Page 28 of Promise Me Nothing
It’s a great little spot, a breakfast and brunch place only a few blocks away from Lucas’. There was quite a crowd waiting when we got here, but Paige walked right up to the host and gave her a hug. We’d gotten a table with a view of the water just a few minutes later.
“Oh, shit, I left my phone on the table,” I say just as we get back to Paige’s car parked on the curb a block away. Trepidation rolls through my veins. As much as I try not to be phone obsessed, still, I cannotafford to lose that thing. “I’m gonna run back and grab it.”
Paige smiles and nods, already getting her own phone out, likely to catch up on the daily Hermosa Beach gossip.
I jog back to Mary’s in record time, letting out a sigh of relief when the hostess holds up my phone.
“Oh my gosh, thank you so much,” I say. “I would have died if I’d lost this.”
She smiles at me. “No problem.”
“You’re not one of those girls who is glued to her phone all day, are you?”
I turn to look over my shoulder and can’t hide my surprise at seeing the guy from the night before. The pier guy. The super sexy guy. The one I thought about mentioning to Paige at breakfast when she asked about my first day in Hermosa Beach.
I can’t hide my surprise, and I also can’t hide my smile.
A smile he gives me right back.
“This is quite the coincidence,” he adds.
“Hey there, Pier Guy.”
He continues to smile at me, his eyes twinkling. “Hey there, Pier Girl.”
I rotate my phone in my hands, feeling slightly nervous. “What are you doing here?”
“Stalking you.”
My eyes widen.
“I’m getting breakfast,” he says, laughing, and I blush, embarrassed to have taken him so literally. “But man, you should have seen your face.”
I purse my lips, but there’s no heat in my expression. “Funny.”
“You know, I think it’s fate, you and me, meeting here. Out of all the places you could have gotten breakfast while you’re in town, you picked here. My favorite brunch place.” He crosses his arms and studies me. “In the movies, they call it kismet.”
“I thought the movies call it a meet-cute.”
He chuckles. “Us meeting hereisa meet-cute, but thefactwe’re both here is kismet. Fate. Just like it’s fate that you’re going to meet me at Harbor’s tonight for a drink. They have an excellent view of the ocean.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “You’re a little cocky, huh?”
“Confident.”
“They’re the same. The only difference is how someone else perceives it.”
“That’s not how words work.”
“That’sexactlyhow words work. You ask a girl on a date a few times and she keeps saying no. You’d call that pursuit. A girl who likes you and is playing hard-to-get would call it persistence. But a girl who isn’t interested would call it harassment.”
He hums lightly, but his eyes light up with mischief. “And which girl are you in this scenario?” he asks, stepping closer to me.
My mind freezes, the inability to come up with a response tripping my tongue.
Normally when I’m around men, my natural instinct is immediate suspicion. What are their ulterior motives? Why are they talking to me? What do theyreallywant? I have to fight against that instinct. All the time.
But this guy? Pier Guy? I feel like I can believe how he presents himself. Like he doesn’t have any reason not to be exactly who he is. This confident, cocky, charming guy who probably always gets what he wants.
