This Summer Will Be Different(25)

“Your family’s been bragging about you,” I said. “I told them I didn’t believe you could shuck as fast as they claimed without stabbing yourself.”

His mouth inched up on one side. “I did well last year.”

“Dad’s already given her the full play-by-play,” Bridget said. “Mom says you’re clean, but not quick enough. I think it’s an excuse—they’re trying to feed us two weeks’ worth of food in one night.” After the oysters, a lobster boil, then two kinds of dessert: strawberry shortcake (my favorite) and blueberry-peach pie (Bridget’s).

“Without question. We better get started. Think you can keep up, Lucy? Being a timer is a very important job.” He looked right at me, eyes flaring like a warning signal. “You can’t take your attention off me for a second.”

I ignored the wave of heat spreading across my chest and tossed my hair over my shoulder. “You bet your shucking ass I can.”

Bridget and Felix groaned.

“What?” I said. “I thought that was a good one.”

“Your shucking puns are brutal, Bee. Please stop,” Bridget said, picking up the scattered cobs of corn. She tossed one at her brother’s head. “And you stop flirting with my friend.”



* * *



? ? ?

I stood beside Felix in the kitchen, stopwatch app at the ready. My eyes caught on the small silver scar on his wrist.

“Someone distracted me,” he said, tapping his knife on the mark. I lifted my gaze to his. “It was worth it.”

“She must have been cute,” Bridget quipped from behind me.

He smiled at me. “The most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.”

Danger. Danger. Danger.

I watched Felix shuck three dozen oysters. I stared at his bronzed hands, tracked the tendons in his forearms. I listened to the little grunts he made. After he’d finished, he passed me an oyster, and when his finger brushed against mine, I felt it low in my belly. I was so riled up, I spilled a tray of ice and shells down the front of my dress and darted upstairs to shower before dinner. I needed to collect myself.

One more night.

I’d just locked the bathroom door behind me when I realized I’d already packed my body wash in my suitcase. I wrapped a towel around myself, opened the door, spun into the hall, and ran straight into a solid wall. A wall that smelled like ocean and wind and pine. For a second, I stood frozen.

Felix’s hands swept over my shoulders. “You all right?”

I kept my eyes on his chest. “Yep. Good. Thanks.”

He chuckled, and the sound slipped down to my toes, warm as Ken’s rye. His calloused palms moved slowly down my arms, leaving a trail of blazing skin in their wake. I remembered feeling that same scrape over my waist and thigh, pushing my legs apart.

His hands came to rest on my elbows, and my fingers found their way to his stomach. I lifted my chin as he lowered his. Our eyes collided. I stared into those blue pools, at that little smudge of brown, spellbound. Felix stepped closer, or maybe I did, until the entire front of my body was flattened against his. I moved my lips toward his, or maybe it was the other way around.

“Do you want this?” His voice was a rasp.

Ken’s bellowing laugh sounded downstairs. I split apart from Felix, leaping back into the bathroom as the opening siren from Sloan’s “Money City Maniacs” wailed from the stereo. Felix followed me right in.

I gaped at him. “You can’t be in here.”

“I can’t?” He looked down to where my index fingers were hooked around his belt loops. I’d dragged him into the bathroom. I let go immediately. But instead of leaving, Felix shut the door, then stepped around me and turned on the hot water, letting the shower run. Steam began to fill the space.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” I said as he moved closer. “We have rules.”

“I know we do.” His eyes flicked to my lips, then to the three moles under my collarbone. “Otherwise things might be different.”

I wiggled my towel higher up my chest. I didn’t need to look to know it was redder than PEI dirt. “They would?”

“Otherwise, I would kiss you right now.” His focus landed on my mouth once more. “And I think you would kiss me back. I think you were about to kiss me in the hall. I think you were thinking about it yesterday on the beach, too.”

I lifted my chin. “So what if I was?”

The ends of Felix’s hair were already curling in the steam, and I was fighting the urge to touch it. His eyes skated lower.

“So you’d kiss me back and then I’d unwrap that towel, and turn you around so you were holding on to the counter.” He glanced at the vanity by the sink. A drip of condensation ran down the mirror.

My heart pounded wildly. There was a foot of humid air separating us, and I’d never been so turned on. “I hope you’re not still dressed at this point.”

The left corner of Felix’s mouth hooked up. “Just socks.”

I laughed, but it was frothy and nervous. I could barely feel my legs. My skin was growing slick from the steam.

“Do you want to know what would happen next?” His teeth skimmed over his bottom lip.

“Yes,” I breathed.

“I’d pull your hips back, and put my hand between your thighs, and kiss the skin between your shoulder blades. And when you were close, I’d tell you to wipe the fog off the mirror so we could watch.”