Page 11 of Playmaker

Cameron

The late afternoon sun beats down on my back but the wind on the lake makes the heat tolerable. The scent of seaweed and fish clouds my senses, and it takes me back to when I was younger and my parents would take me camping in this very park. We’d go tubing on the lake for hours, and when I couldn’t stand the heat anymore we’d go back to our camper, where Dad would grill hot dogs and hamburgers while Mom and I played cards or a board game of my choosing. Those moments feel so distant now that sometimes it’s hard to picture my mother’s face in those memories. If it wasn’t for photos and videos of her, I’m not sure I’d even remember what she looked like anymore.

“Cameron.” Ethan elbows me in the side, pulling me back to the present.

“Hm? Sorry, I was thinking.”

The sympathetic expression on his face makes me grit my teeth. He used to come with me on those camping trips, so he seems to know where my thoughts have led me. “I said the water is deep enough here for us to anchor. I need to grab the rope.”

I give him a curt nod, moving to the side to allow him to reach around me. Maya and Maddie quickly took over the deck of the boat not long after we set sail. Music from the radio plays loudly through their portable speaker, though I wish there wasn’t any music at all. I’ve always loved the sound of waves gently lapping the sides of a boat. It’s relaxing. Calming .

Maya comes to stand near Ethan and asks, “How do you know which anchor to choose?” At the shocked expression on his face, she adds, “My dad is into sailing and likes to share some knowledge with me, but I never pay enough attention.”

Ethan makes a point of looking anywhere but at Maya and the bikini she’s wearing when he replies, “Well, this is a fluke anchor, which is pretty standard for any sailboat. It works well for sand and mud, but if we were in an area where the current could frequently change, I’m sure the boat would come equipped with a plow anchor, which is more suitable for—” He cringes, staring out at the gleaming water. “Sorry. I could go on forever.”

Maya flicks her gaze over him and rests her elbows against the railing. “I never said I was bored.”

Leave it to Ethan to win a girl over talking about sailing . If he still thinks he doesn’t have a shot with her then he’s an idiot. I’ve never seen him nervous around a girl before, so this is new. The Ethan I knew in high school had all the confidence in the world when it came to women. He was my wingman at parties, but with Maya, he seems tongue-tied.

I refuse to become a cock block, so I leave him alone with her and head for the deck where—

Bad idea .

Maddie is applying tanning oil, and her skin is glistening in the sunlight. I avoided looking when she took off her cover-up and shorts earlier, but now that Ethan is distracted and anchoring the boat, I allow myself to take my fill.

Even though she’s short, she’s always had long legs, and they’re showcased beautifully in the scrap of fabric she calls a bikini. It’s baby pink with a tiny butterfly charm dangling between the middle of her breasts—the breasts I had the pleasure of enjoying less than twenty-four hours ago.

She’s stunning . Her blond curls are wild and free, and the coy smile she gives me when she catches me staring makes my heart lurch into my throat. It’s a smile I haven’t seen since the night we snuck out—a smile both devious and exhilarating.

What is she planning?

Before I can ask, she turns around and bends over to oil the rest of her legs . . . it’s a thong bikini. It rides so far up her ass I can practically see everything, and in seconds I’m raging hard, fighting the urge to take her right against the railing. It wouldn’t be hard. All I’d have to do is pull that thin piece of fabric to the side and—

Ethan .

Same boat .

Snap out of it .

“Maddie.” Her name comes out strangled when I finally reach her. My tall frame blocks her from Ethan and Maya’s view, but when she stands upright again to spin and face me, it does nothing to stop the thrumming of my pulse. I can feel the heat radiating from her, and I don’t know whether it’s from the sun or from how much of a physical pull she has over me.

“I thought you’d stay hidden beside Ethan all day.” Then, more seriously, she adds, “I didn’t think about what coming here to the lake would do to you. I’ve seen you staring off into space for the past hour and I’m sorry if you felt I persuaded or teased you into coming.”

I’m not sure what bothers me more. The fact she thinks I’d only go on a fun outing with her because I’m being forced into it or the look of pity she’s giving me. Getting emotional isn’t something I’m comfortable with. Apologizing to her the night of Mark’s party is the closest I’ve gotten since my mom passed, and even that felt like it was too much to handle. Discussing how special this place used to be and how different it is now . . .

I need to find a way back to common ground.

Deflection .

“I didn’t realize you were paying so much attention to me,” I tease. “Thinking about last night?”

She glances down at my tight board shorts before meeting my gaze. “I think that’s you , not me.”

Fuck . I forgot I’m still hard, but I’m relieved to know she isn’t going to push me on the subject and force me to open up. She’s going along with it and doing exactly what I need her to do. Distract me.

My voice drops low, seductive and charming. “You expect me not to show a reaction when you’re parading around in pieces of fabric so thin I could rip them off with just my teeth?”

The little gasp of hers makes me grin.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I take a step closer, ensuring we keep a foot of distance between us in order not to cause any suspicion. Then I do a lazy, agonizingly slow perusal of her from her perfectly pedicured toes to those blazing blue eyes. “If I took you into the cabin and continued what we were doing in the closet last night, I’d have you completely hooked. That is, if you aren’t already, of course.”

She rolls her eyes, but I can see the pulse drumming rapidly against her throat. “You’re so arrogant,” she whispers.

I shrug. “Or confident. To each their own. You can lie all you’d like, but the thought of last night turns you on, so much so that you felt the need to give me a show just now in the hopes of it happening again.”

On the outside I remain the guy who has always won girls over easily. I look like my future doesn’t hang in the balance on her reply, but it does. It kills me that we haven’t discussed what happened between us yet. It’s infuriating that I can’t tell whether or not she liked it. With other girls, my phone would have been filled with texts about how good our night together was or asking when we could do it again, but Maddie never reached out. She’s kept her opinions to herself, and I’m dying to know whether or not she desires a repeat.

“Do you want it to happen again?” Those eyes that match the sky overhead reveal nothing as to what she might be thinking, and I can’t decipher my feelings enough to give her a genuine answer. There’s not a question in my mind that I liked what happened in the closet, but for it to happen again of our own free will, to take the chance of Ethan and her parents finding out? Of losing the people closest to me?

“I—”

“CANNONBALL!”

Ethan flies past us in a blur, somersaulting over the edge of the rail into the lake below. He hits the water with a splash, and Maya grabs Maddie’s wrist, whisking her away before I can reply to her question.

“Oh come on! You guys don’t want to do a cool flip?” Ethan shouts from below. “The water feels amazing!”

“We’ll use the ladder like civilized human beings, thank you,” Maya replies with a grin.

Now isn’t the time to discuss where Maddie and I go from here. With her best friend and her brother around, we have to pick a time when we can be alone, just the two of us.

No distractions.

For now, we’ll have a fun-ass time together.

“CANNONBALL!” I echo Ethan and do a somersault of my own. It’s something my dad would highly disapprove of, considering there’s a risk of getting injured, but this is one day where I get to relax and enjoy time with my friends at a place I thought I’d never return to or enjoy again. I’m not going to pass that up.

The coolness of the water makes the heat and lust I felt moments ago vanish instantly, and I give myself a few seconds to enjoy the quietness of being submerged. It allows me the chance to clear my head and collect my thoughts.

Whenever I’m around Maddie I seem to forget right and wrong. The line is always blurred when it comes to her, but here, beneath the water, it’s quiet. I don’t have an angel or a devil on my shoulder trying to convince me what to do. I can bask in the silence without any expectations from my father. I can drown out the grief I feel about my mother. I can just be .

When I reach the surface, I gasp and shake out my curls.

“What the hell, man?” I blink my eyes open to see Ethan swimming in place directly in front of me. “I almost had to start searching for you.”

“Is enjoying being underneath the water a crime?” I’m wearing the smile I’ve grown accustomed to displaying to appease others, and it seems to work on Ethan, who rolls his eyes and swims over to Maya without an ounce of shyness showing now.

I make a mental note to ask about their conversation later. Clearly, it went well.

Maddie’s gaze burns into the side of my face, but not with the type of heat I want. She seems to be the only one the smile didn’t placate. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. Maddie has always paid attention to me more closely than anyone else in my life.

Still, she doesn’t ask why I took so long rising to the surface. Instead, she swims closer until her body is inches from mine and says, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Because your brother launched himself off the boat.”

“Cameron.”

I heave a sigh. “I don’t have an answer for you, Mads. It’s never been cut-and-dried for us, and you know that. What happened last night was complicated, and our next steps can’t be based only on the attraction we feel for each other. We need to talk about this and consider all the consequences. Really talk.”

She glances over her shoulder to where Ethan and Maya are in a splashing war with each other. A part of me feels like asking if she’s aware Maya is into Ethan, but I don’t want to upset her. Not when I’m so close to getting her to see me tonight.

“And how do you propose we do that?” she asks.

“Come to my house after I get home from the gym tonight. It’ll be a place where we’ll have no distractions.”

She scoffs. “No distractions? We can’t seem to be around each other for two minutes without eye-fucking each other.”

My lips tilt into a grin. “So, you’re admitting to eye-fucking me?”

“How could I not when you’re wearing hoochie shorts?”

I glance down at myself in the murky water. “ Hoochie shorts? I am not wearing hoochie shorts.”

“Girls from two boats over were staring, Cam. They leave little to the imagination.”

“Are you jealous?” I reach a hand beneath the water and place it on her hip, my pupils dilating at the effect my touch has on her. Any doubts I had of her opinion about last night are gone. I can tell when I rub my thumb across her hip bone just how much she’s thought about it, and damn I’m obsessed at how sexy she looks tugging on her bottom lip.

“How could I be jealous?” She closes her eyes as I skim my fingers right above her bikini bottoms. “I have no reason to be. We hooked up in a closet last night. That doesn’t mean we’re in a relationship.”

“Never said it did.” Flicking my eyes over her shoulder, I see Maya and Ethan are still distracted with each other, and with Maddie’s back facing them, it allows me to have some fun with her. “Just because we only hooked up once doesn’t mean you can’t be jealous. For example, if some other guy touched you here . . .” She clamps down on a moan when I place my hand between her legs. “I would be very envious of them.”

“Cam,” she warns, wanting and breathless. “Ethan is—”

“I’m fully aware of where he is,” I croon, withdrawing my hand. “I only wanted to know if you’ve thought about me since last night, and now I have my answer.”

She holds my stare, regal and unflinching. “And if you’ve been wondering all day about my opinion, then I guess that means I have my answer too.”

“Maybe you do.” A beat and then, “We still need to talk about things, though. Can you be at my house by eight?”

She floats a few feet away, putting distance between us, and it isn’t until now that I realize how empty it feels without her nearby.

What is she doing to me?

“I’ll think about it,” she says, lips twitching. “What? I can’t let you become too arrogant. If that head of yours gets any bigger it’ll burst.”

“Looking forward to it!” I shout as she swims over to Maya and Ethan. She gives me a middle finger in response, which causes me to throw my head back and laugh.

Maddie Davis is going to be the death of me .