned.
“Who won?” Asher asks immediately as I walk to pick up my plate.
I frown at him as Nathan boasts, “I did, of course. Did you really think she could beat me?”
“I did once before,” I point out, glancing at Nathan with a challenging glare.
Nathan just smirks and drapes an arm around my shoulder. “Well, babe, you lost the most important game, because you’re on the couch tonight.”
I glare at him and slide out from under his arm when my stomach growls again. Nathan chuckles from behind me as I head toward the lasagna, dishing myself out a large piece. Food was my priority, and then I would deal with Nathan.
“I wouldn’t be so harsh, Nathan,” Vincent warns. “You’re the one not getting any if you make your girl sleep on the couch.”
This makes me smirk a little as I sit down at the table with a plate full of lasagna. I look at Nathan and see he’s looking between me and Vincent with a look that resembles realization. Tess smirks too, giving me the impression that she has done this to Vincent before.
I simply smirk back at Nathan and shrug a little before looking down at my plate to begin eating. Still, my first priory was food, and then would I deal with the whole couch situation. Besides, it was helpful that in the meantime, Vincent was scaring Nathan into rescinding his punishment.
I moan when I begin eating the most delicious lasagna I’ve ever tasted. “Tess, this is so good.”
“It’s my grandmas recipe,” She admits proudly. “Do you like to cook?”
With a sheepish smile, I say, “I’m more of a pick-up-Angelo’s instead of cooking kind of girl. But by all means, make this lasagna whenever, and I’ll help you eat it.”
Tess laughs, and Asher joins in shortly after. Somehow the conversation shifts to the best songs of the 2000’s, and I find myself in a heated debate with Asher about the importance of the R Kelly remixed version of Ignition. Nathan was on side, helping me argue that the remix is far superior than the original.
And then eventually we begin singing the songs we were discussing, and Vincent puts Shake It by Metro Station on the speakers. The more we drink, the rowdier we all get, dancing around feverishly swinging our limbs back in forth, trying to indeed shake it. Somehow Asher ends up on the table, and Tess and Vince are standing on the couch.
I am singing into a spatula I picked up from the kitchen, dancing around the kitchen table. Nathan is watching everyone with amusement, leaning against the wall with a big smirk. I make my way over to him, singing into the spatula and shaking my hips while dancing toward him.
When I get close enough, I reach out and grab a fistful of his cotton shirt, and pull him toward me. He surges forward toward me, his chest bumping into mine, and I giggle into his neck. The chorus starts up again, and with my hand still on his chest, I begin dancing. I’m moving my hips from side to side and spinning around, still stuck in a frenzy of giggles.
“Shake it, Nate!” I encourage cheekily, my hands sliding from his chest to his hands.
Nathan tightens his hold on my hands and lets me pull him about, jumping and dancing and laughing and pulling and shaking and swaying. His deep laughter makes my grin widen, and I look at him through my untamed hair and see his expression resembles mine.
The song sadly ends, but when it does, Asher has a fantastic idea. “Let’s make s’mores!”
Of course, I jumped at the suggestion, agreeing immediately, but Tess points out, “Who is sober enough to safely make a fire?”
“I can do it,” All three boys say immediately.
I roll my eyes and glance at Tess, who has a similar expression. We exchanged a look that said simply, boys. And then all of the guys set out to collect firewood, hellbent on proving their masculinity. Tess and I let them explore this endeavor, instead choosing to grab the necessary ingredients from the kitchen.
Of course, the wonderful snack manager I am, I got four boxes of graham crackers, three big packages of marshmallows, and about twenty chocolate bars. Maybe it was a little excessive, but at least we wouldn’t complain about not having enough.
When Tess and I had armfuls of supplies, we head outside.
There was a fire pit set up behind the house, with large logs set out as seats around the fire. Vincent and Asher had collected and stocked the fire pit already, while Nathan was bent down with crumpled newspaper and a lighter. He lit some of the newspaper on fire and set it underneath the wood, which shortly after caught fire too.
Tess and I set all supplies down on the dirt, and then we sat down on the logs. Asher took the liberty of collecting grade-A s’mores sticks and handed them out amongst all of us. I accepted mine gratefully, and wasted no time getting a s’more ready for myself. I stuck my marshmallow on my stick and then held it out above the fire.
“It’s a nice fire,” I teasingly applaud the boys. “Good job.”
“Thanks,” They all chorus.
Asher frowns at Vincent and Nathan. “Why are you two saying thanks? It was all me.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “I was the one that literally started the fire.”
“I collected most of the wood,” Vincent defends next.
Tess begins giggling and nudges me. I laugh too, shaking my head at the boys as they stood there and glared at each other.
“Everyone contributed to the making of this fire,” I finally commend, intent on settling down their macho-fest, and clap my hands eagerly. “Come on, sit down and make some s’mores before I eat them all.”
Finally, this seems to gain Asher’s attention, and his narrowed eyed gaze snaps to mine. “Don’t you dare!”
I laugh at him as he scrambles to get the necessary ingredients in making a s’more while Nathan walks over to sit beside me on the log. He grins at me sideways, a boyish grin that makes me swoon, and then slowly leans across me to get the bag of marshmallows.
My senses awaken at his musky scent as he leans across my lap, the way his leg is pressing against mine, and how dazzling his blue eyes seemed when he smiled like that. When he leans back, I all but let out a breath that I had been holding, and he glances at me with a small smirk.
“You’re undressing me with your eyes,” Nathan says in a low voice as his smirk grows.
In an attempt to pretend like he was wrong, I shake my head with a bemused laugh and tell him lamely, “You wish.”
He can already see through me. I can tell by the way there’s boyish mischief shining in his glittering eyes as he watches the glow of the fire dance across the shadows of my face. “How’d you know?” Nathan teases in a light hum before he wraps an arm around me.
Silence falls between us for a second, and it’s this amazing kind of silence, the one where nothing needs to be said because we’re both happy and don’t feel the need to fill the air with unnecessary words. Despite the fact my head is spinning from our closeness and from the liquor that I’ve been drinking all day, I simply feel at peace.
And, leaning against Nate as his arm is wrapped around me, it was a great feeling.
A small smile tugs up the corner of my lips and, after a few moments of soaking in the greatness of the moment, I speak up in a low voice that was only meant for Nathan. “This is hands down the best vacation ever.”
My voice is so soft that I wondered if he even heard me over the crackle of the fire wood and the conversation between our other friends, but when he scoots closer and raises his hand to my face to tilt my chin up so I face him, I know he’s heard. His blue eyes are electric in the moonlight with the fire illuminating his sharp features.
If eyes could smile, then Nathan’s blue orbs were grinning ear to ear. “You know, kitten,” And then he really does grin. “I couldn’t agree more.”
And then he closed the distance between us and put his lips on mine. They felt on fire all at once, moving with his effortlessly, but only for a moment before I heard groans of disapproval.
“Get a room!” Asher complains in mock disgust. “No one wants to see that.”
Despite the pink tinge of my cheeks, I still pull away from Nathan’s lips with laughter on my own, and I spare a sheepish glance at Asher to see him smiling too. My eyes fall down to the fire, where my marshmallow was currently engulfed in flames, some of it dripping from the stick to the pit.
I pull the stick away quickly and frown at the charcoal remains of my marshmallow as I look at Nathan with narrowed eyes. “This is all your fault.”
Quick to blame someone, I turn to Nathan and narrow my eyes mockingly. “This is your fault.”
Vincent scoffs. “Girls are always ready to blame the guy.”
“Because it’s usually the guys fault,” Tess counters quickly, narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend as well.
“I disagree,” Asher complains.
“Well you’re wrong,” Tess says flatly.
“Let’s take a vote,” Nathan suggests smugly. “Raise your hand if you think it’s usually the guys fault.” Tess and I raise our hands, and Nathan looks around thoughtfully. “Alright, now raise your hand if most of the time, the girl is just falsely blaming the guy because she can’t admit she’s wrong.”
Asher, Vincent, and Nathan’s hands all shoot up. Nate smirks at me. “Then it looks like that,” He points to my sad excuse of a marshmallow. “Is all your fault.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s a shitty poll system.”
“Yeah, there are just more guys than girls,” Tess agrees with me defiantly.
Nate catches my gaze while the fight continues to brew without us as they all argue their sides of the issue. His dazzling gaze traps me and eventually helps the rest of the background noise fade away. He shakes his head, but I can see the amusement lighting up his eyes.
“Do you see what you started?” He questions in mock disappointment.
I try to hold back a smile long enough to form a pout, jutting my bottom lip out and furrowing my brows. “I just want a s’more.”
Nathan studies my face for a moment before breaking out into a boyish grin, and then he retracts his marshmallow from the fire. Somehow, his was a beautiful golden brown rather than the black smushed blob that was left on my stick. He holds the stick in between his legs while assembling the chocolate and the graham cracker, and then gracefully adds the marshmallow.
He looks back up at me with a grin and hands me the newly made, beautifully oozing, perfectly roasted s’more. I grin at him thankfully, unmeasurably grateful for the present. Before I take a bite, I lean toward Nate and place a quick kiss on his lips because, well, I can now.
I smile at him happily. “I think this is a great start to a beautiful relationship.”
Nathan grins at me and nods. “The best way to your heart is through s’mores. Got it.”
I laugh as I lean back again and begin scarfing down on the best s’more I had ever eaten. And then I made three more. The night went on like that for hours; sitting by the fire, laughing, eating s’mores, all with good company as the flames lapped against each other in the moonlight.
I’m not sure how long we’re out there before, one by one, everyone begins trickling back inside. The fire was getting lower and we all reeked of smoke, not to mention the rogue smell of alcohol to remind us what we spent our day doing. Personally, the booze were weighing me down by the time Nathan suggested we go to bed.
As we’re trudging back inside, I suddenly remember the bet that I lost and had be ridden to the couch instead of my bed, and without thinking much of it, I collapse on the couch in the family room. My eyes slide shut in sheer exhaustion as I listen to Nathan’s footsteps getting farther and farther away until they stop altogether.
“Lauren?” He calls down the steps, but because my face is smushed into the couch, I don’t respond.
Then his footsteps clamor down the steps once again, and I remain face-down in the couch cushions. Eventually he reaches the couch, and I feel him bend down beside me, then his hand rests on my back. I half heartedly lift my head up meet his gaze.
“Yes?” I mumble.
He chuckles a little. “Are you coming to bed or what?”
I look at him innocently and say, “I’m supposed to sleep on the couch tonight, remember?”
Nathan stares at me blankly before a shot of mischief crosses his eyes and his hands move from my back to my waist, and then I feel him pick me up. I squeal a little as I feel my body being thrown over his shoulder, like I was a bag or suitcase.
And, with my arms dangling past my head, body half over Nathan’s shoulder, he walked up the stairs, down the hall, and into the bedroom. He dropped me on the bed, my body springing against the mattress, and then climbed in beside me.
“Silly girl,” Nathan reprimands. “I would never let you sleep on the couch instead of sleeping in here with me.”