Kenna laughed softly. “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the Kincaids get their stubborn-ass reputation from.”
On the boat, Jacob tossed up his hands and returned to the boat’s controls. A minute later, Hud was back up on the surface of the water, once again hotdogging it behind the boat.
“Remember that time we sneaked out and borrowed a friend’s boat?” Kenna asked Gray.
“We were all punk-asses,” Gray said with a fond smile.
“Hud tried for a flip on the water,” Kenna told Sophie, “and face-planted instead. Jacob had to dive in and save him, then ride him to the ER on his bike’s handlebars. At that time we were being raised by Char, Aidan and Gray’s mom. She yelled at us something fierce when she finally got to the ER and then burst into tears.”
“We thought we’d gotten off scot-free,” Gray said.
“But hell no,” Kenna said. “Char’s got a softie side, but she’s also got a spine made of sheer steel. We were all grounded from life for a month.”
“I got two months,” Gray said. “Because I was oldest and supposedly knew better.”
Kenna laughed.
Gray smiled ruefully. “Yeah, I never knew better.”
“Still don’t,” Kenna said.
Five minutes later the boat had made a huge circle on the lake, stopping too far out for them to see what was going on. They’d shifted positions, Sophie realized. This time Hud was driving.
Jacob was now behind the boat on a wakeboard. He was wearing a life vest and board shorts that were wet and clinging to his body, plastered against him from the wind and speed. Going what seemed like a hundred miles an hour, he maneuvered right into the boat’s wake and…popped up in the air like he’d been shot out of a canon, his body fluid as he literally flew up, up, up and then…holy crap, executed a three-sixty before landing lithely back onto the surface of the water.
Stunned, Sophie stood there gaping.
“I used to be able do that,” one of the guys playing Frisbee golf said from his wheelchair, voice nostalgic.
Kenna reached for his hand. “Don’t even worry about it,” she told him. “Girls will like you better now that you’re not a show-off.”
The guy slipped an arm around her with a shy but hopeful smile. “Want to prove it by going out with me tonight?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “First round’s on me.”
The other guys groaned, and someone whispered, “Ah, man, I didn’t know we could ask her out!”
Mitch, who was standing close by, looked at Kenna for a long beat, his jaw a little tight, his smile definitely not matching the fire in his eyes.
“Sorry, boys,” she said to everyone else, although her gaze was locked on Mitch. “You snooze, you lose.”
Mitch swore, strode straight for her and yanked her into his arms, planting a hard kiss right on her mouth. When he pulled back an inch, he said, “The move has always been yours, since the night you let me into and then kicked me out of your bed, and you know it.”
“Hey, man, sorry,” the guy in the wheelchair said. “I didn’t know. She’s all yours.”
Kenna narrowed her gaze on Mitch. “We both agreed that night was stupid and that we’d never tell another soul.”
“The move is yours,” Mitch repeated. “Use it or lose it.” And then he walked away.
Kenna stared after him.
“You going to use it?” Sophie asked.
Kenna was still watching Mitch go, her expression filled with both longing and fear. “I can’t.”
Sophie reached out to touch her, but Kenna shrugged her off. “Sorry,” she murmured. “I need a moment.” And then she, too, was gone, leaving Sophie sure of only one thing.
She wasn’t the only chicken in Cedar Ridge.
Chapter 27
When the sun began to sink in the sky, Jacob lit a bonfire and then sat with Hud and Chris. He was feeling a little sunburned and a whole lot tired, but also pumped up, like he’d been a part of something really great today, something that had reached deep inside to the heart he’d kept locked up as tight as he could get it.
He and Hud had nearly killed themselves behind the boat earlier, trying to best each other, and it had felt so much like old times that he could hardly believe it.
How had he stayed away so long?
Why had he stayed away so long? It was getting so that his reasons no longer made any sense at all.
And having Chris here today meant the world to him, showed him that in spite of not being able to see it for so long, there was life after combat.
And he wanted that life, badly.
His gaze sought out Sophie, who was with Kenna—and shit, Hud was right: That combo was guaranteed trouble. The two of them were directing what looked like a very serious competition of horseshoes.
As if she could feel his gaze, Sophie turned her head and unerringly found him. Right in the middle of her horseshoe game, she cocked her head at him and silently but effectively asked across the span of one hundred feet, What’s wrong?
Was she kidding? She’d given him this. Chris. Laughter with Hud. The feeling of being important to her.