Going Full Throttle

Chapter 12

"Seriously you guys," I said as I held my phone up to my face. "This chick is a monster."

"Since when do you bow down to mean girls?" Grace scoured me with a doubt-filled glare.

"Pia, are you going soft on us?" Jedd squished his face next to Grace's on the screen so I could see him.

"Of course not," I replied and straightened my spine. "I just don't know what to do. Was I dumb to let Scotty and Tyler post that video?"

"No," Grace and Jedd both spoke at the same time. Then Grace continued, "In fact, you should get them to tag you and start making money off of vitamin gummy ads."

"Ha ha," I replied flatly. "I should probably go anyway. I just came in here to change into a bathing suit. If I don't go back out there I think Twyla might come hunting for me."

"Okay go try to have fun!" Jedd said. "But don't forget we need to plan our trip there soon so stop ghosting us you bitch."

"Seriously," Grace added with a regal nod. "You are Pia fricken Callahan. Don't let some snob make you feel small."

I hung up our Facetime call and smiled at my phone. I had been such a crappy friend recently, never having time to talk or catch up with them. Yet the second I was panicking and feeling bad about myself, they were there to build me back up. Just because I left school and so much of my old life behind, didn't mean I should leave them behind.

With a renewed confidence to be myself, I finished getting ready. I pulled on tattered, high-waisted jean shorts over my white bikini then walked back to the Thompson's before Twyla could come to drag me there. It was all about mind over matter. So what if some of Tyler's followers hated me. Did it really matter if people wondered how we were connected? I could choose to not let that bother me. I could choose to ignore Isla's apparent distaste for me and just enjoy my family.

"Where is everyone?" I asked Tyler as I walked up the steps to the back deck.

"Twyla brought Finn and Petey inside to eat, Beau said something about chopping wood, Scotty went to shower, and Isla said she had to change her clothes." He sat sprawled in a lawn chair, with his dark sunglasses shielding any expression in his eyes. The slump in his shoulders and thinned lips made him seem frustrated though.

I picked up the sunscreen from the table and sprayed my arms and then my legs. "You seem like you're having a great day," I said with a small sarcastic smile as I moved on to my stomach. I reached over my shoulder and sprayed my back, then twisted my spine when I didn't feel anything hit my skin.

Tyler planted his large hands on the arms of his chair and pushed himself up. In two strides he stood before me and took the sunscreen out of my hand. I had to tip my head back to look at his face which was firm and unreadable behind his glasses. He dropped his warm hand on my shoulder and gently turned me around, so my back was towards him.

I sucked in a tiny breath when he lifted my hair off my shoulders, holding it all at the base of my neck in his fist. He shook the sunscreen bottle and I reminded myself to breathe normally. It suddenly felt like every breath I took was loud, too loud. Surely he would hear the erratic tempo that his closeness had created.

My body jolted when the cool sunscreen hit my shoulders, but Tyler didn't react. He moved the spray across my shoulder blades, then down my spine to the curve of my hips. The fist that held my hair barely touched my skin. Only a couple of rough knuckles rested gently at the curve of my neck, just below my ear.

Heat radiated into my spine as though he had wrapped himself around me. Instinctually, I knew exactly where his body aligned with mine. I knew if I took one, tiny, half-step backwards, my head would settle against his chest. My back would fit perfectly against his stomach, and the curve of my hips would press against his shorts.