He dipped his head as if he were embarrassed and shrugged. “Probably, but not for the reason you think.”
Kyle helped me into the cab, and after exiting the garage, he maneuvered his way through traffic until we merged onto the freeway into a sea of brake lights.
“Damn LA traffic. I guess you don’t see this very often?”
“Sometimes I get stuck behind a tractor, but otherwise no.”
Kyle didn’t react to my joke, as he was busy expertly changing seven lanes of traffic to get his truck into the carpool lane. I gawked at his driving skills. “Thatwas impressive.”
“You like that?” He grinned.
“You’re like a magician.”
“Naw. Any Los Angeles driver worth anything can do that.”
We drove on the freeway for a short time until Kyle performed his second straight lane change miracle of the day, and within minutes we were sailing along the Pacific Coast Highway, the long sandy beach off to the right. Kyle pulled into a parking spot along the road, and my face lit up. I now understood why we were here.
“The sunset?”
He nodded. “I haven’t seen one in a while, and I miss it.”
As we walked down the beach, Kyle took my hand in his. I looked at our fingers entwined and wondered what he was thinking. Was it just a friendly gesture?
“It’s so warm,” I said. “I can’t believe it’s December.”
“I know. It sucks. Is it too much to ask for some seasons? It’s frickin’ December! It’s supposed to be cold.”
“Yeah, well, I love it. For me, it’s been raining almost non-stop for months. Which explains the ghostly skin tone you love so much.”
“Are you mad at me for all my on-air insults? I was only joking. It was like a game, coming up with different ways to describe your skin.”
“No, I thought it was funny.”
“Over here.” Kyle led me to a lifeguard station, and we propped ourselves up against it. There were very few people left on the beach, so it almost felt like we were alone. Kyle gazed out at the horizon, sighing heavily. I wrapped my arm around him and laid my head against his shoulder as we breathed in the ocean air and watched the sun fade to black.
“This reminds me of the island,” I whispered wistfully, “I miss it.”
“Yeah, me too. It was the calm before the storm.”
“I’m sorry about Jake.”
“I know.”
Kyle leaned into me and our eyes met. He was going to kiss me, and although it was what I’d dreamed about since our last one, I worried that his newfound interest in me was because of the tremendous stress he was under. Was he just looking for a convenient outlet to release his tension? His lips dipped close to mine.
“Kyle?” I said, stopping him with my hand.
“What?” he asked, sounding confused as he leaned away from me.
“You can’t kiss me…”
“Why?”
“… because you don’t mean it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There are things you don’t know.”
