Roll the Dice

twenty-six. nathan detroit

[Dedicated to Rosy, who is, actually, the first friend in real life that I've dedicated a chapter to. I don't know whether or not she's made a new Wattpad account, but anyway, I would like to thank her for being so gracious and a lovely writing buddy.] 

By the way Cara and Dacey were sending sneaky glances to each other when they thought I wasn't paying attention, I really should have figured out what exactly was up their sleeves before I agreed to accompany them.

But again, I was absent-minded Lottie Ingham who truly, really wanted to get a certain dark-haired soccer player out of her mind, and I did set myself up for this. Besides, what place aside from the beach would get my mind off Dom Amaro?

I blinked several times in a useless attempt to get his face off my mind. But he was so gorgeous, and I did miss him so much—if I had to be completely honest, he'd grown to be one of my best friends (although he'd never quite grow into my replacement Cara, even though her personality matched with his the best). And God, I really wished I could hear him ramble on and on about Messi or goals or something.

This was going exactly against what I had been planning to do at the beach.

The three of us trudged through the sand, lazily scanning the shoreline for a place to set down our towels and beach umbrella (which, for whatever reason, Cara decided to lug along with us). It felt nice to have the sand sifting through my toes—I hadn't been to the beach in weeks now, mostly because I'd been spending so much of my time at the park with...Dom.

Why did all my thoughts somehow lead back to the stupid asshole?

Perhaps it had a lot to do with the fact that I had been spending so much of my summer with him these days.

I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut for a second. When I opened them again, Dacey was sending me a concerned look even though her bright blue eyes were...well, bright. She was probably cooking something up in her mind, and she probably thought that she was doing me a favor in return for my setting her up with my brother. The only difference this time was that I didn't actually beg her to help me...

It was hot today, swelteringly so. In fact, if I were to go running today, I wouldn't be able to make it through four miles because of the horrible humidity during this late summer season. It was one of those days I'd have pools of sweat on my arms after a mere half hour of being outside. But really, it wasn't that bad—the sky was an incredible shade of blue that reminded me of Evan's eyes...and Evan was Dom's best friend.

I had an urge to slap myself.

Cara and Dacey exchanged yet another look in front of me (which so wasn't courteous), and then I felt an urge to slap them.

I spoke up just so they would stop with whatever was going on between them. "Are you guys gonna play volleyball today or something? Because what other things would we be doing here anyway?"

Dacey, suppressing a wicked smile, shrugged. "Well, how would I know?" She turned to Cara, who looked much more composed in comparison. "I mean, one can do plenty of things on the beach, and I wouldn't be one to restrict your freedom."

From the way she emphasized the word "plenty" and wiggled her eyebrows at me, I instantly knew that she was referring to something other than tanning and frolicking in the waves (even though the water was a lot colder now that the summer was starting to wane). She definitely had something up her sleeve, and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like it too much.

But again, really, did I ever like anything that Dacey had up her sleeve?

Cara shrugged as well, keeping her face completely straight. She was so serious sometimes. Really, she made a brilliant actress, but it was rather unfortunate for her that I knew her too well to be fooled by that. Judging by the way she kept readjusting her grip on her beach bag, I could tell that she was completely aware of that fact.