I press my lips together, tipping my glass toward her, entertaining the idea. “You might be right.”

“Of course, I’m right.” She downs her drink and looks at me expectantly. I don’t inhale mine like she did, but I do follow her out of the water.

We slip our robes over our bodies and step into the pool house so she can get her refill, but as we approach the long table, her skinny fingers latch on to my forearm, squeezing.

“Holy shit, they’re back. And here.” Her brows furrow. “When did they get here?”

I spin to look, but her hands shoot up, catching my face and holding it still.

“Just scream we’re talking about them, why don’t you!” she hisses.

Humor tugs at my lips as I pull her hands away. “How am I supposed to offer an answer if I can’t see who you’re talking about?”

“You don’t know them. They’ve been gone all summer.” She subconsciously begins adjusting her stance—a little taller, a tad straighter, more staged than real.

“Maybe I do. I did live here all through elementary school.”

“And they moved here in seventh grade, or at least two of them did. I think the other was here for sixth, but he was homeschooled or something.” She swipes her hand in the air, deeming the details insignificant.

Her voice lowers even more. “Remember those guys I told you about, the ones who—” When I shift, she cuts off her words with a panicked frown. “What are you doing?”

I step around the long, tall table so that I’m now facing her and able to snap my eyes around the room when I’m good and ready to do so.

Cali flicks her eyes to the ceiling.

“You were saying?”

“Stealth, girl. Stealth.” She pushes her hair over her shoulder and keeps going. “So, the story I told you about the guys who stole Ken Garretts parents’ safe at the end-of-the-year party—”

“Says you.”

“They were the only ones who showed up uninvited. Everyone else that was there had been there before, minus them, and one even screwed Ken’s girlfriend earlier that week.” She sips her drink with sass. “Ken kept her sorry ass, but still. It happened.”

“That’s hardly motive to lift a safe.”

“Ugh.” Cali sets her drink down beside her. “You are such a lawyer’s daughter.”

I roll my eyes. “If you’re worried about them stealing, tell them to kick rocks.”

“And then those rocks end up through the side of the pool and over the fucking cliff everyone in it goes.”

Her dramatic spat has me pinching my lips as not to laugh at her.