I remembered that too. I remembered slipping out the back of the party separately and meeting him at the gate in the fence line. I remembered him pulling me into the shadows of the jasmine and kissing me before I’d even said a word. We’d both been waiting the entire evening to do exactly that.
“There was that one guy, he was just a friend and you pushed him into the sand.”
“I didn’t like his hands on you.”
“No?”
“No,” he said. “I still don’t like another man putting his hands on you.”
I swallowed, the moment suddenly very charged. I wasn’t the type that liked a caveman, but Colt jealous was hot.
“Remember the night we fell off my board,” I said, trying to change the subject.
“You pushed me.”
“I was showing you how to redistribute your weight and you overcorrected.”
“You pushed me,” he said again with complete conviction. “We went over the side together and you came up laughing so hard you swallowed half the Pacific.”
“You had it coming,” I said. “You were being insufferable about your pop-up. I showed you once and you acted like you were some surfing god.”
He shook his head but he was smiling. I could see the server through the window of the restaurant, leaning against the hoststand with her phone in hand, waiting us out. The restaurant was technically open another thirty minutes.
“The night we floated out past the break,” he said quietly.
My stomach dropped.
He was watching me carefully. “You remember.”
I remembered every detail. It was the second summer of our secret romance. We’d gone out after midnight. We’d been lying on my board together looking up. He’d been behind me with one arm around my waist and our legs hanging off either side. The board had been barely big enough for both of us and we kept nearly tipping. We didn’t care.
“I remember,” I said.
His eyes held mine and I felt the years fade. Four years of distance and silence and convincing myself I was over it. All of it gone, just like that. Like sand washing back from under my feet in the pull of a wave.
“The shallows,” I said softly, surprising myself.
I saw the heat flare in his eyes. “Yeah,” he said.
I pressed my lips together and looked down at the table. My heart was hammering. I was warm all over and it had nothing to do with the weather.
We didn’t need to get into the details. We both remembered making love that night. It had been incredible. It was the first night I realized how much I was in love with him.
The waitress returned with the bill. A clear sign she wanted us to move along. I watched him pull out his credit card. I didn’t want the night to be over, but I also knew how dangerous it was. We were traversing down Memory Lane and pretending the last four years never happened.
It was easy. Nice. But once he settled the business with Judd, he’d be gone. He would have no reason to stay. I should let him drop me off at home, thank him, and tell him goodbye. For good.
But I can’t deny myself the one thing I’ve wanted more than anything else in my entire life. Colt Anderson.
CHAPTER 24
COLT
Ididn’t want to go home. The bill was paid and we were standing in the parking lot with the warm night air moving around us. The sound of the ocean pulled at me. The last thing I wanted to do was get in the car and end this. I would never forgive myself if I walked away from her without at least trying to get her to stay out with me.
“Walk with me,” I said.
She looked at the beach and then back at me. “In this dress?”