ONE
KAIRI
“How didI know I’d find you hiding all the way out here?” A deep voice cuts through the quiet from behind my book.
I lower it just enough to peek over the top, finding Colton Harrison standing in front of me, arms folded across his chest. I roll my eyes and raise my book again until he disappears from view.
“You hiked all the way out here just to bother me?” I mutter, skimming the page as I try to find where I left off. “And I’m not hiding.”
“You are,” he says matter-of-factly, walking over and dropping down beside me, close enough that our shoulders almost touch. “And I think we both know why.”
I close my eyes, annoyance prickling under my skin. I trekked all the way out to The Cove so I could have a moment alone to finish this book and upload my review to my Bookstagram page in peace, because ever since Zale returned from Italy, he hasn’t shut up about all the girls he dated while he was there.
I know it shouldn’t bother me—considering we were never anything more than friends turned fuck buddies—but…it does.
Enough for me to run away to this mostly abandoned part of town to get away from it all.
“Okay, smarty pants,” I say, finally giving up on my book and tossing it onto my towel before glancing at him. “Maybe Iamhiding, but what’s your reason for coming all the way out here?”
He pauses, holding my gaze, before clearing his throat and looking away. “I guess maybe I’m hiding too.”
I snort. “From what?”
He shrugs, staring out at the waves rolling toward the shore. “It’s been a year since I came back to the team, and Gabriel still has me playing the role of a substitute.”
“But you knew that would happen when you asked him if you could come back,” I point out, brow arching.
“No, I know,” he says quickly, running a hand through his dirty-blond hair before letting out a long sigh. “I just didn’t think it would take this long for me to earn back my spot. Especially now that we have new members. I thought I’d at least get a permanent place on the team alongside them.”
I nod because if the roles were reversed, it would bother me too. Colton joined The Shredders years ago, when the original youth team was formed. He left his family and his life behind in Bluewater Bluffs and joined our little family. So yeah, I do think he deserves a permanent spot on this team, but I can also understand why it hurt everyone so badly when he left the team two years ago to surf with the Rip Raiders, our biggest competitors.
“Anyway,” he says, turning toward me again. “Enough about me. Have you heard Zale’s latest update?”
I groan and flop back onto my towel, closing my eyes against the bright sun.
“What now?”
“Apparently a friend he made in Italy is coming to spend the summer at the house.” Colton pauses. “A female friend named Alessia.”
My throat tightens around the bomb he just dropped and I don’t have to look at Colton to know he’s watching me closely.
Don’t you dare cry right now, Kairi!I shout in my head.
“How does that make you feel?” Colton asks carefully, nudging his knee against my thigh.
“Why would that make me feel anything?” I ask defensively, nudging him back.
“Oh, come on, Kai,” he says quietly. “I know that for some unexplainable reason, you have feelings for him. You don’t need to pretend with me.”
“I don’t,” I lie, sitting up and meeting his skeptical gaze. “And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. Zale will never see me as anything more than his friend. I’m not like them.”
He tilts his head. “Like who?”
“Like those other girls he falls for. The petite, long haired, doe-eyed, confident-because-they-know-they’re-hot girls.”
Colton goes quiet, and for a second I’m sure he’s going to laugh at how ridiculous I sound, but when he doesn’t, I feel guilty for even thinking he would—Colton isn’t that kind of person.
“Kai,” he says, his eyes locked onto mine with a serious and intense expression. “You don’t need to look like anyone else. If who you are isn’t good enough for Zale—or any guy—then they’re not the person for you.”
