Page 33 of Summer Ever After
His eyes focused and there was a hint of recognition. “Right, you girls won the regatta today.”
“And the bet. Pay up.” Jessica rubbed her fingertips against her thumb, the international sign for money.
“Nope.” Jasper grinned. “I bet on your team losing when your brother was involved. You forfeited the bet when you brought in a professional.”
“Me?” I pretended to be aghast. “That was the first time I was in a canoe.”
“See?” Jessica draped her arm over my shoulder. “The odds should be changed in my favor.”
Jasper leaned back in his chair, crossed his ankle over his knees, and put his hands behind his head, fingers interlaced. “How about I take you out for dinner instead?”
Jessica squeezed my shoulder before releasing it. “Dinner? You can do better than that, Jaspy.”
I couldn’t tell whether the nickname was a sign of affection, or if she was dismissing him. Jessica Starling could join the pro poker circuit, she was so hard to read. She stared at her perfect French manicure and then the side of her mouth turned up. “You can be my date for the masquerade ball.”
Jasper groaned and dropped his hands from behind his head. “Come on. The masquerade? What are we sixteen?”
“It’s not a debutante ball.” Jessica turned her palm to further study her nails, her fingers curled into a loose fist. “It’s a fundraiser.”
His look of annoyance didn’t fade. “It’s so pedestrian, Jess. You know that.” He leaned forward. “I heard that they’re even doing a locals rate if any of these schmucks can even afford that.”
Jasper was quickly falling down the rungs of my ladder of opinion.
“I think that it’s forward-thinking to include some of the people from town. Maybe they should even sit on some of the committees. They may not have a pedigree or a fancy degree, but they might be able to give you some local insight that you can’t get from flying over the countryside in your helicopter, or read about in your textbooks.”
His laugh was so obnoxious it turned into a cough. He released his fingers from his head to hack into his fist. “Daisy? Is it? What kind of fairytale land do you come from? There isn’t a secret botanist living in the trailer park that’s going to teach us about saving the ecosystem.”
He was probably right, but he was so pompous I wanted to punch him in his perfect teeth. “There are fishermen here who know a lot about the lake…” my voice trailed off. I couldn’t think of any other blue-collar people that could teach this asshole a thing or two about the environment.
Jasper shook his head and wiped a tear from his eye. “The local fishermen, the ones who throw their beer bottles in the lake and claim that they’re creating an ecosystem?”
I hadn’t heard this, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I’d come across some pretty rough characters in the trailer park who tossed their beer cans out the window as they drove, claiming they were contributing to the local economy – that people worse off than them would clean up the litter and collect the deposit.
“Jasper.” Any hint of a smile was gone from Jessica’s face. “Don’t be such an arrogant asshole. I like the idea of a few local people getting to mingle with the one percent. It was my brother’s idea, and I like it. The only way that you’re getting into my sauna this summer is if you take me to the ball.” She brushed invisible dust from her hands. I couldn’t fathom why she wanted such a jerk to take her to the ball, but like she said, they had a complicated history.
It was like watching a bad tennis match with these two.
Jasper grinned. “Only if we do what we did in the sauna last year.”
“Deal.” Jessica stuck out her hand and I tried not to roll my eyes as Jasper shook it.
Jasper looked directly at me. “We fucked. We fucked in the sauna last year.”
“Jasper.” Jessica shook her head and gave his chest a play shove. Then she looked at me. “It’s true. We did.” She leaned into me and I’m sure she was whispering in her drunken mind. “He’s got a huge dick.”
“I think that’s my cue to go.” I stood.
“Don’t go.” Jessica grabbed my hand. “We’ll change the subject.”
“I doubt there’s any subject that Jasper and I have in common.”
“Oh, come on Heidi.” Jasper leaned across the table and tugged one of my braids. “We’re just playing around. It’s our thing,” he shrugged.
“Would you want me to stick around if you knew that I scrubbed her toilets?”
Jasper’s laugh was low and far too loud. “That’s a good one.” My hands were balled into tight fists and I stood, putting them on my hips. His man cackle stopped abruptly.
“You’re serious.”
