Page 12 of Just the tip

“What’s wrong with you, boo? You’ve been weird lately. Do you really hate your internship that much?” Ophelia tucked her chin and pulled her bikini strap aside to examine her tan line, then shoved her sunglasses low on her nose to stare at me.

I wiggled on the lounger by Ophelia’s pool, uncomfortable in the baking heat. “Nah, the internship’s all right, actually. It’s just…” I couldn’t tell her, though. Ishouldn’ttell her. But I was gonna. Because just thinking about Ryan made my stomach feel like there was a hamster wheel spinning around in it. “It’s Ryan.”

“Oh.” Ophelia let out an indelicate snort.

“What’s that mean?”

She pushed her sunglasses back up her nose. “The snort didn’t transmit my complete lack of surprise?”

“No, message definitely received.” I reached over and thumped her shoulder. “But why?”

“Because it’salwaysRyan. You want him so bad that when you’re within five feet of him, these teeny tiny beams of angst and longing shoot from your eyes.” Ophelia lolled her head in my direction.

“I…oh. Shit. I mean, it’s just a little crush. Is it really obvious?”

She shrugged. “To me it is, but probably not to him. He’s a little thick-headed and—”

“He’snotthick-headed. I mean, he’s notthatthick-headed. He’s just not academically inclined the same way we are.” She finger-gunned me, and I blanched. Had I actually just defended him?Shit. I was in deeper than I thought. I waved a hand dismissively.

“You’re in luck, though, because I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about you,” she continued.

“Youare?”

She laughed. “Graduation night when you were smashed, I was talking to him about taking you home, and he kept staring at you, watching you, totally fixated on you the entire time I was talking to him. It was weird. But,” she waggled a brow, “promising? I guess?”

I sighed. “Something might’ve happened that night. Something…”really fucking hot and sexy and probably totally wrong. But whatever.

“Aha!” Ophelia shrieked. “Iknewit! Okay, spill, and don’t be stingy with the details. This is probably the juiciest thing I’ll hear all summer.”

So I didn’t spare her any details, though I tried very hard to repeat the story without getting breathless and flushed.

“Wow.” Ophelia exhaled at the end. “That’s really fucking pervy.”

“I knowwwwww,” I said happily, and when her gaze drifted down my torso to my swim trunks, I put a hand over my crotch and winced. “Sorry.”

“Loved it that much, huh?”

“So much,” I lamented. “But things have been weird ever since.”

“So who’s being weird?”

“Both of us?” I ventured. “I thought he regretted what happened that night, but now I’m not entirely sure he actually regretted it because it wasmeor if he felt guilty because I was ‘asleep.’ And now we’re avoiding each other. But every time we’ve tried to talk in the past, we’ve just ended up arguing again.”

Ophelia nodded solemnly. “Communicationisan awfully advanced skill.” I shoved her good-naturedly, and she sat up in her lounger, facing me as she tapped her chin, then continued after a beat. “But okay, seriously. Maybe that’s kind of the deal between you two, though.”

I mulled that over. “The fact that he’s my stepbrother makes it weird, though, right?”

“A little weird, but eh.” She fanned the air. “It’s not like you’re blood related, and you’re both going off to different colleges next fall anyway, and it’s clear you both needsomething.So maybe, maybe you just need a little fling. A pervy little stepbrother fling. A one-time hall pass-type hook-up to puncture the angst balloon hanging in the air between you two. Problem is, I have no recommendations of how to initiate said fling, given that you’re both stubborn assholes.”

“Ugh. Yeah, that’s definitely the problem.” I shaded my eyes and looked grimly over the sparkling blue water in front of me. Then I jolted upright. “Oh my god. I’ve got it.”

“You do?” Ophelia eyed me skeptically, and I nodded emphatically.

Maybe it wasn’t the totally logical, aboveboard solution, but it was definitely anopportunity, and hadn’t Ryan responded incredibly well to opportunity before? Oh yes, he most certainly had.

It was time to call in my favor.

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