I was at his side when I nudged him with my hip. “Shut up and show me what we’relookingfor.”
* * *
“Needahand?”
I froze with my elbow in the air, my hand just barely touching the back of my neck as I sat on the edge of the couch in the living area of the beach house with a tube of aloe vera gel balanced on my thigh. Sitting on the recliner to the left of where I was, with the clanking of pots and pans in the background, was Max, leaning back against the seat with an amused smile on his good-looking face. On the love seat to the opposite side were Brittany and Des, who were busy snuggling adorably and watching television. Aaron was in the kitchen, washing the dishes that weren’t going into the dishwasher, following a nice spaghetti meal the seventeen-year-old with only one good arm had managed to make, despite most of us offering to help her out. She’d gone to her room to talk on thephone.
I’d been trying to reapply aloe vera to the achy skin on the back of my neck, which hadn’t gotten more burned after the three hours we’d spent scalloping… but it hadn’t exactly helped either. The problem was, I couldn’t exactly see what I was doing and my arms felt dead after hunting for clams and then following that up by going foraswim.
“Uh,” I kind of muttered to myself for a second, taking in the man that had been sleeping most of his days away. I hadn’t really spoken too much with him on this trip, but… it was fine. “Sure,” I told him, with a shy smile, not wanting to tell him no when he’d offered assistance. I hated when I could tell someone needed help, and when it was offered, theydeniedit.
With a tip of his chin, the very handsome man that I’d learned through bits and pieces was thirty years old and worked graveyard shifts at a refinery, got up and took a seat on the cushion directly beside me. The side of his knee touched mine, but I didn’t think anything of it as I handed him the tubeofgel.
“Thanks,” I said a little weakly, dipping my chin toward my throat to expose the back ofmyneck.
I heard the tube lid click open and followed by that was the almost farting sound of the gel coming out of the container and onto what I could only imagine was his palm. Seconds later, I felt the cool touch of his gel-covered fingers lightly grazing the nape of my neck and moving around. “I thought Aaron was going to make you wear a scarf or something?” he asked, spreadingthegel.
Looking at my ultra-tan thighs from all the sun I’d taken in, I smiled. “He did. This is from two days ago. I think it’s gettingbetter.”
“I guess,” he said, his fingers still moving back and forth in circles and lines across my skin. “It lookspainful.”
“Only a little,” I admitted, peeking at him over myshoulder.
Max leveled a smile at me that six months ago would have knocked me off the couch, or at least had me texting someone to tell them all about the hot guy touching me. But now… well, now I felt nothing butappreciation.
“You’re good,” he said, pulling hishandaway.
“Thank you,” I told him, taking the tube from him to set it on the side table beside me. Turning back around to face forward, I found a familiar pair of khaki cargo shorts standing nearly directly in frontofme.
I didn’t get a chance to say anything before he’d turned himself around and dropped that rounded butt into the sliver of space separating me from Max. Leaning to the arm rest, I lifted a thigh to give him room to sit as his best friend scooted over.Way over. What was he doing? I didn’t need to look around the room to know there were other spots he could have taken instead. Not that I necessarily wanted him to sit somewhere faraway,but…
I snickered when he leaned back against the back cushion, wedged so tightly in there that the only way he fit was because Max and I were both crowded into the sides. “What are you doing?” I asked him with a grin once he’d settled in and looked downatme.
He slipped an arm over the back of the couch behind my head. “Sitting down.” I scrunched up my nose at him, and all he did was smile back. “Does yourneckhurt?”
“Not really,” I told him honestly. “It’s fine. It wasworthit.”
“If you want to stay inside tomorrow to give your neck a break, we can,” he suggested, moving his leg just enough so that the entire length of his thigh was squishedagainstmine.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I said. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to stay inside with me if you don’t want. I can just watch TV by myself orsomething.”
His hand landed on my bare thigh, and I was really grateful that I’d showered and shaved after I’d come back inside followingourswim.
“Ru, Idon’tcare—”
The suggestion came out of my mouth so unexpectedly, I hadn’t even realized it was still on my mind. “If you wanted to call your friend or hang out with her, I’dunderstand.”
The lids covering those dark brown eyes hung low. “My friend?” he askedslowly.
Why had I brought this up? It was too late now, wasn’t it? “The, uh,waitress.”
“Thewaitress?”
Crap. “The one at therestaurant.”
At the rate of a snail, the confused expression on Aaron’s face slowly melted off, replaced by a smile at the same pace. Why did he look so smug? “RC, I know her, but she’s not myfriend.”
I kept mymouthshut.
