Only One (Reed Brothers)(9)

I brush water back from my face. “Why?”

“Because I like you. I’ve always liked you. And you broke my heart when you left and didn’t come back. So, yeah, I’m telling you how it’s going to be.”

“You don’t even know me anymore,” I protest.

He jiggles me in his arms. “I know. That’s why I said we were going to get to know one another. Are you listening?” He growls playfully.

“Yeah, I’m listening,” I say quietly.

“Good, because you’re all I think about when it’s summertime.” He brushes my hair back from my face and picks a strand off my lips. “You and summer go hand in hand. Like ice cream and chocolate syrup. Like popcorn and salt. Like…me and you—a summer boy and a vacation girl. There’s no summer without you. It’s just endless seasons without the perfect.”

I open my mouth to speak, but only a mortifying squeak comes out.

He laughs. “Yeah, I feel that way too.” He jostles me again in his arms. “You understand, right?”

“Not really,” I admit.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” he says and he kisses the tip of my nose. “I have to go to work. Can I come and see you tonight? I don’t get off until eight.”

“Work? It’s summer.”

“It’s summer for you. It’s work for me, all the way through summer. So, can I come and see you later?”

“I guess. I don’t think my mom will mind.”

He scoffs. “Your mom loves me.”

If only she’d loved me enough to stay.

He starts to walk toward the shore, holding my bottom in his hands. I tap his shoulder. “Let me down.”

He laughs and puts me down when the water is waist-deep. But then he takes my hand and holds it all the way out of the water. I stop and wring out my hair when we’re in front of Amber and Rose.

Suddenly, he jerks my arm and pulls me against him. “I want to kiss you,” he says beside my ear. “But I don’t want to mess up our first kiss trying to piss off Jerkface.”

“You should just pee a circle around me and be done with it.” Because he knows that little dunk in the ocean wasn’t about us. It was about the guy I haven’t even met yet.

He grins. “You might be into that kinky stuff, but I just want to kiss you, for starters. We’ll get to the rest of it in good time.” He laughs and kisses my cheek. Then he pats the top of Rose’s head and tugs Amber’s hair. “Later, ladies,” he says. He glares at my new neighbor. I have to find out what that’s about.

Amber, Rose, and I all watch his backside as he runs across the sand and back up the steps onto my deck. His hips are narrow and his shoulders wide. He has a tattoo on his upper shoulder that looks like it might be a sailboat.

“He sure grew up,” I mutter to myself as I plop down on the towel in the sand next to my friends.

Amber snorts. “Up, and out, and around. That boy is hot.”

“Did he just put the moves on you in the ocean?” Rose whispers loudly, cupping her hand around her mouth like she doesn’t want anyone to hear. If she doesn’t want anyone to hear, she really shouldn’t whisper-shout it.

I scratch my head. “Kind of.” I’m still a little confused about it.

“What did he say to you?” Amber asks.

“I think he asked me out, but I’m not completely sure. He’s coming over at eight.” I shrug. My face is on fire with all the scrutiny.

“Huh,” Amber grunts.

“What’s that noise for?”

“Nothing.”

I shove her shoulder. “Tell me.”

“It’s just…” She looks at Rose like she wants permission. Rose just raises her eyebrows. “It’s just that he hasn’t wanted a girlfriend since the accident.” She raises one finger. “Hookups, yes. Girlfriend, no.”

“What accident?” I ask.

“Oh my God!” Rose shrieks. “You didn’t know?”

I throw my hands up. “Know what?”

“His mom and dad died two years ago. In a boating accident.”

My heart trips a beat. “I had no idea.” I look in the direction he went, ready to go after him and ask him why no one had told me. I would have… What would I have done? Probably nothing.

“I thought your mom would have told you.”

I shake my head. “My mom and I don’t talk.” I lift my fingernail to my mouth and nibble on it. “So, who takes care of him?” I ask. I have so many questions.

“He lived with his uncle for a while. But when he was almost seventeen, he applied for emancipation and got it. So he was officially an adult before he started his senior year of high school. He lives with a couple of roommates in his mom and dad’s old place.”

“So that’s why he’s mowing our grass.” I am shocked. Dumbfounded.

“And working at the marina. And at the surf shop. And he works at the water park some too. He works all the time.”

“Is he going to college?”

Amber shakes her head. “He didn’t say anything about it last night.”

“At the beach blast?” There’s a party every year. I just missed it, I guess.