Karis reached around me to take a glass from the cupboard. Her bare skin smelled of coconut oil. “Hello, Call,” she greeted, meeting my gaze. Karis would never be described as shy.

Just then, the latest reject in the long line of jerk-offs she dated sauntered into the kitchen and grabbed her around the waist, as if showing me she was with him. As if I cared.

He presented her with a flower, which looked suspiciously like the ones from Mrs. Hirt’s garden out front.

But it worked. Karis beamed and took the gift, giving it a sniff.

“Hey, baby, meet you out by the pool?”

“Yep.” She answered, then fixed her gaze on me. The kid was an idiot if he thought she was really into him. She’d dump him in a minute if I said the word.

The second he closed the sliding door on his way outside, I said, “Where do you find these assholes?”

“They line right up, darlin’,” she drawled, then took a sip of water. The look she spared me seemed almost challenging.

“He only wants in your pants.”

“Hmm.” She glanced at the flower before tucking it behind her ear. “Maybe if he keeps it up, I might let him in.”

That day, for some reason the offhand comment pissed me off. “You’re like an arsehole magnet. You know that? You attract the worst guys.”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t go out with guys like him if the one I was really interested in would give me the time of day.”

I looked away, unable to hold her stare. Everyone knew she had a crush on me.

“And if you say the sister pact, Call, I’m going to punch you in the face. I know for a fact that if you had a sister Trey would be all over her. He’s already fucked Pete’s sister.”

“Stop.” I moved to the fridge, where I grabbed a soda.

“Don’t believe me? I met her on the stairs one morning coming up from Trey’s room in the basement. We had the most awkward conversation of my life. And then she snuck the rest of the way up the stairs trying to sneak out before my mom or dad saw her.”

“Well, just because no one else in this group has any morals doesn’t mean I don’t. It’s too bad you don’t respect yourself as much as I do.”

She spun around in a cascade of long blonde hair. “Don’t believe all the hype, rich boy.” She walked back to within inches of me, brazen little bitch that she was. But I stood my ground and stared back at her, with what I hoped was a cold, disinterested expression.

“Besides, you’re not so different. You might not touch, but you look at me just the way the rest of them do. I’m gonna walk outta here and your baby blues are going to go straight to my ass and you’ll admire the cut of my bikini bottoms.” She wiggled her hips and I fought the overwhelming urge to look at the colorful triangle between her legs. “I’ll even put a little extra wiggle on, just for you, Call. And by the time I reach the diving board, you’ll be sporting a full-fledged hard-on, baby, compliments of yours truly, the asshole magnet. And as you stand here fuming and berating yourself that I can make your little Johnson tug like that in the first place, you ponder, what that makes you.”

She puckered up and blew me a kiss, then flounced outside. As promised, she worked that sweet, toned little backside all the way to the board. She strode to the end of it and pointed right at me, where I stood at the door watching, like an idiot. I couldn’t tear my attention away, like a fuckin’ train wreck. Then she dove into the pool with a dive that was Olympic swimmer worthy. As I turned away, I shoved my hand into my loose-fitting shorts and fisted the traitorous aforementioned hard-on.