“I’ll go with you to the rim to see them off,” she says.
I look from her to her friend and Austin, and I’m confused. “You don’t have to….”
Jax unexpectedly slides her arm through mine. “You look a little shaken.”
What is happening? Why is she doing this instead of finishing the hike with her friend?
“I didn’t think you’d want to miss out on the hot spring. Some people say it’s the best part of the tour,” I stammer, feeling anxiety sweat at her touch, on top of the usual layer of tropics sweat. I’m anxious not because I don’t want her to touch me but because I know how this goes. One false move on my part, one misinterpreted flirtation, and I’m out in the cold.
She replies, “The best part of the tour was watching you save that kid.”
“Austin did most of the work,” I say.
Jax laughs as we make our way down the side of the mountain, following the golf cart carrying the kid’s family.
“You should learn how to take a compliment,” she says.
Thoughtlessly, I say, “You must be very used to compliments.”
“Why, because I’m a model?”
“No, because you’re angelically beautiful.”
Chapter Six
Jax
People all my life told me I was pretty. When I grew up, they said I was “hot.”
Nobody ever said “angelically beautiful.”
As soon as we drop Isaac and his family back at the villas, I can tell Brooks wants to ask me something. For starters, he cuts the motor of our little electric golf cart. The sudden silence enhances the crashing of waves, the sea bird calls, the sounds of complete relaxation. I lower my shoulders, remembering what yesterday’s yoga instructor kept telling me.
“May I treat you to lunch?”
I blink at him. “You do know my lunches are included in the resort package.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
Oh, no. Does he think I just turned him down?
But then his face breaks into a shy smile as he rests his sunglasses on top of his head. “Please tell me you’re fucking with me again because offering food is about all I know how to do around a beautiful woman.”
I shouldn’t fuck with my new nerd friend. But he’s so adorable when he’s flustered; I can’t resist fucking with him.
“Sure,” I tell him. “I could emotionally stuff my face with something after nearly watching that kid plummet to his death.”
His gaze leaves mine like he’s thinking of a place to go.
“I know the perfect place for emotional face stuffing, but it’s just outside the resort. I know it well.”
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Brooks was trying to be charming.
“I thought Cerulean owned the entire island.”
He nods. “It does. We have to go by boat to one of the keys.”
“As long as you don’t grab my ass again,” I tease.