“I know,” he says, grinning.
I playfully slap at his bicep. “I didn’t bring my bikini. You should have just told me where we were going so I could have planned for this!”
“It’s all sorted, relax,” he says, helping me onto the boat and handing me a bag. “Tara packed everything for you.”
He looks extremely smug, as he should. He pulled off a great surprise and managed to nail it. Getting my stuff packed for me by Tara was an epic move. However, when I open the bag, I realise that it’s not my stuff at all. It’s all brand new amazing items in the bag. A black bikini, a new wide-brim hat, sunglasses, a towel, sun lotion, and a pair of flip-flops.
I glance up at him. “You didn’t?”
“How was I meant to bring Tara to pack your stuff? You’d have noticed! So I rang Tara, wired her some money, and told her to pick up everything you’d need for a day at the beach.”
“You wired her some money?” I say, torn between being grateful that he did something so thoughtful and wanting to scold him for doing something so unnecessary.
He wraps an arm around me and looks me in the eye. “I know you don’t like it, Sabina. But it makes me happy to do something nice for you, so can you just let it go? I have a lot of money, I’m not bragging, it’s just a fact, and if I can’t do something nice for the people I care about then what’s the point? It’s not like I bought you a new car or something.”
He’s right, but still. I take a deep breath and wrap my arms around him. “Thank you, Dean. I don’t think anyone has done something like this for me before.”
They haven’t. And I don’t really know how to react.
“You’re so good to me, Dean,” I say, smiling up at him. “Today is going to be the best day ever.”
“Yes, it is,” he says, touching the corner of my mouth with his thumb. “Because you’re already smiling.”
He drops his hand, winks at me, and walks to the other side of the boat.
But me?
I touch the side of my lip where his finger just was.
Chapter Eight
“What am I going to do when you fly back to LA?” I ask him, popping a green grape in my mouth. “I’m getting used to being spoilt. Soon I’ll be back at the bank hating life.”
He chuckles and steals one of my grapes. “You can always come and visit me.”
“Maybe at the end of the year,” I think out loud, shrugging. “If they let me take more time off after this.” I think about it and amend my statement. “Probably not.”
I lift my amazing new sunglasses away from my eyes and set them on top of my head. “Can I ask you something? The songs you write are mainly love songs. Is that something from experience? You’ve never brought a girl home with you before, but I’ve seen pictures of you with different women.”
“I’d only bring a girl home if I was marrying her,” he says, smirking. “I’ve dated around, yeah, but nothing too serious. Why all the questions, Sabina? You interviewing for a magazine now?”
I laugh, turning my body to face him. “I should. I’d make enough from that interview that I could quit the bank.”
He throws a grape at my head and it hits me on my forehead.
“Hey!” I yell, rubbing my forehead. “That’s going in the interview!”
He laughs and shakes his head at me.
The boat comes to a stop in the middle of nowhere, so I get off the hammock and look over the edge at the crystal-blue water.
“I’m so freaking excited!” I say, pulling my top and shorts off, leaving me in my bikini. I put it on before, but put my clothes back over it. Dean has seen me in a bikini before, so I don’t feel shy in front of him, and it’s not like I have anything he hasn’t seen better versions of before. I turn around to see what he’s doing, and find him already looking at me.
“Remind me to thank Tara,” I think I hear him say, but I’m not sure. He pulls his t-shirt off and his famous abs are all but in my face. It’s kind of hard to concentrate.
“Do you work out?” I blurt out. “Because all I see you do is eat.”
He grins, and runs his hand through his hair. “I work out when I’m home. This is a break for me.”
“Oh,” I say, turning to face the water again. I really need to stop asking him so many personal questions, but I just can’t help myself. I’m a curious person. “What if there are sharks in the water?”
“Swim fast,” he jokes, making me scowl.
He jumps into the water first while I linger on the boat a little, watching him. He beckons me to join him, so I put on the snorkelling mask and lower myself into the water from the ladder on the boat. Hands reach around my waist the second I enter the water, making me jump a little.