Page 30 of Don't Think

Ana smirks before looking at Allie from the corner of her eye and quickly returns her attention to James. “I mean,” she drawls with a shrug. “We don’tnormally...but we could.”

As soon as the words leave her lips, I don’t miss the sudden drop in Allie’s expression as she whips around to face her friend. Her complexion changes from its rosy shade of pink to a ghostly white in a matter of seconds.

I turn toward James, nudging his elbow a few times to try and tell him it’s time to leave.

“Hey, man, maybe we should—”

He turns to me, eyes wide with excitement when he cuts me off. “Yeah, mate, you’re right! We should totally meet up and have a few.” He turns back to Ana. “In celebration of America’s birthday and all. I don’t really need an excuse to crack one open, but it would be nice to get out of that bloody hotel,” he says while gesturing behind him to our hotel on the boardwalk.

Allie’s other friend’s face lights up at the suggestion. I mean, she’s been gawking at Gareth since we walked up, so I’m sureshe’sdown for it.

“W…We even have a den downstairs,” she stutters. “We could just hang out and ride out the storm down there.”

Ana turns to Allie, giving her a mischievous grin. “What do you say, Allie? Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Allie’s mouth opens and closes, but no words come out. She closes her eyes, noticeably taking in a deep breath before slowly pushing it out, meanwhile my own breath is caught in my lungs.

I lean in toward James, murmuring, “I don’t think it’s a good idea, man.”

He abruptly turns toward me, shaking his head. “What do you mean, Jax? They don’t look like serial killers. I think we’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, it… uh… sounds like fun.” Allie’s voice cuts in, and my head quickly snaps to her.

Did I just hear her right?

“Let me”—she hikes a thumb over her shoulder—“go grab a pen for the address.”

Okay… Ididhear her right.

I watch her walk away slowly and shoot daggers at James before my feet are already moving toward her.

They seem to keep doing that—making decisions before my brain can even register what’s going on.

What the hell am I supposed to even say?

Before I can think of anything, we already reach her towel, and every thought that comes to my mind flies out as I watch her bend at the waist, fumbling inside her bag. It takes every ounce of willpower I have not to let my eyes wander. Apparently, though, I don’t have enough of it since my eyes rake slowly down her back, down to her perfect, round—

She suddenly straightens, spins around, and holds out a crumpled piece of paper with an address scrawled across it.

“I knew I had a pen in there somewhere,” she says with a nervous laugh.

I take the paper from her hand, reading the address so many times I’m sure I won’t forget it when I inevitably lose it. My eyes land on hers, and I find myself easily lost in them. They look… almost sad.

I start folding the edge of the page slowly, like my hands need a distraction while my brain figures out what to do. I wasgoingto tell her if she didn’t want us to come, to say the word, and I’d forget the address. But those eyes tell me she’s seen a stormor two in her life—figuratively speaking anyway. And maybe she just needs someone to listen to her.

Maybe that’s why she was brought into my life.

“Thank you,” I say with a smile. “What time should we plan for?”

“That’s really up to you guys,” she says with a shrug, then crosses her arms at her chest. “We’ll be there all day.”

“Maybe we should exchange numbers?” I blurt without thinking.

God, Ireallyneed to stop doing that.

I nod my head toward the paper, trying to keep my cool while butterflies rage in my stomach. “That way I can let you know when we’re on our way.”

Smooth, Jax. Smooth.