His Choice - Rafe Cameron

43. Drink Me

"My brother keeps staring at you." Sarah says to me as she lays backwards in the water and kicks her feet up to float on her back. "If I swim away, he's going to come up to you."

"I spent the day with him and arrived to the party with him. He can enjoy some time with his friends."

"Where did you go today? I thought you were with Pope."

"Rafe took me to the Gallery at Chapel Hill."

Sarah's eyes widen and it's not from staring up at the moon. "He what?"

"Yeah, we got on the topic of my love for art and he took me there."

"John B and especially JJ will get mad at me for saying this, but I've seen a change in my brother. Yes he is moody, selfish and dangerous still, but I have never seen him show a softer side until I see him with you. He took you somewhere that you would enjoy that had no benefit for him in return. Plus, I haven't seen him genuinely smile in a long time. When you both showed up together tonight, there was a light in his eyes. He was proud to walk in with you."

"You think so? He told me I should consider myself lucky that he doesn't care about people's opinions because by him walking in with a Pogue, it's like social suicide."

"That's just Rafe trying to convince himself that he doesn't like you as much as he really does."

"Right." He does that quite often. Insults me when things are going smoothly between us. "I do agree with you though, I have seen that genuine smile a few times when we've hung out. And I'm glad that you can see the soft side of him because nobody else would believe me."

"The only other time I've seen that side of him is to Wheezie. But even then, he tries to downplay how much he really loves her."

Sarah stops floating above the water and instead swims over to the edge beside me. "I'm going to get another drink, you empty?" She looks inside my cup. "I'll get you another one. Plus, I want to see how many seconds it takes before my brother comes over to you."

I roll my eyes while laughing at her. I drink the rest of my drink before handing her my cup. I place my hands on the edge of the pool as I continue dangling my feet in the water.

It hasn't even been ten seconds since Sarah left and Rafe has already appeared in front of me.

"What are you doing Rafe?"

"Came over to say hi."

"Hi."

"What were you and my sister talking about?"

"You." I don't bother trying to lie to him.

"Was she trying to convince you to stay away from me like the rest of the Pogues?"

"No, I actually think your sister likes when we are around each others company."

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Like when we are in each others company?"

I pause for a moment, making him wait for my answer. "Sometimes. Do you?"

He wraps his hands around my ankles and pulls me into the water. I don't fall far into the water because he places his hands on my hips and pulls me back up. Rafe is tall enough to stand easily in this deeper end of the pool so I wrap my arms and legs around him to stay afloat without draining my energy.

"In moments like this I do. Especially in this red bikini. There's just something about you in red that drives me crazy."

"Well you better let me go before you get too excited in the pool."