Page 46 of Glorious Ruin
“Jesus Christ,” Evan muttered as he pulled his knees to his chest. “Can you not eye-fuck him in broad daylight? The seagulls are watching, Cal. There are children building sandcastles nearby. Have some decency.”
My eyes never left the game. I just smirked as Silas dove into the sand to save a volley, his skin glistening. “Who saidI’mthe one fuckinghim?”
The seltzer stopped halfway to Evan’s mouth as his eyes narrowed and his face contorted. “Silas said… Oh God! Nope. You can stop that right now. I’m hitting the reset button on this conversation. Really, I don’t want to know about your domestic arrangements.”
“I’m just saying,” I continued, a slow smirk spreading. “You shouldn’t make assumptions, Wilder. It makes you look like an ass.”
“I am begging for you to shut up,” he pleaded, pressing the cold, sweating can against his forehead.
Down by the water, Silas laughed as the ball went careening off to the side. With a quick wipe to remove the sand from his chest, he jogged up toward our spot and dropped to his knees beside my head. He reached into the cooler, pulling out an ice-cold water bottle, and immediately caught Evan's expression.
“Why are you traumatizing Evan? Again?”
“I’m not! He asked who was doing the fucking right now. I was just being honest.”
Evan’s head snapped up. “I literally didn’t ask you that! At no point in my life have Ieverasked you that!”
“Well, it’s been me lately,” Silas said matter-of-factly.
Evan dropped his seltzer to the sand and scrambled backward on his hands and feet like he had just been set on fire. “I hate you! I’m going to walk into the ocean and let the tide take me! This is psychological warfare! I only told you to stop eye-fucking him! Never did I invite a position update!”
I didn’t even blink, just grinned lazily. “I’ve got videos of the ‘position update.’ We can go over them later if you want, ya know,tips.”
Evan let out a sound that wasn’t entirely human. Half-gasp, half-shriek, he clasped his hands over his ears and pressed hard enough to turn his skin white. Silas’s unbothered attitude shattered instantly at this. He whipped his head around to stare at me, his eyes wide, his face flushing a violent shade of red under his tan. “Callum! Shutup!”
I burst out laughing, completely unrepentant and loving every second of it.
“Why would you fucking say that?” Silas hissed, frantically looking around the beach. “You just basically announced to the entire beach that we havepornof ourselves.”
Evan, who was ten feet away and marching toward the water, threw his hands up in the air without turning around. “I fucking heard that!” he screamed over the sound of the crashing waves. “Can you please stop speaking, both of you?! For the love of God!”
I leaned up on my elbows, refusing to let him retreat in peace. “I can AirDrop it to you, Ev!” I yelled across the sand, loud enough to carry over the ocean breeze. “You know, for tape study! My hip mobility is incredible! It’s 4K quality!”
Silas buried his face in his hands, letting out a muffled groan as Evan stopped dead in his tracks. Slowly, his hands dropped to his sides as he stared out at the horizon.
“Excuse me while I go drown myself now,” he yelled, trudging toward the breaking waves. “I’ll never be able to scrub any of this from my brain. I’m calling Maverick. I’m telling him everything.”
I fell back onto the towel, laughing so hard my chest ached. Silas peeked out from behind his fingers, his face still bright red, a helpless smile breaking through.
“I fucking hate you,” he muttered, shifting closer until his knee pressed against my hip.
“He started it.” I reached over to pull his wrist away from his face, and the surge of heat hit me again.
“Seriously though,” Silas whispered, his eyes dark with promise. “An offer to AirDrop? Now Ireallyhave to make sure you pay for that once we’re home.”
“I look forward to the bill,husband.” I smiled, feeling perfectly at peace.
12
CAROLINA BEACH, NORTH CAROLINA
Now playing: Holiday - Green Day
Thesaltyairturnedcool as the sun began its slow, bleeding descent into the Atlantic, painting the horizon in shades of purple and gold. We were in the middle of the “Donovan-Reed Packing War,” which involved a lot of shouting, sandy towels being shaken into the wind, and Evan trying to convince everyone he was too spiritually exhausted to carry the cooler back to the SUV.
“I’m telling you, the boardwalk fireworks are legendary.” Silas was hauling a beach chair over his shoulder. He looked energized, his skin glowing with that post-sun bronze that made him look like he belonged on a postcard. “If we stick around for another hour, they’ll start. It’s worth the wait, I promise.”
“I don’t care about explosions in the sky, Silas! I care about the explosion of my stomach due to hunger,” Sarah groaned, leaning dramatically against Heather. “Cal, tell your husband-to-be I am wasting away. I’m basically a skeleton.”
