“Oh,no.” Nellie slipped her tan cover-up off, revealing her blush pink tankini with ruffles at the hem. It was the perfect color with her skin and dark hair, and Beck stared up at her for several seconds as if the sun suddenly started shining in his eyes. “You’re swimming.”
Beck grumbled as he let her pull him to his feet, but as he stood, he lunged forward, hooking an arm underneath Nellie’s knees and sweeping her up into a princess carry. She let out a little shriek, but hugged onto his neck. “Let’s go, children,” Beck called back to us, looking into Nellie’s eyes. “If I have to swim, so does everyone else.”
“You’d be bored on the beach all by yourself,” Nellie told him, words punctuated by a soft giggle.
Beck kissed her temple. “You’re right.”
Now I was certain my expression was much like Raelynn’s, mildly disgusted. “It’s weird to see Nell in love,” I murmured to Jamie. Lydia scampered off after them, Raelynn slow at her heels, but Dalton still stood by our blanket, slow to put his slushie down. “I’ve never heard her laugh like that. Like she’s been abducted by aliens.”
Jamie nodded. “Or infected, like a zombie virus.”
“Hopefully she eats your brain first.”
“Probably will.” Jamie dropped the sunscreen onto the blanket and dusted his hands. “She’d starve with yours.”
“Oh, pfft,sure—and she’d choke on yours, stuffed full of all the literarynonsense?—”
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 thinkyouneed 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.
