Veer (Clayton Falls) (22 page)

I didn
’t give him a chance to respond.
I slipped inside his bathroom
and
closed
the door behind me.

I finished quickly and came back out to find him reclining on the bed
,
fully exposed.

“You’re really comfortable in your own skin
,
aren’t you?”
I wished I could have even half of that confidence.

“Do I have any reason not to be?”

“Of course not,” I said quickly.

“Then come join me.”

I walked over and curled up with him again
, pulling
the sheet back over us because I felt more comfortable that way. “Don’t say anything.”

“I won’t.
”

“That bathroom is
so
completely wasted on you, it’s ridiculous.”

He chuckled. “Why exactly is it wasted?”

“No man living alone needs a soaking tub, a shower to die for
,
an
d
a double vanity. I mean
,
come on.”

“Well you’re welcome to come over and use it whenever you want
,
but just know you’re going to have company.”

“
Very funny. But seriously, I think I’m in love with your place. It’s a loft, you have an amazing bathroom, incredible views of the ocean—is there anything better?”

“I’m glad you like it here. I hope you’ll decide to spend a lot of your time here
,
and I mean a lot.”

“I might be persuaded to spend another night or two.”

“A night or t
w
o? If that’s what you’re saying
,
I haven’t done my job.”

He pulled off the sheet, positioning himself over me.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I am.” He grinned. “We have lost time to make up for.” His lips returned to my neck
. T
hey seemed to always find their way there.

I had difficulty finding the words I needed. “Lost time? We’ve only known each other
a few
weeks.”

“
That means
we have
weeks to make up for.”

“
What about breakfast? I’m pretty hungry
.”

He laughed. “I’ll take you to breakfast
.
I promise.”

***

Gavin was true to his word. We
headed hand in hand
to breakfast at Surf Song. We were seated at a table right by the open windows, giving us a great view of the water.
The beach was crowded. A few volleyball nets were strung up, and a group of girls were already lying out for the day. The surf was calm, and
I watched as several kids ran out into the water
.

“Well, hello there
.”
Kelly approached our table with Tom right behind her.

“Hey, man.” Gavin greeted Tom with a grin.

“Out for a breakfast date, huh?” Tom pulled out the
table’s
two remaining chairs.

“More of a continuation of a date that started last night.” Gavin found my hand and squeezed it under the table.
Had he really just said that?

As if he
’d
read my mind, he leaned
over and whispered in my ear. “Just so we have it straight, we
definitely will not
be keeping this between the two of us.”

I smiled and met Kelly’s wide eyes. “Nice
,
” she mouthed.

“I guess it’s a little late to ask, but
mind if we join you?” Tom
signaled for the waiter.

“No, be
our
guest
s
.”

“
W
hat are you guys up to today?” Kelly perused the menu. I already knew I
wanted
the
strawberry French toast again. I was starving.

“I thought we’d take the boat out,” Gavin answered for us.

“Cool. It’s a nice day for that.”
Tom picked up his menu.

“Tom, if you guys want to come,
it’s fine
. I’m sure Becca won’t mind.
You’ll
keep me
well-
behaved.”

Where was this side of Gavin coming from?
It was like when he told Ronny
we were together
,
but worse. Was that really just the night before? So much had happened in
less than
twenty-four hours
.

“No way. We are not crashing your date. We already crashed breakfast. Besides, we’ll see you at
Molly and Ben’s tonight, right?” Kelly asked.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that.”
I took a sip of water, hoping the waitress would
be over soon to take our order
s
.

“Are they having something tonight?”

“Yeah, Ben’s
barbequing
.”

“I don’t recall getting an invitation to this shindig
,
but I’m guessing Becca’s unofficially came with a plus one.”

“Shindig?”
I laughed.

He smiled. “Yeah,
you have a problem with my choice of words?”

“God
,
no. If you are as sensitive about that as
you are about
your accent
,
I’m in trouble.”

“I don’t have an accent.”

I groaned. “Please no.”
There was no way I was going down that road again.

***

I’d never been one for boats
.
It’s not that I didn’t like
them
;
it was more of a trust issue. For a girl who loved swimming, it probably didn’
t make much sense, but I hated the idea of being out on the water. When I tried to explain it to Gavin
,
he’d laughed. It wasn’t a mean laugh, but
he pretty much told me I was crazy.

“I promise, we’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t really change anything.”

“My p
romise doesn’t mean anything?”
H
e
sounded slightly offended.
We were having this conversation through the partially closed door of my bathroom. I still felt weird changing into a swim suit with him watching.

“It’s not about your promise
. I
t’s about the boat.” I walked out of the bathroom, enjoying the expression on Gavin’s face.

He’d asked me to wear the red bikini again, but I figured he’d like the yellow one just as much. “Did you hear me?” I teased
. H
is eyes still hadn’t moved back up to my face.

“
Y
ou’re really refusing to come out on the boat?”

“No. I didn’t say I wouldn’t go, just that I was nervous about it.”

“Oh.” He smiled. “That’s different.”

“I don’
t usually let my fears get in the way of living.” I wanted the statement to be true, even though it usually wasn’t.

“Are you ready?”

I slipped on a white cotton cover up dress and some flip flops. “Sure, let’s do this.”

He laughed. “Don’t make it sound like
I’m taking you to your execution.
”

“For all you know, you are.”

He took my hand,
pulling me against him. “I’m
not.”

“You promise?”

“Uh huh.” His voice was husky as his lips brushed against my neck. “But we can stay here if you really want.”

“Two minutes ago, you were pushing me out the door.”

“That was before you came out wearing that bikini.” His lips barely left my skin, and he started to slip a hand under my cover up.

I
pushed his hand away
. He groaned.

“We’re leaving.” There was no way w
e were hooking up in the Mathew
s
’
s
pool house. Besides, I’d finally geared myself up for the boat ride
.
I wasn’t backing out.

He
reluctantly moved away a little. “You’re no fun.”

“That’s not what you
said
a few hours ago.”

“You were fun a few hours ago…”

“
If you keep this up
,
I’m going to think you
’
r
e
only using me for sex.”

He straightened up and practically towed me from the house. “That’s ridiculous.
Don’t ever think that.” I could feel tension in him.

He rushed us out to his car
and helped me in
. “Gavin?”

“Yeah?” He pulled away
from the curb
and headed toward the dock where he kept his boat.

“I was only joking back there.”

“Are you sure? I hope so. I can
’t help the way I am around you,
but I want you for a lot more than that.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

He put a hand on my leg. “Please do.”

We parked at the m
arina, and he led me over to a
small white boat. As we
boarded
,
I tried to swallow my nerves. He squeezed my hand reassuring
ly
. “You’re going to be fine.”

I took a seat, holding on as Gavin started up the
motor
.

I closed my eyes as he got ready to
steer us
out
of the marina
. “I can do this.”

He laughed. “You can open your eyes
.
I swear it’s okay.”

We
skimmed
quickly
over the gentle swells,
and the breeze off the water felt great with the mid-day heat.
He drove us out for a few more minutes before stopp
ing
and
turning
off the engine.

I leaned back on my arms, enjoying the way the sun felt on my skin.
If I concentrated on the sun, I could almost forget we were out on the water.

“You’re gorgeous.”

I looked up
.
Gavin watch
ed
me.

“Thank you.”

“I mean it.
”

“You don’t look so bad yourself
,
you know.” What an understatement. I
don’
t think I’d ever
get tired of looking at Gavin—especially
with
his shirt off.

“Tell me something about you that no one
else
knows.”
He shifted so
that
he
faced
me.

Talk about a conversation change. “
Something no one knows?”

“Yeah. I want to know a secret.”

A few months ago
,
it would have been hard to come up with something, but with Mom gone
,
I now had lots of secrets. I glanced at him
. H
e was
still
watching me carefully.

“I’m sure you don’t want to know any of my secrets.”

“Sure I do. I want to know everything about you.”
He place
d
a hand on my leg. I loved how he always found a way to touch me.

“Yeah right.”

“I do.”

There was something so comforting about Gavin. Staring into his eyes for just a few minutes was enough to ease my nerves. In some ways
,
it felt
as if
we were in our own little cocoon. After talking to Molly
,
one secret was really on my mind.

“My parents didn’t want me.”

“What?” Gavin
grabbed my hand
. “Why would you say that?”

“You asked for a secret…”

“Okay.” He paused as if choosing his words carefully. “Why would you think that? I know your dad left
,
but you said you were close to your mom…”

“My dad left because my mom wasn’t around. I wasn’t exactly planned.
M
om traveled for work
,
so my dad had to do a lot
at home
. He eventually snapped.”