Chapter 20 #2
Soon, the meat and vegetables are done and he serves me a plate.
“Try that.” He motions toward the food with his chin.
I take the first bite, and my eyes nearly roll back into my head. The steak is perfect—seared crust, juicy center, butter and garlic melting on my tongue then hitting every tastebud in my mouth.
Holy shit, he can cook.
“Oh my God.” I cut another piece before I’ve finished chewing the first. “Levi.”
He leans against the counter, a slow satisfied smile curved on his lips. It does something dangerous to my pulse.
“Good?” he asks as if he doesn’t know.
“More than good.” I spear a piece of charred zucchini. “You can’t cook like this.”
He laughs. “I can’t?”
“No. It’s unfair. I can’t even cook like this, and I was taught by one of the finest cooks in the South.” Aunt Bess’ food tastes like something straight from heaven. Levi’s food is on par. “Please tell me there’s something you’re bad at.”
He laughs again, then gives me a pensive stare as he thinks. “Ant farming.”
I give him a deadpan stare. “Ant farming, Levi? Have you ever even tried that?”
“No, because I think I’d be bad at it.”
We both laugh now.
“You are so crazy.”
“Right?”
I pout and shake my head at him.
He reaches behind him for another container, peels back the lid, and tips a pile of raw shrimp onto the board. They're already peeled, glossy, and pink-shelled at the tails. He pulls a small bowl of marinade closer, sweet peppers, and a stack of wooden skewers I hadn't noticed before.
Quickly, he gets to work again, threading shrimp and chunks of red pepper and onion onto the skewers. Once he’s done, he brushes each one with marinade before laying them on the grill. The hiss that follows sends a curl of garlic and lemon into the air.
“Where did you learn to cook like this?” I ask, watching the shrimp turn from translucent to opaque under his hands as he flips them.
He shrugs one shoulder. “Picked it up at Yale. You learn fast when you’re thrown in the deep end and want to swim.”
I file that away with everything else I'm not supposed to be cataloging about Levi Vale.
The shrimp is done in minutes.
He serves me again, then he grabs his own plate and piles it with food. He slides onto the stool in front of me and our knees brush under the counter. Levi makes no effort to move his knee away. I do the same.
As I eat, happy childhood memories come back to me and I find myself smiling.
Levi glances over. “What? Still shocked I can cook?”
I shake my head softly. “Yes, of course, I’m still in shock, but I was thinking about cooking with my family.”
“Your aunt?”
A small smile pulls at my mouth. “My mom, actually.”
Sympathy enters his eyes. “Did she cook like this?”
“Yeah. All the time. My parents loved doing barbeques, and camping is a big thing for us.” I smile.
“My parents would always grill shrimp. Aunt Bess is allergic, so I didn’t have it as much when I went to live with her.
It was a small thing. Whenever I have shrimp now, I remember happy moments with my parents.
I find that as time goes by, memories fade, but those happy moments stay with me. ”
“Well, you can have as much shrimp as you want with me. I like seeing you happy.”
The warmth of his words reaches me, lulling me to entertain whatever this thing is between us.
“Eat up. There’s more where that came from.”
I smile and take a big bite of the shrimp. Like the steak, it’s a slice of heaven.
We spend the next hour devouring the food. Not even the crumbs are left by the time we finish. Levi even made another batch of kebabs and steak, which we polished off within minutes.
I’ve never eaten so much in my life—at least not that I can remember.
Just as I’m wondering what we’ll be doing next, Levi presses a button and part of the back deck lowers closer to the water.
My eyes widen as the platform settles just above the surface of the cove.
“Oh my gosh,” I laugh. “This boat is ridiculous.”
A smug grin tugs at his mouth as he grabs a couple of towels from one of the storage benches. Then he looks at me and nods toward the water.
“Alright, Butterfly. We’re going for a swim.”
“Oh no, I can’t swim like that in the sea, and I don’t have any swimming clothes.”
He holds up a finger and smiles. “Yes, you can swim in the sea with me. You’ll be absolutely fine. And I just happen to have something you can wear.”
“You just happen to have a bikini on board?”
“I do.”
My jaw clenches as a stab of envy prickles across my skin. “Did someone leave that behind?” I hate to imagine him with some other woman on board doing things like this.
“My sister.”
Damn. I instantly feel foolish for the moment of jealousy. “Oh. Right, your sister.”
“She always leaves a stash of clothes when she comes to visit me. You’re about the same size.”
“And she won’t mind me borrowing her things?”
“Nope. Most of it’s brand new, and she doesn’t even remember they’re here. Go on, get dressed and join me.” He speaks in the same alluring cadence he used to hook me at the club. “You’ll find whatever you need in the closet below deck.”
I smile and stand, nodding. “Alright, give me two minutes.”
He nods.
I make my way below deck, feeling his heated gaze on me.
I hear a big splash when I reach the stairs and assume he’s jumped in.
I find the closet straightaway when I get below deck, and Levi’s right; most of the clothes are brand new. They still have the tags on them.
I change into a navy bikini and tie my hair up on top of my head into a messy bun. Then I head back out.
I head to the swim deck and look for Levi in the water. The breeze stirs the crystal-clear surface, but I don’t see him.
I wait for a moment, wondering if he dived deeper. I lean over the platform, squinting against the sunlight.
“Levi?”
Nothing answers me except the gentle movement of the cove.
A nervous laugh slips out of me as I scan the water again, expecting him to pop up any second.
He doesn’t.
My stomach squeezes.
“Okay, not funny!” I call out louder. “Levi, where are you?”
Still nothing.
Panic starts creeping in fast, along with images from every terrible ocean survival movie I’ve ever watched. They all flash through my head—shark attacks, people disappearing underwater, tourists getting stranded at sea.
What if he did dive deep and got trapped somehow?
“Oh my God.”
The horrible thought makes me jump straight into the water.
Cold crashes over me as I dive down and look around for him. The water’s not as clear as it appears to be from the surface. It’s blurry in that way water is when you’re trying to see through it without goggles.
My air runs thin, and I resurface, pushing wet hair from my face while I turn frantically in circles.
“Levi!”
My pulse pounds harder as I imagine all sorts of terrible things.
Something must have happened to him. And what about me? What will I do? I can’t sail the boat back.
Never mind that. I need to find him.
The thought barely finishes before strong arms suddenly wrap around my waist from beneath the water.
I scream.
Levi bursts up beside me laughing while I nearly climb him out of pure shock.
“Oh my God!” I smack his shoulder while he laughs harder. “You asshole. What is wrong with you?”
“You should see your face,” he chokes out between laughs.
“My face? Lord, have mercy. Boy, you about gave me a heart attack. I oughta leave you out here.”
That only makes him laugh more. “I love when you go all Southern on me.”
I wade my arms to stay afloat, but he still has me. “You’re lucky that’s all I’m doing. Do you know how worried I was?”
He cocks his head and smiles wide. “Oh, good, my plan worked.”
“Plan? You wanted to worry me on purpose? Who does that?”
He brushes his nose against mine. “Me.”
Something in me softens at the contact. “Why?”
“So you can admit you like me.” He presses a hand to his heart and feigns innocence.
“And you’d be terribly distraught if, God forbid, something ever happened to me.”
A small laugh slips out of me, but it fades quickly when his words settle somewhere deeper than they should.
He stares back at me as though waiting for an answer.
An answer to all of it.
There’s no point lying to myself about my feelings for him, though I never really did. I just tried to restrain them. And if something happened to him, distraught wouldn’t even come close to covering it.
“Yes,” I whisper softly.
“Yes to what, Butterfly?”
“All of it.”
His arm slips around my waist and he pulls me closer. I hook my arms around his neck, and he looks at me as though I’m something precious.
He leans closer, and I think he’s going to kiss me. He doesn’t.
He presses his forehead to mine and closes his eyes as if savoring the moment and the closeness between us.
I watch him, losing myself again.
But this time, instead of holding on to fear, I let go. And I savor him, too.