Page 75 of The Best Worst Mistake
I continue walking toward her until our knees nearly knock together. Then I take off my sunglasses so she can study my eyes. I’m not sure what’s going through her head, but I stay quiet enough to find out. Hoping she’ll tell me.
“I’m starting to realize that,” she says, quietly. “You’ve always looked out for me, and you deserved better than what I gave you after you lost your dad. I shouldn’t have given up on you.”
“It’s not the same thing,” I argue.
“But it is,” she says. “It can really be that simple.” I begin to shake my head but she stops me. “Just let me have this round,” she whispers. Then she wraps her arms around my waist in a hug, pressing her cheek to my chest. I’ve hugged Jules plenty of times as friends, but somehow, this feels different. I exhale into her hair and she giggles. “Your heart is like a drum circle in there.”
I clear my throat. “Sailing always gets me going,” I tell her, shifting my eyes up toward the sky. Will it ever not feel wrong to be utterly obsessed with her? “It’s been a minute since I got out there, you know.”
I pull back and start leading her toward the car and the driver that’s waiting for us on the road.
“Let’s get you off to Italy before I change my mind and carry you back out for round two since you seem so keen on sailing now. Keep you out there for a month? Maybe two?”
I lunge at her like I might make good on that promise.
She shrieks and runs down the dock, her golden hair trailing behind her as she skirts away from me. I suck in a breath and fight the urge to run after her, knowing it might not be the best thing for either one of us if I manage to chase her down.
Chapter 34
Juliet
Silas and I were rerouted back to the hotel after a flight delay kept us grounded in Cádiz. Now we’re back in my suite after a delicious night out.
Five minutes ago, the hotel’s room service staff dropped off an unexpected dessert just as Silas came in to grab the gear he’d left in my room before the sail this morning. We both came out of the rooms at the same time when we heard the knock on the door, him emerging from the bathroom in only the charcoal pants he wore to dinner earlier.
No shirt, and no socks. Just bare feet and the pants I saw him zipping back up as he exited the room to answer the door.
They dropped off just one saucer of molten lava cake with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, topped with two heaping mounds of whipped cream on top of that. Two spoons were nestled in beside the platter on the cart, though there was only one plate between the two of us.
Neither of us ordered it, so I’m not sure how they knew it was my favorite. But it smells delicious, even from where I’m sitting across the long table now from Si.
We’re at either end of the long dining table in my suite, the one that could fit sixteen people, if we had fourteen other people traveling with us.
But it’s just him and me, grinning at each other about the unexpected delivery now sitting on the table in front of him.
Silas picks up his spoon and digs in, not even asking if I want a bite.
Just like him to take what he wants, when he wants it, without asking first, I think, watching.
I’m not sure what I’m waiting for though. I should just go grab my own spoon and dig in too, but my feet are planted where I’m at, as if stuck in cement. All I want, I realize as he eats a second bite, is to watch him enjoy it.
As if he can read my mind, he looks up.
“You know you want it,” he says, raising the spoon before scooping up another bite. He makes sure to get all three layers onto it before tucking it deeply into his mouth. Chewing slowly, and licking his bottom lip after swallowing.
“How do you know I want it?” I ask.
Instead of answering, he lets out a wicked sort of laugh, one I’ve never heard come out of him before.
“Is it that obvious?” I say, feeling silly for not just getting out of my seat to grab a spoon for myself.
“Youcouldbe more obvious about it,” he tells me. “It’s the only way to make sure your needs are met.”
Then he wipes a bit of liquid chocolate off the corner of his lips with his thumb before pushing it back into his mouth to suck off the top.
That should not have been as hot as it just was.This is Silas, I remind myself.What the hell has gotten into me?
“How could I be more obvious?” I ask, my mind racing.
