Page 40 of On The Beach

I tapped my beer bottle on the bar. "Fuck it, we'll go. We don't have to wait for her."

It had been a mistake to keep her on the island. The longer she was with me, the more I'd want her. If she'd left this morning, I wouldn't be watching her like a hungry predator. I wanted her. I wanted to fuck her. But this was more than sex, and I couldn't pretend otherwise—no matter how good I was at burying emotions and faking them.

Belle looked at us and smiled, holding a finger up. "Give me five minutes, and then I'm done. We had a breakthrough. Can you believe it?"

"Yeah," Franco yelled and held up his beer bottle. "Belle's gonna celebrate by buying a round."

Belle nodded indulgently. "Sure."

Everyone in the Coral Cove cheered.

She went back to her computer, and RiRi poured drinks.

"Mick," RiRi warned when she saw the impatient look in my eyes, "remember, you want her here."

"It was?—"

"Enjoy her while she's here," RiRi added compassionately.

I stopped short at that. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she said softly. "You like her."

I took a deep breath. "I do."

"Then enjoy her."

"And what about when she leaves?"

"Let's cross that bridge when we get there, okay, man?"

The bridge, I knew, was going to be a bitch.

I'd come to Reef Harbor and built a life that felt like enough—or at least, I thought it had been until Belle showed up. She barreled into town with her bright eyes and high heels, a walking reminder of everything I'd left behind.

The thing was that Belle was dragging some of the old me to the surface, and I knew my friends saw it. I wasn't the serious kind. I had become thewanna fuckandwanna have funkind.

I had no idea why I felt this pull for Belle, why she got under my skin the way she did.

She's just a fuck, that's all, I told myself.

But just then, Belle looked over, caught me watching her, and rolled her eyes with a grin. And damn it, I could feel my heart doing something I wasn't ready for.

CHAPTER 12

the heart at the bottom

BELLE

"Ican't believe I caught a fish!" I danced around, giddy, high on the accomplishment of catching my first fish. I held it up proudly, my very own yellowtail snapper, its scales flashing bright pink and yellow in the sunlight.

Mick laughed. "That's a good catch for a beginner, Belle! Yellowtails aren't easy."

"I actually did it! I thought I'd just get my line tangled or, I don't know, catch seaweed or something."

He watched me with that look of amused pride I was starting to love.

Franco put his arm around me. "We're eating well tonight."

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