The Thrashers(14)

“Yep.”

Jodi stood awkwardly, wanting to wait for Paige to come back before heading outside to be alone with Julian. Peter sent her a pointed glare, and she sighed. Jodi dropped her bag by the door and headed out back.

The Thrashers’ pool sparkled in the afternoon sun. Lounge chairs lined the sides, and there was a rock waterfall next to the diving board. And in the water—in an inflatable yellow duck with sunglasses—sat Julian Hollister, also in sunglasses, a bored look on his face and an iced tea in his hand.

“Don’t you have your own pool to float in?” she bit out.

He tilted his sunglasses down and said, “How’s life at the community pool?”

She dropped down on the lawn chair, about to argue that she didn’t use any pool, if she could help it, but Julian was already paddling the water, turning the duck around and away from her. She was just opening Instagram when her name was called. Zack’s stepmom was flip-flopping her way down the steps, smiling at her.

Charity had married Mr. Thrasher when Zack was ten, but they’d been dating since his divorce—since before his divorce, probably. She was nice enough, but she usually tried too hard.

“Jodi, baby! Paige said you were here.” She pulled Jodi into a tight hug. “I brought one of Katherine’s suits downstairs for you, too.”

Jodi looked down to find the eldest Thrasher sibling’s two-piece swimsuit in Charity’s hand, and her throat went dry in panic.

“No, ah—thank you, no, but I can’t really—”

“Jodi, baby.” Charity leaned into her, and Jodi could smell the mimosas on her breath. “You’ll only have this body once. Flaunt it!” She squeezed her shoulder and raised her voice. “Besides, Julian doesn’t mind if it’s a little tight, do you?”

Jodi was hot all over when Julian paddled his inflatable duck back around with a curious expression. “Not—at—all,” he said slowly.

Charity pointed her to the pool house and gave her a shove. Jodi trudged inside to the bathroom and laid the swimsuit out next to the sink, glaring down at the offensive neon green pieces. Katherine Thrasher wasn’t as small as Lucy and Paige, but she definitely could wear a two-piece when Jodi could not. Should not, more accurately.

She pinched her eyes shut and pulled on the bikini. The bottoms barely covered her backside, and the top had fluttery fabric on the front that she would have made fun of in the Target aisle. She stomped her way out the door, refusing to look in the full-length mirror, and sprayed herself down with sticky sunscreen. She returned to the pool to find Julian doing laps and Paige now in the inflatable duck. Dropping into one of the pool chairs, Jodi tried to find a way to sit that didn’t show too much thigh and settled in to scroll her phone while Julian went back and forth in front of her.

“Jodi’s in a swimsuit?”

Her head whipped to the back door as Lucy slid it open. She was in a bikini top and denim shorts. Jodi felt on display, too seen.

“Charity forced it on me,” Jodi said.

Lucy already had a glass bottle of Coke in her hand—her favorite drink in the world. Not Coke in a can. Not Coke in plastic. The Coke bottles from Mexico only. The Thrashers kept their fridge stocked with it for whenever Lucy came over.

“You look hot,” Lucy said, setting her drink on the table next to Jodi’s chair.

“Thanks.” Jodi refrained from covering up her stomach, as Lucy stripped out of her jean shorts to reveal her polka-dot bikini underneath.

“Hey, I have to show you something.” Lucy thumbed through her apps before turning her phone to face Jodi. “One of Reagan’s acolytes was there on Friday night. They recorded it all and sent it to her.” Reagan Matthews was Lucy’s mortal enemy. They used to be friends in eighth grade, but now they tried to ruin each other at any opportunity.

Jodi saw herself on the screen, trailing behind Zack and the cop. The video caught them being loaded into the back of the cruiser. The caption read oh how the mighty have fallen. It had twenty thousand views. Jodi sighed and rubbed her brow.

“It’s okay,” Lucy said softly. “It’ll be old news soon.” She placed a warm hand on Jodi’s calf, and Jodi smiled weakly at her.

She glanced at Paige before asking, “Did you get any weird texts on Friday? I got one from an unknown number. It just said ‘are you having a nice summer?’”

Paige looked at Jodi from behind her sunglasses.

Julian appeared in front of them at the pool edge. “Wow. Extremely threatening.”

Jodi ignored him. “Maybe it’s nothing, but it was right before the cops came.”

Lucy stood. “I delete spam texts as soon as they come in, but I’ll watch for weird ones.” She held up her phone. “I’m gonna show the video to Greg, in case it’s useful.”

Jodi watched her walk back into the house and wondered if she should tell them about running into Maureen Mills. Normally, she would have texted the group chat immediately, but what they could and could not put in writing was still a gray area. Did Greg Thrasher need to know that Detective Harding had Emily’s journal? Or was she jumping to conclusions?

Her thoughts were abruptly halted when Julian pulled himself up onto the cement in front of her, even though there was a pool ladder ten feet away. Jodi frowned at the flexing muscles in his torso. He stood before her chair and shook his hair out, making sure to send water her way.