“Tanner?” I call as I walk through the front door. My voice echoes in the big, quiet space. I move through to the back of the house to see if he’s outside and then backtrack to go upstairs. Everyone else has already gone home for summer break, and if it weren’t for Tanner’s car out front and the text he sent me five minutes ago, I’d think he was gone too.

As I ascend the stairs, I finally hear him. Above the sound of the shower, he sings. The words and tempo don’t match any song I know, but he keeps right on belting it out. The bathroom door is cracked open and steam seeps out.

“It sounds like you’re drowning a cat in there,” I say, standing along the wall so I don’t accidentally get an eyeful. If there’s anything I’ve learned being friends with Tanner over the last two years, it’s that he’s unabashedly proud of his body and not afraid who sees it. Modesty? What’s that?

The water stops, and I hear him push the shower curtain open. “There’s a pussy joke in there somewhere.”

Rolling my eyes, but smiling all the same, I step back when his footsteps approach. “Are you decent?”

“Always.”

“Is your dick covered?”

He chuckles and moves past me. He’s dripping water all over the hallway, but he does have a towel wrapped around his waist.

I follow him into his room and sit on his bed. He steps into his closet, tosses the towel out onto the floor, and when he reappears, he has on a pair of shorts.

He drops beside me on the mattress. “How was your meeting with the trainer?”

I fall onto my back with a dramatic sigh. “Awful. She squashed any hope that I can play this summer. Seriously, I’m fine.” I lift my arm and rotate until I feel the pinch in my shoulder. Okay, fine is a stretch but the tournament in Brazil isn’t for another three weeks. I’ll be fine by then. Mostly fine. I really wanted to spend my summer by the beach.

“Sorry, babe. You don’t want to take any chances before senior year, though. Better to rest it and be ready in the fall.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. That’s almost exactly what the doctor said. It doesn’t make missing out on a summer of traveling and playing volleyball suck any less. I turn onto my side to face Tanner. “When are you leaving?”

“I was planning on heading out this afternoon.” He rakes a hand through his wet hair.