Chapter 4
Randi
Water splashed nearby as a group of teenagers cannonballed into a pool.
Randi nudged Chance’s arm. “Hey. Earth to Chance.”
She watched as he blinked and felt like she had dragged him violently back into the Florida sun.
“Sorry,” he said. “Lost in thought.”
“Are you okay?”
His reaction was fierce and unexpected. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Whoa, just asking.”
He let out a breath and gave his head a shake. “Sorry. That was rude.”
She studied him for a second but didn’t push. There was something vulnerable in his demeanor all of a sudden and she didn’t want to feel like she was exploiting that. Instead, she gestured with her head.
“Lazy river?” Randi asked and pointed toward a shaded path lined with palm trees.
Chance followed her gaze as families floated peacefully past in bright inner tubes and drifted beneath waterfalls and faux rock tunnels.
“Sounds good, as long as there are no rapids,” he teased.
She rolled her eyes. “You are such a wuss. A few rapids wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“As long as you promise not to let me down,” he added. The corner of his mouth lifted just enough to make her wonder if that was the closest he got to flirting.
“Oh please,” Randi shot back. She was already headed toward the stack of inner tubes.
Her voice was light but her pulse was doing something annoyingly not light at all.
“If anyone’s in danger here, it’s me, because I’m about to be stuck floating next to a guy who thinks mild current equals imminent death. ”
He laughed at that. Actually laughed, not the polite, distracted version he’d done earlier, and something in her chest eased as she grabbed two tubes and handed one to him.
Their fingers brushed for half a second too long, and she had to catch herself from gasping as an electric shock jolted through her body
What is going on with me? She hurried toward the water, suddenly needing something to cool her off.
They slipped into the lazy river with a soft splash, and the chilly water wrapped around her legs before she settled into the tube. She leaned back as the current carried them forward, and tried to ignore her desire to share Chance’s inner tube, on his lap.
She splashed water on her face and slowed her breathing as the world softened into the hush of moving water and distant chatter.
For a minute, neither of them said anything, and Randi told herself she was fine with that.
It didn’t mean awkwardness, and it gave her inner hussy a chance to calm down.
She found herself glancing over at him anyway, at the way his head tipped back slightly and his eyes scanned the artificial sky of palm fronds and sun, like he was trying to memorize it or maybe escape into it.
“So,” she said finally and nudged her tube lightly against his, “are you gonna tell me what was going on in that head of yours, or are you one of those mysterious, brooding types who makes people guess?”
Chance turned his head toward her. His expression shifted and something guarded slipped into place even as his voice stayed easy. “Maybe I like keeping people guessing.”
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed, unconvinced, and dragged her fingers through the water as they drifted beneath a misting waterfall. Droplets caught in her hair and cooled her skin. “That’s usually code for not wanting to answer questions.”
“Or,” he countered, “it’s code for I really don’t have a good answer.”
She tilted her head and studied him again, because there it was. That flicker of almost-honesty and it made her curious in a way she hadn’t expected, in a way that felt less like polite interest and more like… something she probably shouldn’t name yet.
“Well,” she said and let her tone soften just a little, “lucky for you, I’m great at awkward conversations, so we can just fill the silence with me talking about myself instead.”
“That sounds dangerous,” he said.
“It is,” she agreed with a grin. “I work in marketing for TimeOff Corporation, which means I spend most of my days convincing people that their lives will be magically better if they book a vacation package, even though I personally have not had a real vacation in, oh…” she paused and pretended to count on her fingers, “an embarrassing amount of time.”
Chance’s brows lifted slightly. “TimeOff, huh.”
“Don’t sound so impressed,” she said, though she caught the shift in his tone immediately, the way it sharpened just a fraction. “It’s mostly emails and marketing campaign meetings and trying to make relaxation sound like a personality trait.”
“And you’re good at it?” he asked.
“I mean,” she shrugged as her tube bumped his again as the current curved them around a bend, “I’m still learning but I’ve run a couple marketing campaigns myself, so either I’m good at it or everyone’s just really desperate for employees.”
“Maybe both,” he said quietly.
She glanced at him again and caught that same faraway look from earlier, and this time she didn’t let it pass so easily.
“Okay,” she said, pointing at him with a wet finger, “your turn. What do you do at TimeOff?”
There was a beat, just long enough to confirm what she already suspected, and then he leaned his head back again, staring up at the sky like the answer might be written there.
“I work there,” he said.
Randi blinked. “Wow. Incredible. So specific. Truly illuminating.”
He huffed out a laugh. “I’m serious.”
“So am I,” she shot back. “That is not an answer. That is the outline of an answer.”
He turned toward her again, and there was something almost apologetic in his eyes now, mixed with that same frustrating wall she kept running into.
“It’s… complicated,” he said.
“Oh, I love complicated,” she replied immediately. “Complicated is my favorite. Complicated means there’s a story.”
“Or it means there are things I can’t really get into,” he said, his tone still gentle but firmer now.
She held his gaze and searched for cracks or hints, anything that might explain why a simple question felt like it had weight behind it, and she found herself oddly aware of how much she wanted him to just… trust her with it.
But she also felt the hesitation in him, the way he seemed to brace for pressure that she hadn’t actually applied yet, and the last thing she wanted was to be the reason he pulled away completely.
So she exhaled, letting the moment loosen instead of tighten.
“Okay,” she said and lifted her hands in surrender, but with enough flair that she splashed water over both of them. “Mystery job. I’ll allow it. For now.”
“For now?” he echoed.
“For now,” she repeated and a small smile tugged at her lips. “But just so you know, I am very good at figuring people out.”
“That sounds like a threat.”
“It’s a promise,” she said lightly.
They drifted into a shaded tunnel then and the temperature dropped just enough to raise goosebumps along her arms. The sounds of the outside world dimmed as the water carried them forward in a slow, echoing hush, and for a moment it felt like they were suspended somewhere separate, somewhere quieter, where the space between questions and answers stretched a little wider.
“You’re not what I expected,” Chance said suddenly.
Randi blinked at him in the dim light. “Wow, bold of you to assume I care what you expected.”
He smiled at that, softer this time. “You don’t seem like someone who just… lets things go.”
She considered that and tilted her head back against the tube as they emerged from the tunnel into sunlight again.
“I don’t,” she admitted. “Usually.”
“But you’re letting this go,” he said.
“For now,” she echoed again and glanced at him. She stared longer than what was probably appropriate, because there it was again. That pull, that curiosity, that spark she hadn’t planned on feeling today, especially not with someone who clearly had layers he wasn’t ready to peel back.
And maybe she should’ve been more cautious, maybe she should’ve recognized the warning signs in his evasiveness, in the way his answers curved instead of landed, but instead she found herself smiling.
“Don’t get used to it,” she added, her voice teasing but softer now. “I’m patient, not disinterested.”
“I didn’t think you were,” he said, and there was something in the way he said it, something warm and almost relieved, that made her stomach flip in a way she definitely wasn’t prepared to unpack.
So she didn’t.
She leaned back, let the sun warm her face, let the water carry them side by side, and told herself that whatever he was hiding could wait because for now, this, whatever this was beginning to be, felt just a little too good to push too hard.