Not the Only One (Book 1 in the Four of Us Trilogy)

Thirty

Rachel

We'd been swimming for about an hour and a half when someone got the bright idea to raid Miles' father's liquor cabinet.

And by someone, I mean Miles.

"Hey guys," he yelled over my shoulder after making me weak in the knees in front of the waterfall again, "who wants to do shots?"

I gasped. "Miles!" I swatted him on the chest. "We can't do that!"

"Why can't we?" Brooke asked, swimming over to us, Luke close behind.

"Umm, because we aren't 21?" I asked, knowing I sounded like a stick in the mud. 

Brooke laughed and looked at Luke. "Come on, help us out, Luke," she wheedled.

Luke bit the inside of his cheek and shrugged.

Brooke and Miles shared a glance and then looked at both of us.

"Neither of you have ever drank before, have you?" Miles asked with an amused smirk on his face.

Brooke laughed. "Well, I know for a fact that Rachel hasn't."

"Hey, shut up!" I said.

"Yeah, I haven't either...it's not something you want to do when you've seen your mom drunk for large chunks of your life," he said, and the rest of us fell quiet.

"Ah, fuck," Miles said. "I didn't know. I'm sorry, man."

Luke shrugged, then his eyes brightened. "You know what? Fuck it! We're graduating in two months. Let's do it!" I could tell he was trying to make sure he wasn't being the "party dad."

And I figured: if there wouldn't be a party dad, why have a party mom?

"I'm in," I announced, and Miles wrapped his arm around my shoulders, looking down at me.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," he whispered in my ear.

"I want to," I said, sounding more confident than I felt.

"Okay," he said, lifting himself out of the pool, almost killing me with the sight of those flexing biceps. "I'll go get the vodka. It'll be easy to fill up the bottle with water and he'll never know. He doesn't drink hard liquor anymore." He jogged inside the house, drying himself off as he went.

I swallowed. "Vodka?" I asked, looking at Brooke.

She threw her head back and laughed. "This, my friends, should be interesting."

Miles returned a few minutes later with four shot glasses and two giant bottles: Grey Goose Cherry Noir and Absolut Mandarin.

"Hey, at least they're flavored!" Brooke said, peering up at the bottles.

"Let's get in the hot tub," I suggested.

The hot tub was spacious, but it didn't matter; I sat so close to Miles I was nearly on his lap, and Brooke sat with her legs lying across Luke's thighs.

"Okay," Miles said, lining up the shot glasses and opening the bottles. "Who wants what?"

"I'll take some Absolut," Brooke said right away.

Luke and I pondered for a moment and both chose the Grey Goose. Miles poured himself a shot of Absolut and we all held a glass in our hand. I may have never drunk alcohol before, but I'd seen enough movies to know that everyone drinks together.

"To Luke and Rachel's first drink...may neither of them be a complete lightweight," he joked, and we all clinked our glasses together, murmuring cheers.