Not wanting to push it, I shake my head. “I think I’m going to head back.”
Keegan tries to hide his disappointment, but I can still see it when he nods and says, “Okay. Can I at least walk you back?”
“It’s just right next door. I promise I’ll be okay.”
“All right.” He leans down, and his lips brush against my cheek. “Thank you for today,” he murmurs, and it takes everything in me not to beg him to take me back to his hotel.
“Thank you,” I whisper before bolting away from Keegan—and temptation.
Blakely
“Watch out!” a deep voice hollers. It’s nearly 2:00 p.m., and since I haven’t seen or heard from Keegan all day, I assumed I wouldn’t be seeing him again. So I’m slightly shocked when I find the man the voice belongs to is, indeed, Keegan, and he’s running toward me.
Only this time, unlike the other times, there’s no ball headed in my direction. “Very funny.” I laugh, closing my book and setting it back into my bag.
“I figured throwing a ball at you for a third time may not be the best way to go about getting your attention.” He drops onto the sand next to me. “How’s it going?”
“Good… relaxing.” I don’t admit that the entire day I’ve been glancing around, hoping to see him again.
“My friend Mitch and I are going surfing. His girlfriend wants to learn. I was thinking I could give you those lessons we talked about yesterday, if you’re interested.”
Not even bothering to play hard to get, I nod. “That sounds like fun.”
I have no intention of going back to the room any time soon anyway. This morning, when I woke up, to my surprise, Sierra was awake and sitting on the nasty balcony overlooking the greenish-blue pool. When I asked her if I could join her, she told me she wasn’t in the mood to reminisce over a life we’d never get back, then stood up and walked back inside. I hadn’t planned to reminisce, but her saying that leads me to believe it’s what she was doing. I wanted to follow her inside and beg her to let me in, but I was afraid of pushing too hard, so instead I grabbed my beach stuff and came out here.
“Cool.” Keegan helps me gather my things.
I tell him the umbrella is the hotel’s, so he can leave it there. Just as I’m slipping on my sandals, someone calls my name, and I notice Brenton’s heading my way.
“Who’s this?” Brenton asks, eyeing Keegan, who has my beach bag over his shoulder.
“Brenton, this is Keegan.” When I look over at Keegan, his brows are knitted together. He must think this is who I came with. “Brenton is here with my sister and their friends,” I explain to Keegan. To Brenton, I say, “Keegan just offered to teach me how to surf.”
Brenton’s one brow rises. “You work here?”
“Nah.” Keegan shakes his head. “I live near here. Surf a lot.”
When an awkward silence blankets us, I speak up. “Did you need something?” I ask Brenton.
“Oh,” he says, remembering why he came over in the first place. “We’re going to drive into town for a late lunch. I was going to see if you wanted to join.”
“That’s okay. I’m not really hungry.” Then, before I can stop myself, I ask, “Is Sierra okay? She seemed kind of off this morning.”
“You know her. She’s always in her own head. Nothing a beer and a joint can’t fix.” Brenton’s gaze flickers between Keegan and me. “You sure you don’t want to go?”
“Yeah, but thank you.”
Brenton looks like he wants to say more, but doesn’t. Instead, he nods once then takes off up to the hotel.
“You ready to go watch me make a fool of myself?” I ask Keegan.
He laughs. “Absolutely.”
We’ve spent the day surfing—or I guess I should say, Keegan and Mitch have spent the day surfing, while Holly, Mitch’s girlfriend, and I have spent the day falling off the board. Unless of course Keegan was on the board with me. Then I was able to stay on.
We’ve swum and lain out, talked a lot, and laughed even more—just all around had a great time. I can’t remember the last time I spent time with people my age and enjoyed myself. We ate dinner on the pier, and now we’re heading back to their hotel to hang out. Holly begged me not to leave her alone with the guys, and I couldn’t say no—although, if I’m honest, the real reason I’m not leaving is because I want to spend some more time with Keegan. The guy is seriously growing on me. Oh, who am I kidding? He’s already planted and rooted himself.
“You sure you’re okay hanging out?” Keegan asks me once Mitch and Holly excuse themselves to go grab some drinks from the bar.