“Ow,” I said.
He smiled.
My stomach fluttered uncontrollably. “Thanks.”
“Might want to wash that off,” he said, motioning toward it. There was a small bead of blood welling in the center.
I hopped down off the counter and washed my hands, ignoring the sting. When I was done, I glanced in the mirror. My hair was almost completely dry, and despite being outside on the windy beach, it wasn’t a knotted mess.
Instead, it waved around my head naturally tousled and beach ready. A few of the ends were still flipping out, but it appeared they were styled to do just that. My cheeks were flushed and Gavin was the reason.
My eyes met his in the mirror. We stared at each other for one long, charged second. Suddenly, this bathroom seemed too small. The sparks between us were so tangible it felt as if we couldn’t all fit in this space. Overwhelming energy burst around us, and a fine tremor started in my hands.
“I’m going to go,” he said, breaking our eye contact first.
I nodded without moving. He left without delay, almost like he was running and couldn’t get out fast enough.
I didn’t bother to chase him down.
I was too shocked to move.
10
Talie
Two days later, I got up with the sunrise to walk along the sand. All the best seashells could be found early, as the tide was just going out.
I was hoping to find a shark tooth. Not the ones that everybody finds, the small black ones with the sharp end and jagged side. Those seemed like a dime a dozen. I wanted to find a truly remarkable one. As big as my palm, something that showed me just how big the world out there was.
Before heading outside, I dressed in a navy-blue tankini with a plunging neckline (Claire said if I refused to wear a bikini, the tankini had to be sexy) with turquoise trim. I added a thin, white linen cover-up dress with a rope tie around the middle and grabbed a large-brimmed turquoise hat to keep the sun off my face.
Salty and I had settled in a hate-hate relationship that included me feeding him and him showing me his displeasure before running off to hide for most the day. The last thing I did was put on a pot of coffee to brew so the rich, dark wake-me-up in a cup was ready when I got back.
Outside, the sun was low in the sky, white, puffy clouds were tinted pink, and overhead the sky was already a brilliant blue. The sound of ocean waves crashing against the shore was like music to my ears. It was so loud it drowned out most of my thoughts. And the ones that were most persistent, the thoughts that threatened to bring down my mood? I let the breeze carry them behind me to be lost out to sea.
I wandered down the beach, peeking up at Gavin’s beach house as I walked past. It was a blue house with white shutters. It looked very similar to Aunt Ruth’s, but it appeared bigger. Propped against the back sliders was a large surfboard. An image of him wet and glistening atop a board in the center of the deep sea made my stomach flip over.
The guy was an ass, but damn he was sexy. He made my pulse race in ways I’d never experienced. And it was hard not to replay the splinter scene over and over again in my head. How one moment he could be acting like a first-class mule and the next touch me with such gentleness was a puzzle. If I wasn’t careful, he’d give me a serious case of whiplash.
Not that I was going to see him again. The way he’d left so abruptly the other day and then not resurfaced from inside his house since was proof of that.
Not that I was looking out the window or watching his house from my deck or anything.
That would just be stalker-ish.
I turned my attention back to the task at hand: splashing my feet in the surf, clearing my head, and searching for shells and shark teeth. The last thing I needed to think about was some guy. That would only just get me hurt again.
Claire said Blake called looking for me the day before. She told him I wasn’t home and she’d give me the message when I got back. He was going to be waiting a while before I got back. I snickered to myself as I picked up a beautiful white shell.
Joanna tried to call me once as well, but I let the call go to voicemail. I walked into a long stretch of shells and I forgot everything except the feeling of the sand between my toes and the wind in my hair.
I didn’t find the shark tooth I was hoping for, but I found many other beautiful shells, so many that I had to use the end of my dress as a makeshift bucket to hold them.
The sun was much higher in the sky when I wandered back toward the beach house. The wind seemed to be stronger than earlier and the tide wasn’t as low as before.
I was wading through the water when my toe struck something in the surf. The water rushed out, making me feel like it was going to tug me into its depths as it went, and I saw the rounded top of a conch shell. It looked fully intact, and excitement skittered through me.
I released the hold I had on my hat and bent to retrieve it just as a strong gust of wind whipped by, lifting the hat up off my head and sending it backward.
I let it go, instead keeping my grip on the shell as a wave crashed practically on top of me and pushed me over. I shrieked and fell sideways, taking in a mouthful of salty water. I sputtered and pushed myself up, grappling for the ends of my dress that held all my treasures.
I managed to catch most, only losing a few. Dripping wet and tasting nothing but salt, I rushed ashore before another wave could push me over.
I wasn’t watching where I was running and I hit a solid wall and bounced back. Before I could fall again, two hands reached out to steady me. “Most people take off their clothes to take a swim,” Gavin quipped.
Still holding the ends of my dress with one hand, I pushed the saturated ends of my hair away from my face. “Ha-ha.”
“You lose something?” He held up my hat.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked and took the hat, dumping all of my shells into it, and then let my cover-up fall back into place.
“I live here.” He spread his arms, gesturing to the beach. The action drew all of my attention to his body. I didn’t think he ever wore a shirt. Once again, he was wearing dangerously low-slung board shorts. The fabric was wet from the water and the added weight dragged them down until I could see the area leading toward his most manly place and how the skin there wasn’t as tan as the rest of him. There was no trail of hair like Blake had. Gavin was completely hairless and smooth. I bit my lip, wondering if he was as cleanly groomed beneath his shorts as he was everywhere else.
“Talie?” I heard him say, but his voice was far away. My attention was seriously diverted to other places. His abs were lean and cut. It was definitely obvious he spent time surfing because his body showed off the work. His skin was damp and glistened slightly beneath the early morning sun.