Back to the Beach (Hunt Family Book 4) (5 page)

"Then why'd you act like you didn't hear me?"

"Because I wanted you to repeat it."

"Then, whatever, I think we should get it out of our system." I said, nervously. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

He smiled as if he was amused by my jitters. "Just so we're clear, you know that means I’m going to kiss you, right?"

I started to nod, but he leaned in and put his mouth on mine before I knew what was happening. I had kissed him four-and-a-half times over the years, and it never got less exhilarating. (The time I'm referring to as "a half" was one time when I was sixteen and he kissed my forehead, which was also knee-weakening.) This was no kiss to the forehead, though—this one counted as a whole kiss.

Nico's lips came down on mine with a gentleness I wasn't anticipating. They only touched mine for one amazing second before he pulled back. A second later, he let it happen again, and then there was a third time—all of them equally swift but tender.

He let his mouth touch me a fourth time, and I pushed onto my toes to deepen the kiss, or make it last longer, or maybe both. I was crazy about him, and I hated the thought of this coming to an end… at least not quite yet.

He pulled back a little, avoiding my attempts, and smiling down at me. "Mia, I'm not going to be able to stop if I don't stop now," he said regretfully. He paused for a few seconds. "You have no idea how much I want this to continue," he said, staring at me thoughtfully. "But we're gonna get each other in trouble if we stay out here."

I glanced down, smiling shyly as I nodded. "You're right," I said, trying to sound casual and unaffected. "We should head back."

He used a finger to tilt my chin so I would look at him. It took me a second, but I reluctantly made eye contact. "I hope you know that I
hate
stopping this right now," he said.

I nodded and smiled, though it was probably laced with shyness. "I know."

Chapter 6

Nico

Nico Torres never ever had trouble sleeping. It was a running joke in his family that he could sleep on the ground with a rock for a pillow and still get a great night's sleep and wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

This was not the case last evening.

He was in a multi-million dollar beach house on an extremely comfortable couch, but he tossed and turned all night.

Mia Hunt was the culprit. She was responsible for his rare bout of sleeplessness.

He had known her almost his whole life, and had somehow overlooked just how special she was until yesterday. The couch on which she was sleeping was no more than eight feet away from Nico's couch, and the proximity was killing him.

Several of them stayed up late, playing video games and hanging out in the third-story family room. It was past 2AM when they finally decided to go to bed, and when they did, Mia fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

"How did she do that?" he wondered countless times as he tried to make himself fall asleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about their walk on the beach, which ended with a far-too-brief kiss. It wasn't enough—not even close. He watched her sleep, thinking about how he'd much rather be stretched out next to her. She could use his chest as a pillow. She could rest her head on him and let her long, black hair spread over him like a blanket. Dee-dee had nice linens and everything, but they were itchy and uncomfortable compared to the idea of Mia lying next to him.

It was nearly 4AM the last time Nico looked at his phone, and when he woke up it was 7:30. He tried to go back to sleep but just couldn't do it. Mia had turned over during the night, so all he could see was the back of her head. Otherwise, he might have stayed up there a little longer.

By 8AM, he realized that he wouldn't be able to get any more rest and decided to get up. He could see as he walked to the restroom that most of the other couches were still occupied. He tried his best to be quiet as he showered and got dressed before heading downstairs.

"Just the man I wanted to see," Cody said from the kitchen the moment Nico showed his face downstairs.

"Oh yeah?" Nico said. From his experience, when anyone said he was the man they wanted to see, they usually had a question about real estate. Nico was smiling at Cody as he crossed the living room, headed toward the kitchen.

Cody and Evan were there, along with Cody's wife, Paige and their daughters. Dee-dee and a few others were awake as well and were sitting down at the dining table, drinking coffee with a newspaper spread out in front of them.

"I didn't think you'd be up," Nico said to Evan (who was one of the participants in the videogame tournament, which lasted till 2).

Evan gave Nico a slight smile, but otherwise didn't acknowledge his remark.

"Get you some coffee, sweetheart," Dee-dee called from across the room.

"Thank you, that sounds great," Nico said, coming into the kitchen.

"Morning," Paige said sweetly as he passed.

"Morning," Nico said as he opened the cabinet to get a mug. He expected Cody to start in with the real estate question he wanted to ask, but everyone went on with whatever conversations they'd been having when he walked in. Nico poured coffee into his mug and took a swig of it without adding any cream or sugar as he leaned against the counter. He hadn't slept much at all, so he was content to sit back and not ask Cody what he wanted to talk about until the coffee started doing its trick.

"Do you mind staying in here with Ryan while I go out to the deck and talk to Nico for a minute?"

Nico looked up to see that it was Cody speaking.

"Not at all," Paige said.

Nico took another swig of his coffee in preparation for what must be some pretty serious brain-picking. He didn’t mind giving business advice, but it was still pretty early, and judging by Cody's expression, he was really ready to talk. Cody gave a flick of his head toward the deck, assuming that Nico would follow, which he did.

"You coming?" Cody asked, looking at Evan.

Evan nodded, and the three of them walked onto the deck together. It was a beautiful morning, and there was a strong ocean breeze. Cody walked to the far side of the enormous deck, and Nico and Evan went with him. Nico expected that they would have a seat at one of the tables or benches, but Cody and Evan both stayed standing, leaning against the rail, so Nico did the same. He took another sip of his coffee before setting his mug next to him.

"Mia was telling me about your salon," he said, figuring he'd go ahead and get to the point since he thought that's what this was about.

"That's exactly what this is about," Cody said.

The problem was that he looked annoyed, which was odd and awkward since
he
was the one who asked Nico to come out there and give him some advice.

"You need to stay away from our sister," Cody continued, taking Nico completely by surprise.

A gut-wrenching feeling of dread washed over Nico as he took in Cody and Evan's grave expressions. Neither of them looked happy.

Nico smiled instinctually. "Wait," Nico said. "Are we talking about your business?"

"Yeah, it's our business," Cody said. "She's our sister, and we're not gonna stand by and let her get hurt."

Nico shot them both a confused expression before smiling at them like there had been some sort of misunderstanding.

"We saw you guys on the beach last night," Evan explained, trying to be reasonable.

Nico was silent for a second as he contemplated what to say, but ultimately decided to play dumb. "I thought you guys were bringing me out here to discuss your business investment," he said.

"My business investment is just fine, thanks to Mia, my only sister, who I love and would do anything for," Cody said. He leveled Nico with an impassive stare. "I'm not gonna stand by and let you do whatever it is you do with girls. Not with her. She's off limits."

The feeling of dread Nico was experiencing grew more intense by the second. He glanced at Evan, who's expression was equally as stone-faced as his brother.

These guys were not messing around.

They were staring at him like he was some stranger Logan had brought into the house, and not someone who was basically part of the family.

"We both like you," Evan explained. "We like you a lot. We just want to keep it that way."

"We need to be clear that Mia's completely off limits," Cody added. "You can be her friend, but there will be no more of that stuff that happened last night on the beach."

"You're acting like I forced myself on her," Nico said, standing up a little straighter as he defended himself.

Cody held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Believe me, we know you didn't have to force yourself."

"Yeah, she's had a thing for you since we were kids," Evan said. "Which is exactly why we can't let you mess with her emotions anymore."

Nico's heart dropped at the thought of messing with Mia's emotions. It had never even occurred to him. He was quiet for a few seconds while what they were implying sank in.

"I'm not trying to hurt her," Nico said.

Evan scoffed. "Yeah, but you're not trying to marry her, either."

"Oh, come on," Nico said. "Don't try to act like you've never kissed a girl without asking her to marry you first."

"You can go kiss as many girls as you want," Cody said. "You can kiss every girl in Myrtle Beach if you want to. You just can't kiss my sister."

Nico started to blurt out that they were both being ridiculous. He started to laugh at their audacity, and tell them both off for thinking they could keep him away from Mia, but he decided to be cool and count to ten. He just stood there and stared at the two brothers, who were totally and completely serious.

"I'm sorry," Cody said. "I like you and everything. I think you're a cool guy, and I'm glad you've been friends with Logan all these years, but you can't have Mia. She's too good for you."

Nico breathed a little humorless laugh. The more they said, the angrier he got.
He had just stayed up all night staring at this beautiful creature upstairs, and now he wakes up to these two oafs telling him he couldn’t have her. Who did they think they were?

"She might be too good for me," he said. "But that's her decision, not yours."

"Oh, I believe it's ours," Cody said, straightening his posture like he was trying to bow up to Nico.

"That's what we came out here to say," Evan added. "She's our sister. We want what's best for her, and you're not it. Period. You don't have the same values, and you don't have the same track history. You live in California, and she lives in Carolina. You're not gonna spend the week getting her hopes up just to forget all about her like you did all those times when she was a little girl." Evan paused and smiled at Nico with his hand raised. "I'm not trying to judge," he said. "I like the ladies, too."

Cody nodded. "Like we said, you can go fill your needs with any other girl in Myrtle Beach. Just not our sister."

Nico was fuming, but he kept his face expressionless as he stared back and forth between the two brothers. "Or what?" he asked, finally.

"Or things get ugly, chief," Evan said. "And none of us want that. We just want to spend the week relaxing with our family, and for you to leave Mia alone."

Nico felt like he wanted to take a swing at both of them—several swings actually. He felt like he wanted to swing at them until they took back everything they had just said. His jaw clinched, but otherwise he kept calm. "I have sisters," he said, trying to make them see that he wasn't as bad as they thought he was.

"Great," Cody said. "Then you understand that we will do whatever it takes to protect her."

"Mia's a grown woman," Nico said.

Cody smiled and shook his head as if he was losing patience. "Listen, Nico, we brought you out here to say one thing… Leave. Mia. Alone." He spoke slowly as if phrasing it differently would make Nico understand.

Evan smiled again as if that would soften the blow. "We don’t want to see Mia get hurt by you again, that's all. We're not trying to spoil your good time. I'll even go out with you if you want to hook up with somebody while we're here."

"Just so it's not Mia," Cody said.

Nico was angry, but somewhere way down in his gut, he knew they were right. He had no idea Mia had feelings for him years ago, and hearing them say he had hurt Mia in the past made his heart ache. The last thing he wanted to do was break her heart. He took a deep breath as he thought about everything. She
was
too good for him, and he knew it.

"So are we good?" Cody asked, seeing Nico's expression soften.

Nico was silent for a few seconds while the two brothers just stood there and waited for his answer. Finally, he gave them a curt nod, one that he wasn't happy about at all.

"You three look like you're having a serious conversation out here," Dee-dee yelled jovially as she and Christy came out of the house onto the deck.

"We were just finishing up," Evan said, with a huge smile aimed at his mom and grandmother. He continued to smile and lifted his chin at Nico before heading in the direction of the house. "Good talk," he said.

Nico lifted his chin back at Evan, but didn't return the smile.