It was my turn to raise aneyebrow. “Like?”
“I told you. Things I can’t control. Being a failure,”hesaid.
“You’ll never be a failure, and I can’t control if a giant sea creature swims uptome.”
He sighed again and chose to ignore my first statement. “She’s on the other side of the ocean, and Jaws is way up along the coast. You’llbefine.”
I scoffed, but Aaron didn’t make a sound. He was too busy looking at me expectantly, like he was waiting for me to see reason and decide thatyesI would go in water so dark no one could see anything beneath the surface, because that was logical. But he just kept onstaring.
Andstaring.
And staring alittlemore.
“Aaron,” I mumbled, tipping my head back to look up at the sky because I couldn’t handle his gazeanymore.
It wasn’t until he swiftly got to his feet and stood up straight that I finally glanced up at him, finding that long body standing over me, his hands going to the hem of his shirt for a moment before he pulled it up over his head and dropped it to the sand withoutceremony.
I jerked back, sputtered and glanced at his abs for all of one second before moving my eyeballs to his face. “What are youdoing?”
He was watching me as his hands went to the front zipper of his shorts, and he was still watching me as he unbuttoned and unzipped them, tugging them down his legs with a shake of those narrow hips I’d been discreetly eyeing every time he’d been in a bathing suit around me. And just like the first time, and every time, his body was immaculate, even in the moonlight as he stood there in boxers that inadvertently highlighted his long, muscular legs and that spot right at the center of his body that made me feel like too much of a perv if I did more than glance at itquickly.
“Taking off my clothes so I don’t get them wet,” he replied casually, stepping out of his shorts before bending over to pickthemup.
“Why would they get wet?” I asked him in a voice even I could tell sounded hysterical, something in me already telling me that I’d dug this grave for myself and knew exactly where he was going with this crap. I was beginning to have second thoughts about wanting to cheer him up if it was atthiscost.
“Because I’m going in the water.” He folded his shorts in half and dropped them on top of his T-shirt. “Youcoming?”
My heart was beating, beating,beating. “No.”
Aaronwinked. “Yes.”
My throat clammed up. “Aaron—”
“Come on. We don’t have to go in deep. You can holdmyhand.”
I coughed. Sputtered some more. Maybe even gagged a little. “I’d want to hold something more than your hand going into thewater—”
Aaron choked. Literally choked. Gasping out, “Jesus,Ru.”
Ohno.
The blood drained from my face. “You know that’s not what Imeant!”
His laugh was so rough and loud and happy it made something in me click. “DoI?”
“Yes!”
I didn’t know it was possible for him to laugh louder, buthedid.
“I’m going back to the house,” I muttered, notmoving.
He dropped his head back and kept on laughing, a hand coming up to rest on the six-pack I was not going to look at. “All right, all right. I’m just messing with you,” he said, chuckling and sounding pretty much delighted, with a long sigh afterward. I narrowed my eyes when he reached up to swipe under his eye. “Come in the water with me and I’ll never bring it up again.Promise.”
Igroaned.
“Ruby.”
“Aaron.”
