Page 17 of Chasing Sunsets

I tilt my head up slightly, and our mouths are only a centimeter apart. “I think I’m done with love for a while.”

His eyes flick to my lips and back. “So, just a passionate affair, then?”

“You’re incorrigible,” I whisper.

“You have no idea,” he replies with a hint of a smirk.

He tilts his head, and just as he’s about to kiss me, I pull back. His eyes widen in surprise as he slowly sits back.

“You know what I’m really looking for?” I ask him.

“What’s that?” he inquires.

“A friend,” I answer.

He repeats, “A friend,” his voice filled with disappointment.

“Yeah. Pete and Freda are the only people I know here, and they’re great, but they aren’t exactly up to showing me everything the island has to offer.”

He nods. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I’ll be your friend, Tabby. The first item on our friendship agenda is getting you a phone.”

“A phone? Ugh, it’s been nice, not being tied to one of those,” I reply, complaining.

“Yes, a phone! I just upgraded, so you can have my old one. How else will we make plans, take selfies, and text each other to complain about boys, my friend?”

“Fine. I’ll dip into my savings and get a cheap phone plan. But I’m not getting a data package—call and text only.”

“Deal, bestie,” he says, winking at me as he lifts his cup and takes a swig.

He’s going to be a handful. I just know it.

Anson

The deck of the boat smells like fish guts and saltwater, but after years of this, I don’t even notice anymore. The late afternoon sun beats down on us as we hose off the remnants of the day’s charter. The tourists had a hell of a time, reeling in snapper and mahi-mahi, snapping pictures like they’d conquered the ocean. Sebby and Donnie Dale took off as soon as we docked. Now, it’s just me, Sebastian, and Parker, scrubbing the deck, rinsing the rods, putting everything back in order before we dock for the night.

Parker is the first one to bring it up.

“So, Anson,” he says, dragging the hose across the deck, a smirk already curling his lips, “how’d it go with Tabby last night?”

He and Audrey were grilling on the deck when I returned after delivering the wind chimes to Sabel last night. When I declined to join them for burgers, I told them about my plans to take Tabby to dinner.

“Who’s Tabby?” Sebastian asks.

Parker turns to him and says, “Do you remember the girl I mentioned who walked into Margot’s store, thinking it was a pawnshop? Lover boy here spent fifteen hundred dollars to buy her ring because he thought she was hot.”

“Oh, yeah. That was funny as shit,” Sebastian says, his amused eyes looking at me. “What the hell are you gonna do with a woman’s ring?”

“Nothing. I was just helping out a girl in need. Assholes.”

“Uh-huh. Bet if she’d been a man in need instead, you’d have sent him to the nearest legit pawnshop,” he mutters.

I let out a breath, scraping fish scales off the side rail with my knife. “Whatever. And to answer the question, the date was fine.”

Sebastian snorts. “That all you got?It was fine? That ain’t how you usually talk about a date.”

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