Blackbird (A Stepbrother Romance #1)(34)

“You know, they have a drive-in down here.”

“A drive-in theater? It’s what, ten in the morning? It won’t be dark for hours.”

“Hours and hours,” said Victor. “We’ll just have to find something to do until then. I have an idea. Have you ever been to the beach?”

“No.”

“Let’s go. It’s only about an hour drive. If you obey all traffic control devices and posted speed limits.”

The way he said it strongly implied he didn’t plan on it.

“Okay.”

I’ve never seen any of this before. I stared out the windows as he drove. The whole place was so flat. I could see for miles and miles, the distance obscured only by trees here and there, or buildings. It wasn’t like home, where the rode rose and fell. I expected the ocean to be something like the river. Living in Philadelphia, my idea of the coastline was the Delaware river. A few times I glanced over at the instrument cluster, and felt my stomach drop when I realized we were topping ninety miles an hour. Except for a few gentle curves, the road was mostly straight. Victor slowed dramatically when a sign appeared warning of the end of the expressway, and the traffic grew heavier. He turned off past a car dealership, and the car rumbled over an iron bridge over a narrow canal.

“You’ve seriously never been here?”

I shook my head.

“No trips to Jersey, either? No Cape May, no Atlantic City?”

“No.”

“Wow. I came down here with Mom all the time. She liked to shop at the outlets. When Dad was alive we came here every weekend in the summer.”

There it was.

The land just… ended. Victor pulled into a slanted parking space and I stepped out of the car. The air smelled salty and was strangely cool when the breeze picked up, even if the sun was hot on my skin. Victor slipped a pocket full of quarters into the parking meter and came to my side.

“You’re going to burn up,” he said, taking my arm. “Come on.”

The air conditioning was blasting in the shop. Gooseflesh rose on my arms as Victor led me through the store. He grabbed a floppy straw hat off a rack, a big pair of sunglasses, and a bottle of sun screen. Outside, I put on the hat and glasses. It was a relief not to have to squint. Victor kept the sunscreen. He squirted a generous helping on his hand and seized my arm, rubbing it into my skin. I tried to shake loose, but he was insistent. He did my other arm, and then crouched and smeared it on my legs. I yelped as his hand came up between my thighs. Victor grinned and dabbed a spot of it on the tip of my nose. I scowled at him but he grinned and smeared the stuff on his own arms, tossed the bottle, still half full, into a trash can and pulled me to him by the waist. I grabbed my hat on the brim to keep him from knocking it off.

My anger melted away when his lips met mine.

People were seeing us. I felt naked, and for some reason that made me press against him, and he put his arms around my waist.

He took my hand and walked me down the sidewalk to see the ocean for the first time.

I stopped at the edge of the boardwalk and just stared, gaping like a fool. It was huge. I’d never seen anything so big. The wind was strong, and the waves were surging, whitecaps forming as the water rolled in and fell back, rolled in and fell back with a tremendous roar that came from everywhere at once. It was so blue. I walked across the boards and leaned on the railing.

“Too bad you don’t have a bathing suit. We could go for a swim.”

“In that?”

“What, are you scared?”

“Yes.”

I was terrified of drowning. I had no idea how to swim, either. I’d never even been in a pool. The idea of diving into that deep dark water rooted me to the spot, terrified.

Victor’s arms slid around me from behind.

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

“I can’t swim.”

“We’ll have to fix that, sometime.”

“What about sharks?”

“I don’t think anybody has ever been attacked here.”

“Maybe another day,” I said, my voice trailing off.

“What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful,” I said.

“Yeah, Victor leaned on the rail. He wasn’t looking at the ocean at all. “Beautiful. I guess you’ve never been to Funland.”

“Fun…land?”

“Yeah, come on.”

He took my hand and pulled me along with him. The sea breeze whipped around my legs and chilled me, even as the sun beat down, so I was shivering and sweating at the same time. The light was hot on my skin, and Victor’s hand was warm. We walked past a dozen little shops, full of candy and toys and food. Ahead was this Funland place he mentioned, a small amusement park that covered a whole block. We walked past some carnival games. Blinking lights and chimes and music assaulted my ears. It was more than I could take. I almost clung to Victor, clasping his hand in mine. He bought a ream of little tickets at a booth, after we stood in line for a good five minutes.

“They’ll close next weekend,” he said.

“Forever?”

“Nah, for the season. It gets too cold, I guess. Come on. You need to try the frogs.”

I wasn’t sure what ‘the frogs’ meant until he led me over to a broad artificial pond. Fake lily pads floated around in circles, carrying cups shaped like flowers. A dollar bought three battered rubber frogs. The object of the game was to use a little catapult to hurl the frogs into the cups. It worked by bashing it with a hammer, which he handed to me. I did my best to line up the catapult with the moving cup and bashed it with the hammer.