Scandalized(32)

“Good. I like honest.”

“Very blunt, in fact.”

“Even better.” A bluff; my heart is halfway up my throat and out of my body right now.

He licks his lips, studying me. “I’m not a very casual person,” he admits quietly. “I’ve actually never slept with anyone outside of a long-term relationship before. I don’t think I’m very good at it.”

“Okay.” His admission is devastating. This would be so much easier if one of us knew how to navigate something light and temporary.

“I’m afraid I’m going to get attached if we spend another night together.”

He drags his focus from my mouth back up to my eyes.

This, I think. This is what it feels like to fall.

“Well,” I say carefully, “I’m okay with not spending the night together, if that’s what you need.” I reach up, tracing the line of his T-shirt along his collarbone. “But I’m pretty sure at this point it’s going to be hard for me when you go home no matter what we do. And I think it would be harder to know you’re here and not be able to see you than it would be to see you and have to remind myself what it means.”

“What it means, as in we agree it’s only this? Just these two weeks?”

“What else can it be?”

At this, he mumbles, “Right,” and bends, resting his lips on mine. My first instinct is to gently urge him away, to remind him where we are. But my stronger instinct is to lean forward, softening against him. He sends one arm around my waist, pulling me close. Even when he ends the kiss—we are in public, after all, and the beach is slowly filling—he holds me against his body, lifting my feet onto his in a chest-to-chest hug.

I drape my arms around his shoulders. “I thought we weren’t going to kiss outside today.”

“We’re hidden.”

“We aren’t at all hidden, you goober.”

He growls as he bends and pretends like he’ll take an enormous bite out of my neck. It turns into a tiny kiss, and then he whispers, “Maybe I could stay at your place tonight.”

“Really?” I pull back and grin at him.

“Really.”





Eight


With that sorted, I feel a certain amount of tension evaporate from the air around us. We leave our things and wander over to the rock shelf only a handful of yards away, watching the tide ebb, exposing the famous local tide pools. For the next hour, we clamber around the rocks, sharing every discovery: fluttery anemones, tiny rocklike barnacles, silvery fish, and coral. When the sun is high, we head back to our spot, spreading our towels out beneath the umbrella and staring at the unending cycle of waves.

He reaches over, pulling my hand into his lap, spinning the one ring I wear around my ring finger on my right hand. It’s a simple band of sapphires.

“Who’s this from?”

“My parents.”

“Pretty.” He touches my fingers, then turns my hand over, running the pad of his thumb over my wrist. “Birthstone?”

I nod. “September sixth. You?”

“April eighteenth.”

I do a double take. “It was your birthday the day we flew to LA?”

He nods, laughing. “I don’t usually make a big deal out of it. Sunny always goes overboard no matter what.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing you have a sister to make you celebrate yourself.”

He kisses my wrist before releasing my hand. “Do you ever wish you had siblings?”

I nod. “I used to a lot. Now I have Eden, and she’s like an irritating younger sister, even though she’s a couple years older than I am.”

“Will I get to meet her tonight?”

Squinting out at the water, I calculate whether she’ll be home later. Today is Wednesday; she usually works, and unless we’re back by four, we’ll miss her. “I don’t think so.”

“I’ll leave her a note.”

I lean over, bumping his shoulder with mine. “She’ll die. I’m serious.”

He grins down at my hand.

“What’s your favorite project you’ve ever done?”

Alec quirks an eyebrow over at me. “I thought you googled?”

“It was only a panic-google. I skimmed just enough to feel sufficiently mortified for asking whether you still skateboard.”

He laughs the open-mouthed laugh I love. “That was possibly my favorite part at the bar.”

I reach over, smacking his arm.

“I mean it when I say I’ve loved everything I’ve done,” he says, “but I really love West Midlands. It’s fun to do something where we develop relationships with our costars over time, and this cast is amazing.” He reaches for my hand again, weaving our fingers together, resting them on his thigh. “The early stuff all feels a little blurry. It was so exciting but so crazy. I got the role in Saviors, and I know people say this all the time, but it felt like everything changed overnight.”

“Do you like it, though? I bet it’s cool to be recognized.”

“Yes and no,” he admits, releasing my hand to dig into the backpack for our waters and granola bars. He passes me mine and then takes a long drink. “At first it was exciting, but it can be draining, too. And the press in London are unrelenting.”