Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
A blonde, with strong legs, and a confident stride. Had she come from the nightclub? How had I missed spotting her?
No idea, but I didn’t want to miss her now.
Guess that was the answer to whether I should see her tomorrow or not. I couldn’t wait. Distraction or not, I wanted to see her right fucking now.
I didn’t want to surprise her, so rather than run to catch up with her, I strode a little faster. As the salty ocean scents breezed by, I upped my speed, lasered in on the target in front of me until I was twenty then ten feet away from her. But she never turned around. She just kept marching forward on the sidewalk, passing the tourist shops, weaving past travelers.
Oh hell.
She probably had earbuds in.
When I was five feet away, I said, “Hey, Ariel.”
Nothing.
I caught up to her, gently setting a hand on her bare arm.
She jerked away, her eyes popping. Then she stumbled and I grabbed her arm immediately, steadying her. Her breath came fast.
“What the hell?” She ripped out her earbuds.
Now that she’d gained her footing, I let go of her and held up my hands in surrender. “I come in peace.”
“You scared the life out of me!”
I gave a forgive me smile. “I know. I’m sorry. I called out to you.”
“I was listening to a podcast,” she said, a little defensively, her breath still coming quickly.
“Anything good?” I asked, hoping to defuse the moment.
She narrowed her eyes but didn’t answer. Instead, she roamed her eyes up and down my frame, like she was assessing my outfit. “What are you doing?”
I quickly weighed the benefits and drawbacks of telling a reasonable lie.
The fewer lies I told, the easier this thing with us would be, but I didn’t want to let on why I was there. “I was trying to decide if I wanted to go into the nightclub. But I’m not much of a dancer.”
There. That was true enough. And I hadn’t admitted that I had been in there, scoping it out for a job.
Her expression softened slightly. “Oh,” she said. Then she glanced in the direction of the club too, and down at her clothes. “Same here.”
I laughed. “So you decided not to go in either?”
A smile tipped her lips. “Yeah. I’m not sure I have the moves for a club.”
I’d bet she did. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that I was drawn to her, as much as I’d been drawn to her when she walked into the bar. And I didn’t deny the part of me that craved a little more time with her, especially after the way our first meeting had ended. “Can I walk you somewhere, Ariel?”
Her smile disappeared. She crossed her arms. “Actually you can answer a few questions.”
Well then. That was an abrupt turn. Someone, it seemed, had an agenda.
8
A VERY GOOD DRINK
Ruby
It wasn’t entirely true what I’d told him. I could dance.
I just needed a reason to explain why I hadn’t gone into the nightclub. I couldn’t very well say I hadn’t wanted to be caught scoping out my stepdad. My excuse was a good one, especially after Jake had scared the coconut lotion off me.
Not intentionally. But still.
Now that he was here though, maybe I could get some answers. I lifted my chin. “Was that a Mayday call earlier?”
It came out direct, a little tough. A woman protecting herself. Or trying to get to the bottom of something.
He knitted his brow. “What do you mean?”
“The phone call earlier that you got at the bar,” I said as I resumed walking. Standing and looking at his ridiculously handsome face made me feel a little vulnerable. I didn’t want to feel that way right then. “Was that your save me call? Was it a girlfriend?”
Jake immediately pulled his phone from his pocket. “That was my sister. My little sister, Kylie.” He pulled up a shot of a twenty-ish girl who had his green eyes, his warm smile. “She needed my help.” A few taps and then he showed me the call list from a couple of hours ago with the name “Kylie” logged in the right timeframe.
Fine. As far as proof went, it wasn’t a hundred percent definitive and anyone could make things up, but this was pretty damn good.
Chagrined, I said, “Oh. I’m glad it was your sister.”
“She needs a tutor so she turned to me. She’s taking physics.”
“Well, physics is hard.” That was stating the obvious, but it lightened the mood.
“I have no idea how anyone can learn physics,” he said.
“Honestly, it’s kind of a miracle that anyone even knows what physics is if you think about it,” I said, a little playful once again, like we’d been at the bar.
“It is.” He swiped on his phone once more and showed me another photo. It was of him and his sister smiling, laughing, and licking ice cream near the water. The sweet photo ate away at my desire to be tough.