“Deal,” she said and smiled from ear to ear, revealing her dimples once more and then sprinted as fast as she could back into the pool.
“Hey Cole,” Mom said warmly as she emerged with a tray filled with iced drinks.
“They look good,” I said salivating at the sight of the long-necked beer bottles covered in condensation. Mom laughed.
“How long are you staying this time honey?”
“Why, do you want to get rid of me already?” I teased her, knowing she would have been happy for all of us to live at home until the day we died.
“Never, but I know you. You’ll want your space again soon.”
I had to admit that once Morgan had arrived, as much as I loved her, it had gotten a lot noisier and harder to pay attention to my studies and get anything done at home. When the opportunity came to go to UCLA and then to law school at Roger Williams University on full scholarships, I had jumped at them. UCLA, in particular, had been a long way from home and it had been tough being so far away, but it had meant that while Tom had scoured the East Coast schools for Lucy, I had used my weekends to do the same on the West Coast.
When I graduated in the top five of my class, I had won a place at Harvard Law which had been a little closer to home, but the fees had been out of my reach, and with all the competition there had been no financial aid. Roger Williams was a bit farther away and obviously hadn’t got anywhere near as good a reputation, but the scholarship and the money I got from the work from Callie and Jake’s company, Glitch, meant I could afford a nice little apartment to myself. It also helped that I wasn’t too far from where they’d set up their offices in Providence. Having my two best buddies nearby, after two years where the entire continent had separated us for most of the year, was definitely a plus point for Rhode Island.
Jake thought Rhode Island was the best place in the world, and had missed it while we had all been at UCLA together. He couldn’t wait to get home and when his and Callie’s first collaboration started to make them serious money he jumped at the chance to drop out and head back. It suddenly hit me that Callie must truly love him, otherwise why would the sexy Californian not have insisted that she return to her beachfront home on the West Coast?
No, she hadn’t even stopped to think about it, had just upped and left to work with him back east. How had I been so blind? Maybe a bit of that vanity again, like Jake I had always assumed that if she had a crush on anyone that it was probably me. Well, I would do a bit of matchmaking when I got back and push the idiots into each other’s arms where they belonged. Looking back over the years of our friendship, I wondered why I hadn’t picked up on it before - there were just so many clues!
“Just tonight, sadly Mom. I have to get back to the office by Sunday afternoon. We’re having a final strategy meeting before the trial starts on Monday.”
“Then we had best make the most of you. Go and get changed, you must be sweltering. I’m going to try and tear your sister away from the pool and get her to bed. I only let her stay up this long because she knew you were coming. There was no point in even trying, she would have been escaping every five minutes to see if you were here yet! So, if you hear any screams it’s probably me,” she said.
“Well don’t make a liar out of me. I promised Morgan I’d be back to play,” I replied.
“Oh, fine then,” she laughed and rolled her eyes. “She can stay up a while longer. Go get your trunks on.”
I nodded and ran up the stairs and dove into the shower to rinse the accumulation of travel sweat off me.
The shower was cool, and I felt refreshed when I emerged. I pulled on some swimming shorts, and picked up my cell. I remembered the email and quickly pulled it up. It was a notification of a new member who would like to chat. I sighed heavily and clicked on the link to go to the site, not expecting much but figuring this could maybe be my final date requirement and then this hell would all be over.
I was not prepared for the shock I got when I saw the profile picture of the woman who wanted to maybe hook up with me and was forced to sit down on the end of the bed.
In a swirl of conflicting emotions, my spirits soared and my heart sank as I studied the face before me on the screen.
On the one hand, I realized that this candidate could never be my final date to end the bet. No, I’d still need to keep looking for her. I sighed with mild frustration at the prospect of another evening in the company of the lost and unwanted of Rhode Island.
But on the other, as I gazed into the depths of the emerald eyes of this enquirer, hypnotized by her absolute perfection, I was overwhelmed with relief.
Lucy was alive, and by some stroke of luck or fate or both, she was almost within my reach for the first time in years. Closing my eyes, tears threatening, I took a deep breath and finally allowed all the worry and pain to slowly disperse from my body.
Yet I knew that it would definitely take much more than a week of emails and texts to build this one’s trust to meet me for a date.
I could feel my heartbeat pound against my chest.
Thank fuck that I now knew where she was. I’d always tried to keep my hopes in check over the years, never really believing that I’d find her, and yet here she was beaming at me on the screen.
She looked just as spunky, and clearly as determined as ever. The picture showed her in a cap and gown, so I knew she’d graduated college even without family support. You had to admire that.
What a girl Lucy Rivers had always been. Her face was as familiar as my own once, but now I could see the clearer lines and less rounded features of a woman, not a girl. She looked harder, tougher than I remembered her, but her cat-like eyes were still filled with the sadness I had seen in them when she’d left here five years ago with hatred in her heart.
But still, even through the haunted look in her eyes, she looked fantastic. I could feel the usual pull that her closeness had always left me with as a teenager, an ache in my groin and a desire I could never shake. And all this from a tiny profile photo… I could only imagine the effect she would have on me if I were to see her in person.
Yet, how could I possibly let her know who I really was?
She would run a mile, but I had to know she was okay, had to try and rebuild the trust we had once shared. She was the only woman who had ever gotten me so hot and horny I couldn’t think straight, and trying to maintain our lifelong friendship had been tough as we had blundered through our teen years.
God, I remembered that glorious, summer night like it was yesterday. We had so nearly taken everything to the next level… and that incredible kiss still tormented me to this very day.
The perfect moment when we had finally been alone had been unexpectedly interrupted by the news that would change everything, forever. I could still recall the frustration I had felt, my cock so hard and eager, and my body feeling so robbed of the sensation of her soft breasts pressed up against my hard chest, her silky skin under my fingers.
Even now, just thinking of that night alone in her bedroom made my cock twitch with excitement. Oh, I wanted her… still do.
I pushed the urge to explore the memory further as I tried to figure out my next move. My head felt dizzy with indecision.
I should tell Lucy’s dad, Tom, and my Mom that Lucy was okay, that I’d inadvertently found her. They’d want to know she was fine and had fulfilled her dream of being an interior designer. They had a right to know, I told myself, but an almost imperceptible inkling urged me to keep the information under wraps for now.
Guilt swirled in my belly. Tom had been worried out of his mind for years, had tried to trace her, but without enough money to hire a private detective we had come up against