Page 13 of Those Summer Nights (Sweet Cravings 2)

"My dad lives in Austin. But my mom lives about an hour from here. My original plan was to stay with her this summer. But she's dating this new guy and I felt like I'd be intruding." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. When I called her back the other day, she had been talking about some cruise she was going on later this summer. I decided it was better not to bother her with the fact that I was back in town since she was leaving soon anyway. I didn’t want to make her feel bad.

We both finished our beers and he ordered us another round. "So, that leads me back to my original question. Why did you come back?"

I took another sip of my beer, wishing I could down the whole thing as unladylike as possible. "The simple answer is that I felt lost. I needed to come home. And when I couldn't go home, I thought that this was the next best place. I spent so much time here when I was younger that this seems like home to me."

"So what made you feel lost?"

My lifeguard was particularly nosey. But for some reason it didn’t bother me. Or maybe the beer running through my veins made me forget about the fact that I shouldn’t have even been out with him in the first place. "I think it was a lot of things all at once. I'm having trouble deciding what I want to do when I graduate for one. You're lucky that you have it all figured out."

"Yeah, lucky. I. Am. All. Set." He took a long sip of his beer.

The way he said it made it seem like he didn't really feel like he was all set or lucky. "You're not excited about it? What are you going to be doing?"

"Pushing papers in Corporate America. The dream job."

"If you don't want to work at the place that offered you a job, then why are you gonna do it?"

"I don't know. I had an internship there and they offered me a job. I accepted it. It pays well." He shrugged.

"Well maybe you should cancel."

"Being a lifeguard only in the summer doesn't exactly pay well."

"I don't know. I'm tempted to stay here. Maybe I'll drop out of school and be a beach bum."

He laughed. "I doubt you'd actually do that. But let me know if you do and I'll reconsider my position."

A girl walked over to us. "Hey, I need a teammate for pool. You in?" She touched his shoulder. It was the same lifeguard I had seen him with the other day. I disliked her even more.

"Do you need two more?" He looked over at me.

"Ben and Jillian are challenging us," the girl said in a rather rude tone. "Come on."

"Oh, it's okay," I said. "Go ahead. I'm horrible at pool, so it's better if I just watch. And my friend will be here any second." Probably. Hopefully.

"You sure?" my lifeguard asked me.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Come with me then." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the back of the restaurant where there were some table games. It felt weird to have my hand held again after going so many months being alone. I looked down at his fingers intertwined with mine. I liked this. He stopped and I looked up at him. I wasn't sure when he had taken off his aviators, but they were now hooked on the front of his shirt. He was staring down at me with the most amazing deep blue eyes I had ever seen. He should not have been hiding those under sunglasses.

I wasn't sure if it was the booze, but I was speechless. Screw this not being a date. I could stare into his eyes for the rest of my life. It felt like I was swimming in them they were so blue.

He smiled at me and let go of my hand. "This won't take long. I'm pretty awesome at pool."

"This should be fun to watch then." There were a few seats next to an old jukebox in the corner. I sat down in the one closest to the pool table.

The g

irl clearly liked him. She was bending over rather seductively whenever she took a shot. And she kept lightly nudging his arm. She even asked him for advice on how to hold her cue stick so that he had to put his hands on her. But it didn't seem like they were dating. Whenever he made a shot he just high-fived her. Unlike the other couple they were playing. Ben and Jillian were clearly dating because they kept making out every few minutes. Almost a ridiculous amount. If they had been alone, they probably would have been banging on the pool table. I laughed silently to myself. The book I was reading was definitely messing with my head. Who had sex on pool tables?

Every now and then my lifeguard would look over at me. I kept giving him a thumbs up because I couldn't think of anything better to do.

I was halfway done my third beer by the time Kristen showed up.

She spotted me across the bar, waved like a maniac, and came running over.

“You could have told me which Grottos. I’ve been all over the freaking boardwalk searching for you.”

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