“F1 driver. Hands down.”
“Come on.”
“What? We’re talkingdreamjob here. I never said it had to be realistic.”
He has a point. But I think my answer would be the same either way. My dream job is exactly what I intend to do with my life.
“Those racing jumpsuits are awfully sexy,” I admit. Especially the red ones.
“I know, right? Go ahead and picture me wearing one. I don’t mind. I just ask you to try to keep your hands to yourself.”
“I’ll try to control myself,” I say blandly. “What are you thinking for youractualjob? Do you know yet?”
“I’m pretty good with computers, so something tech-ish. Maybe health-care informatics.”
“I have no idea what that is.”
“I learned about it during a career day last year. It’s, like, usingtechnology to help hospitals with patient safety and stuff. Sounded pretty cool.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, but I get the feeling there’s something he’s not saying.
We walk up the shore for another few minutes, and then—
“Oh my God!” I barely process Gregory’s shout before I’m being lifted off the ground and carried several feet away. “What the hell was that? Something touched me!”
His arms are wrapped around my waist, and my feet dangle a few inches off the ground. My boobs are pressed up against his chest, my face a breath away from his. I blink, registering one of his palms halfway underneath my sweatshirt and touching the skin on my back. That tiny area of my body goes from warm to hot like a branding iron in two seconds flat.
He’s breathing hard, his gaze over my shoulder to where we were just standing. I feel his heart pounding.
I take a deep breath in through my nose, which might have been a mistake, because I’ve just realized that Gregory smells very, very good. Like, maybe even better than Myles.
It’s something smooth and woodsy, like he’s just stepped onto the beach from a forest of lush pine trees.
“Hey, Gregory?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you put me down?”
“What? Oh, yeah… sorry.” He carefully lowers me, and my nerve endings ensure that I’m aware of every single inch of me that slides down every inch of him until my feet are down and I pull away from him. My breath comes a little quicker, andhe scrunches his nose as he grips the back of his neck.
“I swear something moved,” he says, almost apologetically. “Right by my foot, and I—I just reacted.”
I refuse to laugh at him. Nothing out here would be dangerous enough to warrant that type of panicked escape, but he’s new here, and it’s kind of sweet that his first thought was to save me. From, you know… probably a seagull or crab or a tiny wave.
I pull my phone from my back pocket and turn on the flashlight, trying to hide my smile. I shine it on the sand and head back to where we were walking.
Then I spot it—a smooth, round dome with a thin tail trailing behind, blending into the sand. “Oh! It’s a horseshoe crab. A big one too.” I glance up at the sky. “They like to come up and lay their eggs when it’s a full moon. I bet there’s more—” I aim my flashlight out farther, and my smile widens. “Yeah, there’s another one! This is so great. They only come out for a few nights, and I didn’t see them at all last year.”
I feel Gregory sidle up beside me before he speaks. “Wow,” he breathes, bending lower to look at it. “That thing is cool-looking.”
“So… not scary, then?” I tease.
“It was instinct!” he whisper-yells. “I didn’t know what it was!”
I give him a nudge with my elbow. “I’m just glad you ran away rather than trying to hurt it. These things are super important to marine life. Sharks need them for food. Sea turtles, too.”
Gregory straightens and chuckles a little. “Shark biologist Amelia has entered the chat.”
“There’s more where that came from,” I warn. “If we’re gonna be friends, it’s best you know that going in.”
