My phone rang and Claire jumped over me to grab it from the nightstand before I could. “It’s him. I knew it would be,” she sang as she waved my phone in front of my face.

“He’s gonna wanna talk about our kiss last night and I’m not ready to go there so I’m not answering.”

“You don’t have to because I am.” I tried to reach out and grab my phone from her, but I missed and she slide the bar to answer his call. I’m going to choke her.

She put the phone up to her ear and gave me her best shit eating grin. “Hello, Nick.”

What was she up to? She didn’t answer my phone without motive.

“No, this is Claire. Payton is in the bathroom but she was just about to call you to see if you wanted to come swimming at her house today.”

Oh, no she didn’t. I reached out and slapped her across her leg. Everyone thought she was so innocent and perfect, but they were so wrong. I knew her well and she was a little devil.

“Perfect. You can bring someone with you if you’d like. We were thinking about one or one-thirty.”

I looked to see what time it was. Shiz, that was only a couple of hours from now.

“Great. We’ll text you the directions to her house and we’ll see you then.”

She tossed my phone on the bed in my direction. “You’re welcome.”

Was she serious? “I can’t believe you did that to me.”

“Oh, come on. It’ll be fun.”

I huffed to show her my grievance against her. “Thanks a lot, Claire. Now, I’ll be in a rush to get home and do my hair, shave everything and redo my toenails.” I realized too late how I sounded after the words were out there.

“My, my...someone’s planning to go to an awful lot of trouble to look good for someone they don’t like or want.”

I really didn't want to hear Claire’s gloating, mostly because somewhere deep down inside, I knew she was right. It didn’t matter that Nick was all wrong for me; I wanted to see him today.

≈ ≈ ≈

After I rushed home from Claire’s, I had about an hour and a half to do all the primping I had planned.

Yeah, I guessed it was silly to wash my hair only to dunk it in the pool, but I wanted to look great and dirty hair wasn’t sexy.

After I got out of the shower, I painted my toenails first so they could dry while I got ready. I decided I didn’t want to look too put together, so I pulled my hair into a ponytail and left off my usual make-up routine with the exception of my peachy lip gloss. It was a necessity I didn’t go without.

I didn’t even have to think about which swimsuit I wanted to wear. It was definitely my new white bikini because I had ulterior motive in mind; I wanted to see what Claire was talking about, how Nick looked at me when he thought I wasn’t looking. What better way to get him to look my way than a string bikini?

“Payton,” I heard Claire call out from downstairs to let me know she and Jessie were at my house.

“Be right down. Go on around to the pool and I’ll be there in a minute.”

I checked myself one last time in the mirror and then threw my cover-up on over my bikini and slipped into my wedges. I checked the time when I got downstairs and saw that Nick could show at any minute.

I walked out by the pool and found Jessie putting sunscreen on Claire while Dane was busy working on the music. Who invited him?

“Mind if I crash your pool party?”

Since when did Dane care if I minded? “Would it matter if I minded?”

“Probably not. I hear Nick Hawke is coming. You’ve got something going with him, don’t you?”

“I most certainly do not.” I wondered if my lie showed all over my face.

Jack Johnson’s ‘Sitting, Waiting, Wishing’ started blaring from the speakers and I thought Dane couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate song. “Hey, I’m not judging. I think he’s cool.”

“He’s not my type. You know I wouldn’t date a guy from Collinsville.” I turned to Jessie when what I said registered. “No offense, Kimosabe.”

“None taken, Miss Shallow.”

He knew it pissed me off when he called me that. “I’m not shallow.”

“The hell you say. I’ve not met anyone more shallow than you. But I still love ‘ya even if Claire gives me no choice.”

I shot him my favorite hand signal and walked over to the lounger and took off my cover-up as I thought about where I wanted to be when Nick got here. It was all about visuals with guys and I knew the perfect scene.

I heard the slam of a car door, and then another, so I leisurely stretched out on the lounger with one of my legs bent so he could see exactly how long my legs were. I tilted my face up toward the sun but not enough that I couldn’t peek from behind my sunglasses to see his reaction when he came through the gate.

I heard the squeak of the iron gate as it swung open and I peered over to see him. Rats. Jessie and Claire met him when he walked through and blocked my view.

I held my position and waited. And waited. And then at the very moment I was ready to get up and strut over to him, I saw a beautiful brunette appear next to him.

Claire told him to bring someone with him, but I never considered he would after our kiss last night. What a tool! I saw Jessie hug the girl and that made it even worse because it meant he brought a Collinsville whore to my house.

I was glad to be wearing dark shades because they disguised my reaction to the brunette beauty, not that any of them were looking at me. I waited another minute or two and when Nick still didn’t look my way, I grabbed my cover-up and went inside.

I slammed the door on the way in the house. Yeah, very toddler like I know, but I was pissed. I couldn’t believe he brought a girl to my house. Who does that kind of thing? I’ll tell you who...A guy that doesn’t give a care in the world about me.

I wanted to kick or punch something, preferably Nick Hawke. Ugh! Why did I like that guy? He couldn’t be more wrong for me. I didn’t date guys without money or a place at the top of the social ladder. He didn’t even have a spot on the bottom rung and he didn’t care because he was unaware of the ladder’s existence.

What was I thinking? I was still the one in control here. If Nick hurt me, it was because I let him and that was not the way this was about to go down. I had been there and stupidly done that with Cooper and I wasn’t going to play that game again.

That was it. I was not going to sit in this house and feel sorry for myself while everyone else was outside having a great time. I was going out there and I was going to do it with my head held high, so I took off my cover-up and draped it over my arm.

I remained true to myself and made my grand entrance like I always did while I wore my best poker face. He wasn’t going to see the wild card coming his way. He had another thing coming if he thought he could bring a girl to my house after he kissed me.

I strutted from the house to the pool and tossed my cover-up over the back of a patio chair. I glanced at Nick as he peered over his shades to check me out and he gave me that incredibly sexy grin that had become all too familiar but I didn’t have a smile in return for him.

I turned my back on him and bent over to spread my towel across my chair. I bent a little further than I had to and it made my bikini bottom ride up a little so when I stood again, I slid my fingers just inside the edge of it and tugged as I wiggled my butt a little...just for him.

I stretched out on the lounger and tilted my face up toward the sun to show my lack of interest in Nick or his brunette companion, which had apparently done a disappearing act while I was inside the house formulating my plan of action.

My eyes were closed tightly and I willed myself not to look in his direction but I heard someone sit on the lounger next to me so I waited for the voice to identify its occupant.

“Hey, Doll Face. How’s it going?”

I didn’t make a move to look in his direction and I blandly answered, “It’s going.”

“Is something wrong?”

I detected confusion in his voice. “Nope. What could possibly be wrong?”

“I don’t know. You act like you’re mad at me.”

How perceptive of him. “Why would I possibly be mad at you?”

“I don’t know.”

Oh, come on. Really? “Where did your guest go?”

“She’s in the pool house changing into her swimsuit.”

Did he really not find this awkward? “Planning to introduce us?”

“Absolutely. I was planning to when we got here, but you went inside. I’ll introduce you when she comes out.”

Miss Beautiful Brunette walked out of my pool house in an awesome red bikini and stopped to get her sunscreen out of her bag on the table on the other side of the pool where Dane, Jessie and Claire sat. I looked at how beautiful she was and I realized anger wasn’t the only thing I was feeling. I was jealous and hurt and I despised it because I had no control over it.

I wasn’t going to bask in the sun because of the two of us, I wasn’t the snake here. “It’s too hot for laying out. I’m getting in the pool.”

“Want me to come in with you?”

“Look, I don’t know what kind of game this is, but I’ll play. So sure, join me in the pool if that’s what you want.”

“What is up with you?” Nick reached for his shirt to pull it over his head and I got my first look at the amazing body hidden beneath his shirt, along with the huge black tribal tattoo wrapping around the left side of his ribcage to just below his heart and I couldn’t tear my eyes away because it was so hot.

He stared at me, waiting to hear me tell him what was going on with me, but all I could do was study the black ink wrapping around his torso. “What is it with Collinsville guys and tattoos?”

He looked down in the direction of his tattoo as if it might have changed from the last time he saw it. “You don’t like it?”

“No, I sure don’t.” Liar, liar, pants on fire and boy were they.