“Guys don’t shoot me down, Liv.Clearly, he’s not into me. Not that I’m into him, but, anyway, he’s not into me.”
“Okay,” I said, offering up my palms. “But either way, maybe you should take a break and be single for a while.”
“Orforever.”
“Don’t say that,” I said. “Greg sucks. Not all guys are like him.”
She squinted ahead. “Jesus, they’re smoking fuckinghot, though, aren’t they? Look at them.”
I followed her gaze to where David and Brian sat in the line-up—David dark and sexy, Brian blond and goofy. Both looked drop-dead gorgeous shirtless, though. “Brian’s pretty ripped, huh?” I asked.
“Would you stop?” she asked, exasperated.
“Just calling it like it is. But yes. They’reextremelyhot,” I said, my eyes drifting to some female gawkers on the shore. “Those girls over there are checking them out.”
We laughed and reclined back again. I closed my eyes to soak in the warmth of the sun and was almost asleep when I heard the bass of David’s voice.
Gretchen, already up on her elbows, yawned. “Look,” she said, jutting her chin at the water. “They’re talking to the girls.”
I squinted through my sunglasses at the shoreline. Three girls in bikinis, ankle deep in the surf, shaded their eyes with their hands as they looked up at Brian and David. I sat up all the way, and David lifted his hand in a wave. A pleasant warmth washed over me, and I smiled. Despite all my worrying that I’d inherit my mother’s madness, I realized there was too much love in my body to leave any room for jealousy. Those girls could flirt their asses off, and it looked as if they were trying to, but they’d never steal even a fraction of David’s attention from me.
David broke away, jogged up the sand, and dropped his surfboard next to me. He fell over me gracefully, propping himself on outstretched arms and dripping water onto my warm skin. “Sorry, honey. Hope you don’t mind getting a littlewet,” he said.
“Let’s see a push-up,” Gretchen demanded.
He lowered himself, kissed me on the lips, and pushed himself back up. “One,” he said and repeated the motion, this time kissing the curve of my neck.
“Two,” I said breathlessly as a tingle made its way up my tummy.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Gretchen said. “I don’t want to know what happens when you get to ten.”
He laughed and rolled over onto the sand. “God, I love the beach.”
“Word,” Gretchen agreed as Brian strolled up and plopped down next to her. “How was the surf?” she asked.
“Shit,” Brian said. “But it’s okay because we had longboards.”
“Dude, did you see that little kid ripping out there?” David asked.
“He was like ten years old,” Brian told us, “but he trounced the rest of us.”
“I’d start my kid surfing thesecondhe could walk,” David continued. “Boy or girl, I wouldn’t care. Snowboarding, too.”
A tremor of dread worked its way through me. From behind my sunglasses, I noticed Gretchen glance at me. I couldn’t believe that hearing David talk about children would be one of the most terrifying things in my life. Jessa’s warnings from the other night tried to pop into my head, but I pushed them away.
And gave way to my own harrowing thought.
Someone will have to sacrifice.
“Same here,” Brian agreed. “Hey, we could move out to Florida and raise a professional surf team.”
“I’m in,” David said. “I don’t know if your lady friend would be up for that, though. She doesn’t seem to like the beach.”
“Who, Kat?” Brian laughed. “No, definitely not. Sadly, I think our time together is coming to an end.”
Gretchen twirled a finger in the sand beside her towel. “She, um, doesn’t seem like your type.”
“Oh, yeah?” Brian said. “Why not?”
