“What do you think?” He waited until I was at the bottom of the stairs, then I felt him inspecting me. The dog came over and licked my hand, and I absently started petting her.
“The house is amazing.” I tried to force a smile to prove how spectacular I thought everything was, and I hated that that sudden random confrontation with his brother had distracted me from all my other pleasant feelings about the house and Mae.
“Peter’s upstairs being a crab,” Mae told Jack dramatically.
“Oh,” Jack replied knowingly and exchanged a look with Mae that I couldn’t read. “Peter is such a jackass.”
“Oh, he is not,” Mae said, and she’d taken to stroking my hair gently, and that alleviated some of my tension and shame.
“Peter!” Jack shouted up at the stairs at him.
“I am reading a book!” Peter growled down.
“Peter!” Jack shouted again, growing more irritated.
“I am reading, Jack!” Peter responded, and I winced at the anger in his words.
“Jack.” Mae shot him a look. “Let him be.”
“Whatever.” He relented, but he didn’t look happy about it. Then he turned his attention to me and smiled. “So, Alice, wanna have some fun?”
“Sure?” I replied hesitantly. His eyes had a mischievous glint, and I hadn’t decided whether or not I should trust it.
“Hot tub!”
“I don’t have a suit.” This was true, but I was sure they would have a solution for it. I had a feeling that Mae and Jack would have a solution for nearly everything.
“Oh, I have the perfect one for you!” Mae smiled, her earlier excitement returning.
She ushered me down the hall towards her room. We went into Mae’s room, where Jack proceeded to flop back on the overstuffed bed. She opened the doors to her closet, and it was larger than my entire bedroom. She started searching through her multitudes of bathing suits, making me nervous.
Once she found one she liked (a pale blue two piece with a ruffled skirt around the bottoms), she insisted that I go into their adjoining bathroom to try it on. It fit, and it was more flattering then I had expected it to be, but it also felt incredibly revealing.
When I came out, she gushed over how amazing I looked. I might’ve believed her if she hadn’t already changed into her own bikini in the closest, and I looked like nothing compared to her. Jack didn’t say anything, but the approving way he looked at me made me blush.
Jack was a typical guy and decided that wearing just his black boxers would suffice. I took a moment to admire the perfection of Jack shirtless, but I did it as discreetly as possible.
We went outside through the French doors, and the cold stung. Mae and Jack didn’t appear to notice it, but that didn’t surprise me.
I climbed into the hot tub. The way it instantly warmed my entire body reminded me of the way that I had felt when I looked at Peter. Then I remembered the ice in his voice and tried to push thoughts of him out of my mind.
We spent quite a bit of time in the hot tub, and when I finally let myself relax and enjoy it, I did. Matilda lay sprawled on the patio next to us, and Jack tried to splash her until Mae made him stop.
I just sunk in the water, trying to forget all the stuff about Jack that didn’t make sense, and the fact that my brother hated me, and Peter’s piercing green eyes.
“It’s getting late,” Mae announced and looked sadly at me. “I really enjoyed having you over, and I do hope you come again. But you probably should get home before it’s too late.”
“It’s never too late,” Jack grumbled, dipping his head back under the water as if that could block out the truth in her statement.
“No, she’s right.” Using most of my strength, I pushed myself from the warm, comfort of the tub and felt the frigid air on my skin. “Oh my gosh, it’s freezing!”
“I brought out towels,” Mae gestured to a pile of plush white towels lying on a nearby chair, and I rushed over to them.
When I picked up a towel, I happened to glance up, and I saw Peter standing inside the kitchen, staring through the French doors at me. The towel had unrolled in front of me, but I just stood there, holding it, unable to actually start drying myself. The cold was painful, but Peter had captivated me.
One of his arms folded across his chest, while his hand rested on his chin. His brilliant green eyes were giving me a look that could kill, and my heart felt eager to please, so it completely stopped beating. It might have stopped forever if Mae hadn’t interrupted and pulled me from the trance he’d put me in.
“Peter! Would you care to join us?” Mae called at him. Still glaring at me, he shook his head, then turned on his heels and stalked off. “Don’t mind him, Alice. He’s really not so bad.”
“It’s okay,” I lied, then suddenly started feeling the cold again and wrapped the towel around myself.
“You make him nervous,” Jack whispered, suddenly standing directly behind me.
“Why?” I asked numbly.