Page 9 of Crazy for this Girl

Cal has no means to hurt me with living on the other side of the country. Besides, he’s been cool thus far; why bother worrying if he’s a royal jerk or not? All I need to do is sic my mother on him and he’ll never come around again.

“Why’s that?” He swivels his body to face me fully, his knee brushing mine and I’m conscious of every body part of his. “Am I too cool for your high standards?”

I side-eye him through narrowed eyes. “I’m not the Luther twins.”

“The who?”

“You only took them both for a ride on a jet ski today, Harper.” I point to the lake within yards of us. “Don’t tell me your memory span lasts only an hour. You might want to get that checked out.”

He easily matches my unamused stare with one of indifference. “It auto deletes things that aren’t important.”

I scoff at him through a light chuckle even though I’m thrilled that the two beach blondes didn’t seize his attention. “You’re a snob.”

“And you’re…” When he doesn’t finish his sentence, I hit him with a challenging look that says he better pick a pretty bomb word, or I’m going to chuck his iPod in the lake, and he can swim for it in the dark.

“Well?” I press lightly, squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin. He still says nothing and they immediately slump in defeat. “Do you not know that many words?” Cal’s mouth curls, but he doesn’t say a freaking word, which prompts me to get slightly nervous at what he might think of me. I give him a little nudge for my sake before I allow myself to become paranoid with negative ideas. “C’mon, jerk.”

“Don’t rush me,” he scolds half-heartedly with a smirk. “I gotta think of a good one.”

“How about awesome? Cool? Baller tastes in the art of musical selection?”

“That’s more than one word.”

I hit his hard bicep and make an attempt to pluck his iPod from his lap, when his hand promptly snatches my wrist.

He holds it there, his long fingers freezing my body in place as I wait to see what he’s going to do next. I feel the slight brush of his thumb along the inner part of my palm, and my next breath hitches.

“I was thinking…you’re one of a kind,” he mutters ever so slowly, causing goosebumps to prickle from my skin. “And I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

“Maybe you should get out of California more.”

“Maybe you should come visit me in Cali.” His thumb continues its soft assault along the sensitive part of my hand, sending smooth electrical currents through my body. “I’d like you to be there.”

“Why?” My question is barely audible and I’m not sure he would’ve heard me if he wasn’t already looking straight at me.

“Because you’d definitely shake that place up.”

No idea what that even means.

“I’ll...take that as a compliment.” I quickly force the rest of my sentence out as if him possessing my hand has no effect on me. It only warms the skin there, as well as the rest of my body, and that’s normal, right? There’s nothing more to it.

“Laynee?” I hold his heavy stare, crystal green eyes holding mine with more of what he wants to say.

I can’t breathe.

Not with how it appears like something is jammed up in his throat and he can’t get it out. The possibilities are more like a fantasy because why would this boy have anything humiliating to say to me? He only burps, scratches himself under his armpits, and lazily sprawls out like a cat all the time.

“You should.” He sluggishly releases my hand and the spell he casted on me, before extending his palm annoyingly. “iPod?”

“No way, Jose.” What? He wiggles his fingers for me to place my most treasured possession in his care. “This is like separating from my child.”

“You know nothing about having a child.”

“I have you, don’t I?”

He scoffs, but keeps a smile on his oh-so stupidly cute face. “Yeah, you got me. But I still want it, Laynee Reese.”

“See, child. No means no.”

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