Page 25 of Love to Hate You

“I prefer company when beating. Are you offering to pick up some of the slack?”

She ignored that. “You’d better be good, or I’m going to partner with Uncle G.” They looked at Giuseppe, who was leaning on his wife to make it down the beach.

“Face it, you need me to win. And I know how much you hate to lose.”

“Fine. But I’m the captain and you’re my skipper. And you know what rhymes with skipper? Zipper.” She made a zipper-over-the-mouth gesture. “Capisce?”

Chapter 10

fun and games

“You have to paddlewithme,” Summer snapped. “We’re going in circles.”

They weren’t just going in circles—they hadn’t even made it out past the break.

Summer was sweating through her shirt as if they’d gone half a mile, but they’d barely moved a yard. And wasn’t that a giant metaphor for her life, because it seemed that no matter how hard Summer paddled, the current kept pushing her back. She was a fighter, that’s how she was wired, but lately the fight had stolen some of the wind from her sails.

“Youare paddling in circles,” Wes took the liberty to inform her. “Iam paddling straight ahead.”

“Youare steering us straight into the shoreline! We’re aiming for the buoy, not the sand and—” Wes moved slightly, and his calf brushed against her thigh.

Summer had planned on being annoyed by the nearness of his presence, but she never imagined that the sight of a masculine, muscular calf could be so distracting. And with how they were situated in the kayak, with him behind her, his long legs encasing her, they were so close that anytime the boat so much as shifted they made contact—and her belly made butterflies.

But how could that be? They had zero in common.

He’s an attractive man, she admitted to herself. Tall and lean, with thick dark brown hair, sea blue eyes, and a jawline so sharp it could slice through steel. So the reaction she was having was totally normal. Right?

Right.

Summer blew out a puff of air to clear the hair from her eyes—and the image of his ass when he was crawling into the kayak from her mind. “Never mind. Just follow my lead.”

“Or, how about you let someone with collegiate-level experience take the lead,” he said.

“Me captain. You skipper. Remember?”

“I never agreed to that.”

“Of course you didn’t,” she said ironically. “Because why would you do something to make my day a little easier. Why stop the shit-on-Summer’s-vacay. Go ahead, have at it, Wes. What else am I doing wrong?” She stopped rowing and rested the paddle on her thighs. “Any more surprises that will inadvertently ruin my favorite week of the year? One week. That’s all I asked for. That’s all I ever ask for. One perfect week with my family. But, oh no, you and Randy had to come along and ruin it.”

Her voice cracked and,damnit,she felt emotions bubble up and tighten her throat. Blinking rapidly, she wiped the beginning of what she was horrified to call tears from her eyes on the neckline of her shirt. Her stupid Team Green shirt that matched Wes’s. Randy hadn’t just stolen her sister, he’d stolen her favorite color, leaving her to battle it out in pea green polyester that made her appear jaundiced.

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder and give it an awkward pat. “You still okay?” he whispered.

No, she was as far from okay as a woman on the verge of a breakdown could get. What was it about him that put her on edge? Sure, Autumn showing up with a boyfriend had put a wrench in her plans, but for some reason she was angrier about Wes. His unexpected appearance, his arrogant smile, his annoyingly sexy accent. All of it made screams of frustration build at the back of her throat to the point where she wanted to bellow in outrage. So she did.

Loud and long and from the deepest depths of her soul. “I! Am! Fine!”

There was a long, thick pause, and Summer was tempted to turn around to see the look on his face. But then he spoke, softly and compassionately. “You’re clearly not, love. Do you want to talk about it?”

Well, now she just felt stupid. He’d met her anger with compassion. God, he was infuriating.

“There’s no talking on the kayak, remember?” she said.

“Well, there’s no more paddling until you tell me what’s bothering you.”

That’s when Summer realized that while she’d put her paddle down, Wes had been paddling and they’d actually made some progress. They hadn’t reached the buoy, and the rest of the teams were shore-bound, but they were no longer spinning in circles. But then Wes put his paddle down and they started bobbing in the current.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

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