Fool Me Once

“Like sleep with me?” I give him a playful smirk. I haven’t slept with many guys, but I’ve had a couple one-night stands over the last few years. My way of lashing out over my mom’s death.

“No.” He shakes his head. “We’ve already established you’re not interested. Although, I think, based on the way you were eye-fucking me on my way over here, I could probably convince you otherwise.”

“I was…” I begin to argue, but when he raises one of his brows in a Really? You’re going to try to lie gesture, I snap my mouth closed. He’s right, after all. I was totally eye-fucking him.

“I meant, how about I take you to dinner? But if the dinner leads to…” He shrugs a shoulder and grins, this time both dimples popping out. Jesus H. Christ, no man should be allowed to look this gorgeous and be equipped with not one, but two dimples.

“I stand by my earlier statement,” I say, chanting I’m off dick over and over again in my head to remind myself I’m focused on school and my future. A decision I made after my dad’s mom died and left us with nothing, and I quickly realized if I don’t make a future for myself, no one will. “I’m not interested.”

“All right.” He bends down to grab the football. “Enjoy your day.” And with a flirty wink over his shoulder, he runs back over to where he came from.

Giving my book a once-over and concluding there’s no saving it, I toss it into the sand next to my bag to throw it away later. Moving my chair to the side, I throw my blanket across the ground and lie on my stomach for a little cat nap. I might not have wanted to go on this trip, but I can admit that so far, despite my book getting drowned, and not being able to spend any time with Sierra, it’s been nice to relax and reminisce on the good times we had as a family here. In a couple short months, I’m going to be heading to college and I don’t know when I’ll have the time or the money to take a week-long vacation again.

I don’t remember my eyes closing, and I have no clue how long I’m asleep for. But when I wake up, it’s to a shitload of sand hitting my body and face. “What the hell!” I screech, sitting up and spluttering in an attempt to get the sand out of my mouth. It takes a second for my eyes to focus—for me to remember I fell asleep under my umbrella—and when they do, they land directly on the two-dimpled culprit.

“Seriously?” I grab the football that landed next to me and cock my arm back to throw it at him. His eyes widen comically, like he’s afraid the ball is going to hit him. But when I release it, and it lands short, several feet in front of him, his eyes twinkle, and his body shakes with silent laughter.

“Uh!” I huff, standing, so I can wipe all the sand off me. When I notice my blanket is half in the water, I let out a loud groan. The tide must’ve risen while I was asleep. “Damn it, my blanket is soaked!” I bend over and drag the blanket out of the water and up the beach a few feet.

“You are aware you’re at a beach, right?” He laughs, this time out loud. “It’s made up of sand and saltwater.”

“Thank you for pointing that out, Captain Obvious.” I roll my eyes. With the sun now pounding on my body, the saltwater and sand quickly sticks to my flesh. “Ugh!” I groan. “It’s everywhere.” I glare at Keegan.

“Here, let me help you rinse all that sand off.” He moves toward me so fast, I don’t even see it coming. Before my brain can put the pieces together, he throws me over his shoulder like I’m a freaking ragdoll and darts up the beach.

“Put me down!” I squeal, my fist pounding on his ass, while tilting my head slightly to the side so I can watch the ocean getting farther away. “What are you doing?” I yell, and he just laughs. Laughs!

I try to figure out where he’s taking me, but my upside down view doesn’t really tell me much. When his feet hit the solid ground, my body is no longer bouncing. He’s jogging along a wood planked sidewalk that quickly turns into concrete. And then the concrete disappears and… we’re both in the air.

Before I can scream again for him to put me down, my body hits the cool chlorinated water. The asshole just threw me into the pool! Paddling my arms, I swim to the surface and find him right in front of me. He grips my hips to hold me up since I can’t reach the bottom of the deep end.