Page 9 of Lost in the Current of You

He smiled softly, leaning his shoulder against the entrance door, his body only a hair's breadth away from me. My stomach swirled with the way he watched me. Warmed me in the way the shirt never did. “Keep it. It’s fine. Had to do something because I swear you were turning blue.”

I laughed before touching a hand to my heart. “Aww, you care about me, Reece?”

His lips twitched, but his eyes were soft as they locked on mine. “You’re my friend, Summers.”

I don’t know what I expected him to say. I assumed another joke would follow, but to admit that he did care about me, I was stunned into silence. The few months of him avoiding me made me think I was just someone he knew by proximity: his best friend’s ex and a friend’s sister. Like we were never really anything more than acquaintances.

With that realization, the truth started spilling out of me. “You know, I thought you hated me. That I did something to make you not like me all of a sudden.” I chuckled awkwardly. “I mean, I guess I kind of did deserve it after everything.”

When it all went down, I didn't know where I stood in that situation. I could've been overthinking, but everything that followed was coincidental, from when I broke up with Liam to when I lost contact with Reece.

He frowned, standing taller and taking a step closer. “Hate you? I could never hate you.”

I shrugged and looked anywhere but him. The ground seemed to be the safest option.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. I am really sorry any of that happened. But I’m glad we ran into each other. And by some chance ended up going to the same place this week. Because I would have been too chicken shit to reach out and apologise on my own. And I have a lot to make up for.”

With this admission, I looked up and believed every word he spilled with a single glance in his eyes. Eyes that shone with guilt and sadness. I smiled and wholeheartedly accepted his apology with just one sentence. Without any more explanation. “I’m glad we ended up here too, Fischer.”

What a fool I had been.

4

I was pulled out of bed the next morning before dawn even broke. Avery was anxious to watch the sunrise over the beach with us on our first morning, and even though I only had two and a half hours of sleep, I pulled myself out of bed. We stole some chairs from the hotel pool and carried them towards the beach.

We sat with our steaming coffees in hand at four o’clock in the morning. Our feet sank into the soft sand, the water crashing just mere inches from us, the cold water just touching the tips of my toes. As the sun peeked over the mountains, I watched the sky slowly blend into the gorgeous deep blues and oranges. I had never watched a sunrise before. Never been awake to see one. I loved my mornings but I would never be caught dead up before the sun had risen. It was even more beautiful than I thought, and I understood why Avery always preferred to run in the mornings.

“Thank you for coming with me to do this.” Avery looked at me over her cup. “Both of you. Even if one of you is asleep,” she added, a pointed glare aimed at Alex in passing, curled up and sleeping comfortably in his chair, before looking back to the sky.

The cool breeze from the ocean whispered against my skin, and the soft crash of the waves almost lulled me back to sleep. Avery shook both Alex and I awake when she noticed and decided it was time to grab some breakfast.

We smuggled the chairs back to the poolside before we made our way to the restaurant that had organised a buffet-style breakfast for the week.

It was quite early in the morning, with only a few morning joggers and the odd couple of cars driving on the road. It was easier to hear the birds chattering in the trees and the distant ocean waves.

The early morning also meant we were the first ones in the restaurant for breakfast, and the food was only being placed in the bain-marie.

After piling our plates, we ate in companionable silence, Alex and I still trying to wake up. Of course, Avery was as energised as always, powered by the rising sun.

A while after we finished our breakfast, people started filtering in, the chatter around us picked up with the scraping of cutlery against plates.

We started to throw around ideas of how to spend our day when my gaze drifted over Avery’s head to where Reece was on his way over to our table with Jake and Sage in tow. His eyes locked on mine, and his lips rose just the smallest amount as his eyes brightened. Just for me to see. A moment between only us.

He sat right next to me in the small space that I had made for him, his thigh pressed against me and his shoulders brushing mine. I was immediately encompassed by his warmth.

“Good morning, everyone.” His voice way too chipper as he sipped his coffee.

I grumbled into mine, and he side-eyed me with an amused smirk. “Ah, not a morning person, are we?”

“Definitely not.”

He tsked before nudging me. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix that. You’ll be begging to see me before the sun has fully risen by tomorrow.”

A surprised laugh burst from me, and I rolled my eyes. “You are so full of yourself, my god. It is too early to be this bright.”

He grinned and just as he opened his mouth to shoot something back, Avery interrupted. “If you guys are going to intrude into our holiday, you may as well make yourselves useful and give us suggestions on what to do around here.”

Her frown was aimed at Jake, who sat next to her, his arm slung over the back of her chair before she nudged it off.

---