“Yeah, I know. Way too long. I’m good. Happy to be home. You?” I thumped his back with my fist before we released each other and stepped back.
“Same. How long are you in town for? We should grab a beer if you’ve got time.” He pushed his brown hair off his forehead. “Rylee and I both flew in for the weekend only, but I’m sure she could hold down the fort at home for a few hours.”
“Wow. Was that your sister I just saw you speaking to?” I already knew it was, but I asked anyway.
Billy wasn’t one of those asshole big brothers who thought he owned his sister and threatened to kill any guy who even looked at her—he’d have been a mass murderer by now if he’d tried to—but I’d never rubbed my attraction to her in his face. I wouldn’t start now.
He laughed and rolled his eyes. “You could’ve left out the ‘wow,’ but yes, that was Ry. Our mom’s waiting for the groceries, but let me know if you’re up for that beer?”
“I will. If we don’t get around to it this weekend, we should meet up next time.” Billy’s mom was like mine. She expected her kids home for the major holidays. If we didn’t make it back for Christmas, we’d both be back soon enough.
He nodded. “Yeah. We’ll do that. See you around, Carter.”
“Tell Rylee I say hi,” I said before shaking his hand again and waving as I watched him jog to catch up to his sister.
Rylee fucking Naples. What a blast from the past.
Billy joined her in the line to check out, and seeing her even from this distance made my heart race and my dick stir. It was uncanny that after all this time, my body shot right back to teenage mode when I saw her.
Quit acting like an infatuated child and march your ass over to the bakery instead of staring. My body might have reverted to teenage mode, but at least my brain still worked. Even if it was just to conjure up all those old images of the two of us together and all the fun we never got to have.
Oh, God. Now I’m sporting a boner in the fucking grocery store. Hello, fifteen. I really haven’t missed you.
Rylee was just that girl to me, though. Always had been and probably always would be. It’d been good to see her, but I was kind of glad it was a once in a decade thing. Things would get real uncomfortable for me real fast if that ever had to change.
Chapter 4
RYLEE
“Have we got everything?” I asked my brother when he finally rejoined me from whatever the hell had kept him in the frozen-foods section for so long.
He studied the contents of the cart and nodded. “Yeah, I think so. Next time, I’m calling Mom from the airport and asking her what last-minute things she needs before I even head home.”
I laughed. “It’s a good strategy, but you know we’re always going to end up doing last-minute shopping anyway. None of us are that good at preparation. Face it, we’re just not a list family. Where were you?”
“Oh, I ran into Carter. He says hi.” Billy leaned with his forearms on the cart like he didn’t have a care in the world. Or rather, like he didn’t know he’d just sent my heart spinning like a top at the mere mention of his former best friend’s name.
“Carter? Hot Carter from high school?” Oh, be still my heart.
I hadn’t seen Carter in person since he and Billy had graduated, but the boy still dominated my fantasies when I let myself think about him. Well, he probably wasn’t a boy anymore. He and my brother were having their thirtieth birthdays next year. Carter would be a man now, and that was something I desperately wanted to see.
I craned my neck to try catching a glimpse of him, but Billy rolled his eyes and gave my shoulder a light push. “Hot Carter? Since when did you think he was hot?”
“Since always.” I rolled my eyes right back at him. As the youngest child in a sarcastic family, eye-rolling was an art I’d perfected as a toddler. My brother was pretty good at it too, though. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t know I thought he was hot. I mean, I’m not blind, am I?”
“I didn’t know you thought he was hot.” Billy’s face contorted into a horrified expression. “I used to invite him over to come swimming all the time. Were you perving on my friend when he was there?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate before replying. Carter and Billy used to be on the swim team together. “Your afternoon practice sessions at our place are legitimately among my favorite childhood memories.”
He groaned out loud and slapped a hand over his face. “I really didn’t need to know that. Fuck. I’m going to have to send him an apology gift basket.”
I shimmied a little, smirking when it made him wince. “That’s a great idea. I’d fit in a basket if we got one big enough. What else would you like to send him?”
“Not you, for starters. It’d be a basket to apologize for your eyes violating my poor, innocent friend who only wanted to cool down and practice with me.”
“Your poor, innocent friend?” Yeah, my brother definitely hadn’t been paying attention in high school.
It wasn’t like I’d hide out in my bedroom and spy on them from there—well, not always anyway. Very often, I’d put on my bikini and join them by the pool. Billy’s poor, innocent friend had had roving eyes of his very own.
Sadly, those lingering gazes and afternoons filled with sizzling tension between us were as far as things had ever gone. It’d also pretty much been the height of my sexual experiences as a teenager. Being turned on by my brother’s best friend looking at me was as good as it had gotten back then. Yep. I was that kind of cool in high school.
Thoughts about Carter and the feelings he’d stirred up in my body had led to some pretty intimate sessions of self-discovery. Handheld showerhead, how I miss you.
I briefly considered torturing Billy by telling him about how I’d named said showerhead Carty after Carter, but decided against it when he gave me a puzzled look. “He was my poor, innocent friend. Wasn’t he? Please don’t tell me you two used to sneak around and make out when I wasn’t looking.”
“I wish.” Billy flinched, but I just shrugged. “No, really. You have no idea how much I used to wish I could be making out with him when you weren’t looking. Where is he? I want to see him.”
“I don’t know where he is, but I hope it’s far, far away from here,” my brother complained. “Why are you giving me grief about this now? I don’t need to know the details of your sicko teenage fantasies.”
“Why do those details qualify as being sick? He was really hot, not related to me, nice, funny, and have I mentioned really hot?”
Carter hadn’t been the number-one jock or heartthrob in high school, but he was the only boy who had ever made my heart—and other bits—throb back then. I’d pictured myself running my hands through his thick brown hair so many times I could practically feel the softness of the strands between my fingers even now.
In my fantasies, I’d conveniently left out the hair gel they all used to lather themselves up with. I didn’t want to have to contend with having to get that goop off my hands even in my wildest dreams.