Page 9 of Wish You Were Mine (Kings of Eden Falls #3)

OWEN

“Here’s your drink,” I said, handing Lucy her cup once she was settled in her seat.

“Thanks.” She took it from me, our eyes briefly locking. And wow, she had really pretty eyes. Dark blue—at least out here with only the hot tub lights and the full moon above to light the night sky.

"Is it comfortable sitting like that?" I asked when I noticed she was actually sitting on her knees instead of her butt.

"It’s all right," she said, glancing at me with a smile. "Kind of necessary when you’re short and don’t feel like sitting with your face in the water.”

"I guess that’s probably right," I said, chuckling lightly. "How tall are you?"

"Five-one."

"Nice," I said. A tiny but mighty little thing.

“You?”

“Just over six feet,” I said. Then gesturing to the other guys in the hot tub, I added, “Basically a midget when I stand next to these guys. ”

“Six feet is not short at all.” She giggled lightly. “But I get how you feel. When I’m with my gymnastics friends, I feel normal. But put me at a party like this and I feel like a little kid.”

“You have a lot of gymnastics friends?” I raised my eyebrows, intrigued and suddenly understanding where that muscle tone must have come from. “Does that mean you’re a gymnast?”

“Been doing it since I was three.”

“You any good?"

"I’m all right." She chuckled. "At least I should be after doing it for most of my life.”

"Dang," I said, impressed. "I’m guessing you did it competitively, then? Not just as a hobby?"

"You could say that."

"Did you do it in college?"

“Yeah…” She seemed to think for a moment before adding, "All four years."

"That must’ve been intense," I said. "Balancing school with training that hard all year."

"It was." She hesitated, like she was considering whether to say more, then shrugged and left it at that.

“Did you go to Eden Falls University?” I asked, wondering if she’d been there at the same time I’d been getting my PhD. Maybe we’d crossed paths before?

“I did...”

She probably knew Theo’s sister then, since from what he’d told me before, it sounded like he had a sister who was on the team. Which could explain why she and Theo had been chatting at the club.

“Okay, guys,” Ky shouted as he approached the hot tub with the last two drinks in his hands, his voice cutting through the conversation. “Who wants to start us off?”

“Start with the Never Have I Ever questions?” Nora asked, a playful grin already pulling at her lips.

“Yep,” Ky said, stepping over the edge of the hot tub and sliding in between Miles and Alessi. “Everyone knows how to play, right?”

“One of us says something we’ve never done, and anyone who has done it takes a sip of their drink, right?” Bash clarified, looking around to make sure everyone was on the same page.

“Exactly,” Ky said, his eyes gleaming with mischief.

“I’ll start then,” Bash said, his voice rising with confidence. He scanned the group, raising an eyebrow. “Never have I ever flirted with someone just to get a free drink.”

“Oh, come on, Bash,” Alessi groaned. “You know pretty much every woman has done that.”

And true enough, Alessi, Lucy, and Nora all took a sip of their drinks. And then—not too surprisingly—Miles did too.

Everyone turned to look at him, waiting for an explanation. He shrugged casually, a slight smirk playing at the corner of his lips. “Alessi dared me to test a theory about her mom’s cougar friend having a thing for me.”

“And did she buy you a drink?” Ky asked, amused.

“Oh yeah,” Miles said, his chest puffing out a little with pride. “Tried to take me home, too, but I told her I had an early football practice in the morning.”

“She was devastated,” Alessi explained. “Completely heartbroken.”

“Only for a minute.” Miles chuckled, waving the thought away. “Since one of my college teammates saw me leave the desperate housewife, and well…I think they’re actually still together.”

“Nice!” Ky laughed. Then he took his turn, saying, “Never have I ever gone skydiving.”

To which only Bash took a drink for .

Miles was next to Ky, so he took his turn, saying, “Never have I ever shoplifted.”

Which immediately made my muscles tense because yeah, I had to take a sip for that one.

“What?” Alessi’s jaw dropped when she saw me taking my drink. “You’re like the last person out of this group who I’d think would do that.”

“I was quite the rebel when I was three.” I chuckled awkwardly, feeling my face heat as I peeked to see Lucy looking at me with curious eyes. “Ran out of the grocery store with some yellow squash.”

“Wait, really?” Ky asked, pulling his head back. “Did you, like, really love squash or something?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, holding my hands up. “Pretty sure I was just bored while my mom was shopping and thought they looked interesting. But don’t worry, my mom caught me and made me give them back.”

“So it wasn’t even a successful mission,” Ky said.

“I guess not,” I said. “I guess it’s good I never decided to go into a life of crime.”

Not that I’d ever want to. Having one family member spending the last decade in prison was more than enough for my family.

“Anyone else successfully shoplift?” Miles asked, looking around the group.

“I stole lip gloss from the supermarket once,” Lucy said, raising her hand. “But unlike Owen here, I never got caught.”

“Oooh, such a rebel!” Nora chuckled, nudging her friend with her elbow.

“You know it,” Lucy said before taking a sip of her drink. “But yeah, I did feel guilty enough about it that last year when I was doing self-checkout at the store, I scanned another lip gloss that I was buying two times instead of one so I could kind of pay back for the one I’d stolen.”

Well, that was actually really sweet. Told me a lot about her character.

“Okay, it’s your turn, Nora,” Ky said when no one else fessed up to any shoplifting.

“Hmm…” Nora thought for a moment, tapping her chin.

“Done too many things, Nora?” Miles asked, a flirtatious tone in his voice. “Having a hard time thinking of anything you haven’t done?”

“Har har,” she said, rolling her eyes at him. Though from the way she blushed, I couldn’t help but think she might actually like his teasing— like pretty much every girl who talked to Miles.

After a few more seconds, Nora said, “Never have I ever broken a bone.”

Pretty much everyone took a sip for that one.

“How is that even possible with you being a gymnast?” Alessi asked. “Aren’t regular injuries a part of the deal?”

“Oh, I’ve definitely sprained my ankle and torn muscles before,” Nora said. “But no broken bones.”

“Knock on wood,” Lucy said. “You still have this coming season to get through.”

Nora must still be in college if she still had a competition season coming up.

Which I guess would be a reason why the girls were hanging out with the college hockey team on Sunday…that was, if Lucy wasn’t dating the hockey player who had started the fight.

Lucy had said she was done with college, right? So maybe she was a year older than Nora. So that would probably make Lucy around twenty-two or twenty-three.

Possibly six years younger than me .

Which was…quite a bit of an age gap.

Though, since I’d marked my dating range as five years younger than me on the Meet Your Match app, one year younger than that wasn’t too bad.

Not that I was thinking about dating her. I didn’t really know her.

“Oh right,” Nora said, her eyes going wide as she looked behind her for some wood to knock on. There was a beam not too far behind the corner of the hot tub that Ky was in, so she quickly got up from her spot and bent over the edge to knock on it.

While she did that, I asked Lucy, “Did you have many injuries during your gymnastics career?”

“Oh yeah,” she said easily. “I’ve torn my calf, shattered my toe, broke my arm once…”

“Not to mention the bruised ribs you had last spring,” Nora added, plopping back down beside her.

“Oh yeah.” Lucy laughed. “Gymnastics is fun,” she said lightly—though her tone caught for a fraction of a second, a flicker of shadow passing behind her smile.

“Yikes,” I said.

“What bones have you broken?” she asked.

“Just my arm,” I offered. “Crashed my bike when I was a kid.”

“Okay, Lucy, it’s your turn,” Ky interrupted our conversation when Nora had taken her seat again.

“Okay. Just a sec.” She bit her lip for a moment, like she was trying to think of just the right thing to say. Then, with a mischievous look in her eyes, she glanced briefly at Nora before saying, “Never have I ever kissed someone to make someone else jealous.”

“Oh geez, I wonder why you picked that one,” Nora said before making a face and throwing her head back to take a sip of her drink.

“Sorry.” Lucy laughed. “All the other things coming to mind were too boring.”

“It’s okay, Nora,” Miles said, nudging her with his elbow. “Alessi has done it, too.” He shot Alessi a teasing look across the hot tub.

Alessi held up her cup and said, “Well, let’s cheers to that then, sweet stepbrother, because we both know you love playing those jealousy games as much as I do.”

“You got that right.” He chuckled and they both took their sips at the same time.

Which was not surprising at all. Those two were always tangled up in one mess or another when it came to relationships.

It was my turn next, and I must have had Bash’s midnight-kiss challenge in my mind mixing with my curiosity about Lucy’s relationship status, because before I could think better of it, I was saying, “Never have I ever kissed someone who wasn’t single.”

A collective gasp sounded in the group. I must have hit a nerve because I caught a few members of the group glancing around like they were curious if anyone had kissed someone who was in a relationship with someone else…

And after a few strained seconds, Miles shook his head and said, “Fine. You got me.”

“What?” Bash asked. “When was this?”