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I hate that I love how delicious he smells.
“And I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.” He bends, placing his face in front of mine when I shift my gaze.
“Don’t you know how fragile the male ego is?” he asks, making my lips twitch. “Can’t even handle a little bit of teasing.”
Slowly, I turn back to face him. “It’s tragic, truly.”
The satisfied smile stretching his mouth eases my anger.
Wrapping my arms over my middle, I add, “You know, I think I’m honestly more upset because…”
I can’t even get myself to admit it.
He reaches for my shoes, still clutched in my hand, brushing his fingertips against mine. The Gucci symbol reflects the moon when he turns them over.
“Because you’re right,” I continue. “I’m a spoiled girl who lives a life of luxury with parents who pay for anything and everything I could ever want.” A knot of pressure builds behind my eyes. “Mom was determined to marry up, and then Henry happened. Trust me, it’s easier to spare you the details.”
In the distance, the boardwalk shines brightly, and even though it’s getting late, kids are running around having the time of their lives while their parents stand by laughing with them.
“Butthat,” I say, pointing above our heads. “Spoiled or not, I’ve never had that.”
Damon gently lowers my hand, giving it a squeeze before bending to take his shoes off.
Our toes hit the sand as he guides us away from the noise. Where earlier today, the beach was hot and hardly tolerable, it’s now cold enough to elicit a shiver.
We walk in comfortable silence while the ocean laps at the shore.
“Listen, what happened back there has nothing to do with baseball or you and everything to do with me.” He kicks at a mound of sand in his path. “I haven’t really been myself since the divorce.”
I study him a moment, lingering on the parts of him I find most attractive. Like the scruff along his sharp jawline, and the perfect symmetry of his full lips.
You shouldn’t be finding anything about him attractive.
“Divorce?” I ask, tucking my hands into the pockets of my thin cover-up and tipping my head up toward stars that blanket a midnight-colored sky.
“Yeah. I was tore up about the whole mess for a long while, but an unfulfilling relationship will find a way to end… one way or another.”
We pause when a crab skitters in front of us, carrying a wad of seaweed in its claw.
“I get it,” I say, though his words have me reflecting on life back in Georgia.
The low timbre of his voice tickles the inside of my chest. “Are we those people?”
I pull my gaze from the stars. “What people?”
“You know, the ones who sayit’s complicatedso we don’t have to burden someone else with our feelings.”
“Complicated?” My lips form apfft. “More like,don’t ask ’cause the truth ain’t pretty.”
Damon mimics my stance, with his hands resting in the pockets of his swim trunks.
“Yeah… but you are,” he says softly.
Goose bumps break across my arms as his eyes slide over my face.
“You can’t say things like that to a girl like me,” I murmur.
Damon’s chest is dangerously close when he counters, “And why’s that?”
