“What are you talking about?”
“You and Braden. The dark hair. Fit bodies. Perfect face.” He smiles. “You can’t tell me you didn’t notice. He’s a good-looking kid.”
“He’s my cousin,” I say, sounding disgusted.
“I’m referring to you two working together, not dating, although you’d make a good couple in that regard as well.”
“If I wanted to date mycousin,” I say, even more disgusted.
“Leave the girl alone,” Johnny says in an angry tone. “Let’s go.”
The two of them go out to the patio while I head back to my room.
That comment Gunner made is bothering me. Why was he acting like I was interested in Braden? It’s disturbing he’d even consider that. What’s even more disturbing is that I sometimes get the feeling Braden is attracted to me. I don’t think he’d make a move on me, but who knows? Maybe he would.
I don’t want to find out. I need to keep my distance from him.
Chapter 9
It’s only nine, and I have no idea what to do today. I’m supposed to log into the school website and fill out forms and check my class schedule, but I’m a major procrastinator, so the school stuff likely won’t happen until next Tuesday, before my first class.
Can you talk?I text Axl.I’m so freaking bored.
He doesn’t text back. I wait five minutes. Still no text.
It’s noon there. He’s not at work. He doesn’t work until later. Is he sleeping? Maybe he was out all night with Senna. What if he’s still with her?
I call his phone. He doesn’t answer.
“You better not be cheating on me,” I say, tossing the phone on my bed.
What am I doing? He doesn’t answer his phone, and I just assume he’s cheating? I can’t do that. I can’t assume the worst every time I don’t hear from him. He’s my boyfriend, and I love him and trust him. But I’m still angry I haven’t heard from him. His day is half over, and he hasn’t even sent me a text.
Grabbing my phone, I leave my room and go out the front door to the outside. I need to walk off this anger. I want to walk on the beach, but I can’t get to the stairs with Brock having a meeting out there.
After checking to make sure nobody’s watching, I walk around the side of the house, down to the edge of the property where it drops off to the beach. Looking over the side, it’s a long way to jump, but if I hold on to the rocks and carefully climb down, I think I could do it.
Halfway down, my hands slip, and I fall backward into the rocks and sand.
“Shit,” I say, rubbing my head. I slowly stand up, checking that Brock can’t see me. He can’t, but I can hear him talking. Ifhe finds out I’m on the beach again, he’ll probably yell at me, but I don’t care. What’s the point of living on the beach if you can’t use it?
Walking faster than last night, I quickly make my way to the house where I saw that guy making out with a girl. It made me miss Axl. I hate not being with him. Not being able to kiss him or hug him or hold his hand.
I sit down on a large rock jutting out of the sand and check my phone. No messages. No calls. No texts. Nothing. What if something happened to him? Maybe I should text his mom. But if somethinghappened to him, she would’ve already texted me, which means he’s probably fine but not checking his phone. Why wouldn’t he check his phone? He always checks his phone.
“Hey!” a guy yells.
I look over and see the guy walking toward me from his house. I think it’s the guy I saw last night. It was dark, and I was too far away to get a good look at him, but I could tell from his outline he was tall, with wide shoulders, like the guy coming toward me.
He’s closer now, and holy shit, the guy has some serious muscles. He looks like he’s around my age or a year or two older.
“You can’t be here,” he says, stopping in front of me.
“Where? The beach?”
“It’s private property,” he says, putting his hands on his hips, making him look even larger.
“I live here,” I tell him as I stand up.
