Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“I’m going to be honest. And you’re going to kick me out of this tub.” I took a deep breath. “I love to watch people try to do cool skateboard tricks and then totally eat it.”
A laugh exploded from him.
“I told you, I’m terrible!”
“No, you’re not!” His shoulders shook with the force of his laughter. “That was one of my favorite pastimes in college.”
“No, it wasn’t.” I felt a little silly, but somewhat vindicated, if he was telling the truth.
He nodded vigorously. “There was a park I loved to go to because there were so many people, well, not on skateboards, but inline skating. I would sit at the bottom of this hill and watch people come down it face-first. It wasn’t funny if it was a kid. I would have felt bad laughing about that. But these guys who took it seriously? Yes, I loved it. I loved watching them fall down.”
I watched him wipe tears of laughter from his eyes, and I couldn’t help but laugh too.
“Okay, okay, what about this one. Equally horrible,” I said, and cleared my throat. “When somebody spoiled has their wedding ruined. Bonus points if it’s because someone else proposed during the wedding.”
“You didn’t seem to think ruined weddings were so funny before,” he reminded me, and it was a little scolding.
I lifted my chin. “Joke’s on you. I loved that Scott didn’t marry Lauren. But I didn’t like the way that particular wedding got ruined. You almost died.”
“Yes, I remember.” He slid his scarred leg against my thigh. “That’s two.”
“TikToks of people criticizing recipe videos.” I’d been missing those in my time on the island. “Almost-new lip balm.”
He raised an eyebrow, on the edge of being disgusted. “Almost new? Secondhand?”
“No.” I laughed. “No, when you get a new tube of lip balm, there’s this thin ridge around the edge. I like it better when that edge has worn down because you don’t get way too much from it crumbling.”
“These are very specific. I was imagining ‘kittens’ or ‘warm socks.’”
“Those things are nice,” I agreed. “But is anything as nice as smoking a joint on the beach?”
“Is that your fifth thing?” he asked.
I nodded.
“I’m pretty sure I can make you happy.” He stood, water sluicing down every ridge of muscle on his torso. I wanted to claw my nails into his ribs. I wanted to sink my teeth into his pecs.
“Come on,” he said, either not noticing or outright ignoring my lustful appreciation. “Let’s go smoke on the beach.”
****
Most of the resort guests were at the castle. Apparently, there was a BDSM exhibition in the theater that night. People performing on stage and everything. The rest of the place was fairly deserted. We saw a giggling foursome sneaking into one of the canvas-curtained bungalows near the sand’s edge, and Matt nodded to them with a slanted smile.
“You love owning this place,” I observed.
He took a deep, contented breath. “I do.”
“You like making people happy.”
“I do,” he repeated.
“Sexually happy?”
He considered. “All kinds of happy. My life has been… I don’t want to say easy. Life isn’t easy on anyone. But I haven’t been deprived of anything, in a material sense. I haven’t known what it’s like to go without food, to worry about whether or not I’ll have a place to live. And I recognized very early how unfair that is.”
“A lot of people in your position would have rationalized that away,” I said.
He’d tucked a joint behind his ear for the walk down. With his dark curls a little grown out, he looked like a cool kid in an eighties movie. “I know they do. I’ve heard all about it. My dad was a big believer in the concept of ‘deserving’ wealth. If you had it, you deserved it. If you didn’t have it, you were lazy. Shortsighted. Poor.”
It wasn’t a funny truth, but the way he pronounced poor as if he had a permanently thrust-forward chin made me laugh.
The sugar-fine sand squished through my toes, and I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling. Everyone thought people who lived in California had a beach at their doorstep, but I rarely made it out to the ocean. It was at least a three-hour drive. The sound of the gently rolling surf and the pleasant ache in my calves as they adjusted to the resistance of the sand distracted me so much that I didn’t realize I’d walked ahead of Matt.
“Charlotte?”
I turned and spotted him standing at the edge of the sidewalk, cane in hand.
“You wouldn’t mind?” he asked sheepishly, indicating his arm.
I hurried back. “Oh my gosh, yes. You can lean on me.”
He looped his arm through mine. “Hopefully, I won’t need to. But balancing gets trickier—”
“As the night wears on,” I finished for him. “I noticed.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, like he didn’t want to smile. “You notice a lot, huh?”