“Take your time,” he says and waves us on.
“I want to stay so bad,” she says in a harsh whisper, her fingers digging into my arm. “He is gorgeous! Does he have any friends?”
My eyes catch Luke’s, and he’s grinning—he definitely heard what she said.
“Well, then, why don’t you stay?” I tell her.
She sighs and the smile slips right off her face. “I wish I could. I missed the last family reunion. I can’t miss it this time, or worse than my mom killing me, my dad might cut me off.”
I laugh lightly. “Then you’d have to work with me longer.”
Her little nose wrinkles around the edges and her hand falls away from my elbow.
“Seriously, though,” she says, “just be careful and call me every now and then to let me know what’s going on.”
“I’m only staying three hours,” I say with laughter in my voice.
“I know, but still.”
“All right,” I give in. “I’ll text you at least. Have a safe flight back.” I lean in and hug her tight.
“Well, I better go,” she says, her fingers slipping away from mine. “See you when you get home.”
As she’s walking away, she raises her index and middle fingers on one hand, pointing them at her hard, narrowed eyes and then at Luke, back and forth a few times as if to say I’m watching you. Luke laughs under his breath and raises his hands up at his sides in surrender. Paige gives him—and then me—a big smile just before she turns her back to us and starts to walk away. Covertly she looks at me from the side, spaces her hands many inches apart, glances downward as if at his feet, and mouths something like his feet are huuuuge, and I choke trying to hold my laughter inside.
“Some best friend you’ve got there,” Luke says as she walks away, clamping his lips together. “I like her.”
With my lips pressed in a hard line and my face fiery red, I say, “Yeah, we look after each other.”
“I take it she’s the mean one?”
My laughter fades into a grin.
“Actually, we’re just alike in that aspect.”
“Oh really?” He seems a little nervous. Smiling, but nervous.
I nod. “Yep. If she was the one leaving with some strange guy, I’d be the one threatening him with bodily harm.”
Luke grimaces.
I smile sweetly and pat his shoulder. “No worries,” I say, letting my fingers linger there for a moment until I realize what I’m doing and pull away. “Maybe she is a little meaner than I am.” I squint one eye and hold my index and thumb a half inch apart. “But just a little.”
He smiles.
“So I’m some strange guy you’re leaving with, huh?”
“I like strange.”
Our eyes meet briefly, soft smiles permanent on our faces, it seems.
He jerks his head back. “Come on,” he says, “not much time left.”
“Where are we going?” I ask, walking away with him through the sand.
“I said I’d give you some surfing lessons, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did. But you don’t have a board.”
He shrugs and glances at the hotel.
“I can borrow one.”
We walk together toward the building and I can’t stop smiling the whole way there. I admit, I’m kinda nervous about my first surfing lesson, but I think I’m even more nervous—in a good way—that Luke is the one giving me that lesson.
I hope I don’t embarrass myself …
SEVEN
Luke
I’ve always been a risk-taker—actually that’s a huge understatement—but for all of the things I’ve done, all of the risks I’ve taken in my twenty-four years, something tells me that this one is by far more dangerous than any of them.
And maybe more worth it.