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“Oh, I will.”
Sighing heavily, I sink back against my pillows and cradle my phone against my chest. I can hear my heartbeat, feel the lingering aftershocks of excitement moving through my veins.
I don’t know how this can possibly work with me living here, but for now, I’m not going to worry about it. For now, I’m just going to enjoy texting a great guy who seems to like me, and hope with all my heart that I’ll be able to keep Landon from ruining it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Parker
I wake up to a picture of the sun rising over the ocean—not out my window. I just missed it there. But Javi took a picture of it. He must have been on the beach early this morning, so he sent me the beautiful picture without a single word.
Peace fills me at the sight of it. I don’t know if it’s the picture so much as the message. The fact that he was thinking of me practically as soon as his eyes opened.
I was thinking of him until I went to sleep. I didn’t message him because I wasn’t sure of the dating rules. I thought about googling them, but I know it won’t be that simple. I don’t care about following rules for the sake of following rules, but rules usually exist for a reason. In this case, I imagine any particular rule I might follow would have more to do with not coming on too strong too fast and scaring him off. After all, I don’t know him well yet, so I don’t know how he operates.
“That’s so pretty. Thanks for sharing,” I text as soon as I wake up.
I lie there with my phone on my chest for a few minutes before he responds. “You finally wake up, bookworm?”
My stupid, impossible to tame smile immediately emerges. “Yeah, I know, I’m such a slacker. Didn’t even start my day on the beach.”
“Lame.”
“Do you live by the beach?”
“Yeah, pretty close. Sometimes I like to come down here for a morning run.”
“Oooh. I only run if something is chasing me.”
“Noted,” he replies with a wink. “You get chased often?”
More often than you’d expect.
Along with that sobering thought of my own evil stepbrother, I get an actual wake-up call. My phone alarm goes off. I silence it quickly, but that means it’s time to start getting ready for another day of school.
I put my phone down and stretch, then, reluctantly, pull myself from the comfy sanctuary of bed.
“I don’t want to wake up,” I text Javi. “Are you a morning person?”
“Nah, I just don’t sleep much. I stay up late, too.”
“That’s not healthy.”
“The run makes up for it,” he teases.
I laugh, walking into my bathroom. “No, it does not.”
My phone lights up again when I’m brushing my teeth. “You know, I sent you a picture of my view…”
“Mine’s nothing to get excited about,” I assure him. “I’m brushing my teeth.”
“Maybe I’m really into teeth.”
I laugh again, then decide what the hell. I am certain whatever introductory dating rules exist, this violates each and every one of them, but I aim my phone at the mirror and take the least sexy picture of myself ever: me literally brushing my teeth. I shake my head at the dumb picture, but I push send before I can overthink it.
“Sexy, right?” I joke.
“I can think of a few other things I’d like to put in that mouth.”
