Page 15 of Wildest Dreams

I realise that his car has also disappeared.

A sudden all-consuming wave of disappointment crashes over me.

Did he leave?I think to myself.Did he really come to Larch Peak not expecting me to be vacationing on the same lake, realise that I was going to be his ‘neighbour’, and then immediately decide to haul ass and spend his summer some place else?

I know that it’s for the best but all I can think iswe have unfinished business.

Hunter, Fallon’s boyfriend, grins as he jogs our way, scooping Fallon up from the car before her feet even hit the dirt. She lets him give her a little kiss on the cheek and then he sets her back down, taking her hand in his as we meet at the front of my brother’s truck.

“Can we have a tour ofyourcabins?” Fallon asks him with a cheruby smile, looking innocently up at Hunter before giving me a mischievous little wink.

I blink at her, instantly suspicious.

She mouths the wordsbucket list, and then I’m laughing as I suddenly understand.

My eyes flash back over to the guys who are currently setting long logs around an unlit campfire, feeling a warm sensation in my belly when I realise that they’re all already watching me.

Item number one on my summer bucket list? Kiss a hot guy.

And it looks like there are four hot single hockey players who are more than up for helping me strike that off my list.

Tristan – a tall, tan, six-foot-something defence-man – drops the make-shift bench that he was holding and offers me a wave, his expression both eager and tentative, because he’s testing the waters.

He’s actually super cute, and I have to bite back my smile. I give him a pinkie wave and laugh when he almost trips over his own feet jogging over to us.

Tristan and I met a few months ago at Hunter’s twenty-second birthday party – and although he’s super hot we’re definitely just friends.

Friends who like to flirt. A lot.

But I think it’s good to have someone who you can harmlessly flirt with. I know he was crazy into me but he also knows where I stand, so that means that we can continue our little flirtationship without worrying that it’ll go beyond that.

I try to ignore the fact that I can feel Hunter’s eyes burning into the side of my face, telepathically telling me to quit flirting with anyone who isn’t Tanner. Like there’s some invisible string that has already tied me to his best friend.

I snip right through that string.

“Tour please,” I say to Hunter with an innocent smile of my own, as if my parents don’t literally own these cabins.

He watches me for a beat before giving me a nod, his hand tightening firmly around Fallon’s.

Tristan reaches us in about four seconds flat. His hair and jeans are sparkling with water droplets, as if he went for an early morning dip.

I look back at the other guys, checking to see if they’re equally as wet, and I’m puzzled when I realise that Tristan is the only one. Even Hunter is untouched by the water, his skin tan and toasty, glowing in the early morning sunshine.

“Hey,” Tristan beams, grinning as he falls into step beside us. “I can’t believe that you’re here. Seriously, what are the chances?”

“Yes, whatarethe chances?” I say pointedly, before shooting Hunter a murder glare.

He tips his chin at me in a cockyyou’re welcome.

Handsome jerk.

I look back to Tristan.

“Fallon and I are having a girls’ summer, just the two of us. We have, like, a bucket list of all the crazy shit we wanna do,” I tell him, that excited feeling from earlier already surging back into my chest. Tristan laughs with me, his eyes bright as they rake me up and down.

“What’s on your bucket list?” he asks, chest heaving as if he already knows the answer.

From the way that I’m fluttering my lashes at him, I guess that he already does.

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