All That Jazz (Butler Cove #1)(52)

“You’re going to college too,” she said to me.

“Right down the road. And I’ll be living here.”

“We need to work on this one.” She pointed at Keri Ann.

“I agree.”

“Stop it, guys. When Joey’s done I’ll go.”

“So, you and Chase, huh?” I said to Lizzie, changing the subject. Keri Ann hated it when I bugged her about college.

She punched my shoulder softly. “Nah. Not really. He sure is cute though. So you and Joey?” she returned. Then she glanced at Keri Ann. “Is it weird? It’s gotta be weird, right?”

We started to walk to where Joey was setting up.

Keri Ann shrugged. “It’s taking some getting used to.”

“What is?” asked Joey, clearly having supersonic hearing.

“You and Jazz dating,” said Lizzie.

Oh shit. An awkward moment that felt like an eternity ensued. In reality it was about one millisecond.

Joey stilled.

“Not dating,” I said hurriedly and saw his body relax infinitesimally. He busied himself with the umbrella.

“Yeah,” covered Keri Ann. “Like Jazz would date this oaf? She’s smarter than that. But,” she looked at Lizzie and made an Ew! face with a mock shudder. “But I think they’re doing a lot of kissing.”

“It’s about all he’s good for.” I shrugged and looked over to catch his eye. I winked at him, trying to let him know I was fine. We were keeping it casual. Honestly, the way he was fidgeting, he looked like he was about to remember he had somewhere to be.

“So how’s Nana today?” I asked, changing the subject when he avoided eye contact. I did a quick look around that beachgoers were safe.

“Nana’s going to need surgery,” Keri Ann responded. “An angioplasty.”

I sucked in a quick breath. “Oh wow. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s major surgery, right?” asked Lizzie.

“I think so, I don’t know,” Keri Ann said and looked toward Joey.

He nodded. “Not as major as it could be. She has a narrowed artery. If it were to get blocked she’d have a heart attack. So apparently Dr. Barrett recommends we do this surgery as soon as possible. If he can, he’ll put in a permanent stent so it won’t happen again. But he won’t know ‘til he gets in there.”

“Anyway,” said Keri Ann. “Nana pretty much kicked us out of the house for fussing over her. Mrs. Weaton’s there. They’re playing Spite and Malice.”

“What the hell is that?” I asked, intrigued.

“A card game apparently,” said Joey with an amused smirk.

I glanced back to my vacant post. “I need to get back to my chair. One more hour then I’ll be done.” I said good-bye and walked back to my deck chair parked under the shade of a red umbrella.

I kept my eyes away from Joey and scanned the water. Time crawled until I only had a half hour left. Normally my beach time was about catching up on all my celebrity gossip. This was like torture.

I unwrapped a stick of cinnamon gum and slid it between my lips.

A shadow fell across my feet where I was tanning my legs outside the circle of umbrella shade. I looked up to see Joey and hated that my belly flip flopped.

“Hey, Jay Bird,” I greeted him. “You need some mermaid water?”

He laughed. “What?”

“For jellyfish stings.”

“Oh. No. But could you rub sunblock on my back?” he held out a tube.

“Can’t you get your sister to do that?”

“I could, but then I’d miss out on having your hands on me.”

I took the cream and stood up. “Turn around.”

He smiled and turned.

“It’s your funeral,” I said, fighting a smile. “I guess you didn’t think through what having my hands on you would do to your body. There are kids around, Joseph. Someone could call the police.”

“Shut up,” he said jokingly. “I can handle it.”

“Are you sure about that?” I squeezed the cream onto my hand and handed the tube over his shoulder. Then I began a long slow swipe from between his shoulder blades down his spine. I took my time. “Ooooh,” I moaned softly. “Your back is so strong.” I brought my other hand in on the act and smoothed upward and over his shoulder blades and back down. “Wow,” I breathed. “So muscle-y.”

“Jazz,” he warned.

“Mmmm,” I emitted the sound as I worked the cream in, massaging and caressing. My moan was hardly faked. He really did have a magnificent back, and I was getting one-on-one time with each and every muscle, ridge, and curve. “Massaging you makes me think about those happy endings you mentioned,” I said.

“Jazz,” he choked and turned around leaving my hands up in mid air.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“Thank you,” he said tightly and stalked back to his towel. He flung down the tube of sunscreen.

Keri Ann saw him. “Hey, Joey, I was thinking—”

He ignored his sister and stalked straight down to the water and dove into the surf.

I laughed out loud.





JOEY WAS STILL in the water when my shift was over. He’d been doing laps out to the buoy and back. I dropped my stuff near Keri Ann’s towel and jogged down to the water. He saw me coming and waited. The top half of his torso was out of the water.