I blink back toward the water. “Confession…I was down here yesterday morning.”
“You were?”
I shrug.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice sounds sad.
I point up at his face. “That’s why! You turn into a sad puppy when you find out I’ve done fun things without you. I don’t like to rub it in when I know it’s not something you can swing.”
His hand squeezes mine and he pivots slightly to look down at me. “That’s very sweet on your part—and super pathetic on mine.”
I chuckle. “You don’t like to be left out. Nothing wrong with that.” I stare up into his eyes, feeling the space between us close a fraction. The same magnets that pulled us together in that hallway are working now. His thumb glides up and down my hand. I ache to tell him how perfect this feels between us.
“You’re not annoyed by my faults?” he asks, sounding perfectly serious.
“I don’t see it as a fault. It’s just you. Sort of how you never tell me to sort the piles of random crap in my apartment.”
He grins softly. “Who am I to mess up your system?”
“See, that’s why we work so well together. Best f—” I cut myself off and clamp my mouth shut. No more constant reminders of our friendship. I want more. And I’m pretty sure the first step is not claiming an old label.
He hums in suspicious amusement at my cutoff sentence. Then his eyes crinkle in the corners. “Well, you’re right. I don’t like missing out on fun with you. So let’s go swimming now.”
I shriek at that thought. “No way! It’s going to be so cold, and—AH!”
Nathan scoops me up in his arms and runs full steam ahead into the water. I scream and kick and think he’ll stop at the last moment and tell me he’s only kidding then take me back up to the beach. Nope. He dunks us both under the frigid water. The temperature can’t be more than 60 degrees, and I’m going to murder him! But when we resurface and he flashes me his sunshine smile, I lose my rage. He is happiness embodied. He is also sexiness embodied. His dark, wet shirt molds to him, and water droplets slide from his hair down that square jaw.
I bet I just look like a wet cat.
Nathan eyes me and my shivering body, and my suspicions are confirmed about how I look when he chuckles. “Are you cold?”
I glare at him. “No, I’m incredibly w-w-w-warm, you jerk!”
“Awww, I’m sorry. Come here.” He stretches out his long corded arm and pulls me up close to him, wrapping both arms around me as we are swayed by the water. I’m pressed against the hard planes of his body, and now I don’t feel so cold anymore. It’s a miracle!
I swallow, wondering for the hundredth time in the span of a few days what this is, what it means…
“Hey,” Nathan says, breaking through my thoughts and pushing my sticky wet hairs back from my face. “Are you happy, Bree?” His eyes trace the line of my mouth. I don’t know what this moment is exactly, but it feels important. My heart trembles.
“Very. Are you?” My gaze darts to his mouth and back up.
“Right now? Yes. I’m always happy when I’m with you.”
My lips part on an inhale. We’re going to kiss again. I can see it in his eyes, can feel it in his fingertips pressing me closer to him. The waves splash against our sides, and I wrap my arms around his neck, rising up on tiptoe to reach him. Our lips are just about to meet when Nathan’s head turns abruptly to the side.
For one terrible second, I think he just rejected me. I’m ready to slip away from him and swim into the ocean, never to return again, when he pivots both of our bodies so his back is to the shore. His eyes are stormy now when they look down at me.