CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - BIRDIE #3
I shoot a thumb back towards the bathroom, but Colt slides over to me with a silky smile. “No need to exert yourself. I can comb it out for you on the way.”
“Forget it,” Hog grunts, staring down his smaller packmate. “You’re riding shotgun again. I’ll help her with her hair.”
“I bought the comb,” Axel corrects him, his hands on his hips and a stubborn tilt to his jaw. “I’ll ride in the back while you two share the wheel.”
I blink at the three alphas, not quite sure why they are arguing over a task that’s a chore most days and mundane, at best. Maybe there’s some hint about this strange behavior in Omega Allure, but I don’t happen to have a copy handy.
“Um, I actually can take care of my own hair. But thanks for the comb.”
I tuck it in my pocket, grabbing the pillowcase of supplies and following Colt out to the parking lot.
The sun is already rising above the line of pines near the highway, and I blink in confusion.
I search for the truck, but the guys are standing beside an unfamiliar SUV. “What happened to the truck?”
“Jeeps belong at the beach,” Colt says with a blithe smile, popping the door and waving me inside. I look at him uncertainly and his smile softens. “Didn’t Hog tell you where we are going? Guess he had other things on his mind last night…”
I’m too distracted to roll my eyes at his suggestive eyebrow waggle. “We’re going to the beach?” I turn to look at Axel, who’s standing by the driver’s door. “Really?”
“Remember I said my grandfather’s pack had a place on the coast? Unless you want to head somewhere else, we thought we might spend a few days there.”
“Nowhere else,” I say faintly, since I thought my choices were between their cabin in the mountains or a bed in Carla’s omega refuge. “Yeah. I want to see your grandfather’s place.”
“Great!” Colt says happily, dragging me into the back seat beside him, and tossing a cheeky grin at his packmates. “You snooze, you lose, boys!”
They shake their heads at him, but pile in without further comment, and I relax back into the seat.
It smells like leather and orange blossom, and I wonder where they found it.
But I’m too tired to ask, and I close my eyes, listening to the hum of the tires as Axel navigates to the highway.
I zone out for a bit, but when I feel Colt’s gaze on my face, I crack my lashes.
It seems to be the signal he was waiting for, because he plops my pillowcase on the floor so he can slide closer. “You okay, Birdie?”
I open my eyes all the way and cock a brow at him. “No more Baggage?”
He rests his head on the seatback, so our faces are only a few inches apart. “It feels wrong. Like I’m mocking your nightmares, or something.”
“I don’t take it that way,” I tell him, lifting my damp hair away from my neck. “And the nightmares aren’t new. If they’re baggage, I’ve been carrying them for a long time.”
He’s been watching me fiddle with my hair, but now his mouth droops, his eyes sad. “You want to tell me about them? I’m not an expert, but I’m a good listener.”
“Maybe later.” I appreciate the offer, but I’m still feeling a little raw from how much I opened up to Hog, and not just in a physical way.
Squirming on the seat, I glance back at the window, watching the greenery give way to more concrete.
There are also more cars, and I realize that we’re close enough to a big city that the traffic is slowing us down a little.
I catch a kid watching me from another car and wonder where she’s going, and if there’s something nice waiting for her at the other end.
I turn back to catch Colt watching me. “I’d prefer to hear more about Axel’s grandfather’s place. Have you been before?”
His face lights up. “Sure. It’s great. Right on the beach but still private, which is rare so close to San Francisco.”
“I’ve never been,” I say wistfully. “To San Francisco, or to the beach.”
“Seriously?” He sits up straighter, caught between outrage and curiosity. “You’ve never been buried to your neck in wet sand?”
“Well, I know sand.” In fact, I grew up grinding it against my back teeth. “Just not the beach kind.”
He shakes his head, like such thoughts are too bizarre to contemplate.
“Well, since this will be your first time, I better prepare you for a few things.” He taps a long, tanned finger on my knee.
“Firstly, just surrender to it. The sand, I mean. Don’t fight it, don’t try to shake it off or avoid it.
It gets everywhere, it sticks to everything, and that’s just the law of the beach.
Plus, it’s the penance you’re gonna have to pay for looking babelicious in a bikini. ”
I snort at that very unlikely description of myself. “I don’t have a bikini.”
His eyebrows dance again. “Believe me, fixing that is now my top priority.”
I roll my eyes and rest my head back. “Okay, then what else do I have to look out for? Other than sand getting into uncomfortable places.”
“Sunburn.” He taps my knee again, his eyes warm as they stroke over my face. “Pretty skin like yours, we need to slather on the protection, or you’ll be glowing for all the wrong reasons. Especially in your itty-bitty bikini.”
“Noted,” I drawl, amused by his persistence, if nothing else. “Anything else?”
“Horny surfers.” He scowls at the thought. “Unfortunately, they love the beach, too, especially when there are cute omegas in…”
“Itty-bitty bikinis,” I finish for him. “Does that mean you don’t surf?”
“Hell yeah, I surf. My dad’s pack was in the Corps, and for some reason, a lot of military bases are in close proximity to great surfing breaks. The longest stint was Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. A local kahuna taught me everything I know.”
I think wistfully of what that must have been like, growing up where you could hear the waves every day. “Do you think you could teach me?”
He blinks his big blues at me. “You want to learn?”
“I think so. I mean, I should probably see my first wave before I try to ride it. But if you’ll teach me, I’d like to give it a shot.”
His limbs go molten and he slides closer, until our breath mingles in the air. Somehow, even after chugging a twenty-ounce coffee, his breath still smells like chocolate sunshine. “I have many, many things I’d like to teach you, Baggage.”
I cock a brow at him. “We’re back to Baggage, are we?”
“Unless you object, yeah.” His finger trails along my arm, his eyes dancing with mischief. “I kinda like the idea of tossing you over my shoulder and carrying you around with me everywhere I go.”
I smirk, even as something loosens in my chest. I don’t think it’s heart-related, but it definitely makes me breathe easier. “In your dreams, surfer boy.”