Page 53 of Secret Love

Chapter 18

Dani

Then

Waves crash against the shore and slap the dock beneath us at Santa Monica pier. Children laugh and scream as they play in the sand. Seagulls squawk as they steal bits of old food off the ground. Arcade games. The Ferris wheel.

The very definition of fun in the sun.

It took a while but it all eventually drowned out the constant what ifs rolling through my head. What if we get caught? What if someone sees our school uniforms and decides to turn us in? What if it all goes wrong?

What if? What if?

But, just when I’m about to break down completely, Fox nudges my arm, smiles, and points at the pinball machines. Or at the street acrobats bending in half. Or at the food carts my father would kill me for even looking at. He distracts me from whatever is going through my head.

And just like that, I stop thinking altogether and the only sound I hear above the waves and the seagulls is the pounding of my heart every single time I smile back.

Fox returns to my bench at the front of the pier with two corn dogs on paper trays filled with mustard and ketchup. I take one, laughing to myself as I pinch the brittle stick.

“What?” Fox asks, taking a seat beside me.

“I haven’t had one of these since I was a kid,” I say. “Not even sure I like them.”

Fox bites off the tip of his ketchup-coated dog. “What’s not to love?” he asks.

I take a cautious bite and my mouth waters the instant I hear that soft crunching sound. “Okay, this is nice,” I say.

“Might as well have fun while you still can. From now on, you’re feminine. Wild.” He mocks and throws an excited fist into the air. “You’re Roxie.”

I roll my eyes. “Please, don’t call me that.”

Fox smiles. “I knew you hated it.”

“No, I don’t hate it. It’s… fine.”

He raises a brow.

I sigh. “It’d just be nice if there were still someone in my life who didn’t use it.”

“You don’t want to forget who you are,” he says with a nod.

His words sink deep into me. “Yeah,” I say slowly. “Actually hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Well,” Fox takes another bite, “I am more than happy to defy Bennett’s annoying will, so Dani you shall be.”

I smile. “Thanks.”

“So, what’s your big, important movie about?”

“It’s kind of a thriller-slash-drama about a guy who gets hired to find a man’s missing daughter.” I point at myself. “That’s me.”

“Cool.”

“But she doesn’t actually know she’s missing because she was kidnapped at such a young age. The family she grew up with isn’t really her family.”

Fox feigns a gasp. “A twist!”

“It’s very twisty.”

---