A huge guy with overalls and a construction hat walks up to me with a hard, pissed-off look on hisface.
“We can’t have you here, miss,” he says, his voice gruff like broken glass and not in a good way. He gestures toward the scene behind him and shakes his head as he looks me up and down. I can’t tell if he thinks I should know better or that I’m a totally clueless lost cause. “You could gethurt.”
“But I was invited.” I lift the pizza boxes I’m holding. “And I broughtlunch!”
“Name?” he says as he crosses his arms and cocks his head. This guy doesn’t have time for bullshit. He’s on the clock. I respectthat.
“Cindy.”
He turns around, hands on his hips, and hollers over thedin.
“Anyone here namedCindy?”
“Oh,” I say as my cheeks blush. “No,I’mCindy.”
“She’s with me,” I hear Eli say as he appears out of nowhere and grabs me, pulling me aside and dragging me to the back of the house. I watch as the shocked eyes of everyone around us snap our way. I can barely keep up with him as he keeps pulling me. He grabs the pizza boxes and puts all except one on a table. “Everyone go to lunch.” His eyes meet mine. “You’re withme.”
We get out back where there’s a gorgeous view of the ocean. He leads me down to the sand and we sit and get cozy as he opens the pizza box. I immediately dive in and take two slices, stacking them one on top of theother.
“What are you doing over there?” he asks, cocking an eyebrow atme.
“What?” I ask. “This is how the person on the go eats pizza. You put one slice on top of the other and you eat them in tandem.” I take a bite and the stretchy cheese pulls. Pizza in New York is the best but honestly this isn’t so bad. “Mmmm.” Eli looks at me like I have a screwloose.
“What?”
“I think the ‘what’ here should beobvious.”
“Oh, please don’t tell me you don’t know about this,” I say. “Iknowyou know aboutthis.”
“I do not know about this,” he says with a littlechuckle.
“Yes you do. I’ve done this in front of you before. My seventeenth birthday. Movie night. Double feature. Double pizza. Tell me you rememberthis.”
Please rememberthis.
“Yeah.” He nods as he looks out over the water. It feels like he’s trying to avoid looking at me or something. That’s fine. That means I can keep looking at him without him noticing me gawking. “Now Iremember.”
“Hey, maybe we can do another double feature.” I hold up my slices. “Double feature, doublepizza.”
I watch as his jawclenches.
“Yeah,” he says. “That could befun.”
“How long are you in town for, anyway?” Iask.
“Just untiltomorrow.”
“Oh.” My shoulders slump as he looks over atme.
“But I’m coming back in a few weeks and then I’ll be staying a littlelonger.”
“I’m happy to hear that.” I scoot closer to him and he leans into me, knocking his shoulder against me softly. A breeze tangles through my hair and I smile up at him, and when he looks down at me with his intense, deep jade eyes, I feel something new stir and swirl inside me. He’s always been so sweet and kind. Now he’s looking at me like I’ve never been looked at before. Certainly the wayhe’snever looked at mebefore.
His chiseled features and wide jaw, his green eyes, his ruffly hair, his muscles…I’m familiar with all of it. But…there’s something new there, too. There’s something dark about his gaze. Something I don’t quiteunderstand.
“Nice night,” hesays.
“Yeah,” I say as I smile and tear my eyes away from his to look out over the ocean. “Itis.”