Free Meant to Be by Jessica James Page B

sharing in the laughter. Rad had
the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, and both their
gazes seemed locked on his tan, well-muscled forearms.
Simultaneously, their attention shifted to Lauren, and the
expression on their faces changed from smiling approval to glaring
condemnation.
    Lauren ignored them and helped Heather
and Rad dump beers into the coolers.
    “ Hurry up, bro.” Wynn
slapped Rad on the back. “We’re getting a volleyball game
going.”
    Rad, who was leaning over a cooler,
looked up at Lauren. “You in?”
    “ No way, but go
ahead.”
    Rad hurriedly dried his hands on his
shirt and took off after Wynn.
    “ Grab a chair, or here’s a
towel, if you want to sit closer.” Heather pointed to a stack of
towels under one of the tables.
    “ Wow, you girls have
thought of everything.”
    “ We’re not really wives
and girlfriends—we’re mothers,” Annie said. “As you can see, they
are just a bunch of kids.”
    Lauren walked to the volleyball court
with a towel and plopped down on the beach to watch. She knew how
competitive Rad was and soon found out that every guy playing was
equally as driven. They spiked, they cursed, they dove for balls,
and bruised the other team with their power serves. The only
problem was, there were two women on each team as well—none of whom
seemed to care whether they won or lost.
    Jackie and Jasmine, who had stripped
down to bikinis, were on one team, and seemed more intent on trying
to collide with the guys than actually recover a ball. The two
pick-ups on the other team made an effort but had apparently never
played before.
    The sun, hanging low on the horizon,
caught Lauren’s eye, and her attention drifted from the game to the
edge of the beach where dark waves laced with white foam lapped the
sand.
    “ Sorry men, but I gotta
take a leak.” Everyone on the team, including Rad, groaned when
Wynn made the announcement and ran off toward the Boardwalk. The
two girls on the same team also decided to call it
quits.
    “ Lauren, get in here and
help us out.” Rad waved at her. “We’re down one point, and it’s
soon going to be too dark to see.”
    Lauren shook her head, but he came
over and grabbed her by the arm. “Come on, we just lost three
people. You can help us out.”
    “ Me?” She looked around.
“But what do I do?”
    “ Just stand here and if
the ball comes your way hit it over.”
    Lauren walked reluctantly to the net
and stood where Rad placed her. “So I just hit it when it comes to
me?”
    At that moment, one of the guys on the
other team served a nice high ball over the net, right to her,
expecting it to drop into the sand.
    “ Hit it, Lauren,” they
yelled, taunting her. “Just hit it.”
    Lauren jumped up and spiked the ball
straight down between the front two players on the other side, too
close to the net to be recoverable even if they had been
ready.
    “ You mean like that?” She
put her hands on her hips and blinked innocently.
    “ No fair! No fair!” Tork
and a few of the other guys protested as they ran up to the
net.
    “ No fair? You told me to
hit it, right?” She turned and held her hand up as Rad walked by
and slapped it with a loud high-five.
    “ We’ll keep playing even
though we’re two-men down.” He rubbed his hands together excitedly.
“Our serve.”
    But Jackie and Jasmine had lost
interest. “No, now you’re even,” Jackie said as they strolled away
from the game, leaving the two teams with the same number of
players.
    “ Even better.” Rad smiled
at Lauren. “Wanna serve?”
    As he handed her the ball, he
whispered, “Hit it to Tork. He’s weak on serves.”
    Lauren didn’t respond, other than with
a slight nod of her head. When she got to the serving line, she
held the ball as if she was going to bop it from underneath like a
girl, but then she hesitated, shifting her weight back and forth
for a minute. She hadn’t played volleyball in years and wasn’t sure
she could hit it the way she