AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Grabbing my sunscreen, I rub it on my exposed arms and legs for the third time. My nerves worry into a knot in the pit of my stomach as I select a giant, sun hat from my shelf beside my vanity and plop it on my head, then return my attention to the mirror.
I don’t think it’s enough.
“Are you sure you want to go now? You’re not too tired from last night? Maybe a nap first or a movie?”
“Stop stalling.” Vivian comes up and grabs both my shoulders, looking me straight in the eyes. “We’re going to the beach.”
Huffing, I look down at my bare arms.I should tell her.
“Maybe a sweater.” I head to my closet, but Vivian reaches for me again.
“Oh, no you don’t. I worked too damn hard to get you to look like a girl for you to hide it all.”
“It’s . . . It’s just a little chilly out.”
“It’s almost seventy out. You’ll be fine. The sun will warm you up. Stop trying to hide and show the world you.” Still holding my hand, she practically drags me out of my room.
My stomach turns, the tiny knot morphing into a world-record-sized ball of ick.“I . . . I think it might rain. I should grab my umbrella and sweater, just to be safe.” I force a smile. It’s pathetic.
Just tell her.
Instead, my feet stall beside the back door.I grab my sunglasses, tugging them on before she can see my worry.
“Seriously, Asie, there’s not a single cloud in the sky,” Vivian stops and huffs, her hands on her hips as she takes in my add-ons to her attempt of new, girly me, “why are you so afraid to show some skin?”
I peer out the window toward the beach. “Don’t you think it's a little too sunny out there?”I ask before my filter kicks in.
“For real?” She shakes her head, her curled, blond hair swaying in perfect ringlets. “You’re not a vampire. A little sun could do you some good.” Slipping on a pair of sandals, she pauses with her hand on the doorknob. “Just try to be nice. If you’re rude to every hot guy who hits on you, it kinda defeats all my hard work.”
“Whatever,” I roll my eyes, following her out into the blinding sunlight, “that guy was a douche.”
“He was just flirting.”
“If that’s what flirting looks like, count me out.”
Vivian laughs, the sound almost like music as she bounces down the steps to the backyard. Sucking in a deep breath, I follow after her. I make it all of two steps before Viv’s laughter is replaced with the obnoxious clatter of lumber crashing.
I glance across my white, picket fence into the new neighbor’s yard in time to see someone tossing two-by-fours out of the back of a pickup truck and onto a pile in the middle of their driveway. He glances up, wiping his messy, blond hair off his forehead with the back of his gloved hand. Our eyes lock.
No. Not someone, the rude asshole from last night.
I stumble, nearly falling off the last step before Vivian catches me. “You’re fucking kidding me.” The words tumble from my mouth before I can stop them, my hands balling into fists.
The asshole from the bar is my new neighbor.
How did I not recognize him before? It’s not like I didn’t spy on him from my window yesterday morning for a solid couple of minutes. Well, yesterday evening. But, he had his back toward me. I never really saw his face. Not all of it. And to be honest, I was paying more attention to those broad shoulders, and his thin waist, and his jeans than his face.Definitely those jeans. Jeans that fit him exactly like the ones he’s wearing right now.
Forgetting about the load of wood, he strolls around his truck, leaning up against the side. I clench my jaw as he blatantly checks me out, again. A sly smile spreads across his lips.
I want to slap it off.
“Well, well, well,” he sings in that same annoying, gruff voice from last night, “you ladies come to take me up on my offer?”
“Not even in your dreams.”
“Nah,” he scratches his chin, eyeing me up and down with a look that makes me wonder if my tiny sundress is see-through, “I bet you’ve just never experienced how amazing a threesome can be.”
“And I don’t need to know.”
