A Week at the Beach (17 page)

            Since I’d moved out of the apartment with Jack, I’d been living a solitary life.  I was social, but I wasn’t connecting with people like I had when I was with Jack.  I found myself on the edge of things, never really a part of what was happening around me.  Nick’s attention made me feel a part of things again.  He was bringing me back into a social life. 

            A loud clap of thunder suddenly boomed throughout the beach and Nick’s eyes flew open. 

            “It’s just thunder,” my voice soft against his skin.

            “How long was I asleep?” he whispered huskily.

            “I don’t know, a few hours maybe.”

            He stretched his legs out and groaned.  “I might have to put one of these in my apartment in LA.”

            I smiled, “Why?”

            He pulled me closer to him, “I haven’t slept that hard in years.  If that thunder hadn’t woken me up, I think I could have slept for another few hours.”

            Another rumble of thunder hit and we both listened to the storm around us for a minute.

            “Are you hungry?” he whispered.

            “I don’t know if I’m hungry enough to risk getting soaked on the way up the stairs.”

            He laughed, “I’m definitely hungry, but I don’t want to get wet either.”

            “Wait!” I said, suddenly realizing something.  “I brought my phone down with me!”

            Nick laughed, “Are we supposed to eat it?  What can the phone do for us?”

            I pulled the phone out of my pocket and pushed a few buttons.  I held it up for Nick to see what I’d done.

            “Pizza!” he said excitedly.

            “Pizza!”

            “What do you want on your pizza?” I asked as I pulled the phone back and pushed more buttons.

            “I like pepperoni, sausage, and ham.” His stomach growled as he spoke, punctuating his statement.

            I grinned and looked slyly at him, “You sure do like a lot of meat.”

            He pinched my waist and snatched the phone from me.  “You have a filthy mind, Ms. Harris.  What do you want on your pizza?”

            I laughed, “I don’t care.  I’ll eat whatever.  If I don’t like something, I’ll just pick it off.”

            “That’s not what I asked, Cami.  What do you want on your pizza?”

            “I said I don’t care.  That pepperoni, sausage, and ham combo sounds fine.” I shrugged and reached for my phone.

            Nick held the phone out of my reach.  “If you were ordering pizza for yourself, what would you order?”

            I sighed, “Pepperoni and pineapple.”

            “Fine, pepperoni and pineapple it is.  How are we paying for this?” he asked as the phone dialed the local pizza shop my phone’s web browser had directed him to.

            “I have my credit card number memorized, so it’s my treat today.” I insisted and took the phone from him.  I ordered our pizza, which proved to be a lot more complicated than I realized since neither of us actually knew the address to the beach house. 

            “Why did you have your phone down here with you, anyway?  I thought you weren’t supposed to be making important phone calls when you were on vacation.”  Nick asked with a reproachful look.

            “It’s my sister’s birthday and I was going to call her.”

            “Which sister?”

            “Allison.”

            Nick grinned, “Can I talk to her?”

            I laughed, “Definitely not.”

            He chuckled, “Why not?”

            “It’s not happening, Nick, so you can stop trying.”

            He grinned and snatched the phone from me again.  He skillfully rolled out of the hammock and took off across the concrete, holding the phone up over his head as he scrolled through my contacts.

            I, of course, tumbled out of the hammock and onto the concrete floor.  When I tried to stand up to chase him, I tripped on my own feet and fell back to the concrete. 

            “You okay?” Nick asked with a laugh.  He had the phone up to his ear, as if he was waiting for someone on the other line to pick up. 

            “I’m fine, thank you.  Also, you’re not fooling me.  I know there isn’t really anyone on the other end of that phone line.” I rolled my eyes at him and pulled myself up from the floor.

            Nick smiled at me.  “Hi, Allison?  Happy birthday!”

            “I’m not buying it!” I shouted at him doubtfully.

            He smiled and kept talking, “Nick, I’m a friend of your sister.  She’s right here, actually.”  He paused then held the phone away from his mouth and spoke to me.  “Allison doesn’t believe that we’re friends.  She says I sound too hot to be your friend.”

            I laughed, “You’re not that hot!”

            Nick smiled and talked into the phone, “Did you hear that?  And she says you’re the mean one?”

            Suddenly afraid that he might actually be talking to Allison, and that he just told her that I said she was mean, I lunged at him in an attempt to get my phone back.

            He was quicker, though, and stepped out of the way before I could get the phone.

            “No, she really said that.  Of course, she provided me with proof.”  Nick grinned at me.  “No, she didn’t tell me about that one.  She did however tell me your theory about her clumsiness.”  He started laughing.

            “Are you done?  Can I have my phone now?” I put my hands on my hips and tried the teacher look on him.

            He looked at me, but kept talking.  “She’s giving me the teacher look right now!  How did you know?”

            I shook my head and gave up.  He, obviously, wasn’t going to relinquish the phone to me.  I plopped back down in the hammock and listened to his end of the conversation. 

            “No, we’re in the Outer Banks.”

            “LA, actually.”

            “Just met her the other day.”

            “No!”

            “Really, I promise!”
            “I know all about him.”

            “I swear that is not my intention.”

            “Yes.”

            “I suspected as much.”

            “I promise.”

            “Okay, I’ll tell her.”

            “It was good talking to you, too!”

            He ended the call and walked over to the hammock.  He motioned for me to scoot over and fell into the hammock next to me.

            “I don’t know why you think she’s so mean, she seemed just lovely,” he said as he settled into his position next to me. 

            I didn’t bother to look at him, but I could hear the smugness in his voice.  I didn’t answer him either.  I just sat in the hammock with my arms crossed over my chest.

            After a full minute of silence, Nick said with a giggle, “So, are you really mad at me or are you just trying to look mad because you think you look adorable when you’re mad?”

            “I don’t think I look at adorable when I’m mad,” I said with an eye roll.

            “So, you’re really mad then?”

            “I’m never going to hear the end of that, you know?  She’s really mean, and she has a big mouth!”

            He laughed, “She was actually quite protective of you.  She told me that I’d better think twice before I try anything with you, because you don’t do that sort of thing.”

            I rolled my eyes but still didn’t look at him.

            “Of course, I neglected to tell her that we’d already slept together.”

            I sat up and turned towards him.  “We did not!”

            He grinned, “May I remind you about that three hour nap we just woke up from?”

            “That’s different!  Literally sleeping together is very different from what you would be implying if you’d told my sister that!”

            “I know,” he grinned, “that’s why I didn’t say anything.”

            “I’m still never going to hear the end of that.”

            “You are, you know?”

            I settled back into my spot in the hammock, “What?”

            “Adorable when you’re mad,” he chuckled.

            I elbowed him in the ribs, “Still think I’m adorable?”

            He laughed and said in a pained voice, “Maybe not so much.”  He pulled my phone out and started scrolling through my photos.  “Do you have any pictures of Allison in here?”

            “What kind of big sister do you think I am?” I asked sarcastically.

            “Show me,” he said and handed my phone back to me.  “Oh, by the way, she said thank you for the flowers.  They were beautiful.”
            I smiled and continued scrolling through the photos until I got to the one I wanted to show him.  I figured he’d want to see Tori too, so I pulled up the picture my dad had taken of us, as we got ready to go out to dinner as a family.  It was taken at my parents’ house a few weeks ago, before Allison and Tori went back to school. 

            “Here,” I said and handed him the phone.  “That’s all three of us.”

            He smiled, “I see what you mean about Tori being the perfect all-American girl.”

            “I know, and the even more annoying thing is that it only takes her minutes to achieve that perfection.  She’s not like one of those fake perfect girls who have to spend hours forming that façade.  Tori pretty much just wakes up and rolls out of bed perfect.” 

            “I also get why Allison is so mean to you,” he looked at me and grinned.

            “What do you mean?”

            “Well, if Tori is the perfect one, and Allison is the smart one, which one are you?” he raised an eyebrow at me in question.

            “I don’t know.  The nice one maybe?  The oldest?” I shrugged.

            “No, look at this picture again, Cami.”  He held the phone out for me.  “You’re the pretty one!”

            I blushed, “I am not.  Tori is much prettier than I am!”

            He shook his head, “No, Tori is the perfect package.  You, you’re the pretty one.  You are the one that is going to catch someone’s eye right away.  When a guy looks at Tori, do you know what he thinks?”

            I shook my head.

            “He thinks, ‘Wow! She looks like a lot of work!’  It may not be true, but that’s what it looks like at first.”  He pulled the phone back and looked at it again.  “But when a guy looks at you, he thinks, ‘How can I get her to notice me?’”

            I watched him as he stared at the picture some more.  He smiled at the girls in the photo, but didn’t turn to look at me.