With This Heart(24)

He nodded, giving me a small smile. “After running from the law, we should probably lay low for the night,” he joked, making me smile once again.



Our hotel room only had one bed. I pretended like I didn’t care, as though I’d casually shared a bed with dozens of hot guys in my past, but inside my organs were flip-flopping around like crazy.

“ Abby, please try and keep your hands to yourself tonight,” Beck joked the moment we walked into the room.

Normal-Abby would have offered a witty comeback, but the alien inside my brain at that moment could only mumble awkwardly and evade eye contact at all cost.

We fought over both the pizza and the movie. We ended up just having to order two pizzas: one small vegetarian with pineapple and one medium supreme. Beck thought we should rent The Conjuring and I thought we should watch Man of Steel . I nixed the horror, he nixed the overdone superhero plot.

“ I’m going to take a shower before our food gets here, but so help me if you purchase The Conjuring I will throw your pizza into the ocean.”

“ As if your miniature arms could fling it that far.” He eyed me skeptically.

I gathered up my shampoo and floral scented body wash. “I will fling it as far as I can. If it lands on top of your grandfather’s Camper, then so be it.”

“ I’m pretty sure The Conjuring is taking place in this room right now,” he said with a hint of a smile.

“ Are you saying that I’m possessed?” I asked, heading toward the restroom.

“ If the devil-like-tendencies fit…”

I tried to come up with something as equally funny, but I couldn’t stop the laughter from ruining my plan.

“ I think I hate you as much as I like you,” I admitted before shutting the bathroom door.

He mumbled something, but I couldn’t hear it with the door closed. Instead, I imagined him saying that I was the funniest, prettiest girl he’d ever met. That was probably dead on.

After turning the water on to warm up, I pulled out my thermometer and my various pill bottles. My temperature was still normal, thank God, and the pills were swallowed quickly with the water muffling most of the noise as I stuffed the rattling bottles back into my bag.

Fifteen minutes later, feeling one hundred times better than I had with all that residual lake slime dried on my skin, I pulled on my pajamas and carried my stuff out of the bathroom. Our pizzas still hadn’t arrived yet, so Beck was sitting on the bed with his back against the headboard, focusing on a text. I took the opportunity to look at the pieces of him I hadn’t yet inspected: his long jean-clad legs, his broad shoulders, the sexy five o’clock shadow he would most likely shave soon.

I started brushing out my damp hair before asking, as casually as possible, “Who are you texting?”

He looked up, his hazel eyes locking onto mine, and grinned. “Mary Beth.”

I huffed nonchalantly, “Sounds hot.”

“ Hmmm,” he said, drawing his gaze down to my bare legs and then back to his phone.

“ Are you guys dating?”

His grin widened, but he didn’t look up at me. “It’s not like that.”

“ Oh.”

“ You seem overly curious about me texting another girl.” He quirked an eyebrow.

I shrugged and shifted slightly so that I could look at the hotel mirror propped above the desk. From my vantage point, I could see Beck watching me brush my hair. “Not in the least,” I answered.

“ Alright,” he answered confidently, running a hand through his now disastrously-messy hair.

“ How do you know her?”

He narrowed one eye, tilting his head back in thought. “Let’s see… she made me a baby blanket when I was little, but I don’t really remember our first meeting.”

I loosened my hold on the brush, only then realizing I’d been tensing every muscle in my body. “Oh. Is she your grandmother?”

Cue the adorable half-smile that made my heart skip a beat. “The one and only. Grandmother aka Grammy.”

I scrunched my nose. “Hah. So you aren’t sexting?” I thought I’d win with that comment, but Beck never let me win.


“ I didn’t say that.”

I laughed and shook my head. He wiggled his eyebrows playfully and tossed his phone down onto the bed. A second later, he started tugging his t-shirt off and I was left gaping like an idiot. The way his muscles stretched as he lifted his arms…the hard lines of his six-pack.

“ I’m going to shower. If the pizzas get here will you pay with the cash I left out on the desk?” He walked away and I was left gaping like a sad guppy.

“ Mhmm,” I murmured dumbly. I wish I could say that seeing him strip didn’t faze me, but it was so unexpected. We’d gone swimming together, yes, but being half naked in a hotel room felt much different.

I was still sitting there on the edge of our bed, with my hand wrapped loosely around my hairbrush, when a knock sounded at the door.

“ Coming!” I yelled as I clambered off the bed and reached for my wallet. Like hell I was going to use Beck’s cash with him not around; it was finally my turn to pay for something.

Ten minutes later, the shower cut off and I heard Beck drying off. My body was relaxed against the headboard with my pizza box propped on my lap. It felt scandalous to be eating on the bed, but just as my first bite was an inch away from my mouth, Beck walked out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around his hips. It was sitting just under his stone-hard abs and angled dangerously low.