“Then it would be a pocket pussy!” Charlene interjects.

“Can we reserve the pocket pussy conversations for later, when half the lake can’t hear you?” Alex nods in the direction of the neighboring dock, where a bunch of teenagers are hanging out.

Violet grimaces, but stops with the pussy parlay.

Lily works on her legs while I rub suntan lotion into her back. I also help get the back of her legs, adjusting the ass of her bikini so she’s not flashing cheek. She smacks my hand when I get too close to her pussy. “I’m being thorough.”

“You’re being a perv.”

“A thorough perv.”

By the time Lily’s done my back, Miller has finished painting Sunny’s toes. Lily ties two more of the floating lounge chairs to the dock. Miller helps Sunny into her lounger, making sure she’s balanced before he sits back down.

“Either of you hear from Lance today?” Alex asks.

“He had something he had to take care. He was real vague about it,” Miller says.

When Lance Romero, another one of our teammates, is vague about his plans, it usually doesn’t mean good things. “You think it’s Tash-related?” I ask.

“Probably.”

A while back when Alex and Violet threw a “little” party, Tash was invited. Lance said he was okay with it, but I have a feeling seeing her didn’t do him any favors. They were involved last season, which ended up being a huge clusterfuck. She was our team trainer and lost her job over it. Anyway, they disappeared together at the end of the night, and Lance wouldn’t answer calls the next day. We ended up stopping by his place to make sure he was okay. He wasn’t. It took a couple of days to clean up the mess, and him.

Alex taps the arm of his chair. “I’ll get Vi to message him in a bit.”

“Why Vi?” I ask.

“He talks to her. She might be able to convince him to come up here for a couple of days instead of dealing with it alone.”

“What do you mean he talks to her?”

“Like, about personal stuff. I don’t know. I don’t get into it.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Lance is my friend, but he makes some questionable choices.

Alex nods. “What he tells her in confidence isn’t my business. He’s a good guy. He was a big help to Violet after I had that concussion earlier this year. He’s loyal; I don’t think he’s had the easiest life.”

Lance doesn’t talk about his family, other than to make the occasional passing comment about having to see them on holidays.

“Family can fuck you up,” Darren says.

Violet calls for another drink, and Alex suggests she take a break if she wants to make it past eight o’clock. When it’s clear he’s not moving, she decides to get it herself and paddles her chair over to the edge of the dock.

“Any bets on Vi falling in?”

Darren raises a finger. “I’ll put twenty on that.”

“She’s not that drunk,” Alex grumbles.

“Maybe not, but she’s that uncoordinated.” Miller roots around in the bag beside him and pulls out his phone. “I’mma record this, just in case I’m right.”

“So you’re putting money on her making it to the dock without going under first?” I look at Alex, but he’s not paying attention to me. He’s focused on Violet.

She’s clearly calculating how to get her ass from the floating chair to the edge of the dock.

“Baby, why don’t you go around to the ladder?” Alex stands, like he’s about to help her.

Instead she hoofs one leg up. She’s about halfway there when Miller shouts, “Hey! Isn’t that a dock spider?”

Violet shrieks and starts flailing. Alex rushes to help her, but he doesn’t make it before her chair tips, and she goes under. She comes up splashing and screaming. “Get it off! Where is it? Those fuckers swim!”

“Please tell me you’re getting this,” I say to Miller.

“Oh yeah, it’s epic.”

Instead of taking Alex’s offered hand, Violet grabs Charlene’s chair and tries to climb, tipping it over, too.

Darren barks out a laugh as she comes bobbing to the surface.

I shove my hand in the bag Lily brought down, searching for a phone. I come up empty-handed, which is unfortunate, because the look on Lily’s face is priceless.

I’ll get Miller to send me the video so I can pull a few still shots.

“Baby, there’s no spider. Miller was being a dick. C’mere.” Alex shoots the bird over his shoulder, then crouches down and grabs Violet under the arms, hoisting her out of the water. She wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She’s still freaking out, swatting at her back while Alex tries not to get hit in the face. “Calm down, Violet.”

“Someone owes me twenty,” Darren says.

Sunny points a disapproving finger at Miller. “No cookie for you tonight.”

Miller’s smile drops, and he stops filming. “Come on, sweets; it was funny.”

Violet pushes away from Alex when she finally realizes she’s not being attacked by a spider. “You asshole!” she yells, stomping toward Miller. “Did you take pictures of that? Gimme your phone, you yeti bastard! As if the ass-blinding earlier wasn’t bad enough!” She reaches for it, but Miller raises it over his head, laughing.

Darren and Alex are communicating with hand gestures. He gets out of his chair and moves to stand behind Miller. Snatching the phone out of Miller’s hand, Darren tosses it to me. I almost fumble it, but manage to recover. He and Alex each seize an arm and drag Miller across the dock, heaving him over the side. The splash soaks Sunny and Lily, who had managed to remain fairly dry up to this point. Their shocked cries turn to outrage when Darren pushes Alex in. I return the favor by pushing Darren off the dock, and then cannonball right beside Lily.

When I pop up beside her, she dunks my head back under. I retaliate by swimming beneath her chair and flipping her over. She comes up sputtering. She wraps herself around me and grabs hold of her overturned floaty chair so she doesn’t drag us underwater. She’s dense muscle and low body fat, so regardless of how little she weighs, she’s like human lead.

We spend the next hour in the water, during which I constantly try to get my hand into her bikini bottoms. After a while Lily’s lips start to turn blue. Being as lean as she is, she gets cold fast. We get out of the water before everyone else. I wrap her in a towel and cuddle with her in a chair.