“You okay?” Jax asks, still chuckling while wiping some of the sand off my face.
“I can’t swim,” I blurt out randomly.
“Yes you can,” he says, confused. “We swam at my gym’s pool… Remember? It was the one and only time you’ve come to the gym.”
He arches a brow, and I clear my throat. “I mean I can’t swim today.”
See? I suck at being deceptive. And improv is so not my strong suit.
“Why?” he asks slowly, looking at me like the sand has somehow made me lose IQ points.
“Because… Because… Because sharks!”
Yeah… Said that too loudly.
Mrs. Marshall starts screaming, “Where?! Sharks! Where?”
Freaking eh.
Jax cocks an eyebrow at me, as my father assures Mrs. Marshall there are no sharks. “Drama queen, today, Bo?” Dad muses aloud.
Asshole. Asshole. Asshole!
“I mean, there will be sharks,” I tell Jax quieter, trying to dig myself out of my sandy grave. “I… They can smell blood from miles away. Like fifty miles or something.”
Yeah… No clue about sharks, so I’m just throwing out made-up facts.
“You bleeding?” he asks, suddenly more concerned and serious as he starts looking me over.
“My period! I just started my period! I’m bleeding something fierce,” I blurt out, wishing so badly that I could just shut the hell up and die. Maybe I need to slice my thumb and let a shark eat me for real.
Death, please be kinder than life.
My face feels like it’s on fire as Jax’s eyebrows go up. “Since this morning? Because… Well, you were fine this morning.”
I turn around to see my father doubled over as his entire body shudders visibly. He’s laughing! I hate him.
Mr. Marshall looks like he’s swallowed a bug, and he jerks his eyes away from me. Mrs. Marshall frowns, probably doing math in her head and realizing I won’t be making those rockstar grandbabies anytime soon.
Viv… Viv is covering her face as her body shakes with the same silent laughter as my father’s. When I turn back to face Jax, he’s still looking at me like I’m a crazy girl.
Probably because I am.
“Yes. Since this morning,” I lie. That lie ledger needs to be started so I can keep track. My period just ended, so there’s no chance of actually getting away with that lie if he tries to surprise me and inspect.
He frowns like he’s disappointed, and I almost decide it’d be worth a hypothetical shark attack to get in the water with him. But the sex cove is the sex cove for a reason. I swear that thing has mystical powers and arouses you the second you walk in.
“Come, Jax. Let’s surf,” Dad calls out, finally helping me instead of making my life harder.
Sighing and running a hand through his hair, Jax kisses me quickly and moves toward my father. I’m just making myself more suspicious by the second. Fortunately, there’s no way he can figure out who I am.
Just as I near the group again, a few of our family members (Yes, the people who work here are like family.) come out with surfboards. Dad and Jax take one, and surprisingly, so does Mr. Marshall.
“Bo and I used to surf when she was little. She was always athletic until she hit puberty,” Dad says on a sigh as his mind travels down memory lane.
“Really?” Jax asks with a smile.
I just sit down and let Dad talk. My mouth isn’t functioning properly today, and my brain is on a sabotage mission. Bora doesn’t even have a period because of the shot she takes for birth control. I’m really glad Jax doesn’t seem to know that fact.