Page 62 of To Have and to Scold

“Trybeing the operative word.”

He lifts his hands with a shrug. “Hey, you’re a beginner. It’s okay.”

He tosses the ball in the air and demonstrates a bump several times, offering me pointers, telling me where to train my eyes.

Oh, Beck. I don’t need you to coach me on where to look. I’m locked into all of you. Everything.

He handles the volleyball so easily, it’s like he’s one of those expert soccer players who can juggle it forever and never lose or drop it.

“Okay, you ready for me to send it to you now?”

I clap and then bend my knees, placing my hands on them. “Ready as a juggler with chainsaws.”

He laughs so hard he bends at the waist. I can’t help joining in, even though it really wasn’tthatfunny. Finally, he sends it to me. I’m psyching myself up so much, telling myself I’m strong and capable and I’ve got this, that I tense my arms, channeling all my energy into them, joining my hands together with all my might. I hit the ball with a bang, and I’m struck with two things almost simultaneously.

One, that was so loud my forearms are probably going to bruise.

And two, the ball is heading straight for Beck’s face.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Beck

I’m blaming getting skewered in the face with the volleyball on the fact that I let myself get distracted. I didn’t have my head on straight.

That’s the only logical explanation for why I wasn’t able to get out of the way in time. Though I had turned my head so that it avoided my nose, my jaw smarts as I’m now flat on myback in the sand, the moon above me looking blurry, the wind completely gone out of my lungs.

Dallas screams and drops to the ground next to me. “Oh my gosh. Are you alive? Are you breathing?”

She shakes my shoulders, and I can’t help but laugh. It comes out sounding funny though because I think I got the breath knocked out of me on impact. I curl to my side, and it takes a second, but eventually, I can fill my lungs with air. I laugh, a good, soul-filled belly laugh, with the edge of a painful whine. I put my hand on my jaw and open and close my mouth.

“Why are you laughing? Did I break your jaw? What are you doing?” Now she’s scolding me, trying to turn me around by the shoulder onto my back. I’m shaking so hard with laughter, I can’t turn. Instead, I curl into myself even more, trying to concentrate on my breathing through the wheezes of laughter that are plaguing me.

“Beck! Stop.” She chuckles a little. “It’s not funny. I could have killed you,” she insists.

This makes me laugh even more, and she groans. “I’m starting to think I injured your brain.” She shoves my shoulder lightly then leans over me so that she can better see my face.

Dallas leaning over me in her short, sexy dress? That’s too hot of a thing to consider right now, but it does sober me enough to catch my breath.

She scowls. She peels my eyelids back, shoving her face close to mine so she can study me. I doubt she can even see anything in the dark. “How many fingers am I holding up?” she asks.

This sends me into another laughing fit, and now she’s chuckling again. She’s sitting back on her heels, her green dress pooling up on her thighs, looking more gorgeous than ever. Her hair’s a messy halo around her head. The sheer sexiness of the image helps me manage to stop laughing long enough to get a few words in.

“I like your hair like that.” My body’s still tensed up from the laughter.

She sends a hand through it as it gets lifted again by the wind. “It’s frizzing up.” She bites her lip, trying to scowl through the laughter. “Beck Billingsley, you are such a hot mess.”

This has me laughing again, and to this, she holds up both palms. “I’m just not going to say anything because apparently everything I say is completely hilarious. I’m starting to think you really do have a concussion.”

“I don’t.” I say it with a wheeze. “You’re just funny.” I wheeze again. “And fun,” I add, wiping tears from my eyes.

Her shoulders shake and a trinkle of a laugh escapes her. “Beck, what am I going to do with you?”

I could think of a lot of things she could do with me…and things we could do together. But trying to double down on controlling my thoughts makes me laugh even harder.

“I thought you weren’t going to say anything else?” I say in between laughs. “But you can’t help it, can you?”

Her mouth drops open in surprise and she pushes my arm again. “I will say I’m sorry about hitting you in the face.”

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