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“You have more advantages than I do. I was just using all the resources I could.” She laughed as she said it, like she knew how ridiculous it sounded.
“Pushing me out of the way is ‘using your resources?’ Sheesh, egghead, that’s a stretch even for you.” He reached over and mussed up her hair.
“Hey.” She scooped up a handful of water and flung it on him, but she was laughing and not trying very hard so only a couple of drops hit him.
“You want to have a water fight?” He grabbed her wrist and took several steps toward the ocean, which was gathering into another wave, his toes squishing into the wet sand.
“I think we already did that back at the fountain,” Remi said, squirming to get away from him.
“Yes. Although I’m pretty sure I got the bad end of that stick as well.”
“Isn’t it the short end of the stick?”
“Whatever.” The wave grew and then rushed at them. Remi squealed and hugged him, both arms around his neck, jumping up and clinging to him right before the water hit. He couldn’t stop laughing as the water crashed into his knees, soaking into the bottom of his shorts.
“What was that?” he said once he could catch his breath. Remi was still stuck to him like a koala on a tree branch.
“I was trying not to get wet.”
“Did it work?”
“Yes. I’m completely dry.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight. “I can fix that,” he said as he walked toward the ocean.
“What are you doing? Put me down!” She wiggled, but he was too invested to let her off the hook.
The sand grew slippery, and he almost tripped on a strand of seaweed, but he recovered and kept going. “I’m winning the water fight.” He watched another wave gather.
Remi turned toward the water. “Oh, no. You’re not going to go any farther, are you?”
He kept walking. They were both going to get soaked, but he no longer cared. He was committed.
“Colton? Do you see how big that wave is getting?”
He chuckled. “I do.”
“You’re insane.” She buried her face in his shoulder and gripped him tight. The wave hit, enveloping them both in water and lifting him off his feet, but he held onto Remi and found his footing again as the force of it eased off. Remi’s laughter echoed off the villas as she wiped her face with her hand. “I can’t believe you managed to stay upright.”
Barely. But he didn’t want to tell her that. “I’m just manly like that.”
“Yeah, right. Come on, another wave is coming. Let’s run to the beach,” she said as she hopped down from him. He immediately felt the loss of her from his arms. He probably shouldn’t have let her cling to him like that, but it had felt nice.
She ran and he tried to catch up to her, but the wet sea floor was too slippery. He slid around on the goopy mess as the next wave came, hitting the backs of his calves.
Remi laughed as she tried to jump the wave but missed and got hit in the shins. Her eyes shone in the dim light still left from the setting sun, her hair wet strings around her face. She was beautiful. It hit him like the wave that had crashed into his legs. He’d never noticed before. Why was he just now noticing that?
They goofed around in the water until it was pitch black, and the only lights were coming from the resort. Colton forgot his resolve to remain strictly friends and slipped his hand into hers as they picked a spot to lay down and gaze at the stars. She looked up at him with a silent question in her eyes but didn’t say anything, which was good because he didn’t know what he would say. He wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore. Luckily, it wasn’t totally out of character for him to be physical with her, so he pretended it wasn’t any big deal, even though his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest.
They found a soft spot on the ground to sit. Remi plopped down on the sand and stretched her legs. “I’m going to look like a sugar doughnut when I get up.”
“That’s the fun of the beach,” he said as he lay back beside her.
“You picked a great spot.” She folded her hands over her stomach. “It’s dark enough here I can even see the milky way.”
“It’s amazing how the night sky looks when you’re not in the city. There are so many stars, it’s unbelievable.”
They sat in silence for a few moments as the wonder of the night filled Colton with a sense of awe. But the longer they lay there, the more his thoughts turned to what Remi had said yesterday about Tavon, and how she’d run from her own wedding.
