AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh.” He should have expected that. Brooke was gorgeous. Of course she would be a man magnet. Still, the thought of dating Brooke had become less and less appealing. Right now he was more into…Remi. Weird.
Remi must have noticed his frown because she quickly tacked on, “But don’t worry. She rarely dates any of them for long.”
Nice. So, she not only gets tons of men after her, but she also doesn’t take relationships very seriously. “Commitment issues?” he asked, mostly to himself. He didn’t expect Remi to know.
Remi made a face. She still hadn’t noticed the chocolate on her lip. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and wiped it off with his thumb. She stared at him, her lips parted in surprise. A buzzing current coursed through him as he couldn’t break his gaze from her mouth. On impulse he stuck his thumb in his mouth and licked the chocolate off.
A look he couldn’t quite read came over her face. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” she said, going back to their conversation. “When our parents got divorced, I dealt with it by pulling away from others. Brooke did the opposite. That was when she began serial dating.”
Hmm. That was an interesting insight. “So, if she could deal with that past hurt, she might be able to have a stable relationship?”
Remi shrugged and whacked his leg. “I don’t know. I’m not a therapist.”
“Fine. Don’t help me heal your sister. We could be figuring out how to give her eternal happiness, but whatever. Let’s just play Final Fantasy.”
“Eternal happiness? With you?” She snorted and rolled her eyes.
He scoffed, pretending to be hurt. “What do you mean by that? What’s wrong with me? Am I not good enough for your sister?” He playfully poked her sides until she grabbed his wrists.
They wrestled for a moment before Remi stilled and the mood turned heavy. She gazed at him, a silent question behind her eyes. His pulse jumped. He was so close to Remi he could kiss her if he leaned any closer. And suddenly he wanted to. He slowly backed away. That was a bad idea.
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” she quietly said and let go of him.
Had he killed the lighthearted mood? He’d just been joking around. He didn’t mean to make Remi uncomfortable again. Man, no matter what he did it seemed to be the wrong thing. Now the mood seemed weird. “Just kidding,” he said.
She smiled, but it seemed forced. “I know. I’ll grab my laptop and we can start a quest.”
They played Final Fantasy for a couple of hours. It was so much fun getting back into the game, like they’d done in high school. And listening to Remi get all worked up about how high her experience level had gotten was amusing.
When they’d finally finished playing it was twilight and Colton felt a surge of energy. He wanted to go do something. He didn’t want to say goodnight to Remi just yet. “Hey, want to go stargaze or something? It’s the perfect night for it.” There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
“Yes. Let’s go wading and then we can see how many constellations we can pick out.” Remi closed her laptop.
“Sure.”
“I’m leaving my shoes in here, though. I’ve gotten so much sand in them I don’t think I’ll ever get it all out.”
He grinned at her. “Why don’t you get some sandals?”
“No need. I’m only here until Saturday.” She kicked off her tennis shoes and slipped off her socks, putting one in each shoe like they used to do in grade school. It made him chuckle.
He unlocked the sliding glass door, and they walked out on the deck. “I love the sound of the waves at night.”
Remi wrinkled her nose. “Does it sound different than during the day?”
“Yes.”
She paused, listening. “I don’t think so, dork.”
“Well, it sounds different to me.”
Remi tossed him a devilish grin. “First one to the water wins.” She took off down the steps of the deck, leaving him behind.
“Oh, so not fair. You were ten steps closer.” He hopped over the railing and began running on the sand to catch up to her.
Remi might not have long legs, but she was as fast as lightning, and he lagged behind, but a few yards before the water’s edge he finally overtook her. She squealed and shoved him away, making him stumble. It took a second to recover and she was able to reach the ocean first.
“Cheater,” he called as his footsteps splashed in the receding water. It was cold, but the sand was still warm from the day. The sky was a deep orange color, quickly fading into a dark blue.
