Page 138 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

I’d just spent all morning dedicating every ounce of brain juice I possessed to learning how to please him. He didn’t know that, sure, but still. There was no way a little snarking was going to frighten me away. I was made of far sturdier stuff than that.

Besides. We only had a few more days left. And I refused to waste any of them.

Until the end of the wedding, George was stuck with me.

I was the peanut to his butter, after all.

“You’re pink, Georgie,” I said, crouching into the sand at his back. “Did you put on sunscreen?” I kept a watchful eye on his bandage-covered fingers, but he dutifully kept them out of the sand as much as he was able.

“Of course I did,” George huffed, stuffing his bucket full as his shoulders climbed higher and higher. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Idiot,” Mavis repeated, her small ears sharp as always.

“Are you sure you did?” I teased, still crouching. The sand was cool, whichwas unsurprising, given the fact that the beach had been mostly shaded all morning. Soon it’d heat up just like the water, molten to the touch. “It doesn’t look like you did.” Reaching up, I skimmed my fingers along the edge of his oversized t-shirt, just to taunt him.

He wasn’t shirtless, which came as no surprise.

What was a surprise, however, was the sheer size of the shirt he sported. It washugeon him, drooping over his slim frame and gaping at the shoulder where it slipped low. The skin there was especially pink—and not because he was embarrassed.

Which meant my teasing turned to real concern.

“How long has it been?” I’d been gone for a while. And I genuinely had no idea how long June had kept George occupied. Judging by the piles of sand surrounding him, he had to have been out here in the high heat for quite some time.

“A while,” George admitted, shivering as I continued to stroke the pink skin.

“Baby I don’t know if you realize this?—”

“Stop calling me that.”

“You like it,” I shut him down immediately, keeping my voice quiet enough his family couldn’t hear.

“Ugh.”

And then, as if he hadn’t interrupted at all, I continued, “But sunscreen doesn’t last forever. And you are paler than milk.”

“Okay, so maybe I didn’t put it on my shoulders.” George flinched, like he expected me to get mad at him. Why? I frowned, squinting. Reading his mind was my new favorite hobby. George betrayed himself before I could figure it out on my own. “I wasn’ttryingto lie,” he shrank, peeking at me through his lashes again, head tilted away. “I know you don’t like liars.”

“Don’t like…” It took me a second to remember why he knew that. Right. The car ride. My ex. I’d told George I didn’t like liars. Outright. “Oh.Hey.” His cheek was warm beneath my hand as I tipped his face back toward mineover his shoulder. “I didn’t mean stuff likethis, Georgie. Everyone lies alittle.”

“Right,” he sniffed, obviously confused.

Sweet thing didn’t want to do something to upset me.

“It’s just the big stuff that bothers me,” I promised. He still did not look convinced. Mavis made an angry sound, diverting both our attention. I’d honestly gotten so absorbed in him I’d nearly forgotten we weren’t alone.

Across the mess of sand, George’s family was observing us with blatant curiosity. Mrs. M looked like she was going to begin applauding any second. A frankly diabolical smile graced her lips—almost as evil as June’s, but not quite. Lacey and Joe were more subtle, but the hand gesture Lacey made to simulate sex made it clear that she was just as open to teasing despite her stoicism.

“Sorry,” George hadn’t noticed, absorbed by Mavis once again. “Alex distracted me. I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

Mavis gave me the stink eye. God-level stink eye. And I couldn’t even be mad, because honestly, she’d had George first, and here I was, swooping in and stealing him. I deserved that. But…I was also too stubborn to leave.

I’d been aching for him all fucking day.

Bending over backward, putting myself out on the line for him, taxing my brain when I was supposed to be onvacation. The least I deserved was a bit of banter, right? Some solid attention from my grouchy blond beau? It was only fair.

“You got room for a second architect?” I asked Mavis, “after I get some sunscreen on your uncle, of course.”

She squinted like it was very, very difficult to imagine a world where I was allowed to join them. And then she nodded, a jerky up and down that made her off-center pigtail bob. “You can make the moat.”

---