“Skills.”
I rolled my eyes even as I kept smiling. “No,really.”
He winked. “There’s a mold in the cupboard. I thought you’d get a kick outofit.”
A mold in the cupboard of his father’s beach house. I shoved the reminder away as I said, “I already told you, but you know you don’t have to cook for me every morning. I can eatcereal.”
His words were so simple, yet more powerful than anything. “Iwantto.”
And like the needy idiot that I was, I askedhim, “Why?”
With the side of his fork to the plate, he started cutting a piece of his plain, round pancake, his gaze flicking back and forth between the food and me, like the words coming out of his mouth were effortless. “Because I want to, Ru.” Aaron’s mouth twisted to the side as he chewed on the piece of pancake in his mouth, and he said, “Hurry up and eat so wecango.”
“Fishing?” I asked him, sounding a lot more hopeful than I ever could haveimagined.
His twisting mouth turned into a smile. “No.Scalloping.”
“Scalloping?” Icroaked.
“Yeah. Scalloping. Did you bring any water shoeswithyou?”
* * *
“Ilook like an idiot,don’tI?”
“You don’t look like an idiot.” Aaron tipped his head to the side andsmirked.
That grin said enough. I looked like an idiot. It was in the nineties, and I had on a giant straw hat and something Aaron called a buffer that really just looked like the neck part of a turtleneck. I blinked at him and sighed. “It looks like I was planning on going to the Kentucky Derby and then changed my mind and thought about going skiing, and finally decided to go to thebeach.”
He shook his head, but I couldn’t miss the grin on his face. “Your neck is red enough. I told you to put more sunblock on yesterday, remember?” he reminded me for about thefifthtime.
I was tempted to reach up and touch it, but I didn’t. I’d already rubbed aloe vera gel into the skin twice before Aaron had come up to me with the buffer and smiled so sweetly, I hadn’t realized what he was putting over my head until it was on there… and then he’d given methehat.
He kept talking. “We could swim out further and dive, but we’ll stick closer to shore. I’ve found a bunch herebefore.”
Before. How had I missed all the signs he gave me that he’d been here more than once in the past?It’s no biggie, I said to myself, trying not to let the reminder ruinourday.
“If the heat starts bothering you too much, just tell me and we can get out of the sun,” he offered, stepping back to lookatme.
I sighed, and that only made himgrinmore.
“Am Iannoyingyou?”
Was he annoying me? It was the furthest from the truth in a way. And I told him so. “No. You’re just—” I waved my hand a second before dropping it. “You’re so nice to me.”Even though you don’t tell methings.
His laugh almost eased the ache away. “Am I supposed to be meantoyou?”
“No.” Isnickered.
There was a smirk on his face as he turned his back to me to head into the water, when he threw over his shoulder, “If you decide you need to jump on my back today, give me a warning,willyou?”
My mouth might have dropped open for a second before I blinked at him. “Has anybody else ever told you what a pain in the you-know-whatyouare?”
Aaron stopped walking and tossed that blond head back to laugh. “Yeah. Except you’re the only one who’s ever called it a ‘you-know-what.’”
“Ha, ha,” I joked, starting to follow his path. “It’s something to work on, I’m just throwing that outthere.”
He snorted and glanced over his shoulder, a small smile on his face. “Lessons with Ruby at 8:00a.m.”
