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I’m so confused. A surprise? At six in the morning? “Okay…”
“I’m just as baffled as you are,” Aimee says with a yawn and a shrug. “Should I tell him to come back at a decent hour?”
“No, I’ll talk to him.” I pull myself out of bed. “God, I’m so sorry he woke you up.”
As I hurry toward the front door, I run my hands over my hair, smoothing it down as much as I can. When I pull open the door, I find Theo standing on our front step in a hoodie and shorts.
“Hey,” he says, breaking into a smile that is ridiculously bright for this early in the morning.
My heart thumps at the sight of him. “Hi, Theo. What are you doing here?”
“Taking you on a surprise date. I know it’s early. But it will be worth it. I promise. What do you say?”
I’m not a morning person. Sometimes I’ll be up until two a.m. coding—when I get in the groove, it’s really hard to stop—but you’llneverfind me getting up early for anything. And yet. Theo’s invitation feels too intriguing to turn down.
“I’ll need some time to get ready,” I tell him.
“Five minutes?” he asks hopefully.
“It might be closer to ten. But I’ll try to be fast.”
While Theo waits, I rush back to my room to grab some clothes. On my way to the bathroom, Aimee intercepts me to get the lowdown. When I fill her in, she expresses fascination, yawns, then wishes me a good time.
I duck into the bathroom, get ready as quickly as possible, and hurry back to Theo. As I step outside, I’m struck by how wonderfully cool and softly fragrant the early morning air is. It’s a lovely feeling that I don’t ever experience.
“How did you sleep?” Theo asks as he leads me away from the beach house.
“Good,” I say. Teasingly, I add, “I was sleeping like a baby until someguywoke me up.”
Theo’s face is serious as he looks over at me. “What? Who?”
“I’m talking about you, silly.”
“Oh.” Theo laughs. “Right. Yeah. Obviously.”
“What about you? How did you sleep?” I ask, stifling a yawn.
“Good.” He slows as we approach a street. There isn’t any traffic, but we wait for the pedestrian light anyway. “I had a dream about you.”
“Oh?” I ask, my heart tripping.
“Yeah. We were hanging out on the beach and this huge shark swam up out of the water and started to chase us. Like, it hadshark legs. And it almost got to you, but then I wrestled him to the ground and scared him back into the ocean.”
I laugh. “Wow.”
“And then after the shark was gone, I tried to kiss you, but I woke up before I could.”
There goes my heart again. “That’s disappointing.”
“Tell me about it.” Theo smiles at me, and my eyes drop to his lips.Those lips. Suddenly everything around us fades away and all I can focus on is how badly I want him to kiss me.
But then the crosswalk light flips towalk, and Theo’s hand threads through mine as he pulls me with him across the street.
It quickly becomes obvious that he’s taking me to the beach. And it’s not hard to figure out why. The first subtle rays of the sunrise are beginning to peek up over the horizon, promising a gorgeous spectacle.
My chest fills with tenderness as Theo leads me over to one of the lifeguard towers. There’s a ladder attached to one side, and when we reach it, Theo supportively holds onto the side of it for me even though it’s firmly attached to the structure.
I climb up and walk around the deck to the side that’s facing the ocean. Theo is right behind me, and when he sits down on the edge of the platform, I get settled beside him, so close that we’re almost touching.
