Oceans Apart Book 1 (Oceans Apart #1)(6)
“Yeah, right. Tattooed bad boy who needs some sun protection on that white, albeit colorfully designed skin.” I couldn’t stop smiling. He was fun. I sat up and reached my hand to the bottom of the beach bag, searching for some sunscreen. I could sense that he was watching me out of the corner of his eye. I hoped he was as thrilled watching me, as I was watching him watch me. I looked up to see him with a huge grin across his face. “What are you smiling at?” I asked.
“You. I was just thinking about how I haven’t heard that kind of laughter for ages. You just seem to be happy. And fun. Not to mention gorgeous.” He turned and waved his hand towards the shore. “This is a beautiful beach, it’s a beautiful day, and here I am, spending time with a beautiful woman.”
He winked at me when he said that, and if anything could have made sparks fly out of my panties, it was the glimmer in those blue eyes. I didn’t consider myself anywhere near beautiful; and the way my hair blew around my face, I couldn’t even imagine what I looked like. But I’d take a compliment for all it was worth. “Thanks, I’m glad you enjoy it.”
Tristan had sat down on the blanket right next to me, and we both looked out across the ocean. I couldn’t help but watch him out of the corner of my eye. We sat close to each other, his arms resting on his knees, and it didn’t feel like I’d only just met him the day before. I had to remind myself of the fact that he was going home tomorrow, so not to get too involved, but I couldn’t help wondering what was underneath his trunks. I blushed at the thought! For some reason he didn’t strike me as the type who would go for a girl like me. Yet I was pleased that, maybe, he might.
I’d always been good at reading people, and was pretty sure my intuition wasn’t going to let me down this time either, so I leaned over and poked him in the side teasingly, grinning when he turned his startled blue eyes to meet mine.
“What do you see out there?” I asked, pretending to see whatever he was looking at.
“It’s so incredible. The ocean…it’s just so huge.” He replied slowly, as if he was in a trance or something.
“Yeah, I know, there’s a whole ’nother world out there and all we see is water. Big, blue water.”
He nodded. “Yes, it’s a big ocean, and the Atlantic seems just as wide. Fifteen hours of tedious travel to get home tomorrow, but at least I’m here with you now. I’m thinking, it would be such a shame to be in the presence of such a lovely lady and not spend any time getting to know her a little bit, don’t you think?”
“That’s a good point,” I said, swiping the sand off my feet. “What do you want to know about me? Would you like a cup of wine first?”
He looked at me quizzically and asked “A cup? Sure. I’ve never drunk wine from a cup before. They don’t use wine glasses in America?”
I pulled out a bottle and two Solo cups from my bag. “Yes, we use fancy glasses — duh. But we’re not allowed to drink alcohol on the beach, so everyone drinks it in these.” I handed him the red plastic cup, and as he’d already managed to pull the cork out of the wine bottle, he poured some into both of them.
We tapped our cups together, said “Cheers” in unison, and then we both took a drink and busted up laughing. We sat silently for a moment; I was a little unsure what to say. And then he finally broke the ice.
“So, what do you do for a job?”
That seemed a simple enough question to start with.
“I’m a paralegal at one of the law firms here in town. I just graduated law school at the university.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” he replied. “Do you enjoy that sort of work?”
I nodded. “Yeah, actually I do. I wouldn’t have spent all those years going to school if I didn’t. I mean, my parents were pleased when I went to law school, but I actually did it for me and not just to make them happy. So I’m pretty proud of myself. I know you work in construction, but what do you do there? Are you the burly brick man with the hot bod?” I giggled. I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.
“Well, first of all, I’m impressed. For you to be so young and already know what you want to do is brilliant. Just brilliant. And secondly, no, I’m not the burly brick man.” He laughed out loud. “I’m the project manager, but I do work most days on muddy sites with the bricklayers, yes. And I’ve seen enough burly men’s arse cracks to last me a lifetime!” He ran his hands through the hot sand and wiggled them in front of my face. “I hate stuffy offices. I like to get my hands dirty.”
God, he was so amazing. It felt like we’d known each other all our lives. I really wanted to get to know him better; the thought of him living so far away didn’t bother me one bit. “So what do you do when you aren’t working? What do you do for fun?”
“Well, work is weird. Like I said, in England, it rains a lot, so we have to work long days when the weather’s good. Then, we try to work inside when it’s raining, which is too often for my liking. Occasionally, we have to take time off because of really bad weather, then my best friend and I go down to our local pub and shoot pool.”
He looked at me with those eyes again and I could feel my insides melt. “So you just kind of hang out? Do you — uhm — have a girlfriend over there?” I hesitated to ask, but I had to know.