Pull (Seaside #2)(13)

“Chill.” Alec laughed. “She cried because it was so beautiful, and because she gets emotional when she’s proud. Right, babe?”

I heard Nat say a dirty word and laughed.

“She’s mad at me for telling you.” Alec chuckled into the phone. “Can we record that for the album?”

I thought about it for a minute. It was kind of personal, and it wasn’t even about me, but about her. But it wasn’t as if she listened to us anyway. “Sure. Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Cool, now write twenty more.”

“While you do what?”

Alec laughed into the receiver and spoke in a low voice. “I think I’ll have Nat keep me occupied.”

“And this conversation is over.” I rolled my eyes. “Later, brother.”

“Bye.”

It was three in the morning before I found my bed, and also the first time in the last year that I didn’t crave something to numb my feelings.

I felt raw. Exposed. I’d forgotten how much I liked it. Liked to actually feel, as bad as it hurt. It was real, it was life. And I was finally living.





Chapter Seven


Alyssa


I ran the dishrag over the counter for the hundredth time, while trying not to look out the window at Demetri.

“I think it’s clean,” came a voice from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. With a slight sigh, I jerked away from the counter and stared at my dad. His expression was a cross between worry and amusement. At least he didn’t look freaked that I was going to off myself in the middle of the night. Was that progress?

“What are you doing here?” I asked a little too breathlessly.

Dad’s face broke out into a smile. “I own the place, and I had it on good authority — your mother’s — that you looked exhausted, so I was going to give you a few hours to yourself.”

I hated hours to myself. I hated any time to myself, because that meant my focus was on me, and when my focus was on me, it was on Brady. And when my focus was on Brady… I just wanted to cry.

“Um…” My eyes traveled to the window that looked out at Main Street and Seaside Taffy, our competitors. A few people were gathering around the corner, and I knew Demetri had probably just gotten in to work.

“You okay?” Dad asked, though his voice sounded far away.

I kept my eyes focused on Demetri as he took a bow to the gathering crowd and began tossing taffy out. Idiot. Our business wasn’t doing horrible, but it’s not like he was helping our sales any.

If people had the choice between Demetri Daniels or a depressed girl with a permanent scowl, they’d choose Demetri every single time.

As if he could hear my every thought, Demetri’s head turned and our eyes locked. At least that’s what it felt like. His stare was so pensive, my palms began to sweat. Slowly, I sank behind the counter until it was just my eyes peeking over the edge.

My dad chuckled. “What are we doing?” He joined me by the counter and seemed to be more curious than alarmed. Great.

Now I looked like a crazy person.

“Uh…” I licked my lips and frantically tried to search for an excuse. “I dropped the rag.” My fingers released the rag onto the floor. I offered a small smile.

“You sure you’re doing okay?” Dad felt my forehead. “You feel hot.”

“She does look hot, doesn’t she?” I knew that irritating, beautiful, ridiculous voice. I closed my eyes and prayed I was imagining things.

My dad shot onto his feet and laughed. “You wouldn’t happen to be the person my daughter’s been staring at for the past few minutes, would you?”

“Probably not,” came Demetri’s voice. I opened my eyes to glare. He was staring at me, and then he winked. Crap. “She doesn’t like rock stars. In fact, she verbally assaulted me yesterday about working her corner.”

“Alyssa,” Dad scolded.

“Dad,” I said back in a warning voice as I rose to my feet.

“Did you need anything, Demetri?”

His eyes crinkled as he attacked me with one of the most gorgeous smiles I’d ever seen in real life. “I did… I do.”

Insert long and awkward pause here where my dad looked between the two of us, chuckled, and walked off. Well, at least he was laughing. I hadn’t heard his laugh in what felt like years.

“What?” I snapped.

Demetri shrugged. “I saw you staring at me.”

“Did not!” My nostrils flared. “There’s no way you could see me through the windows from that far away.”

“So you were staring.” Demetri folded his muscled arms across his chest.

“No.” I swallowed and looked at the ground. Looking anywhere but at him seemed like a good idea.

“I felt it.” He placed his hands on the counter and leaned forward so our faces were mere inches apart. “Not that I mind. I just thought I’d come over and say hi, since you seemed to be beckoning me over with your lustful glances.”

“Lustful glances?” My head jerked up. I was half-tempted to bang his head against the counter, but I had spent the entire morning cleaning up that exact spot where he was leaning. Damn him.

“Yeah, they look like this.” His heavy-lidded eyes blazed a hot trail up and down my body as he very thoroughly checked me out, and then without another word, tucked a piece of fallen hair behind my ear, and left.