Nine
So far so good. Somehow I’d arranged it so Landon and I were on opposite sides of the group for the rest of the day. We had lunch at this mom-and-pop bistro that cooked up some of the best seafood around. The hostess led us to a large booth where the benches were long enough to seat four across. Ken and Annie slid in one side, and Noah, Claire, and Landon sat on the other. I was the last one standing. I could either squeeze next to Landon or plop my backside on the bench the Abrams occupied.
My treacherous hormones had begged to snuggle down next to Landon. “He smells so good,” they said. “It’s what’s expected,” they argued. “You know you want to,” they taunted.
I’d smiled at Annie as I lowered myself beside her.
And that wasn’t the only time I managed to orchestrate the group like little chess pieces. Later on we’d walked down to the shore at low tide. Craggy rocks clustered to provide little oases for marine animals to wait out the time when the sun threatened to dry them out. The couples started pairing off again, Landon drifting over to me as Noah slung an arm around Claire’s waist.
I panicked and jogged up to my sister and her boyfriend, leaving Landon behind in my wake.
“You guys can’t keep going off two by two like you’re animals ready to enter Noah’s ark,” I hissed through my teeth as I glanced back over my shoulder. Landon had slipped his hands in his jean pockets, his face pointing toward the horizon. Was it my imagination or did his shoulders seem to slump forward a bit? His head turned, and his gaze locked on to mine.
Shoot. I’d been caught staring.
His brows dipped, a look of confusion washing over his face. I forced my lips to curve at the ends, trying for a nonchalant air before whipping back around.
Claire’s gaze was glued to Landon, a strange tick making her cheek twitch.
“Don’t look at him!” I whispered harshly. Oh good grief. I sounded like one of those teeny-boppers in my class who found a co-ed attractive, alerted the friend next to her, and then smacked said friend in the arm when friend craned her neck to get a look at the eye candy…and got caught looking.
Even before Claire could turn to look my way, I knew I’d made a mortal mistake. She might as well have been a fish, and I might as well have just sprayed myself in shrimp scent and danced around like the most delicious bait ever. In point two seconds, when her eyes met mine, I’d be caught hook, line, and sinker.
I dashed forward across the rocks, stopping at a shallow pool and crouching down. Maybe they’d buy that I had an inordinate amount of interest in the tiny crab side walking its way around a closed barnacle. Or the green sea anemone whose tentacles (were they tentacles? Arms? Fingers? You know what I mean, don’t you?) waved gently with the movement of the water.
How could I have let this happen? It was supposed to be a ruse. A ploy. A gambit. A subterfuge. A machination.
You can stop with the synonyms now, Ashleigh.
Seriously though. Nothing about this trip was supposed to be real. Why, then, did I find myself developing genuine feelings for Landon? Nothing good could come of them. Nothing! Instead, they’d only cause calamity. Disaster. Catastrophe. Affliction. Misfortune.
Stop. Now.
“You like him,” Claire said as she shifted to crouch beside me. Funny, the words didn’t sound like an accusation coming from her.
Denial would be futile, so instead, I reiterated my earlier claim. “You and Noah have to stop wandering off together. I need you to be my buffer.”
The sun faded overhead, casting a shadow over my body. I glanced up in a squint, nearly rolling my eyes as Noah lowered his frame on my other side.
Great.
“What are we pretending to study down here?”
“Look at that tiny fish. Isn’t he cute?” Claire said in a normal voice, followed by, “Ashleigh likes Landon,” in a whisper.
“Et tu, Brute?”
She squeezed my arm. “Oh, stop being melodramatic. I think it’s great.”
“How can it be great? I dragged the guy—a perfect stranger!—into an intricate web of deceit and then nearly killed him. On the first day! Not to mention—”
“Find something interesting here?” Landon’s baritone cut off my frenzied whisper in a wave of humiliation.
He hadn’t overheard me again, had he?
“Nope, not here.” I bolted up, looking around so as not to get caught in his hypnotic green eyes. “I think I’ll go check that pool over there.”
I could feel three sets of eyes on my back as I scurried over the damp rocks.
