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Page 5 of Summer Skin

LAUGHTER ECHOED ACROSSthe bay. Elena and Piper glided through water in kayaks with Hank, the sound of their antics carrying back to shore. Chase sat cross-legged on Andi’s dock, watching the flashes of sunlight create ripples on the water down below.

The careful steps of Andi’s bare feet pitter-pattered across wooden planks before she plunked herself down next to him, pulling her knees to her chest. “So,” she said, glancing out at her friends, “I”m sorry about earlier.”

Chase shot her a glance from the corner of his eye. “Never mind,” he told her. “It”s fine.”

It wasn’t, but he couldn’t see the point in complaining about how exhausting it was to be the new kid in school. Again. Especially when it was her own crowd shooting after him like poisoned darts.

Andi turned to him, taking in his guarded expression. “It”s just,” she started, hesitating for a beat before going on. “It’s been the same forever. Same everything. Since before I can remember. Same mom-approved friends, same mom-chosen extracurriculars, everything safe and exactly as planned. I wondered what it would be like to choose someone of my own.”

It took a second for Chase to register that she meant him. That someone like Andi, so clever and popular and self-assured, would look at Chase and see anything other than a stray dog. The idea was hard to wrap his head around.

“I don’t know why Aven and Hank are making such a fucking thing of it, but it sucks filthy ass, and I’m sorry things got super heated back there.”

His mouth curved up at the image she painted with her language, but there was something more serious they needed to talk about.

“Hey, Andi, about this being a date?”

Her eyes darted to his, curious. “Yeah?”

“I, uh … I thought you were with Aven?”

She shook her head a little, her brow wrinkling in confusion. “Aven? No. God, no. We’re best friends. Have been for about as long as forever.”

A spark of something Chase couldn’t explain went off like a bottle rocket in his chest. All this time. He thought they were together. Thought that was Aven’s reason for, well, everything.

He’s kind of a dick, Chase wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut.

“Did you really think we were a couple?” Her nose crinkled. “He can be such a dick. I would never date him.”

A laugh broke free at the echo of his thoughts, and Andi peered over at him, blinking. “So … if you thought I was with Aven, I guess that means you weren’t thinking today was a date-ish type of thing?”

He watched her for a moment, her beautiful face, her intelligent eyes, searching for the feeling she was asking of him. But he couldn’t find it, not in his heart or in his gut, and he wasn’t one to toy around with someone’s feelings for attention.

“It’s just, like…” he said, scratching at the side of his neck, “things are kind of intense for me right now? There’s a lot going on and I’m not really looking for a date. But,” he pulls out a soft smile for her, “I was hoping we could be friends?”

She blinked slowly at him, maybe a little bummed at the rejection, emotions shifting in her eyes. For a moment, he tensed, thinking she was going to say no, but then she nudged his shoulder and cracked a smile. “Okay.”

He mirrored her grin, more relieved than he’d expected. “Okay?”

“For sure. Wanna go swimming with me?” she asked, glancing down at her body. “I didn’t change into a bikini for nothing. I mean,” she waggled her eyebrows at him, “even if you don’t want to touch, you can still look, right?”

She snickered, and the warmth of her expression felt brighter than the sun, and Chase thought, maybe. Maybe they really could be friends.

“Yeah, let’s,” he told her, rising from the dock. “I gotta change into my swim trunks.”

“Bathroom’s through the patio doors, down the hallway, to the left.” She pulled her sunglasses over her eyes, letting her feet dangle into the sea-green water below. “I’ll wait for you.”

The house was dim when he stepped inside, no lights on in the middle of the day, and it took his eyes a moment to adjust before he found the hallway. The place was enormous, a million times bigger than anything he’d ever lived in with his mom. He could imagine her distaste at the minimalist decor. The lack of color, of personality, originality. No joy, darling, she’d say, swiping her hand through the air as though brushing the dust of humdrum from the home.

But Chase liked it. Liked the order, the lack of chaos. It might be boring, but it felt safe. And for as much as he loved his spirited mother, safe was never a word Chase associated with his childhood.

Balling his pants and shirt up, Chase turned the light off and stepped from the bathroom, finding his way back outside.

“Matthews,” a lazy voice said at the end of the hall. Chase startled, freezing in place, his eyes darting around the shadows of the room until they landed on a figure slouched in an armchair.

Aven Sinclair.

He looked like an expensive billboard model, stretched out in that fine white chair, a tumbler full of dark, amber liquid dangling from one hand. A careless smirk drawn across his face as he looked Chase up and down.

Chase’s stomach dropped. It was just … that stare. Something about the way Aven was looking at him. A flush bloomed across his cheekbones.

“I thought you left,” Chase said slowly.

“Nope.” Aven shrugged one shoulder. He took a sip from his drink, staring at Chase over the rim the entire time. This was nothing like the once-over Hank gave him earlier. Aven’s gaze lingered, intense and heated, like a ray of desert sun. Then he rose from the chair, sauntering towards Chase until he was way too close for comfort.

“What are you doing?” Chase asked, low, his words coming out more like a breath.

“Looking at you,” Aven told him simply, letting his light green eyes move from Chase’s bare chest, up his throat, to his eyes, where they once again locked gazes.

“But why?”

A beat went by. Aven took a long sip of whiskey from the tumbler. His thick, chestnut hair was tousled, like he’d been running his fingers through it. “Andi asked me if I’d seen you,” he said, “so … I’m seeing you.”

Christ. Chase’s throat worked as he swallowed. “And what do you see?” he asked impulsively, said it only with a fierce desire to know exactly what it was that made Aven watch him like a hawk.

Chase tugged his bottom lip between his teeth as he waited for an answer, and Aven’s eyes went to his mouth. There was something hot and feral in his gaze, an electricity that felt alive underneath Chase’s skin. For a second … for one blinding, heart-pounding second, he was almost sure Aven Sinclair was going to kiss him. And more than anything, he wanted that.

The thought startled him, and once again, he was the first to break eye contact. “Shit,” he muttered, mostly to himself. Then, “It’s my birthday tomorrow,” awkward as anything.

God, fucking stop. Stop talking right the fuck now.

Still, the words continued to spill from his mouth. “I’m going to be eighteen.”

Aven rescued them both by leaning in, the heat of his body brushing against Chase’s bare skin. “Happy birthday,” he said, quietly, his whiskey-honeyed breath warm across the shell of Chase’s ear. And jesus, like his voice was some sort of hardwired turn-on, Chase’s heart rate kicked up.

Pulling away, Aven shoved his drink into Chase’s hand, blinking his long, dark eyelashes, and Chase held his breath, praying to every god he didn’t believe in for Aven to walk away before Chase did something he regretted.

“Tell Andi she knows where to find me,” Aven said, finally, backing away, his steps a little unsteady, tipsy on his feet.

“Hey,” Chase called out before Aven reached the door. “You’re not driving, right?”

“Matthews,” he said, without turning around, a hint of laughter in his tone, “I live next door.”

Right. Of course he did. Chase was surrounded by a shiver of rich kids, like sharks, in way over his head.

“See you around,” Aven said, which was definitely the friendliest way he’d ever— “And don’t come back.”

Yeah, Chase thought, as the door closed behind Aven, that guy is seriously a dick.

And his own dick was undeniably interested.

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