Like I hoped, she’s waiting for me and looks a little anxious when I sit down, handing her a cup. Making us both a drink, I hold the Jack between my feet with the cans of Coke between us. The heat from the fire is warm and takes away the chill from the ocean. She must have been cold because not only does she have her tank on but also the hoodie she was wearing around her waist.
“Cold?” I ask, nodding toward her chest.
Her cheeks redden as she shakes her head. “I can’t believe I was desperate enough to win that I tried to use my tits to distract you.”
“Oh, so you don’t do that a lot?”
She rolls her eyes. “Never. I don’t have to. I almost always win.”
“Ah, guess you met your match.”
“In beer pong,” she points out.
“I don’t know, I think I could take yo
u down if there was a rematch to our road battle.”
She smiles. “Are you challenging me?”
I nod, meeting her gaze. “I am.”
“Fine, I’ll be here in the morning,” she says, holding her cup up to me. I hit it with mine, and I’m a little too giddy that she’ll be back tomorrow.
“When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow,” she laughs. “We are leaving around eight tomorrow night. My dad will flip if I’m not home by Monday morning. He’s already been texting me like crazy.”
I smile. “Not used to you being gone?”
She shakes her head. “Not at all. Everywhere I go, he goes, or the other way around. It’s always been me and him.”
She doesn’t mention her mom and I worry that it’s a sensitive subject, but I ask anyway. “Your mom?”
She doesn’t say anything or even move until she finally lifts her cup and downs it. As I watch her throat move with the liquid going down it, I know that she doesn’t want to talk about it, and I wish I could take the question back.
She then hands me her cup before saying, “Didn’t want us. Left when I was one day old.”
Making her another cup, I find myself saying, “My dad is a cheating bastard. My mom is amazing.”
I don’t usually talk about my dad, but I thought maybe it would make her feel better.
“Sucks,” is her answer as she takes the cup from me. “At least you have brothers.”
“Only child, then?”
“Yup, just me. Dad never remarried, always said he couldn’t find someone to complete him.”
“Wow,” I say softly. “That’s deep.”
“Yup, he always tells me, don’t fall for someone who can’t make you better. That won’t complete you.”
“Great advice.”
“I think so, but of course, my standards are through the roof,” she says with a laugh.
Looking down at my cup, I nod before taking a long pull. “They should be.”
I can feel her looking at me, and when I look over at her, she says, “That was kind of deep.”