Arizona Sunsets - Sam Hubbard

XXII

After Liz opened the door to her friends, all of whom were slightly confused that it was not the owner of the house but she who greeted the group, and all four of them, like Liz before, marveled at the house from the inside, Liz helped put away the things that her friends had brought with them in the kitchen before going with them to the terrace, where Sam was already standing behind the steaming grill.

They greeted him with a few words and a wave before taking a lap around the patio, gazing at everything as if they were at the Louvree in Paris. With an amused grin, Liz watched her friends before standing by Sam and nudging him lightly with her elbows.

"Honey, the kids are home" she grinned at him, to which Sam chuckled softly and deep. "That awesome, darling, dinner will be ready soon" he nodded at the already lightly browned patties as a warm rush twitched through Liz's body and a smile formed on her lips.

"have you...cooled down again?" she winked at him, biting her lip to stifle the amused grin. Sam ran his hand over the back of his neck, caught, as the slight blush shot back into his cheeks. "Yeah, a little" he muttered.

even biting her tongue didn't help the grin that spread across Liz's lips as she patted Sam's shoulders encouragingly. "I'm going to go set the table. It's okay that I just help myself in the kitchen, right?" she asked.

Sam nodded. "Sure, make yourself at home" he smiled at her. "I already do anyway" Liz muttered walking away before calling her friends over to help her.

Once all the food was on the table and everyone had drinks as well, the group started eating. It was a pleasant get-together, the food was very tasty, the beer tasted best chilled anyway, and the conversations that were had during the small food breaks were casual and fun.

When everyone was done eating, the guys cleared the table and helped Sam clean the grill while the girls were inside putting the dishes in the dishwasher while they popped the first bottle of champagne.

After a little tour of the upper part of the house, the group decided it was time to finally go swimming. Everyone found a private corner to change before they all met back on the patio and threw their towels on the two lounge chairs that were there.

Sam was still secretly eyeing Liz in her royal blue bikini, which only made her tanned skin look even more beautiful, when suddenly a loud scream followed by a loud splash cut the air.

Startled, Sam looked up, but only met James' amused grin, who, after having just pushed Ava into the water, now lunged at Ben. As Ben, laughing, just pushed Mia into the water, who flew into the pool with a delighted yelp, James had an easy time of it and so Ben followed his wife just a few seconds later.

Liz, whose turn it would be next, quickly took cover behind Sam, who gave James a prompting look as he slowly approached him. "Come on over here if you dare" he grinned amusedly at James as he readied himself for the attack.

James couldn't help but grin as he took a bit of a running start at Sam, but had no chance against the big, strong body of the defensive end who, after a bit of a struggle, pushed him into the pool with ease.

While James came up laughing and continued splashing the others in the water, which turned into a water fight in just a moment, Sam turned to Liz and grinned mischievously at her.

"Don't you dare" Liz raised her finger in warning and walked backwards a few steps, while Sam slowly approached her and pushed her more and more against the wall. Before Liz even had a chance to run away, Sam grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to his body.

His arms wrapped around her waist, her feet swinging a few inches off the ground, Liz laughingly tried to free herself from Sam's grip by punching at his arms. But Sam, who was making his way back to the pool, didn't mind one bit.

Once at the edge of the pool, he tightened his grip around Liz and stood with his back to the water. "Watch out, it's going to get wet" he whispered to her with a grin before dropping backwards.

Liz's squeaky "Sam" was the last thing to be heard before they landed in the water together. Sam lifted his arms off Liz, who immediately popped back up and laughed as Sam came back up for air as well.

"You're impossible" she slapped him on the upper arm before brushing her wet hair out of her face and straightening her bikini top, giving Sam a quick glance at her cleavage.

Now that everyone was already wet, Sam retrieved the ball that was by the lounge chairs and the group divided into two teams to play on the basketball hoops that were set up at either end of the pool.

Sam, Liz, and Ava won, which wasn't hard to do. James spent the game rather dunking Ava or Liz. Mia ran away from the ball and just didn't have a chance to take it away from anyone, leaving Ben as the only opponent, but he couldn't do anything on his own either.

When the girls after two games, lost the desire, they decided to make giant fights. The three boys took the girls on their shoulders and they tried to knock each other down. Of course Liz had the advantage on Sam's shoulders, first she was almost no weight to him, plus he stood like a concrete pillar and didn't move an inch no matter how much Liz wiggled around on him.

The girls decided they'd had enough mischief after that for now, and they adjourned to the hot tub, while the guys went back for the ball and just threw it around a bit.

When everyone had cooled down enough, they wrapped themselves in their towels and sat back down in the lounge next to the grill. Sam handed out the ice cream that Mia and Ben had brought and refilled everyone's drinks again.

They let the still warm air of the evening sun, which was slowly setting, dry them off, while Ben unpacked his guitar and everyone relaxed listening to him fill the pleasant silence with soft guitar sounds.

Sam watched with a slight smile as Liz, lying against his chest while he had his arm around her shoulders, quietly hummed along to the tunes. He felt the vibration in his chest as her damp hair clung to his skin and he ran his thumb over the soft, warm skin of her arm.

It was close to midnight when the others took their leave. They pulled their clothes on over their now dry bathing suits and gathered everything they had brought with them.

"Do you want us to drive you home?" Ben asked Liz as he packed a few things from the patio into the basket and said goodbye to Sam. Liz shook her head and gave Sam a quick look. "I'll...stay here and help Sam clean up a little more" she explained.

"Clean up? We can stay and help too" Ben suggested. Mia rolled her eyes before turning to face her husband. "No, Ben. Sam and Liz can do it on their own. Besides, I'm tired..." she fake- yawned before grabbing Ben by the arm. "..And I have to get up again tomorrow, so let Sam and Liz handle this nicely by themselves" she winked at Liz with a grin before pulling Ben along with her.

Once everyone was gone, Sam and Liz put the rest of the plates in the dishwasher and threw away the trash that had formed on the patio before Sam looked at Liz with a smile. "Feel like hitting the hot tub again?" he asked her.

Sorry it took me so long to post again but i was on vacation and had some other things to do before i was able to write again.
Nice to be back tho

WHO-DEY 🧡