Page 64 of Like You Want It

CHAPTER TWELVE

CARLY

“Well don’t you just look adorable.”

Carol’s statement booms across the backyard from where she’s seated on a lounge chair in the shade. I smile at her and call out a “Thanks!” as I slide the door closed behind me.

It took me twenty minutes to get this thing on and build up the courage to come outside. But switching to the one-piece wasn’t an option since Susie claimed it for herself.

Not any more revealing than other bathing suits I’ve worn in the past, this little number plays a bit of peekaboo with my breasts.

A tiny hoop in the center links the two sides of the top together to keep me covered, and a single thin strap halter wraps around my neck. It perks me up a bit, which I like, since most bathing suits have a tendency to flatten. Not a problem when you’re well endowed, but the last thing I want when I already feel like I have a flat chest is an even flatter chest.

The bottoms are a little bit small for my large ass, though, and I’m sure to be showing off a little more cheek than Susie ever did when she wore this back in high school.

It fits pretty well, though Fin’s gaze on me has me reconsidering just slightly when his eyes take a slow perusal of my figure before he turns to stare at the grill where his dad is stationed.

Carol walks over to me and hands me a massive blue and green beach towel. “Now, take care to lather up that skin of yours. There’s a basket of sunscreen over on the patio table. Girls like us have to make sure we don’t get skin cancer.”

I smile at her. “My mom used to say the same thing when I was younger. Don’t worry, I’ve been avoiding sunburns like the plague since I was in the third grade and got burnt so bad on a school trip to Raging Waters that I had to go to the hospital.”

Carol titters and heads back into the house as I wander off in search of some SPF 100.

I used to curse my pasty white skin, wishing I was a lot more tan and able to spend more time in the sun. Now, I see it as a blessing. It forces me to take care of my skin and stay in the shade when my normal reaction would be to bake in the sun all day.

I glance longingly at a lone inflatable lounger that floats in the pool, just waiting for someone to stretch out and sunbathe.

Okay, so maybe I’m not thankful for being this whiteallthe time. In the words of Adrian Monk, it’s a blessing, and a curse.

Once I’m done spraying myself as intensely as possible in hopes I might get to soak in the sun for at least a little while today, I head over to where Fin and Peter are manning the grill. A sealed package of hamburger meat rests next to it, just waiting to be cooked, and I hear my stomach grumble.

“Burgers for lunch?” I ask, smiling at Peter.

He nods as he takes a sip of his beer, then smiles back at me, setting the beer down perfectly into the wet ring of condensation it had likely been resting in before he picked it up.

“Yes ma’am. And not just any burgers. These are my famous blue cheese burgers that all of our kids used to clamor for when they were younger.”

“Oh, that soundsamazing.” I sit down in a lounger adorned with plush seat pads covered in blue turtles. “You and Carol seem to be really into kitchen stuff. I am an absolutelymonstrouscook.”

Peter chuckles. “It just takes a little practice. When Carol was in the military, it was just me and my three babies. So I had to learn how to cook, and do better than just warming up chicken nuggets. You learn as you go.”

“Oh that’s right!” I exclaim, glancing at Fin. “I forgot you have another brother. Noah, right?”

“You are correct,” Peter responds when Fin stays silent. “Noah might be joining us for dinner, but it depends on his client schedule today.”

Fin glances off into the distance, scratching his chin.

“Oh that’ll be fun, to have everyone together,” Susie pipes in as she joins us, the one-piece I’d discarded fitting her perfectly.

But the real showstopper is Nell, clad in the cutest little pink baby bikini I’ve ever seen. “Someone’s excited to see Uncle Noah, huh?” Susie teases, tickling her daughter’s foot.

Nell giggles and squirms, her hands reaching for the pool.

“Someone caught the swimming gene,” Susie says with bemusement as she tries to keep Nell from falling out of her arms. “Girl can’t get enough of the pool, can she?” She says the last part in a baby voice as she carries her over to the edge of the water.

Fin follows quietly in their wake, though still manages to draw my attention when he pulls his shirt off, chucking it on a lounge chair.

For just a moment, time freezes, and I let my eyes rove over his chiseled chest and the tattoos that I’m desperate to spend more time admiring. The ones I should have spent more time asking questions about last night.