Page 93 of Hard Hitter

Hesitantly, he looked up at Charlie who was now standing beside the lounge chair. Quinn was grateful to be wearing sunglasses. He thought it might hide some of the guilt he felt.

Charlie’s furrowed glare bore into Quinn for a few seemingly long, horrible seconds. Rae turned around and grinned as she watched the uncomfortable interaction until Charlie’s face transformed to a look ofamusement as he raised an eyebrow and pointed at the trail of lotion on Quinn’s chest. “Yeah, that’ll happen sometimes.”

Quinn’s voice caught in his throat as he stared, jaw dropped in awkward, horrified disbelief.

“Dad!” Rae exclaimed, her face a look of equal mortification. “Ew!That’s disgusting!”She stood up and stormed away in a huff.

Quinn watched, frozen in place, as Rae strode away. He wasn’t sure what to make of Charlie’s joke and didn’t know that he could look him in the eye at this point in time. And to make matters worse, without Rae sitting in front of him, the evidence of his arousal was no longer hidden.

He could feel Charlie’s eyes on him and nervously let his own wander up again.

“You know where the bathrooms are if you need to take care of that,” said Charlie. He pulled his sunglasses off his head and over his eyes before attempting to hide a grin. “Use the old towels.” And with that, Charlie slunk away to one of the food tables.

Quinn could have died of embarrassment. He threw himself back onto the lounge chair with a mortified groan and, thinking quickly, grabbed the stray beach towel next to him and pulled it over his crotch.

Despite having her sensual massage interrupted by herdad, of all people, the party was actually a blast. Everyone was getting along great, which is a tough feat when there are so many boys and girls in one area- who knows what kind of drama could pop up? Brandi seemed to be successfully charming Luke, and Raelyn was feeling pretty good about her odds with Quinn now, after the way he seemed to enjoy lathering her up with sunscreen.

Still wearing his white and blue baseball hat, which happened to be a favorite of hers, Raelyn stood next to the cake table, watching across the pool as Quinn emerged from the water’s surface. He shook his head to let the excess water out and ran his hands through his hair.

Does he know he looks like a model from an Armani cologne commercial?

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Jett sidled up to Raelyn, following her gaze across the deck to the pool. To Quinn.

“Can you believe he’s moving across the country next year?” Raelyn replied, hearing the sadness in her own voice.

“I think it’ll be good for him to get away,” said Jett, before shoving a large piece of cake in his mouth.

“I’m gonna miss him,” Raelyn sighed. Quinn was now initiating a game of pool basketball with several of the boys and a few of the girls. She overheard one of the boys suggest that only the girls can make shots and they have to be on the guys’ shoulders.Sneaky move, Luke. I see what you did there.

“Not as much as he’s gonna miss you,” Jett said, once he’d finally swallowed the dessert. He still had frosting on his lips.

Raelyn snorted sarcastically, “Yeah, because he’ll have time to think about me between baseball and a whole new pool of hot babes to choose from.”

Jett raised a curious eyebrow, peering at her from the side. “Does that thought bother you?”

“No,” Raelyn said, probably too quickly. “Um, no. That’s just Quinn, right?”

“Rae?” Jett’s suspicious glance didn’t let up.

Raelyn panicked at the thought of Jett knowing how she felt for Quinn. With Jett’s big mouth, every person at the party would know in less than five minutes. She needed to distract him. Make him forget why he was looking at her like this. Luckily, Jett was easy to distract.

Spotting the glob of sugary, buttercream frosting on the corner of Jett’s mouth, she swiped her finger across his lips to wipe it off. His eyes went wide, both alert and alarmed.

“Lick,” Raelyn said, holding her now frosting-coated finger in front of Jett’s mouth. This was super weird for her, too, but she hoped it wasn’t showing.

Jett hesitated, “Uhm...I don’t want to.” Raelyn noticed as his eyes flicked over to the pool, then back to her.

Raelyn rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Jett, it’s a finger. I promise not to get aroused if you don’t.”

With another quick glance toward the pool and back to Raelyn, he furrowed his brow and asked, “But what if youdoget aroused?”

“Then I guess we’ll have to see where this takes us,” she replied with an overly exaggerated wink.

“You’re weird today,” Jett said. Then in what was probably the most awkward moment of their friendship, Jett wrapped his entire mouth around her finger and licked the frosting off.

Raelyn made a face, no longer hiding her discomfort at how unpleasant an experience this was for her. And for him, by the looks of it.

“You taste like sunscreen,” said Jett, making a face that she imagined was similar to her own.

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