“ Me and my friend, Abby.”
“ Oh,” the girl answered with a dejected sigh. “Okay, sure. It’ll start around eight.”
Yeah, whore. That’s me, his friend , Abby. Then the realization hit. Was I freaking friend-zoned?
“ Alright, cya.”
Oh god, I knew he was walking toward me then. I busied myself with reading the ingredients on the back of my organic sunscreen. Zinc Oxide, zinc oxide, zinc oxide. Beck plopped down next to me, jostling my shoulder slightly.
“ Oh hi, Beck! I didn’t see you there.” My voice was an octave higher than usual and my smile exuded fake sweetness.
He gave me an odd look and then nodded back to where he was just standing.
“ That girl is staying in our hotel. She invited us to a bonfire tonight on the beach.”
“ We or you?” I asked, and then instantly regretted my jealously. Why did I care? Beck could make out with her in the bonfire for all I cared, right? I uncapped the sunscreen and started lathering it down my arms.
“ We’re a packaged deal, Abby. Need some help?”
I almost refused, but Caroline’s face popped into my head. She would have yelled at me for turning him down. “Oh, sure. I’ve only done my arms.” I could feel my heart rate pick up and my hand shook a bit too obviously as I handed the bottle over. I’d watched enough movies to realize that a guy offering to put sunscreen on you meant that in about ten seconds he would accidentally untie my bikini top and then we’d have raunchy beach sex. Was I prepared for public sex? I hadn’t yet mastered private sex. Or, you know, anything past making out.
My breath caught when his hand hit my back. His touch felt sensual and warm, but not in an inappropriate way. He wasn’t trying to give me a massage or anything; it was just the way my body reacted to him. It felt like his palm was setting my skin on fire. I told myself it was the sunburn already sinking into my shoulders. Yep, that feeling was from the sun, not Beck.
“ How far did you run?” I croaked, trying to fill the silence.
“ Just six miles,” he answered, moving to the bottom of my bikini strings. His hands slipped under to make sure I didn’t get burned if my top shifted. It made my entire body buzz with nervous energy. I heard myself moan under my breath. What the hell? Did he hear that? Distract him.
“ Just?” I stumbled over the word like I was learning to speak for the first time. “I could maybe run one-tenth of a mile.”
“ We’ll get you training soon enough.”
I grunted with my disapproval.
“ I ran track in high school and college. Obviously MIT isn’t known for athletics, but it helped me stay in shape while I was hunkered down in the library for ten hours at a time.”
I imagined him wearing glasses, holding a book, and running with no shirt on. “If you become a vegetarian after our trip, I’ll go running with you tomorrow morning. Wait, no. I’ll buy a skateboard and a dog. Then I’ll hold the dog’s leash and let him pull me along side you.”
He laughed. “That’s cruel.”
“ It would be a really big dog. Or maybe a wolf.”
He rubbed the last bit of sunscreen into my shoulders and then handed the tube back to me. “Sounds good, let’s swim. My surprise doesn’t start for another hour.”
I hated having to wait another hour, but at least we were at the beach. I’d been dying to jump into the water since first stepping out of the hotel, and now I was practically melting from the heat, even under the umbrella. I hopped up and was about to start walking toward the water when Beck grabbed my hand.
“ You can’t just mosey on in. You’ve got run in with me and dive into a wave.”