“You call that a hike?” I laugh. “Please, that’s a stroll.”
“He conveniently forgot to mention that it’s all uphill, doll,” Rykard says, hopping out of the car. “And there’s snakes, so be on your watch.”
Jared rustles my hair. “Can you press the side latch once you get out? I don’t want to be forgotten back here.”
I ease out, swimsuit and phone in hand, and press down on the latch. The seat flings forward like it’s on some sort of slingshot and slams into my hand on the seat. “Don’t worry, I’m good,” I groan out. “But, Jared?”
“Huh?” His floppy blond hair swings with his head. “Oh, man, you good?”
Do men ever listen? “Could you maybe pull the seat back up? It’s on my hand.”
He grips it by the headrest and lifts it a few inches. I move my hand and shake it out as I walk toward where Candy grinds up on Tom. They already have their Bluetooth speaker hooked up blaring country music. And apparently, this group of people doesn’t have one type of music genre they like because first it’s EDM, then it’s rap, then it’s pop, and now country. You can’t hike in the woods without listening to country music.
She unlatches her hips from his and puts an arm around me. There’s no alcohol smell, which means she’s always like this. I love it.
“Let’s go, party people! Everyone else is waiting on us!” she shouts.
We let the boys lead the way so they’re the first ones bitten by rattlesnakes. On the way up, a few people pass by us, soaking and smelling like sulfur.
“Gosh, that stinks.”
Candy pinches her nose. “I know, right? We’ll get used to it the closer we get. I need to tie my hair up though. The last thing I need is that agua ruining my dye.”
“Mhmm. So, you and Tom?”
She stumbles on a rock, but I catch her before she falls. Shooting me a full-lipped smile, she crinkles her nose and shakes her head. “No es mi novio…anymore. Actually, I’m saving him for later.”
I full-on stop walking. Letting the guys get a little bit ahead so they can’t hear us, I shoot her a look that hopefully says WTF are you talking about?
And then I actually say, “WTF are you talking about?”
“Like, not dating him now, but totally dating him later.”
I snort. “Can you do that?”
She taps her cheek with her pointer finger. “I don’t know. Let me check the book of life…sí, está bien. Who says I can’t?”
“How does Tom feel about that?”
“He gets to sleep with whatever ball-girls—”
I rear my chin back to give me at least fifty double chins. “Huh?”
She waves me off and starts walking again. “The ball groupies. He gets to sleep with whatever ball-girls he wants. In the meantime, I date around, travel the world through men, so on and so forth.”
“That is…definitely an interesting arrangement, I’ll give you that.” The dirt trail opens up a bit wider, and the smell of sulfur gets stronger with each step. “Hey, we almost there?” I yell to the guys ahead.
“If you slowpokes ever hurry up!” Rykard yells back.
Tom slaps Rykard’s head, and the big guy pouts enough to see it from this far back.
The rest of the hike up, Candy tells me about her Twitter platform. She’s got quite a following on Instagram too, but she’s building both daily. She talks about how last year, there was a riot over the university reporting a student to ICE, which helped her decide she would start fighting for immigrant rights. It’s intriguing, and the passion behind her words just tells me she’s doing everything she always wanted to do. Clearly, she’s living her dream.
I admire it.
She smiles. “Don’t worry, we’ll make a political girl out of you in no time, Les.”
I laugh. “I’m sure you will.”
A few minutes later, the bubbling of water sounds, and the pools come into view. It’s dark, but enough of the people in the water have lanterns and their phone flashlights on to see. There’s a smaller pool up at top with a trickling waterfall that leads into the larger three pools that cascade down toward us. People pack in, and everyone says their heys and hellos to the guys.
Candy fits right in, waving toward a few people tossing a ball back and forth. “Let’s get in!”
“I’m not in my swimsuit yet.”
She points off to the side. “Just change behind that tree.”
“You said there were snakes. What if a snake bites me?” Call me a scaredy-cat, but there’s no cell service up here and the chances of me getting to a reputable hospital in time for the antivenom for a snake bite is slim to none.
“Bien, I’ll come with you.”
“Thank you.” I stomp ahead to the largest tree I can find. There’s a lot of people, and I really don’t want to flash my goods to anyone. “Can you cover me?”
“I’m like six inches shorter than you. How am I supposed to do that?”
“Just do it!”
“Dios mío. You don’t have to be so bossy,” she mumbles, standing in front of me, arms spread wide like a cross.
I quickly undress, bottoms first, then top. In record time I change into my Hooter’s uniform, but then Candy says, “Your bottoms are on backwards.”
Huffing a sigh, I switch them inside out and barely get them over my butt before Candy shouts, “Carter! You said you weren’t coming!”
I blow out a forceful breath and turn around with a hopefully-composed smile. Then it melts on my face like ice on a hot summer day because Mr. Carter McHottie Pants has some Sports Illustrated model attached to his hip.
Which is fine. Like, totally fine. Because why wouldn’t he have a girlfriend? Standing here in my bikini is kind of cold, so I should probably go into the hot springs. Where’s Rykard, Jared, and Tom? They’re easy friends.
Carter hugs Candy. “Yeah, I didn’t think we were. Kinda last minute,” he says, lifting his chin toward me. “Hey, Les. How are you?”
“Good. Good. Great. Candy, I’ll be over with the guys, okay? Carter, nice seeing you again.” I nod and ease my way away from the tree. Two steps later, I feel an unmistakable pull on my bikini top. I grab my boobs so that my top stays up and slowly back myself up toward the branch holding my string captive.
“Little hung up there, are we?” Carter bites his lip and chuckles.
I yank at the tie that got caught up on the branch until it pulls free. “Not. Another. Word,” I hiss.
Thankfully, I spot Rykard’s tall, dark, and handsome body up ahead. I tie my top, making sure to double knot it, as I make my way over to him, hearing Carter’s lyrical laugh the whole way.
Rykard’s brown eyes sparkle against the lantern light. “’Sup, Les. Wanna play some volleyball?”
“Why, yes I do.” I step into the hot spring. The water isn’t quite as hot as a jacuzzi, but definitely hotter than a pool.
Rykard introduces me to a few other people, and we pair off into teams. We play three games, and I rock (since I played in high school), so we win two out of the three. Candy joins in halfway through, drinking more than she spikes the ball.