“Hold your head high. Say hello to Colin, thrust out your boobs, but keep walking. Don’t stop and chat. Leave him wanting more,” Melissa instructed.
Hold out your boobs? Melissa was the queen of prudes. When a boy had touched her butt during a slow dance in ninth grade, rumor had it she’d slapped him and reported him to the principal. “Where do you get this stuff?” Spencer asked.
“Cosmo,” Melissa answered.
“Seriously? I thought you only read Vogue and W.”
Melissa shrugged. “It’s actually pretty helpful when it comes to guy stuff.” She poked Spencer’s thigh. “Now go!”
Okaaay. Spencer climbed out of the banquette. She could feel Melissa’s eyes on her back, encouraging her on. It actually felt kind of familiar, the way Melissa was helping her. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were scheming to break up a couple instead of planning elaborate tea parties and cooking up ways to convince their parents to let them wear their princess crowns to school, Spencer realized it almost felt like old times. When they’d been real sisters.
Spencer advanced toward Colin and Ramona, trying to adjust to her shoes. “I think we should take a sailing lesson tomorrow,” Colin was urging.
Ramona pouted, her shiny lips folding into a grimace. “I just want to tan and relax.”
“You always want to tan and relax. If you’re not into it, I’m just going to go without you.”
“I’m just going to go without you,” Ramona mimicked, twisting her mouth unattractively.
Spencer took a deep breath and began walking a little faster. When she was a few feet from Colin’s table, he looked up and noticed her. She feigned obliviousness, swinging her hips, shaking her butt, and pushing her boobs out as far as they would go. She could feel her hair lift off her neck and float behind her. She felt fantastic.
“Hey, Spencer,” Colin called out.
She slowed down and faked surprise. “Oh, hey! Nice to see you!”
He breathed in as if to say something else, probably expecting Spencer to stop and chat. But she didn’t. She kept walking, holding her head high. After she passed, she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder at him. He was still watching her.
And then her leg hit something hard, and she heard a loud oof. She whipped around just in time to see a waitress clamoring to rescue a tray full of steaming plates from tumbling to the floor. But it was too late—the plates slid off the tray one by one, smashing to the ground. At the exact same moment, Spencer’s high heels turned, and she felt her legs buckle beneath her. Before she could even catch herself she was on the carpet, her legs tangled under her, her dress riding up her butt, and her elbow landing in something squishy that had just spilled. By the smell of it, it was creamed spinach.
A hush went over the crowd. Everyone turned to stare. The waitress was next to her on the floor, quickly cleaning up a bunch of plates of steak that had fallen off the tray. “Great. You probably just got me fired!” she hissed.
Spencer scrambled to her feet quickly and shot to the bathroom. But as she pushed open the women’s room door, she heard faint chuckles and peeked back into the dining area. Colin and Ramona were staring at her with amusement, their hands now entwined on top of the table. Perfect. Spencer’s fall had probably been the ultimate icebreaker.
Cosmo scheme one: a definite bomb.
Chapter 6
Sail Away with Me
The next morning, after nightmares of laughing crowds and oversized Manolos clawing at her body, Spencer ordered a double espresso to go at the café and met Melissa on the Longboat Key dock under an awning that said FREEWHEELING SAILING LESSONS. Spencer had wanted to stay in bed for the morning—scratch that, for the rest of their vacation—but Melissa had been insistent.
Several small Hobie Cat boats with rainbow-printed sails bobbed in the water. Seagulls circled, squawking loudly, and a bunch of floppy-haired twenty-something guys in Harvard T-shirts passed by in a sleek, gorgeous Beneteau yacht. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw one of the guys point at her, causing the whole lot of them to burst into laughter. She scowled and drained her coffee. It was bad enough that she’d discovered a massive purple bruise blooming on her thigh from where she’d hit the tray of food. Now she had to deal with all of Longboat Key laughing at her.
“Colin’s already here,” Melissa said, slathering SPF 100 on her arms. “There are two other people taking lessons with us today, both of them guys. Colin DeSoto and Merv something. Ramona isn’t on the list.”
Spencer chewed on her thumbnail, feeling nervous. Not about the sailing lessons—she’d learned how to sail when she was eight and even had a junior license—but she’d never thrown herself so blatantly at a guy before. Besides, what if Colin took one look at her when he arrived and hightailed it away? He now probably remembered her as the girl who’d single-handedly taken out five large platters of T-bone steak instead of the girl who could hold her own against him on the courts.
Melissa squirted another blob of sunscreen onto her palm. “Want me to get your back?”
Spencer turned, feeling surprisingly touched. Melissa hadn’t offered to rub sunscreen on her back for years.
Then Melissa drew in a breath and nudged her chin toward an advancing figure at the end of the dock. It was Colin. He was wearing a fitted white T-shirt that showed off every ab muscle and a pair of patterned board shorts. Even his toes, which poked out of a pair of black flip-flops, were cute.
Colin spotted Spencer and stopped. “Spencer?” He grinned in disbelief. “Are you here for the lesson?”