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“What?”
“I didn’t mean for you to cancel your trip. You should go. It’s senior spring break. You still have the entire week. The guys aren’t going to let you forget it, if you don’t go.”
“Girl, you are crazy.” He slammed the screen on his laptop and pushed the computer away from us. “I guess I’ve been kind of a jerk this morning. Sorry. I shouldn’t have let them get to me like that, but it doesn’t mean I want to change my plans. This is definitely where I want to be.”
His lips tasted like chocolate. I felt my body give in to him as his arms encircled my waist. This felt so much better.
I pushed away. I still needed convincing. “You sure? It’s ok with me; I totally understand.”
“London, shut up and kiss me.”
Beau tapped the button on the garage door opener, and the heavy door retracted, blinding me with sunlight.
“Pick one.” He pointed to the two four-wheelers parked in the five-car garage of the beach house.
“I’ve never ridden one of these before.” I was starting to wonder if Beau was familiar with vehicles that had doors. He had a bike, a motorcycle, and a pair of four-wheelers.
“Really?”
“Really. I’ll probably crash. Can I just ride with you?”
“How about a lesson? By the end of the week, you’ll be riding solo.” He handed a helmet to me.
I placed it over my head. So much for twenty minutes of hair styling. Beau mounted the ATV and I positioned myself behind him. He revved the engine and we rolled out of the garage toward the beach path closest to the house. I noticed a sign posted between the dunes. I read the notice: No vehicles on the beach. Emergency personnel only. Beau clearly ignored the sign as we climbed over the wooden walkway and raced straight toward the ocean.
He made a sharp turn as we reached the shoreline and increased our speed. He maneuvered us along the sand, dodging the waves as they crept closer to the wheels. I clutched his chest with every quick jerk of the vehicle.
Beau wasn’t kidding about how desolate the beach would be this week. We didn’t pass a single person on the beach, only hungry seagulls. Cautiously, I pulled my hands from his chest and raised my hands in the air. I didn’t care if the gulls were laughing at me. The sun on my face, the wind racing past us, and Beau pressed against my chest was all I could feel, and it was amazing.
Besides chocolate, wine, and tickets to Broadway, I was learning the quickest way to my heart was anything Beau-related. That included fishing—something I had never done before spring break.
“So you think we can actually catch something?” I looked doubtingly at the pole Beau had buried in the sand between my feet.
He was busy setting up a line for his fishing pole. I admired how he knew exactly what type of lure to tie on the end of the line. I had no idea what any of those sticky fluorescent gadgets were that he retrieved from his tackle box.
“Movie star, movie star. Don’t you know by now that I’m only going to do something if it’s fun?” He was smiling brightly and I loved how it looked on him.
The waves pounded and the surf rolled to the legs of our chairs. I couldn’t believe how sunny it was. My sunglasses were anchored atop my nose and I had to break out a bottle of sunscreen. Professor Garcia would have been proud of me. We might not be having a Belize-style spring break, but it was sunny, warm, and we were sitting on a deserted beach together.
“What am I supposed to do if I hook something?” I stretched my toes out into the sand and started making a tunnel for the tide to pass through.
“I’ll help you. Don’t worry.” Beau stripped his T-shirt off his toned arms and hung it on the back of his chair. I watched as he reached into the cooler for a beer. “This is pretty awesome, you know that?”
I smiled as I took one of the icy Coronas from him. “Yep. It is.” I shoved a lime into the bottle and took a sip. “So, how long have you been coming to this beach?” I scanned the empty horizon and the rows of vacant houses.
“Not that long really. My mom bought the house when I was in high school. She thought it would help us do more family things.” Beau used air quotes and I heard a tint of sarcasm at the word family.
“So, I take it, it didn’t really work?”
Beau pulled on the rod, testing its place in the sand. His eyes followed the line until it disappeared past the breakers. “No. She has a lot of great ideas, but when all you do is work, you can’t really see the ideas through. She’s never here. It’s usually just my dad and me, or sometimes my friends. It’s a sweet house. I’ve had some cool parties here. I guess that’s the bonus of her never being here—just like this week.”
“I’m sorry, Beau. That’s too bad. I’m sure she doesn’t mean to work all the time.” I thought about my parents and how they were constantly working and devoted to their business.
“It’s no big deal.” Beau quickly changed subjects. He didn’t seem comfortable talking about his mother anymore. “You never told me what your friends are doing over spring break.”
Not wanting to press the issue, I rattled off my roommates’ plans. “Candace and Pearce have some kind of trip planned, of course. Pearce surprised her with tickets to the Bahamas. Nina was going to visit her cousins in Miami and, as she put it, have an ‘epic shopping trip.’ She asked me to go with her, but I didn’t want to disappoint my grandparents.” I giggled.
I did feel bad about lying to my friends, but I loved every minute I had with Beau and it seemed worth a tiny white lie to find this kind of happiness.
