He didn’t slow but did make a strange noise. “You came up with that pretty fast.”
“They’re spectacular,” I lied.
“Agreed.”
My mouth was open to say something else when that low mumble of his, rumbling in my ear, stopped me, effectively scrambling the rest of my brain and sending electricity charging up and down my veins.
Jake must not have noticed the effect of his words because he continued to goad and tease as he led us farther into the water, even more so when I didn’t…couldn’t say anything else.
I needed to care about my hair right now. I would definitely care about it tomorrow morning. But the only thing my mind could compute was that somewhere in the timeline of our friendship, Jake had looked at my legs and thought they were spectacular. Definitely not with that exact word. I can’t imagine Jake actually using a word like that. But…something like that.
I wasn’t sure how a girl was supposed to recover from this knowledge. This awareness. This tiny, microscopic breach in our code of conduct.
And he didn’t even realize what his admission had done.
“Tuck, I’m ten seconds away from dunking you. Keep talking.”
“My freckles.”
He shot me a look, probably remembering all the times I complained about the persistent spots overtaking my face every summer.
“I love them now,” I said, hoping that I sounded confident. Maybe I did love them. It was quite possible I had been wrong about everything I thought about myself.
Jake liked my legs.
Such a dumb thing to fixate on, but here I was. Fixated.
Jake dropped me gently in front of him, my back pressed against his stomach as he held me hostage.
“Keep going. No more physical things, you big cheater. We both know you’re fine in that department.”
I blinked.
No, we didn’t.
Wedidn’t know that.
What was happening?
Was Jake playing me? Was this part of his coaching? Tell the poor girl nice things about herself, and then she’ll start to believe it? If that was his play, I should be able to tell a mile away. He was a good actor, but I knew all his tricks.
But…I couldn’t tell.
He said the words so matter-of-factly, like he wouldn’t have ever thought otherwise. Like I should never have thought otherwise.
“Daddy, throw her in!”
Jake hesitated for a moment, but when I still didn’t answer, I felt his hands on my spectacular legs as he picked me up, like a girl on the cover of a romance novel.
“Any last words?” He looked at me, eyebrows raised.
I was done. Spent. He could do his worst, and I’d probably walk out of this pond with a giant grin on my face.
“Nope.”
He shifted me, adjusting his grip. “How about I give you some, then?”
My heart rate picked up as I stared at him, transfixed, my feet dangling. Weightless. All of this with Sophie watching. Had Jake forgotten she was there?