14
Mysti
Out in the distance,surfers rode the waves ashore as they tried to squeeze the last remaining daylight out of the waning sun. I kept my eyes on Trenton, watching his muscles flex as his body bent, his feet pressing against the board that was the only thing keeping him from dropping straight into the ocean.
Someone plopped down on the log beside me, and the movement jostled me enough to remember the long skewer in my hand. I turned toward the blazing fire and pulled the metal stick from the flames.
“That’s unfortunate.” Miller gave me a grin as he held two bowls of coconut ice cream toward me. “Hope that wasn’t for me.”
“Only the ones there on the end,” I told him with a laugh as I pushed a chunk of scorched pineapple off my skewer and into the fire.
Half the fruit I’d been roasting was burned to a crisp. The ones closest to my grip were salvageable, as long as you didn’t mind the slight burn on one side.
Miller laughed with me as I pushed another chunk of fruit into the fire before dropping a few into each of the bowls.
“Oo! Can I have that one?”
“The banana?” He nodded, his eyes locked on my hand as I picked a thick chunk of banana from my bowl and dropped it into his. “Anything else?”
“Nah, that’s good.” Miller leaned forward, smacking my cheek with a quick kiss. “Thanks, babe.”
As fast as he’d arrived, my friend was gone, hightailing it to a group of guys standing around the bonfire a little further down the beach. I tucked a hair behind my ear, then turned my attention to my ice cream.
“That guy’s super creepy.”
I looked up and found a girl I’d never seen before sitting on the log next to mine, her skewer floating too far from the fire to do any good. “What guy? Miller?”
The girl shook her head, and her long blonde hair danced around her shoulders. “No, he’s…” Her cheeks darkened and she dipped her head before she looked back to me. “No. I meant that guy.”
She pointed toward the shore, and I traced the path between her finger and the long-haired man climbing out of the sea. A smile split my lips, and I turned from Trenton to her.
“Him? What’s so creepy about him?”
She leaned closer, and the tip of her skewer finally reached the fire. “He keeps staring over here. Like, every time he comes to shore.”
My eyes widened. “Oh?”
She nodded, then scooted closer on her log. “I think he’s looking at you. It’s super stalkerish.”
“Really?”
“I think he’s been watching you. And just now?” She shifted her gaze, peeking toward the beach, to where Trenton had planted his board in the sand and was pulling his wetsuit off his arms. “When Miller was here, he was downright glaring.”
“You don’t say?” I scooped up a bite of ice cream and a hunk of roasted peach.
The girl nodded earnestly, then glanced at the fruit sizzling on the end of her skewer. As she settled it over the flames, I returned my gaze to Trenton. He was stalking up the beach, eyes dark and that wetsuit flapping as his long strides turned into a run.
“I’m Anne Marie, by the way.”
“I’m Mysti,” I told her before holding a finger up. “Hold that thought.”
Setting my bowl aside, I stood and rushed toward Trenton, meeting him not far from the log where the girl sat. And like the first time we met, he swept me off my feet.
With my arms around his neck and his tight around my waist, Trenton lifted me and spun. Our lips met, and even as my feet flew out behind me, I could feel the wild beat of his heart against my chest.
A girlish giggle climbed my throat as Trenton finally set me on my feet. I gripped his cheeks between my palms, kissing him again and again and again.
“How is it I missed you so much when I’ve been watching you this whole time?”