The-Lucky-List-Rachael-Lippincott

“Blake! I swear to God, don’t look!” I hit her shoulder and she steps back, clapping her hands over
her eyes, the both of us laughing. But something lingers under the surface. is strange new energy
between us.
“I won’t! Here—” She turns around, pulling one hand away and motioning for me to do the same.
“We’ll both turn our backs, okay?”
“Okay,” I say, following her instructions.
We’re both silent for a long moment. I look down to see the skin above my heart dancing, the
rhythm uneven.
“Do we have to count down again?” Blake asks, breaking the tension as the both of us burst into
giggles.
“Let’s just go for it,” I say as I rip o my sundress. Two seconds later my rose-colored bra and
striped underwear land in a pile on the pool deck too.
“Is it cold?” I ask, cautiously reaching my foot out to dunk a toe into the water. But as I do, out of
the corner of my eye, I see her pull her red bikini top o, her back completely bare, the lines of her
shoulder blades and dip of her spine a shadow in the darkness.
“It’s probably—” She starts to turn around, and I jump as I try to cover my body with my arms and
snap my gaze away at the same time.
“Blake!” I squeak out, but I’m already losing my balance in surprise and…
—Smack—
I tumble into the icy water, submerging completely.
“Freezing,” she finishes when I come up, coughing, chlorine stinging at my eyes and throat.
I rub my eyes, but a splash next to me soaks me all over again, a wave of water right to the face.
“Really?” I say when Blake surfaces, her hair slicked back. I skim my fingers across the surface to
shoot a wave back at her, and the two of us laugh as we push water back and forth at each other, white
foam forming at the surface, bubbling.
“All right, all right!” she says when I get her right in the eyeballs, holding up her hands in defeat.
“Truce. I call truce!”
I stop splashing, the water quietly hissing as it calms, giving way to absolute silence. My eyes lock
with Blake’s, and I feel my stomach flutter at the intensity of her gaze, my breath hitching in my chest
as she moves just half a step closer.
Unconsciously, my eyes move down to her lips, to the sharp lines of her collarbone.
Something about this moment and the freeness of it, skinny-dipping at the Huckabee Pool, pulling
me toward her. To this. To…
“Emily?” a voice asks, but I know Blake’s lips aren’t moving because I’m still looking at them.
I swing my head around wildly to see Matt, his eyes wide with surprise, his phone flashlight
smacking me square in the eye.
“Matt! Don’t look!” I say as Blake and I paddle to the edge, flattening ourselves against it. Matt
quickly squeezes his eyes shut.
“I just came back because I forgot my—wait. Are you… skinny-dipping?” he asks, incredulous.
I clamor out of the water, Blake following just behind me. I quickly pull on my dress, the water
making the fabric suction to my body.