Every Girl Does It(47)

My eyes are so wide right now that I swear people can see the whites of them from the mainland. My mouth is also hanging open in a frightfully unattractive way, and I’m stunned into silence. Just as I was about to say, “You’re crazy,” he turns to me.

“That...” he says with his voice back to normal, “was for turning me down for prom.” He puts his hands behind his head and leans back onto the blanket. “Revenge is sooooo sweet.”

I’m staggered to mere speechlessness. I can’t say anything. Nothing could make this moment of his revenge any sweeter, I already fell for it. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I thought he was being serious, that he had snapped. No, instead he was playing me for an absolute fool. And to that there's only one way to respond.

I take out my water bottle and pour it over his head before making a run for it back to my buggy. I feel him hot on my heels and leap towards the buggy before he tackles me into the sand.

“I can’t believe you actually fell for that,” he said, breathless.

I struggle to get free from his grasp, then give up, feeling the sand is, yet again, in places it shouldn’t be. “How was I supposed to know?” I yell. “Get off of me!” I'm laughing, but it's an angry I’m-going-to-get-you-back laugh.

“I hate that you honestly think I’m that obsessed with Star Wars.” He looks absolutely astonished at my behavior.

I stick my tongue out and grimace as his sandy hands grasp it. “I’m not letting go unless you make me a promise.”

I shake my head no, but whimper as his grip tightens.

“Promise you’ll say yes.”

My eyes are now watering, so what choice do I have? I nod my head yes and bite him when he releases my hand.

Luckily, down where we had parked our rental car, there were showers, so we were able to get at least a pound of sand out of our clothes and other unmentionable places.

I was the first back to the car and squashed down into the seat. Preston soon followed but decided against full clothing. His abs were in full view of my face, making me suddenly feel light headed in the heat.

“Shouldn’t you put on clothes or something?” My shaky voice betrays me yet again as he notices the emotion that runs thick in my vocal strain. I feel defenseless against his physical beauty. It’s not rational, but then again, nobody’s ever tagged me as being a rational person.

He puts on his aviator sunglasses, making my heart leap that much more and smiles. “I want to get a good tan.”

Never mind that we aren’t in a convertible. He just likes making people suffer. It’s working, I say to myself as I buckle my seatbelt.



Chapter Twenty-one



The rest of the day was a blur, before I knew it we were flying back to the mainland. We were greeted by a smiling Kristin and Brad. Apparently, the kids were fine and asked them for presents the second they got to the hospital.

"Guess what?" Kristin says practically flying out of the car. I suddenly remember how much I miss her energy when she isn’t around.

"What?" Preston asks trying to act just as excited. Gotta love a guy who plays along even when he knows it’ll be a huge let down.

"I just heard that Brad and Angelina are visiting Boise this week! Isn't that amazing?" She looks at both of us not understanding the expression on my face at all.

"Oh wow, you don't say?" I make eye contact with Preston, but he just smiles back as if to say, “Ha, Ha. Joke's on you”.

"Anyway, I just thought it was cool. You guys ready?" Kristin asks, grabbing one of our bags.

We follow her for a few minutes before I turn to Preston and ask, "What’s the plan?"

He winks and smiles, "Oh, just a quiet dinner downtown. Nothing huge."

I nod my head.

"Oh," he interjects quickly. "And your Angelina dress for the evening is already picked out. I went for black again. Hope you don't mind."

I rolled my eyes and smiled. "Challenge accepted," I find myself saying as I grab his hand and head for the car.



Epilogue



“Get back here!” Preston yells loudly into my ear.

I’m now deaf, I think cheerfully to myself. He’s trying to catch Ashlyn as she runs around the firehouse for the tenth time. Unfortunately, she has the engagement ring tucked away in a box on her.

Preston thought it would be romantic to propose for real rather than constantly telling me I was going to marry him. Plus, I did threaten him within an inch of his life that if he didn’t do a real proposal, I would find the tape of our high school choir performance where he tried to ask me out for the first time.

Needless to say, this is why I’m waiting patiently at the fire house for Preston to chase around his dog. The same dog I mistook for his wife. Sometimes when I think about the whole fiasco, I contemplate medicine for insanity. I mean what was I thinking? I got all of that from a few text messages.

I shake my head and cross my arms, looking the part of annoyed girlfriend, when actually I wouldn’t want my life any other way.

“I can’t find her,” Preston pants next to me. “And if you say one thing about my cardio being low I’m going to tackle you.”

I snap my mouth shut because that was exactly what I was going to comment on. He’s faster, but I can run for longer amounts of time. Not that he ever lets me remind him of such things.