Page 188 of Tenderfoot

Should I tell him I was falling in love with him?

“Baby,” he whispered, his face the picture of warmth, his glamorous golden eyes soft and doting.

He read my mind again.

And I was right.

He was falling too.

“You’re the best boyfriend ever, Javier Montoya,” I stated.

He smiled and rolled us so I was on top again, then he sat up so I was straddling him.

“And you give as good as you get, Harlow O’Neill,” he replied.

I dazzled him with a smile.

And then Javi kissed me, and he dazzled me with something altogether different.

TWENTY-FIVE

“WE ARE FAMILY”

(SISTER SLEDGE)

Learn this from me.

When it rains, it pours.

No, really, it’s not just a saying. It’s the God’s honest truth.

I learned this the next day, after the Javi’s Dad Drama when we all decided to go to The Surf Club to make sure Dream would continue to be employed after the weekend. Reports were, her first day under Tex’s critical stare and Tito’s quiet support was a little rocky.

Truth told, I didn’t go for that reason. I didn’t think any of us did. Only Luna did, because she was a good sister even if that was far from reciprocated.

And Raye, Cap, Jessie, Eric, Shanti, Willow, Brady, Roam, Indy, Ally, Annette, Roxie, Mace, Stella and Javi didn’t go for that reason either.

The dudes, my guess: it was for the food (Lucia’s weekend replacement was given strict written instructions from Lucia so the food always maintained Lucia’s level of quality).

The chicks, no need to guess: it was for Luna.

We’d amassed a bunch of tables and were sitting in the middle of SC. Every once in a while, one of us would get up to show Dream the ropes about something, but it seemed she was getting the hang of it pretty fast.

Well, the work part of it.

The customer service part…uh, not so much.

Even if it might make me a bad person, I had to admit that I got a charge out of watching Dream try to be nice.

Maybe she didn’t have a problem with Luna.

Maybe she was just mean to everybody.

Sure, this often came Luna’s way, but I honestly hadn’t even seen her be nice to her parents, not really. Mostly with them, she was needy and whiny.

Maybe some people were just not nice people, and sadly for Luna, Louise and Scott, Dream was one of them.

It was also weird being at SC and not working (oh, also weird? Byron wasn’t there on Sundays—maybe he did have a life outside of SC).

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