“No wine to go with this spread?” I tease.
“Thought that’d be impractical on the beach,” he says and reaches into the cooler to pull out two cans of sparkling water. “Gotta settle for this instead. Lemon or peach?”
“Peach.” I pluck the can from his hands.
“Good, cause I wanted lemon.”
We cheers and I pop the can open. The bubbles burst on my tongue as I take a long swig.
A group of girls walks on the path near where our blanket is set up. I’m preoccupied opening a few of the snack containers, when something catches my ear.
“Is that Reid Keely?”
“No way…”
“Oh my god! Wait, guys?—”
Both Reid and I swivel our heads around to look at the girls. Shock and glee burst across their faces as they lock in on the man sitting next to me. “It is him!”
19
Reid
Fuck.
I take a deep breath before I turn my head toward the trio of girls quickly approaching. One of them looks more tentative to walk over here, but the other two drag her along.
“Oh my god, hi! We’re so sorry to bother you, but we thought it looked like you as we were walking along here and had to come say hi.” One of them talks so quickly I can barely keep up. Penny suppresses a grin.
“We’re huge fans of yours! We actually saw you on tour last time you played at The Forum.” The girl continues to ramble to the point that I don’t even have to say anything. I just continue to listen and nod along, offering the occasionalthank youwhen she stops for a breath.
Finally she pauses for long enough for me to ask, “Would you like a picture?”
They all look like they might faint right there on thespot. I stand up and brush the sand off my shorts. Their necks all crane at my height, and one of the girls mouth’s pops open.
“That would be amazing?—”
“Oh my god, yes?—”
Two of them speak at once and quickly reach for their phones.
“Do you want me to take them?” Penny offers, standing as well. I shoot her an apologetic look but she doesn’t acknowledge it. If she’s annoyed, she’s hiding it well.
They eye Penny curiously, but thank her profusely and hand over their phones. I’m grateful I kept my shirt on earlier. One by one, Penny takes a photo of each girl with me, before they ask for one all together.
I’m careful to keep my arms and hands high around their shoulders as they stand on either side of me and do my best to crack a genuine smile.
“Alright, I took a bunch,” Penny says and hands back their phones. “Hopefully you got some good ones.”
They all thank her and immediately start flipping through their pictures.
Before they have a chance to, I ask, “Can you guys just do me a solid and not post those with the location for a while?” The last thing I want is the rest of our night getting ruined by people showing up.
They all quickly nod in agreement and assure me they’ll wait until later. “Thank you again so much! I hope you’ll make music again one day! We’ve been loving Nikolai’s new album but it’s not the same.”
A prickle goes up the back of my neck and I brush a hand across it. “I’ll let him know you guys are liking it.”
Their eyes light up at that and after a few moremoments of chatter, they thank me again and head on their way.
