Page 58 of The Kissing Part
A moment later, Parker ducks under water, slipping her off his shoulders.
“Let’s do it again!” Madison gestures to Claire and friends. “Ladies, get in here!”
“It’s barbaric,” Hailey says. “No, thank you.”
“Your daughter played,” Madison says.
Hailey smiles serenely. “And I’m very proud of Mackenzie for forging her own path. Where is my sweet warrior queen?”
Mackenzie comes out of the house with a towel wrapped around her waist, carrying a pitcher of what looks like sangria. Harper’s carrying a platter with vegetables.
Nathan’s gaze tracks the sway of Harper’s hips in her skirt coverup as she walks by. It’s really too bad she hates him.
* * *
I sigh. I wish every day could be like this. After hours of fun splashing in the pool and a delicious barbecue, I’m sitting on a lounge chair between Owen’s legs, his arms wrapped around me. We’re gathered around a firepit, making s’mores with the younger group while Claire’s crowd is inside in the kitchen and the man cave in the basement. Olivia went with the older crowd. Sometimes I worry she’s missing out on her twenties. All she thinks about is the future and what she wants to achieve.
“What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” Nathan asks, pointing his beer bottle at Owen.
“Quit my job and go into business with you,” Owen returns.
One corner of Nathan’s mouth tilts up, and he points the bottle at me next.
“In between acting jobs, I worked as a fluffer,” I say with a straight face.
Owen leans down to look at me and must read the truth in my eyes because he relaxes.
“Get out,” Nathan says. “For real?”
“What’s a fluffer?” Finn asks.
“It’s the woman who keeps porno actors fully aroused between takes,” Nathan says to Finn.
“Whoa,” Finn says.
“Liar,” Harper says.
I laugh. “Well, I had to make it interesting. I’ve never done anything crazy.”
“Next!” Nathan says, pointing the bottle at Harper.
“Pass,” she says.
“You can’t pass,” he says.
“Yes, I can.” She takes a bite of s’more, pointing to her full mouth.
“Fine, Mackenzie?” he asks.
She tosses her hair back over one shoulder. “I once had a fling with a guy who wore a Darth Vader costume in bed. We met at a comic con.”
“My mom has a Darth Vader costume,” Mason says. “Sure you didn’t hook up with your aunt Madison?”
“Eww!” Mackenzie exclaims. “Yes, I’m sure. He took off the helmet before—this conversation is entirely too sexual to have in front of my cousins and brothers. Next topic, please!”
Harper jerks her thumb toward Nathan. “He started it, the perv.”
“Takes one to know one,” Nathan returns. “Besides, I said what was the craziest thing you’ve done, not what was the sexual thing. Shayla got us started down that path.”
