Page 11 of The Catch

“Pretty good.” He gave her a smile that said that was a modest assessment. “What’s Cat short for?”

“Catia.”

“Catia.” He repeated her. Sort of. His accent made it sound more likecatcherwithout the R. It was absolutely adorable. She considered officially changing the pronunciation right then and there.

“It’s Ca-tee-ah,” she corrected him, rolling her tongue in a way she knew he couldn’t replicate.

“That’s not what I said?”

“Try again.”

“Catia.”

She shook her head, laughing. “It’s hopeless.”

Josh laughed now, too, shrugging. “Nah. I just need to keep saying it. Over and over and over.”

He looked down at her with this soft smile and something in her shoulders loosened. Something she hadn’t even realized was permanently wrenched tight. She could definitely listen to him say her name a few more times.

It was Dylan’s voice she heard next, though, calling to them from offshore.

“Hey, lovebirds,” he yelled. Josh gave Cat a long-suffering look, then waved at his friend. “Enough sunbathing. Let’s see what these things can do.”

“Where do you want to go now?” Josh asked when they’d rejoined the group.

Dylan pointed. “Let’s race to the buoys.”

Cat held a hand above her eyes and squinted at the finish line. She could barely make it out.

“I’ll wait here,” Sonya said.

Dani hoisted herself up onto Dylan’s jet ski, her blonde ponytail dripping. “Sonya, what are you going to do? Bob like a seagull until he comes back?”

Dylan winked. “If I come back.”

“No one is getting left,” Josh said, grabbing their vests from the sand where he’d dropped them. Cat took hers and followed him, this time letting him offer her a hand up onto the jet ski.

Sonya finally relented, climbing up behind Dani, and Dylan taxied his jet ski until they were side by side, gearing up like a racehorse bucking the gate.

“Count of three,” Dylan said, then he nudged Dani and grabbed the throttle.

Dani held three fingers up like one of those ring girls in a boxing match. She made a chopping motion with her arm as she counted. “Three. Two…”

Josh leaned into Cat’s chest and tipped his head back, so his mouth brushed her ear. “You trust me?”

“Not even a little bit.”

Josh laughed, his chest shaking beneath her fingers where she held onto his vest. As much as she wanted that to be true, it wasn’t. She suspected he knew that.

“One!” Dani yelled. The nose of their jet ski lifted as Josh gunned the gas. Cat held on tight, pressing her forehead into Josh’s back, and clenched her eyes shut. Wind kicked up the surf as Josh accelerated, and the spray stung her cheeks. They hit a large wave, her tailbone smashing into the seat, then another that made the nose of the jet ski dive as they landed, pushing her even closer to him. If that were possible.

The engine whined, then Josh shifted, and they bounced again. She had to squeeze her thighs around him to keep from being thrown into the ocean, and her body couldn’t decide if she was turned on or terrified. Now that she couldn’t see him, and he wasn’t doing that thing where he looked at her like they had lifetimes between them, she was remindedthat she didn’t even know him. Here she was putting her life in his hands. It would serve her right to die out here.

But just as Cat was devising a plan to come back from the dead and haunt Sonya and Dani, the engine throttled down, and the painful spray of water petered out. She dared to open her eyes and saw Dylan still riding away at top speed, his middle finger raised high above his head, while Josh curved them in a gentle arc away from the wake to where the surface was smooth and glassy.

He cut the engine and let the machine bob in the water.

Cat blinked at him, wiping wet strands of hair from her forehead. “You didn’t want to win?”

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