Summer Lovin'
Chapter One: Summer Lovin'
Summary: The Mastersons, Desais and Porters go on vacation together for the summer.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twisted.
Summer is my favorite time of year. Especially since Danny was cleared of killing Regina. His mom was too, and things for him turned out just fine when it was revealed that his dad was still alive. And since he was cleared 2 years ago, summer marked the now annual summer vacation between my family, Danny's family and Lacey's family. It wasn't awkward being around Danny and Lacey, because they realized that being in a relationship was just too hard for them. So we're all friends again. When we started going on family vacations together, the parents decided that each year, a different family is going to pick where we all go. This year, Lacey's family picked and we are going to the Porter's beach house, so bikinis, shorts, tank tops, flip flops and lots of sunscreen is required for packing. I, of course, being the outcast that I was, never wore bikinis before, so my mom and I had to go shopping for some. It was great until we saw Danny and his dad at the same store getting some sunscreen. My face turned bright red when Danny took in what I had in the cart. Despite being friends, my feelings for Danny never fully went away, and the mere thought of him imagining me in a bikini is embarrassing, so I'm not even sure how I'm going to react when he actually sees me in one. Danny and Lacey are at my house actually helping me pack for this trip, well, Lacey is helping, Danny's sitting at my desk making fun of us.
"Jo, where do you keep your shorts and tank tops? I can't find them anywhere." Lacey says as she goes through my dresser.
"Lace, that is because that's the drawer where I keep my long sleeve shirts. Shorts and tank tops are in the drawer below it." I say from my place at the bed where I'm organizing my suit case as things are handed to me.
"How was the rest of your shopping excursion the other day?" Danny asks with a smirk.
"Drop it Desai." I snap and his smirk widens.
"Come on Jo? Was it really that bad?" He asks.
"Running into one of my male best friends at the store where I'm buying swim suits, yeah, it was. I was already embarrassed enough when I had to ask my mom to take me there, but running into you and your dad made it 10 times worse." I retort.
"Blame Lacey's parents; it was their idea to go to the beach." Danny says with a shrug.
"How exactly is my parents' fault that Jo didn't have any swim suits? Or that she and her mom ran into you and your dad while buying some? I'm with Jo on this one Danny, drop it." Lacey says and I shoot her a grateful smile as she hands me a pile of jean shorts and loose tank tops.
"Why am I even here today? Lacey is more than adequate to help you pack Jo." Danny says after a couple minutes of silence.
"Because, once we're done here, we're going to the diner for lunch before we head out." I reply.
"Can't I just meet you guys there? I'm really bored right now." He says.
"If you actually helped, then you wouldn't be bored. You know where I keep my overnight bag, go grab it and make sure that everything is supposed to be in there is in there." I say with a roll of my eyes.
"Fine." He says in a huff as he walks out of my room and into the bathroom.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Lacey asks.
"For the 7 months that he thought his dad was dead, I'm sure he saw womanly products. That I'm not embarrassed to have him see. It's the thought of him imagining me in a bikini and actually seeing me in one that are making me blush uncontrollable around him." I say in a low voice.
"Does Rico know you still have feelings for Danny?" Lacey asks.
"Yes, and he is still trying to discourage me from liking him. I just can't help it." I reply as Danny comes back into the room.
"Here you go. It looks like everything is there except for your "headache" medicine." Danny says handing me the bag.
"What's with the air quotes Desai?" I ask.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid Jo? You take those once a week, I know it's not for headaches." Danny says as he raises an eyebrow at me. "You aren't sleeping with Tyler, are you?" He asks and my mouth drops open as Lacey's eyes go wide.
"Why the hell would I sleep with Tyler?" I ask, recovering from the shock of Danny's question first.
"Jo, I know that you like him, you just said so." Danny says and I simply shake my head.
"She wasn't talking about liking Tyler, Danny. She was talking about liking someone else entirely." Lacey says.
"Is it Rico? I know that he has had a thing for you for a while." Danny says.
"No, it's not Rico. Geez Danny, I'm not sleeping with anyone. This is another topic that you just need to drop." I say as I grab the pill container out of my nightstand drawer and stuff it into my overnight bag before stuffing that into my suitcase and zipping it shut. "All done, let's go eat." I say as I usher Lacey out of the room ahead of me.
I can sense Danny watching me closely, but I don't look at him. If I did, I would come out and spill everything that I'm feeling to him. After we eat lunch, we head back to my house. Luckily, Danny, Lacey and I are taking Lacey's car to the beach house, so once we get my suitcase in the trunk with Lacey's we swing by Danny's house so he can get his stuff and then we are off. It's about a 2 hour drive, and I sleep most of the way, but when I wake up, it's to a conversation between Danny and Lacey that I probably wasn't supposed to hear.
"She should really be careful about whom she sleeps with Lace; Jo's judgment on the right guy is a little off kilter." Danny says.
"Danny, I've told you this 5 times already today, and Jo told you at her house, she isn't sleeping with anyone. She likes a guy, and Rico is trying to discourage her not to like him anymore. That's all there is to it." Lacey says. I need to remember to thank her when Danny isn't around.
"Then why does she have the pills?" Danny asks.
"It helps with keeping period cramps to a minimum and not having her period for as long. Now give it a rest." Lacey says. She's starting to lose it.
"What are you guys talking about?" I ask groggily, making it seem like everything hit my mind as a jumbled mess.
"It's nothing really; just random stuff." Danny says quickly.
"I'll tell you later." Lacey says as we make eye contact in the rearview mirror. "We're almost there, so what do you guys say that once we get our stuff inside, we get changed and head down to the beach?" She asks.
"Sounds like fun." I nod before looking out my window so that I won't catch Danny's eye. The thoughts from the other day are flooding back to me and I don't want Danny to know.
About 10 minutes later, we arrive and we're there first. Lacey and I share a room while Danny gets the room across the hall, so we lug our suitcases upstairs, get settled and then change.
"How much of the conversation did you hear when you woke up?" Lacey asks me.
"I just head the tail end of it. I know that Danny is worried that I might get pregnant or something if I sleep with someone, but there was an underlying tone of jealousy in his words when he said I should be careful about whom I sleep with." I comment.
"It also sounded like he might have been referring to your feelings for him when he said that your judgment was a little off kilter." Lacey points out.
"There's that too." I say with a nod.
"Did you ever tell him how you felt?" Lacey asks.
"Once, but it was when you two were together, so he didn't return the feelings." I say.
"Well, maybe you should tell him that you still like him and see what he says?" Lacey suggests.
"That might be the only way that I can get him off my back." I mutter.
"Are you ladies decent?" Danny asks through the door.
"Yeah, we are, but why don't you head on down to the beach? We'll be there in a couple minutes." Lacey responds.
"Okay, do you want me to bring a cooler of sodas and water down with me?" Danny asks.
"That sounds great." I say.
"See you guys down there." He says before he leaves.
"Let me see what bikinis you got the other day." Lacey says as she walks over to look over my shoulder at my suitcase.
"I got one of every solid color there was in my size." I say with a sigh.
"Wear the blue one. Not only will it bring out the color in your eyes, it's Danny's favorite color on you." Lacey says.
"How do you know that?" I ask narrowing my eyes at her.
"He told me. You know what his favorite color on me is though, don't you?" She challenges.
"Yeah, it's green." I say slowly.
"He tells us things like that about each other, but not about ourselves. It's the way he works. So just wear the blue one." She says before she grabs her towel, a hat and sunglasses.
"Damn it." I mutter.
"What's wrong?" She asks.
"I forgot to pack a damn towel. Do you have an extra one that I can borrow for the week?" I ask.
"Yeah, it's in my suitcase." She says with a smile.
"Thanks. You can head down to the beach if you're ready, I'll be down shortly." I say.
"Nope, we're heading down together." Lacey says as she leans against the door and watches as I quickly change into the swimsuit.
After I'm done changing, I walk over to Lacey's bed to look in her suitcase for her extra towel and am met with emptiness.
"Lace, are you sure your extra towel is supposed to be in here? Cause it's not." I say looking up at her.
"I don't remember taking it out of my suitcase; I guess I forgot to grab it from the house. Sorry Jo." She says with an apologetic smile.
"It's okay. I'll just borrow Danny's." I say with a shrug and we start to head down to meet up with Danny.
Once Lacey and I reach the beach, we see that Danny was waiting for us underneath an umbrella. When he sees us, his face lights up and I have to hold back a groan. I always melt when he looks like that. Upon reaching him, Lacey puts her stuff down and looks at us.
"I'm going to go sit by the water, either of you care to join me?" She asks.
"No thank you. I just want to sit here for a little bit." I say with a smile.
"I'll join you." Danny says as he gets up.
"Have fun Jo." Lacey says with a smirk before she walks away.
"You sure you don't want to come with us Jo? It's not going to be nearly as much fun without you." Danny says with a disappointed look.
"I'll come down in a little bit. I just want to do some people watching first." I say with a shrug.
"Jo, I don't want to have to do this, but you give me no choice." Danny says as he steps towards me and easily picks me up and tosses me over his shoulder.
"Danny, put me down." I demand.
"No can do Jo. We came to have fun and I am not going to let you sit there by yourself." Danny says. He's going to throw me into the water, I know it.
"Danny, I'm serious, put me down." I say again.
"Sorry Jo that is not going to happen." He says.
"Danny. Put. Me. Down. Now." I say and start hitting his back.
"You sure you want me to put you down?" Danny asks.
"YES!" I exclaim and then next thing I know I'm flailing through the air and into the water.
I surface with a few gasps for air a moment later and I glare at Danny.
"Damn it Desai. I don't have a towel with me this week. Now I have to use yours." I say as I stomp past him and literally push him out of the way before walking up to our stuff, grabbing his towel off of the sand and heading back to the house.
"You shouldn't have done that Danny." I faintly hear Lacey say.
By the time that I reach the house, I've calmed down a considerable amount, but when I see that the adults have arrived, and Karen questions why I have Danny's towel wrapped around me, I'm furious again. I send a glare in the direction of the beach before heading upstairs to mine and Lacey's room. I'm surprised that Danny hasn't come to apologize yet, but just a minute after I'm done drying off and changing, there's a light knock on the door accompanied by Danny's voice.
"Jo, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you didn't have a towel with you. If you had told me, I wouldn't have thrown you into the water. Can you forgive me?" He asks.
I have half a mind not to forgive him, but then I know that I would be mad at him for something that I'm partially to blame for, and that wouldn't be fair to him. With a sigh, I open the door, and Danny tumbles in, knocking me over.
"Jo, are you okay? I didn't expect you to answer the door so soon." Danny says as he quickly gets up and helps me to my bed.
"I'll be fine. Just a headache is all." I say in a small voice.
"I am so sorry." Danny says as he turns me away from him and kisses the back of my head.
"It's not completely your fault Danny. I should have said something." I reply as I turn back around.
"If you had, I wouldn't have a reason to do this." Danny says as he lightly presses his lips to mine.
Summer really is my favorite time of year. Especially since Danny was cleared of killing Regina.