I sprint for the water as soon as my foot is free of my sandal and don’t slow down until the water is to my knees. I’m up to my waist, my blue underwear just under the water’s dark surface, when I look back to Aiden. He tosses his phone on top of the pile of his clothes, and strides toward the water in nothing but his underwear. My eyes need a distraction, because I can’t stand here and watch Aiden’s slow strut out into the water like this. I look back out toward deeper water, where Ellis and Jaz have found the sand bar, and are once again in knee-deep waters. I’m thinking about how good the cool water feels against my sticky, overheated skin when I feel arms wrap around me from behind.

It’s the first time we’ve been skin-to-skin like this—his chest to my back, his arms pressed against mine—and I wish we didn’t have an audience. Ellis glances at us, then plunges back into the water, and part of me wishes he would swim all the way back to shore, and just disappear, like some sort of freshwater merman. I feel tense under Aiden’s touch, not because I don’t want it, but because I feel like we’re in an endlessly awkward situation as the only couple. We don’t even have Beth and Troy here to paw all over each other as a diversion. Aiden’s breath is hot against my ear when he whispers, “Turn around.”

I do what he says, and then we’re chest to chest. Just for a second, before he turns and the water rushes around me as he plunges underwater. His arms rise up out of the water and grab at me, so I take them, realizing he wants me up on his shoulders. Oh god. I take hold of his hands and pick my feet up, letting him back into me until my legs are over him. His hands move from my hands to my legs as he rises up out of the water. I sway a little, and then steady myself when his hands come back up to meet mine.

“You good?” he asks, letting go of my hands as I rise up into the night air.