CHAPTER 7 #3
Jamie elbowed me before I could finish. “Last one to the water has to buy the food from Hoppin’ Dawgs. I’ll even give you a five-second head-start.”
“Please.” I played it cool as I rolled my neck from side to side. “I think you need the handicap. When was the last time you ran, James Brighton?”
“Fine, then. We’ll go at the same time.”
I snatched his arm, filled with instant regret as I glanced at his mega-long legs. “Give me five seconds.”
Jamie grinned widely enough that the indent formed in his cheek. Again, familiar in an almost uncanny way. He swiped his glasses off his nose and tossed them onto the blanket. “Ready,” he began. “Set.”
In that second, my gaze slipped past him to where Dalton still watched us. He’d put his slushie down, sinking it into the sand so it wouldn’t topple over, and now stood. I almost offered him to join in our race, feeling bad he looked so left out, but I didn’t have the chance.
“Go!” Jamie finished, and without a second thought, I shot forward.
I had to bob and weave around the blankets and sandcastles, and nearly stepped on a woman’s outstretched leg as I sprinted.
I threw her a quick “sorry!” and kept going, feet twisting in the loose sand.
I felt bad for Jamie, who was going to have to run through this course half blind without his glasses.
Even though I knew I’d regret it, I threw a glance over my shoulder.
Two, I saw Jamie’s lips mouth. One. And then he broke into a run.
A run with unusually good form.
A thrill raced through me, and with a little yelp, I faced forward, colliding with an elderly man holding an open beer can.
It fell out of his hands onto the ground—which seemed like deserved karma, because alcohol wasn’t allowed at the bay.
He started shouting, but I dodged around him, leaving him yelling about selfish teenagers in my wake.
The sand underneath my feet became firmer. I was twenty feet from the water. Ten. Five.
I jumped the last step, ready to plant my toes in the water, when two arms suddenly wrapped around my waist mid-air and lifted, yanking me back.
“Not fair!” I all but shrieked, trying to bat at Jamie’s arms, but he held me firm. “Let me go, you cheater!”
Jamie’s laughter vibrated against my back, heat radiating from his bare chest as he stepped onto the shoreline. “I already won,” he mused, breathless with amusement as he continued into the water. Water lapped at his ankles, then, quickly, at his calves. “So stop squirming, or I’ll drop you.”
“That’s the point, you little jerk!” I wondered if Dalton was right behind us, or if he’d come at a slower pace. I couldn’t turn my head far enough to see. “Jamie—”
Jamie got out far enough into the bay to toss me in, and though the bottom was easily within reach, my feet slipped on the sludgy sand below, and I ended up fully going under. I didn’t even have time to clamp my nose shut. When I popped back up, sputtering, I glared at the grinning loser.
I lunged forward, snatching Jamie’s hand and yanking him as hard as I could.
Just as mine had, Jamie’s feet went out from underneath him, and he crashed into me, both of us falling back under the water.
The hand that I grabbed shot out, digging into the loose sand below to keep his weight from crushing me, but his other hand slid automatically to my waist, as if steadying himself against me.
“Take that, jerk,” I told him, blinking against the saltwater that ran into my eyes.
Jamie’s brown hair streamed down his face, and, strangely enough, he was still grinning. So widely that the indent formed in his cheek again, his face inches from mine.
Water dripped from his long lashes. “Daze,” he murmured, his five fingers pressing into my waist more firmly. Something no one would’ve been able to see, since it was underwater. “You act like I’m not exactly where I want to be.”
The ocean water lapped at my shoulders, but it did nothing to cool my hot skin.
In that instant, I became acutely aware of how close we were—close enough to feel the heat rolling off him, close enough that every breath seemed shared.
It was strange to look at him without his glasses—half familiar, half not.
You act like I’m not exactly where I want to be.
The words drowned me like the salty bay water, and if I’d been able to draw in a breath, I would’ve choked.
Jamie leaned in even closer, and I froze. The memory of his lips against my throat filled my mind, and even the cool of the bay felt scalding hot against my skin. No way he was about to do it again. No way, no way, no—
“I take it back,” Jamie whispered in my ear.
I didn’t understand why I was so breathless, or why the moment went from irritating to weird. “Take… what back?”
“That you were a bad actress.” The last word was silent as his lips formed it, and I had to drop my gaze to watch him. A bead of water dripped off his nose and onto his top lip, slipping down and dissolving. “You’re doing great.”
Actress. Acting. His hand on my hip, acting.
His words, acting. The strangeness in his eyes—all acting.
He’d flipped the Romance Switch. For a moment, the noise around us faded—the splashes, the voices, the summer air—and all I could think about was how easy it felt to stay right where I was, even though a seashell was totally slicing into my backside.
Still, I swallowed hard. “Told you.”
Jamie only smiled wider, making it harder to look away from his mouth.
“Come on, guys.” Dalton stomped past us, and the water sloshing jerked my attention back to the present. “Before we lose which heads are theirs.”
I watched him as he passed, biting the corner of my lip. His voice had been firm—annoyed. Recognizable from the years I’d known him. He didn’t look back at us as he stomped, and then swam, further into the bay.
A part of me felt a little alarmed at his mood, at the thought that I might’ve hurt his feelings—the other part of me, still dizzy from the look in Jamie’s eye, was too flustered to care enough to do something about it.
Using the edge of his finger, Jamie caught a droplet of water that’d been sliding along my chin. “Shall we?”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over the strangeness of it all—Jamie pretending to flirt with me and being so good at it. Even down to the way he looked at me, as if he was fighting some sort of internal pull. I couldn’t believe I’d ever thought he couldn’t be heart-fluttering.
And, even weirder, I couldn’t believe I thought he was. “I guess we shall.”