Page 91 of Places I've Never Been

Flynn was close behind her when she rolled onto the sand and stood up. She splashed water at the sand on her legs while she waited for Flynn.

“You looked like a pro out there.” Flynn winked at her.

She snorted at that. “A pro what?”

“Hey, every pro starts learning how to windsurf with their ass up. The only difference between Brandon and you is he kept getting back on the board.”

They walked back up the beach together. She was glad it wasn’t far to the lounge chairs that surrounded the bonfire pit. Her body shook with overexertion. She wanted to sit and not move for the next three hours.

A cooler filled with bottles of beer and other beverages waited for them next to a table holding snacks.

Flynn grabbed a beer, while Mattie ordered a fruity cocktail called Exotic Passion from one of the servers. Then she collapsed onto one of the lounge chairs facing the ocean.

Adam, Brandon, and Cooper looked like ants riding kites on the vast expanse of waves. She couldn’t tell who’d won the original race because they zipped in and around each other on their way to some other destination.

“They make it look so easy.”

Flynn flopped down into the chair next to herwith his beer in one hand and a sandwich in the other. “They should. They been doing it their whole lives. Brandon learned to surf before he could walk, practically. He won the Junior Windsurfing Championship two years in a row.”

Mattie squinted out at the three now racing toward the dock on the far left. “I guess that makes sense, growing up in California.”

A server arrived with her cocktail, which Mattie took a grateful smile. Two long sips and her entire relaxed into the chair. “Oh, that’s better. I’ll be sad when we leave this place. It’s been a lot of fun.”

“Me too.” Flynn took a swig of beer. “This is definitely the jam on my bread. Ten out of ten, would do again. Hey, maybe you can convince Adam to come back next year.”

The comment hit Mattie like cold water on a bad tooth. Some of the lazy haze slopped away as she remembered the conversation with Piper earlier.

Adam planned this little vacay after he met you, so he could have a chance to get to know you.Ask them about their other writing retreats. If they do this kind of thing all the time, they’ll have stories.

Mattie glanced at Flynn. He’d finished his sandwich and was sprawled on the lounge chair with his head back against the pillow. His sunglasses made it impossible to tell if his eyes were open or closed. Either way, he was relaxed, and it was just the two of them. She was never going to get a better chance to get answers.

“Flynn…where else have you gone for writing retreats?”

“Huh?” Flynn lifted his sunglasses to squint at her.

“Writing retreats.” She offered him a dripping-with-Southern-charm smile. “You know, like the one we’re on now. Where else have you gone?”

“Hell we’ve never gone anywhere like this.” Flynn barked alaugh. “Usually Johnny J and Adam go to some dive bar and bang it out over cheap beer and stale peanuts. Sometimes Coop and Brandon go with ’em, but most times not. Me and LT never come in until it’s ready for spit ’n polish in the studio. I could sure get used to this, though.”

Could Piper be right? Had Adam engineered this entire trip as some sort of seduction?

No. Her heart rejected the idea. Adam wasn’t like that. He wasn’t.

But what if he did?

She told herself it wouldn’t matter, because she was just having a fling, but that was a lie. It was more than that now. It was the start of something—or at least the possibility of something—more.

The thought that he might have manufactured an elaborate scenario to spend time with her didn’t feel sweet. It felt like something Devon Morales would do. It felt like a trap.

She needed to talk to Adam to figure out what was real and what was just paparazzi-induced paranoia.

She watched Adam chase Brandon across the waves while her thoughts bubbled.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Adam knew something was up when he stepped onto the beach. Even though Mattie smiled at Brandon and congratulated him for winning all four races, there was something off about the way she did it. Her smile wasn’t quite as warm, and she spoke with the cool, professional tone she’d used when they first met instead of the laid-back Southern sweetness he’d come to know.

He hadn’t been away from her that long. What possibly could have happened?

---