Page 15 of The Beach House
“Three,” he said, “two—”
We both took off, kicking up sand, on “two,” like we knew the other would. I was laughing, a massive smile plastered on my face and the sea breeze tangling my hair as I ran. Feet slipping on the dry, fine sand, I felt so childish, racing him down to the water.
I loved it.
And I loved Noah. But, man, I so wanted to beat him right then.
I was pulling ahead; he was about two steps behind me when I dared to glance back at him. The sand was becoming damper and more solid—I could win this race, easy. My feet were almost at the water’s edge now too…
…until Noah breezed past and spun to face me from the water, smirking, the sea around his ankles. I stopped in my tracks at the shore, shocked at losing at the very last second.
“No fair.” I pouted.
He laughed provokingly. “I won fair and square, Shelly,” he said teasingly. “You owe me.”
I took a couple of steps, the water licking my feet. “Ah, but we never agreed on a bet.”
He scoffed, still smirking. “We both know there’s a big fat IOU with your name signed at the bottom,” he teased. “Although we also both knew you were going to lose, so it wasn’t really much of a race.”
“Inearlywon.”
“Sure,” he said, in such a way that I started to wonder if he’d let me pull ahead and think I could win.
I felt a scowl tugging at my forehead, but then I smoothed my expression to give him a small, flirty smile. I stepped closer until there was only about an inch of space between us, my arms slipping round his shoulders.
I saw the tiny twitch of his eyebrow going up expectantly, waiting for me to kiss him, and that trademark arrogant smirk of his slipped onto his face again. I went up on my toes, leaning in slowly…
…then shoved him as hard as I could.
It only worked because I managed to catch him so off guard. It was still like pushing a brick wall, though—a brick wall with some seriously hot abs. His eyes widened a little and his mouth formed a tiny circle as he toppled back, off balance, caught totally unaware.
He landed with a massivesplash!
The cold water soaked him completely, and I cringed, shrieking a little, as it splattered me wet and cold too.
“That,” I told him, “is for throwing me in the pool on our first night here.”
Laughing, Noah pushed himself up and shook the water from his hair.
“Sounds fair.” And he pulled me into a kiss, one that sent sparks through me, giving me that mind-blowing fireworks feeling.
Chapter 6
I’d been nervous at dinner on my first night—which turned out to have been silly. But on Rachel’s first night with us, there was definitely a shift in the atmosphere. I’d panicked that I’d thrown it all off balance by becoming Noah’s girlfriend. But it wasn’t me who’d made things feel so different: it was Rachel. Tonight, it felt much more like I was going to dinner with everyone as Noah’s girlfriend—not as practically part of the family.
Rachel and I were both trying to fit in front of the mirror in the bathroom to do our hair and makeup. I put on the yellow sundress I’d brought, and threw on some gold jewelry too, at Rachel’s suggestion. I’d not thought to bring any with me, but she gushed about how pretty I looked in the dress and offered me a selection of necklaces to go with it.
The weirdness hit me again when we got ready to leave for the steakhouse and I made straight for the passenger side of Lee’s car.
“Oh,” he said. “Um.”
“What’s up?”
“Elle,” Noah called, “why don’t you come ride with us?”
I looked over at him, kind of baffled, because when had I evernotgone with Lee when the option was available? But then I noticed Rachel, clutching her purse and smiling awkwardly at me, and I got it. I brushed it off with an easy smile, saying, “Sure!”—but it didn’t stop me from feeling like a stone had settled in the pit of my stomach.
When we got to the steakhouse and were seated, I ended up next to Rachel, with the boys opposite us. June and Matthew sat on the end by Lee and Rachel, so they’d bear the brunt of the conversation. I was kind of glad. I still felt thrown by the whole situation with the cars earlier.
