First and Tension (Summersweet Island 4)

“Hi yourself, and it was good… but boring without you. How was your first workout at the stadium facilities?”

Quinn leans forward, pressing a kiss right under my ear, as I slide my hands up his chest and over his clean Sharks T-shirt, inhaling the soapy smell of him from his shower at the field before he came back here.

“Not as good as the workout you gave me before I left,” he whispers in my ear, making me shiver when he places another kiss against the side of my neck and when I remember the sex we had on his kitchen counter after I made him breakfast. “I like waking up with you in my bed. That needs to happen more often.”

My heart thumps wildly in my chest as Quinn kisses his way across my cheek until he gets to my lips, thinking about our first sleepover and how there was no awkwardness. It all just felt so right and natural. Brushing our teeth together in the side-by-side sinks, setting the alarms on our phones, saying goodnight, curling up under the covers with me draped over his chest. I fell asleep with his arms wrapped around me, the sound of his steady heart beating against my ear, the waves crashing outside the open bedroom window, and Crouton purring at our feet. And even now, with him just barging into my best friend’s business, like she’s his best friend too, and he’s just as comfortable being here as I am having him here.

Everything about dating Quinn feels so right and natural in such a short amount of time, like he’s always been here on this island and in my life. He fits in like he’s always belonged here, like he’s always belonged with me. All this time, I’ve been searching for something to finally make me happy and feel fulfilled, and I always thought it was cheerleading, and dance, and performing. Yet here he is, the missing puzzle piece, my key to happiness. He’s funny, and he’s sweet, kind and supportive, and he bends over backward just to make sure I’m happy, wanting to fix anything that doesn’t. And let’s not forget the things he does to my body and how easily he can make me fall apart.

Sometimes, it’s all so perfect it’s overwhelming, and I can’t breathe, and I’m just waiting for something to happen to screw it all up, bursting this bubble of perfection we’ve wrapped ourselves in.

“Get a room before you melt all the ice cream!” Wren shouts at us, throwing a handful of sprinkles at our faces, pulling me out of my thoughts, and making both of us laugh as we move apart.

“I have a video interview with ESPN in a half hour and then a call with my publicist. I’ll see you later at SIG around three, right?” Quinn asks.

“You have a photoshoot,” I remind him as he pulls my hand up to his mouth and kisses the top of it before moving out from between my legs.

“I cancelled it.” He shrugs easily, making that pit of anxiety in my stomach grow stronger.

“Quinn!”

“It’s just this one thing. It wasn’t important anyway.” He chuckles softly at my distress, leaning back in and kissing the tip of my nose.

He didn’t tell me what the photoshoot was for, but he’s Quinn Bagley! I’m sure it wasn’t just a few hours frolicking in the park, so one of his friends could snap a cell phone picture to use for his next Christmas card. I’m sure it was definitely for something important for his career.

“And this isn’t important either,” I remind him. “It’s a boring golf tournament.”

“It’s a nationally televised, huge golf tournament that is kind of a big deal all over the world, and Palmer is playing in it.”

“Like I said, boring.” I grimace, really regretting that I agreed to this months ago, when Birdie invited me during that dark, depressing time in my life before Quinn came back into it. “Now that we’re no longer pretending, we no longer have to be nice and say yes to everything. People need to learn boundaries, and you need to learn how to say no.”

“These are your friends. They don’t know what the word boundaries means.”

“I heard that!” Wren shouts to Quinn, looking back at us as she hands a milkshake through the window. “We know what it means; we just don’t give a shit. Welcome to the Thunderdome, bitch!”

“She used to be such a quiet, sweet girl,” I mutter when Wren turns back around to help another customer.

Quinn just laughs again, pulling his sunglasses out of where he hooked them in the neck of his T-shirt and sliding them back on his face.

“I will see you at three for this more important, totally fun thing.”

Quinn shouts a goodbye to Wren while she’s busy with a customer, leaning down to smack his lips against mine once more before disappearing through the back door.