Page 224 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 9
I laughed. "I can give you free ice cream whenever you want. I usually take some home with me after work."
"Your job definitely has better perks than mine. So are you ready to go?" He stood up and put his hand out for me.
I stared at his hand. A tiny voice in the back of my head warned me that this was a bad idea. Touching him should be a no-no. But my hand started moving on its own accord. "Yeah." I grabbed his hand and he pulled me to my feet. "One sec." I quickly pulled on my tank top and jean shorts. "Is this okay to wear?"
"Yeah, you look great. We all just wear our bathing suits." He was still wearing his lifeguard swim trunks but he had also put on a t-shirt.
"Are you sure it's okay that I come? You know…since I'm not a lifeguard?"
"It's fine. It just means I have to pay for your drinks." He smiled at me.
"You don't have to do that."
"I'm pretty sure I just scored free ice cream all summer. So yes, I do."
I smiled at him. It was hard not to smile when perfection in male form was staring back at you. "Okay." I shook out my towel and put it into my bag. We started walking toward the boardwalk. Ikept stealing sideways glances at him. He was at least six inches taller than me. He was as tan as I expected a lifeguard to be. And he was lean yet muscular. He was starting to get a 5 o'clock shadow. For some reason I found myself wanting to reach out and touch it. I forced my hands to stay by my sides.
When we reached the boardwalk, he stopped and rinsed the sand off his feet at the little shower. "So all I really know about you is that you come to the beach every Tuesday and Thursday around one o'clock. Jellyfish love you. And you work at an ice cream shop with really sexual flavor names. Maybe that means something. I don't know." He held the shower lever down for me so I could rinse the sand off my feet too.
I laughed. "No, it doesn't. I just needed a job to pay my rent. I'm renting this really cute, tiny apartment over this old lady's garage. I love it."
"Do you live there by yourself?"
"No."Oh crap.“Actually I have a roommate who I always have dinner with. I need to text her.” Kristen would probably starve if I wasn’t there to cook for her. I paused when I pulled out my phone. I knew nothing about my lifeguard. Maybe he was a murderer. He was probably going to get me drunk and kill me. Maybe he was a freaking cannibal. I could be seconds away from being in his tummy. “Umm…you said a bunch of people were going right? Do you care if she comes too? She’d kill me if she knew I was going to be hanging out with lifeguards all night and didn’t invite her. She’s violent like that.” I stared at him, trying to see if he was sympatico with her murderous ways.
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
What a normal answer.I shot Kristen a quick text telling her to meet me there. She was going to lose her mind. It was good I’d invited her, because after her toast to hooking up with sexy lifeguards all summer, I’d be on her shit list for sure. This way I wouldn’t wind up dead in a ditch and I’d make Kristen happy too. Plus it would make it less date like and more like a friend date. Which my mind could handle.
We started walking again.
"You are so lucky. I live in that big apartment building over there." He pointed to a building in the distance. "And I have three roommates. It's fun, but it's also kind of annoying."
He's not a murderer.He's a nice, apartment-living guy with living roommates.
"So, you just needed a job to pay rent, which means you're not saving up money for school?"
"No. I got a pretty decent scholarship. And my dad is paying for the rest of it. I haven't seen him that much since my parents got divorced when I was a kid. But he loves throwing money at me, not that I ever ask him to." I was rambling. I had a tendency to do that when I was nervous. I shrugged my shoulders to make it seem like what I had just said was normal.
"Sorry."
"It's fine. It's better that way.” It wasn’t. I was pretty sure he was paying for my college so I wouldn’t bother him and his new family. Paid silence. “Honestly, he's kind of an asshole."
He laughed.
God he had a nice laugh.
"Okay. Tell me more."
"I mean, what do you want to know?" I wanted to ask him questions. I already knew everything about myself.
"Well, why are you here for the summer? Why didn't you stay in California?"
"I don't know.” Lame answer. “It's complicated." Lamer answer.
"That means you do know, Jellyfish Girl." We stopped outside one of the Grottos pizza joints on the boardwalk. I knew of at least two more within walking distance. It was kind of ridiculous. But their pizza was amazing so I didn't mind. We walked past the hostess and went into the outdoor bar portion of the restaurant. Some of his lifeguard friends greeted him. I was waiting for someone to say his name, but none of them did. This was so frustrating.
He pulled a stool out for me at the bar. I sat down and he took the seat beside me. The bartender came over.
