no.” He waved a palm at her. “Leave me out. I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
“Traitor. I wouldn’t have been there in the first place if you hadn’t dared me to fill the pool with rubber ducks.”
Cade smiled at the memory. “You never could resist a dare. But you didn’t get the pool filled, did you?”
“Yeah.” Gabe chuckled. “Because she fell in.”
“I never said I didn’t fall in.” Ivy stuck out her chin defiantly. “Just not during swim team practice.”
“You know what that means?” Cade ran a finger around the rim of his beer bottle.
“Not a clue.” She pulled her sweatshirt tighter around her, emphasizing those full, firm breasts he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since the photo shoot. “But I’m sure you’re planning to enlighten me.”
He shifted in his seat to hide the evidence of his reaction to her. “You owe me. One dare.”
Gabe’s chuckle turned into a guffaw.
“Oh, please.” Ivy turned to Cade, swinging that damn curtain of hair and sending another jolt of tension through his midsection. “That was more than ten years ago. You can’t be serious.”
“As ammonium nitrate.”
“I don’t even know what that is.”
“Come on, Ivy.” He had no idea why, but he felt an instant, overwhelming desire for her to agree, as though some stupid dare would bring them closer together again. And why did he care about that anyway? She’d be out of town faster than a flashover as soon as her dad was on his feet again. It would be safer for both of them if he just kept his distance. So why couldn’t he? “For old times’ sake.”
“No way. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a professional, with a reputation to uphold.”
“I promise it won’t be anything illegal.”
“Yeah, right.” She dragged the toe of her sneaker through the grass.
“Or harmful.”
“Says the guy who made me drink an entire jar of pickle juice.” Ivy grimaced. “And then eat all the salt at the bottom of the pretzel bag.”
Yeah, Cade remembered that one. She’d puked her guts out. For hours. He’d felt terrible about it, not that he’d let her know. “Give me a break. I was thirteen.”
“Which only means you’ve had seventeen years since then to come up with something even more diabolical.”
Any snarky response Cade could have come up with was preempted by his cell phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pants pocket, knowing—and dreading—what was coming.
“Shit.” He pressed Reject, turned the damn thing off and stowed it back in his pocket.
“What’s wrong?” Gabe crossed to a pile of wood on the opposite side of the fire pit, picked up a log and tossed it into the flames, making sparks fly into the cool night air. “Your mother after you again?”
“Nah.” Cade glanced at Ivy, wishing he didn’t have to air his dirty laundry in front of her. He drained his beer, then opened the cooler next to his chair, dropped in the empty and pulled out a fresh bottle. “Sasha. She keeps texting and calling. Even showed up at the station this afternoon bearing brownies.”
He grabbed another beer from the cooler and held it out to Gabe.
Gabe took it and returned to his seat. “The guys must’ve loved that.”
Yeah. They’d never let Cade live it down. They were already calling him Brownie Boy.
“Can I have one of those?” Ivy pointed to the cooler. “And who’s Sasha?”
“Cade’s girlfriend.”
“Ex-girlfriend,” Cade amended, opening a bottle and handing it to her. Their fingers brushed and he felt a flicker of something electric pass between them. “As of two weeks ago.”
His date with Sasha the night of the photo shoot had been their last. Not that the session had anything to do with their breakup. It was pure coincidence he’d picked that night to call it quits.
Wasn’t it?
“Do I know her?” Ivy wrinkled her nose. “I don’t remember a Sasha from high school.”
“She’s a few years younger than us.”
“That’s an understatement.” Gabe snorted. “She’s barely legal.”
“She’s twenty-one,” Cade said through clenched teeth. “Almost twenty-two.”
“Let me guess.” Ivy swung her legs sideways over one arm of her chair and took a slug of beer. “The checkout girl with the—”
“Never mind.” Cade cut her off with a glare. “That’s not important. What is important is no matter what I say, she won’t leave me alone.”
“There’s your problem.” Gabe, always the analytical one, rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You know the old saying about actions speaking louder than words.”
“Sure.” Cade popped the top of his beer and took a long, slow sip. “But what’s that got to do with Sasha?”
Gabe crossed one Sperry-clad foot over his knee. “You need to show her you mean business, not just tell her.”
“Show her how?”
“By dating someone else.”
“Like who?”
“I don’t know.” Gabe lifted a shoulder. “You’re the local ladies’ man. You tell me.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the problem.” Cade picked at the label on his beer bottle. “Stockton’s not all that big. I’ve sort of exhausted the dating pool.”
“Hello.” Ivy waggled her fingers at him. “Available female here.”
“Huh?” Cade couldn’t have heard her right. She did not just offer herself up to him like a virgin sacrifice.
“I volunteer as tribute.”
She did.
He continued to stare at her, not sure how to respond. Gabe, on the other hand, had no such problem. He burst into hysterical laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Ivy pressed her lips into a thin line.
“You?” Gabe choked out between laughs. “And Cade? You might as well be brother and sister.”
Only Cade didn’t think of her that way, not anymore. And that was exactly why he didn’t want to go out with her. Couldn’t go out with her.
“Look,
