Love a Little Sideways (8 page)

“Nope. Just booze making people stupid.”

“Be careful,” she said.

After making sure all of his accoutrements were still attached to his belt, he glanced at Liz. She was watching him, her head tilted back against the quilt so she was upside down to him. There was a hint of rosiness on her cheeks that intrigued him, but she just smiled.

“Bye, Drew.”

There was a lot more he wanted to say to her. He wanted to ask her why they were pretending they didn’t want each other. Was it only because of Mitch? Or maybe it was because, deep down, they weren’t right for each other in the long run. There was no denying they wanted each other, though.

But it was neither the time nor the place, so he just smiled back. “See you later.”

Then he walked off, picking his way through the crowd without stepping on anybody, and didn’t look back.

* * *

Liz wasn’t sure who first brought up the idea of her hosting movie night. Apparently, the first Saturday of every month, some of the women met to watch a movie and socialize without men or kids around. Somebody else had suggested making it a movie night and housewarming party combo. She was a little fuzzy on who had said what and when.

She’d already bought a used TV/DVD combo unit from the thrift store, mostly because the thrift store was in Whitford and the nearest department store was an hour away, but that didn’t mean her house was exactly ready for company. Paige had assured her attendance was always low in July, thanks to the holiday, and that they’d take care of everything.

Liz hadn’t expected pool toys. Paige and Hailey arrived early to help her set up, bringing with them two folding card tables. Liz helped Paige set those up in the kitchen while Hailey carried in a blender, which she plugged in on the counter, and plastic cups with a little package of what looked like colorful umbrellas.

“There’s a theme,” Hailey said when she caught Liz looking at them.

Next came a tiny air compressor and the pool floats. Liz laughed when Paige blew up the first one. It was an inflatable recliner float to use in pools and, once it was fully inflated, she tossed it in front of the television and started on the next one. There were half a dozen of them by the time she was done, all of them a different bright color, and Liz’s living room looked like drive-in night at the deep end of the pool.

“They have built-in cup holders,” Paige said, pointing them out.

“For the umbrella drinks,” Hailey added. “And to complete the beach theme—”

“No sand,” Liz interrupted.

“Of course not. Paige said no. Anyway, to complete the beach theme, we’re watching How Stella Got Her Groove Back
.
”

“Good choice.” It had been years since Liz had seen it, but it definitely fit the beach theme.

“You need to get your groove back,” Paige said, pointing at Liz. “How long has it been since you and that guy broke up?”

There was nothing wrong with Liz’s groove. She and Drew had proven that at Mitch’s wedding, not that she could say so. “The last thing I want in my life right now is another guy. I’m enjoying being single, thank you, even if it means being groove-less.”

“I, on the other hand, am sick of being groove-less,” Hailey said. “I’m going to have to move to the city and find my groove.”

Paige snorted. “You always say that, but you’re not going anywhere. You love your house and you really love your job.”

“They’re going to have to give me a raise just to cover the cost of batteries.”

Liz was saved from having to respond to that by a knock on the door. She opened it to find Fran Benoit, wife of Butch and owner of the market, standing on the step with a dish in one hand and a small wooden bookcase in the other.

“Open the door. This is heavy.”

Liz took the bookshelf, which was more awkward than heavy, and let Fran into the house. “Nobody told me movie night was bring your own bookcase.”

“I hadn’t told her yet,” Paige said. “So we wanted this to be part housewarming party, so everybody is to bring one useful item from their own house they don’t use anymore to give to you.”

“That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard.” The sudden prick of tears in her eyes surprised Liz and she tried to blink them away.

She hadn’t expected to be made so welcome into a group of friends so quickly. Sure, she knew them all, but most she hadn’t seen in years. And Paige was her sister-in-law, but she’d only met her once. Since that had been the weekend Mitch and Paige got married, she hadn’t had a lot of quality bonding time with the bride. The fact she and Hailey had set all of this up for her made her want to cry big, fat happy tears, but she sniffed them back.

Fran gave a big shrug, making her thick gray braid sway. “I also brought nachos.”

Paige and Hailey went back out to Paige’s car to carry in their contributions. Paige brought her a vacuum that was possibly older than her car, but she promised it worked, and Hailey contributed a toaster oven. Jilly brought her son’s infamous Buffalo Chicken Dip, a bag of tortilla chips and an over-the-toilet bathroom organizer.

Tori brought a veggie tray and a small end table that was painted a glossy black, with neon flowers stenciled on it. “I’m a little weird. Sorry.”

“I love it,” Liz said, and she did. It was funky and, strangely enough, it matched her blow-up furniture perfectly.

Hailey made the drinks because Fran made them so strong they could only have one and, even then, driving could be an issue. Hailey made them more in the spirit of drinking, but light on the actual spirits. Then they popped the movie in.

Fran chose to sit on the futon, but Liz claimed one of the pool floats and set her drink in the cup holder. It wasn’t the easiest thing to lower herself into while balancing a paper plate loaded with food, but it was fun and squeaked if she moved around.

“You ready for the big camping trip?” Paige asked as she performed the same balancing act.

“I think so.” She hoped so, since they were leaving in a few days and she didn’t want to spend any more of her meager savings on a vacation that didn’t involve a real beach.

“I can’t believe everybody can actually go. Even Drew managed to get the time off.”

One of the reasons Liz had agreed to host movie night was to get her mind off Drew Miller for a few hours, but between talk of getting one’s groove back and the camping trip, that wasn’t really working out for her.

Luckily, Hailey finished making the last drink and hit Play on the movie before maneuvering into the lime-green float. At last, a distraction.

But nothing, it seemed, could stop her from thinking about the Fourth of July fireworks. Whatever had possessed them to hold hands, surrounded as they were by almost her entire family, she’d never know. But she’d liked it.

It was delicious, the way her hand felt in his. And when her thumb stroked a certain spot, his fingers would tighten around hers for a few seconds. She wanted to play with that spot some more. And she wanted to see what other spots on his body would get a reaction like that.

Since that night, she hadn’t seen him at all. The Fourth being on a Thursday meant a long holiday weekend for most people, and long holiday weekends meant busy law enforcement. Or he was avoiding her, possibly scared off by learning Rose knew they’d been together. She wasn’t sure which.

But she was about to have a week of being with Drew twenty-four seven, and there would be no avoiding each other. And, once again, she’d be surrounded by her entire family. She wasn’t sure her nerves could take it, but, like it or not, she was going to find out.

Chapter Eight

The first thing Liz saw when they pulled into the campground was the black SUV with the light bar on top, and she realized riding with Mitch and Paige had been a bad idea. She was essentially a hostage, with no way to escape if she felt the need.

But she hadn’t felt right about taking Drew’s Mustang on a road trip, and the thing got roughly the same gas mileage as a tank. Also, it wasn’t really designed to be packed with camping gear. Not that she had a lot, but the Mustang was safely sheltered in Mitch’s garage for the week and she was at the mercy of other drivers.

“Oh, that one’s ours,” Paige exclaimed, pointing to a very large RV with the name of a rental company emblazoned down the side.

Mitch, having substantially deeper pockets than Liz, had arranged for a rental company to deliver an RV to the campground and set it up. Liz would be setting up her clearance tent by herself.

After he parked in the shadow of the RV and killed the engine, Liz waited for Paige to climb out of the truck and open the access door. When she finally climbed out, Liz’s back and legs protested spending almost two hours in the small backseat of Mitch’s truck and she stretched, twisting her body to work the kinks out.

She got to do that for about thirty seconds before the family descended on them. It had been less than a year since she’d seen them all at Mitch and Paige’s wedding, but Aunt Mary cried a little, anyway. Uncle Leo hugged her so hard she could swear she heard cracking, and then she was passed through what amounted to a gauntlet. Her cousin Joe and his wife, Keri. Their daughter, Brianna, was almost two and played shy, turning her face away when Liz said hi to her. Her cousin Kevin’s three-year-old daughter, Lily, was more friendly, though she stuck close to Kevin’s wife, Beth. Joe’s twin sister, Terry, her husband, Evan, and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Stephanie, were next. Liz wanted to kiss Paige for giving her the rundown on the drive over from Maine. She’d grown up with or near her brothers and cousins, but the kids were hard to keep track of.

Her cousin Mike and his wife, Lisa’s, kids were the hardest. Four boys—Joey, Danny, Brian and Bobby—ranging in age from sixteen to nine.

“Where’s Sean?” she asked when she didn’t see her brother in the crowd.

“They’re on their way down,” Terry said. “They got the cabin up around the corner. Between the distance and the log walls, she’s hoping Johnny won’t keep everybody awake.”

Johnny was the almost two-month-old nephew she hadn’t met yet, and she could barely stop herself from grabbing him away from Emma when she and Sean finally brought him down. She barely took her eyes off his sweet, sleeping face while she hugged her brother and then her sister-in-law.

“He’s so perfect,” she breathed, wanting to touch his cheek but not daring to in case she woke him up. She didn’t know a lot about babies, but she knew sleeping ones were a lot quieter than awake ones.

Because Mitch had just one more business call to make, they’d gotten a later start than he’d intended and they were the last to arrive, so it was quite a crowd to get through. But Bobby and Brian finally showed her where her site was. Thankfully, she noted, it was close to the bathhouse, which meant she wouldn’t have to stumble around too far in the dark to go pee in the middle of the night.

Tent first, she decided. After lugging the bag from the truck to her site, she unzipped it and pulled out her accommodations for the next week. Luckily it was designed for easy setup, with the thin, bowed poles already attached to the tent, so all she had to do was unfold it, square up the corners and pop it up. A few adjustments and ground pins later, and voilà. She had a tent.

With her hands on her hips, she tilted her head and pondered her accomplishment. It was a lot smaller than it had looked on the package. She and her one duffel bag would be very, very cozy, and anytime she was moving around in it, she’d have to be on her hands and knees.

She heard a chuckle off in the distance and looked over to see Drew, standing in front of his own tent, inflating an air mattress and watching her. His tent looked like something on the cover of a camping gear catalog. It was spacious and tall, made out of a rugged-looking canvas material. It had a fly over it, to protect from rain and sun while allowing ventilation. And it had a small screen house built out from the door.

Rolling her eyes, even though she wasn’t sure if he could see it from that distance, she turned her back and made her way back to Mitch and Paige’s site. From the humming sound, she knew they’d already fired up the air-conditioning in their RV and she mopped at her forehead before grabbing the duffel containing her clothes, toiletries and miscellaneous things from the back of his truck, along with the grocery bag that held some snacks and water to squirrel away in her tent.

“How much more is yours?”

Liz jumped when Drew spoke from just behind her. She hadn’t realized he’d followed her. “The sleeping bag and ground mat, and then my pillow and a bag of books in the backseat of the truck.”

He grabbed the items she pointed out and fell in beside her for the walk back. “I hope you measured this sleeping bag before you bought that tent.”

“I did. It’ll fit.” Probably. It was going to be tight, though.

“I’m surprised you’re not bunking down in one of the RVs. They’ve got plenty of room.”

“That’s not real camping,” she said, because it was easier than explaining she didn’t really want to be a third wheel to any of the other couples. “Those are like luxury hotels on wheels.”

“Ah.” He nudged her with his elbow. “So you’re hard core.”

“That’s me. Hard-core camping.”

They stopped in front of her tent and she set down her bags so she could unzip the door. He crouched to hand in her belongings once she was inside. “So hard core you don’t need a cooler?”

“My family has, like, eight refrigerators. There’s a limit on being primitive.”

She watched him take a knife from his pocket to slice the plastic wrapping on the ground mat, relaxing a little. This wouldn’t be so bad, she thought. Obviously she had the ability to hang out with Drew and chat like friends did. Friends who’d had sex and occasionally snuck little touches they didn’t want her family to see, but friends.

Once he handed her the mat, she unrolled it onto the tent floor and then spread the sleeping bag on top. After she added her pillow and tucked her duffel, book and food bags along the side, she was done. Then she crawled back to the door.

“You anchored this well, right?” Without waiting for her to answer, he went around to each corner and checked the ground pins. “It looks like it’ll blow away in a stiff wind.”

“Surrounded by trees, so I won’t go far.”

He didn’t laugh. Instead he kept scowling, looking around. “You’re kind of close to the bathhouse.”

“I see that as a plus.”

“Yeah, except for the Dumpster next to the building. If bears come looking to rifle through the trash, they might smell the peanut butter you have in that flimsy little tent.”

“I’ll yell and you can come running with your gun,” she teased.

“I’m not too far away, but yell loud.” He turned to face her and she realized he was very serious, which made her laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Andy asked, surprising them both.

“Drew’s going to guard my peanut butter from the bears.”

He slapped his son on the shoulder. “Good man.”

“Where are you and Rose set up?” Drew asked him.

“I guess Mike and Lisa’s RV is ours for the week. They usually put the two older boys in the pop-up, but Mike and Lisa are moving to the pop-up and putting the boys in a tent so we can be comfortable.” Andy shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “I wanted to argue, just to be polite, but if I sleep on the ground, it’ll take a small crane to get me back on my feet again.”

As Andy continued on to wherever he’d been going, Drew drifted away with him. But he turned back and smiled at Liz, giving her a wave.

Warmth curled through her as she waved back, but she did her best to ignore it. Friends. That’s all they were.

Very deliberately, Liz turned back to her tent so she wouldn’t do something foolish, like stare at Drew’s ass as he walked away, but then she realized she was out of things to do.

A mosquito landed on her arm and she slapped at it. Time to douse herself in bug spray and go join in the family festivities.

* * *

On the rare occasion Drew was hanging out at a pool, he liked to do just that. Hang out. Sit on the edge and dangle his feet in the water with a cold beer in his hand.

But there was chaos around the edge of the pool, with kids everywhere and half the women sitting around the edges watching the little ones splash in the shallow end. And Liz was in the mix, looking hot and curvy in a one-piece bathing suit that made his mouth water. It had a tiny skirt that moved flirtatiously as she walked the length of the pool, emphasizing her long legs. And the top of it had that bunched-up look that kept drawing his eye to her cleavage no matter how hard he tried not to look.

He fumbled with the gate latch securing the fence around the pool which, of course, drew attention. Praying his swim trunks were baggy enough to hide his reaction to Liz in a bathing suit, he waved off their ridicule and made a running dive into the deep end.

The water felt arctic, shocking his overheated body as it closed over his head. After pushing off the bottom of the pool, he surfaced gasping. Better than a straight-up cold shower any day.

“Hey, you’re blocking our water ball of doom game!” a young voice shouted.

An inflatable beach ball smacked him in the side of the head and, just like that, he was sucked into a cutthroat game that seemed to be a mash-up of water polo, soccer and volleyball. And, since they were limited to the deep end of the pool due to the little ones at the other end, it was one hell of a workout. After about fifteen minutes, he worked his way toward the edge and hooked his elbows up on the rim.

“You’re weak, Miller,” Josh taunted, right before one of Mike’s sons climbed up Josh’s back to smack at the ball and shoved him underwater.

It was a rough crowd. Drew watched for a few minutes, until he was breathing like a normal person again, and then dove back into the action. He wasn’t sure how the game would end, since he had yet to figure out the actual rules, but he wasn’t going to be the first guy out of the pool.

“Liz! Liz!” It was hard to miss Steph shouting right next to him, so he gave himself permission to look in the same direction the teenager was. “Come on! I’m the only girl.”

For a few seconds Drew thought Liz was going to refuse and he was relieved. Water ball of doom, as the boys called it, was a very physical game and there was a lot of bumping and grabbing.

Then she grinned and threw herself into the deep end with a splash. There didn’t seem to be any time-outs in water ball of doom, so she surfaced in the middle of a melee. Just when Drew was going to yell at her to be careful, she dove under again and he lost track of her.

He felt her before he saw her—the glide of her naked leg across his thigh—and then her head broke through the water near his shoulder. She slicked her hair back and laughed. “Are there rules to this game?”

“Don’t drown. Other than that, I think it’s just an excuse to spike the beach ball in each other’s faces and water wrestle.”

“Are there points?”

The ball was heading toward them and Drew slapped it hard, bouncing it off the back of Sean’s head. “The score, last I heard it yelled out, was two hundred thirty to two hundred nineteen, but I’m not sure how you score. It’s a very complicated system that’s pretty fluid, from what I’ve gathered.”

“In other words, Mike and Lisa’s kids invented this game.”

“I’ve only been here less than a day and I’ve already figured out if the word doom is involved, so are Joey, Danny, Brian and Bobby. And Steph, too, though she tries to pretend she’s an innocent bystander.”

“Ooh!” She was watching the ball come toward them in a high arc. “Throw me!”

He clasped his fingers together and, before he could think about whether or not it was a good idea, she had her foot in the cradle of his hands and he tossed her high into the air. She slammed the ball back toward the buoy line marking the deep end and Ryan missed the return by a fraction of an inch.

“Point!” Brian yelled, and Liz gave a triumphant yell when she surfaced.

“Dude, she’s not on our team,” Ryan yelled at Drew.

“There are teams?” Drew threw his arms up in the air. “How can you tell?”

“You’re not very good at water ball of doom,” Bobby said in a very serious voice.

The penalty for helping the other team score appeared to be drowning since, after that incident, Drew spent more time under the water shoving people off him than he did treading water. His muscles were burning but he knew the Kowalski family well enough to know if he crawled out of the pool in defeat, he’d never live it down.

It was a relief when Mary whistled and called everybody out of the pool. His muscles were getting shaky and it was only the trash talking from Mitch and the other guys that had kept him in so long. He swam to the opposite side of the pool from Liz, just so he wouldn’t be tempted to watch for her swimsuit’s skirt riding up while she climbed the ladder.

Brian scampered up in front of him, then ran down the side of the pool with his fists in the air. “S’mores time!”

Wishing he had a quarter of the kid’s energy, Drew hauled himself up the ladder and winced at the soreness already setting into his leg muscles. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been swimming, but it was obviously too long ago.

“Rematch tomorrow,” Mitch said, slapping Drew’s shoulder so hard he almost fell back into the water.

“Can’t wait.” He’d come up with a good excuse before then. Maybe run himself over with a four-wheeler somehow.

Leo, who’d been smart enough to claim a chair on the sidelines, tossed towels at them. “You think that was bad, you just wait. After everybody’s changed, it’s time for s’mores.”

Drew Miller was no fool. Not being a fan of the overly sweet traditional camping dessert, he took his sweet time showering, shaving and throwing on a pair of flannel sleep pants and T-shirt. Then he threw on a lightweight zip hoodie because, not only did it get a little chilly at night, but the mosquitoes started getting aggressive as the sun dropped.