Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(87)

Then there was Hadley Stone. She was ten, and I’ll admit she did act older than most kids her age, but she was like a celebrity because her dad was famous. She couldn’t go out and play with the rest of the kids without a freaking bodyguard. It was weird. She had one sibling, Evangeline, who was only three.

You would think all those kids would be enough to drive a person batty. But noooo, there were more of them. Micah wasn’t the only Falco kid. His younger brother, Jude Falco, was ten, and his sister, Mila, was five. Then there were the Drake boys. God help us all, they were quite possibly worse than my brothers. I’d feel sorry for this town when the York and Drake boys all had cars. Hendrix, River, and Keegan Drake were all the exact ages of my brothers. They were the terrible six. Or at least, that was how Eli and I referred to them.

The last group was ten-year-old James Stone. He was Jason and Jess Stone’s son. They also had a daughter, who was eight, and, well . . . they were going to have their hands full with her. That was all I was saying. Juliette Stone was a rounder. She kept the terrible six on their toes, and that’s saying something.

Saffron and Holland Corbin were the last two kids in this craziness of reproduction. They were identical twins, but they were complete opposites. Saffron did everything she could to get attention, while Holland was normally in a corner with a book. For ten-year-olds, I liked them well enough. I used to say their parents were the only sane ones in the lot. They had twins and stopped. But today the big news was that Krit and Blythe were expecting a baby by Christmas.

Now that I knew what sex was, I was horrified every time another one of the adults told us they were pregnant. Did they just, like, have sex a lot, or was this an accident? Did they plan it? Ugh! I didn’t want to think about it. I was just glad my parents seemed to be done with their four. After having three boys in a row, I think my mom was too nervous to try again. She wasn’t getting another one like me. I’d told her that, and she had laughed at me. Then she’d said I was more like my father than I thought I was. I didn’t mind being like my dad. I looked just like my mom, or so my uncle Jeremy says every time he sees me: “Spitting image of you, I swear, Eva.”

That makes me smile because my mother is beautiful.

“Hey,” a deep voice says, and I jerk my gaze off the waves crashing on the shore and look up into the sun. There is definitely a male there, but I don’t recognize him. Shading my eyes, I see he is not only a guy, but he is rather remarkably gorgeous. He looks a little older than me. Maybe fifteen or sixteen.

“Uh, hey,” I reply, not sure what to do about this. I know everyone in Sea Breeze around my age. I feel like I’m related to most of them.

The guy sat down beside me, but instead of doing it in an awkward way like most people, he made it look cool. He was also wearing jeans on the beach. Granted, it was fall and the breeze was cool, but still. I didn’t look long at his black combat boots, which were super awesome.

“You live around here?” he asked, leaning back on one arm and turning toward me. He appeared so casual and sure of himself. He had to be a lot older than me. Eli could never pull that off and appear that badass.

“Yeah, my whole life. Well, not all of it. I lived the first years on a farm about thirty miles from here. But Dad got the baseball coaching job at the college, and we moved here to be closer. Plus, most of my family is here.” I was just sharing my life with this guy. He had asked if I lived here, not for my life story. My face felt hot, and I looked away from him, praying he’d just leave. But he didn’t laugh at my silliness.

“I’m visiting. My grandpop lives here now. Moved here about six years ago and opened up a restaurant.”

I turned back to look at him, and the color of his silver eyes was rattling. A girl could only handle so much. Eyes like that needed a warning with them: Be careful of insanely hot eyes.

A smirk tugged up the corner of his lips, and I realized those lips were just as impressive as his eyes. “Reason why you’re out here mumbling to yourself?” he asked.

Once again my face flamed red and I looked away from him. This time he did chuckle. I wanted to bury my head in the sand and wait for him to leave the crazy girl on the beach alone.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. You’re just really cute. With the blushing stuff.”

Oh God, he called me cute. This gorgeous boy who was way too old for me thought I was cute. Breathe, Bliss. Breathe. You will pass out if you don’t breathe.

“You got a name?” he asked me.

I straightened my shoulders and tried not to look like the idiot I had been acting like so far. “Bliss York,” I informed him like I was filling out some form. All businesslike.

His smirk turned into a grin. The way his eyes sparkled that silver color when he was amused made that breathing thing I was trying to do hard.

“How old are you?” he asked, studying me closely.

He probably thought I was one of the silly ten-year-olds. I was positive even Holland could have handled this better than me, and she rarely talked to anyone.

“Thirteen,” I said, waiting for him not to believe me.

He nodded as if that was what he had thought.

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Fourteen,” he replied.

My mouth fell open. This guy with all his coolness was just fourteen?

He acted so much older. Eli was thirteen, like me, and he was so not this mature. He was also easier to be around because, although Eli had really nice blond hair and pretty green eyes, he was just Eli.