When I had taken in her long legs, her perky breasts, and her curvy hips, I’d wanted to wrap my arms around her and feel every inch of her bare skin pressed against mine. I’d wanted to wrap my beach towel around her, shield her from all the other eyes I just knew were staring at her, checking her out, wondering how they could get into her pants. Or, in this case, her bikini bottoms. I’d wanted to shout out a resounding, “NEVER!” but that would have given me away.
What I didn’t want was to show my boner off to everyone sitting around me. Knowing Chris—and I knew him better than anyone—he’d have pointed at it and informed the whole damn beach. So, instead, I jumped up and took Sierra away from prying eyes.
After holding her and telling her how much I’d missed her, I finally realized my erection was pressing into her stomach. Embarrassed, I jumped back and insisted we return before I did any more damage.
What I hadn’t planned on was taking her back to where Danny Moyer was already waiting for her. But, alas, he was, and once again, I was left cursing myself.
Long story short.
Danny asked her out.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled.
Freaking smiled. It was closed-lipped at first, but then her lips parted and she beamed.
Freaking beamed.
I couldn’t believe he was asking her out in front of all of our friends, and I hated that he was so confident she would say yes that he’d risk humiliation.
“That’d be nice, Danny,” she said, nodding her head.
If I were a cartoon character, steam would’ve been coming out of my ears. Was that really happening right in front of me? All summer long, I’d been thinking about Sierra, running the conversation we’d have about how I felt about her in my head over and over again, yet she’d been home for only a couple of hours and already had a date?
Livid couldn’t even describe me.
“How’s Sunday? One last night out before school starts?”
As soon as I heard that, I placed a territorial arm around her shoulder and pulled her to me, giving her one of those side-hugs I’d begun to dread. “Sorry, Moyer. She’s gonna have to take a rain check. We always end the summer with a movie night. It’s tradition. Sierra’s mine on Sunday.”
I wished I could say that Sierra was mine permanently.
Sierra's nose wrinkled and her eyes went round with surprise.
I shrugged. “I didn’t think this summer would be any different, but I guess, if you want, we can just do it another time,” I offered, hating myself in the process but still backing off in case she really did want to go with him.
Danny glanced back and forth between us, waiting for a response from Sierra. She went poker-faced, and my heart skipped a beat at the thought of our tradition ending. When I dropped my eyes from hers, she answered him.
“Jeremy’s right. And I’m not one to mess with tradition. We’ve been doing it for years. If I change it up now, I’ll probably end up failing all my classes or something.”
Tradition. But what I’d heard was obligation.
Jenna was shaking her head at me, and I just turned my gaze to the ocean, trying to tune everyone else out. Sierra and Danny were making plans so I stepped away from them and sat back down on my towel, hoping my face wasn’t reflecting the way I felt.
“What’s with the face?”
So much for that hope. Someone plopped down in the sand next to me, and I nearly groaned when I saw Heather sitting there.
Don’t get me wrong. Heather Perkinson was one of the prettiest girls in our school. She was friendly and intelligent, and she didn’t have a reputation for getting around. Any guy would have been lucky to have her attention, but I didn’t want it.
And when Danny and Sierra left the group and started walking down the beach, I nearly went for what Heather had been offering all summer. Sierra clearly wasn’t interested, so why should I have kept holding out for her? It would’ve been so easy to ask Heather out, hoping that she’d be a good distraction until I could get my head on straight.
But, as soon as I had the thought, I shook it away. I wasn’t that guy. I wouldn’t play those games. I’d wait Sierra out, and as soon as she was ready, I’d tell her how I felt. Flirting with other girls in the meantime would only push her further away.
Heather’s hand landed on my arm, and that’s when Sierra turned back and looked at me. And then at the hand touching me. I could’ve sworn that her lips curved down into a frown, and her eyes darkened for a split second as she glanced back and forth between Heather and me. Just as I was about to pull my arm away from Heather, Danny leaned down and whispered something into Sierra’s ear. She nodded, and with one last small smile in my direction, she tore her gaze from me and focused all of her attention on him.
“Jer…” Jenna’s voice pulled me out of the trance I’d been in.
I glanced up to see a frown on her face.
“It’ll all work out.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so, Jenna. Not this time. You were right. I was an idiot, and I was too late.”
She started to protest, but I put on my sunglasses and smiled so no one would know how much I was dying inside at the idea of Sierra dating anyone who wasn’t me.
“So, who has the booze?”
“Are you seriously going out with Danny Moyer?” Jeremy sounded incredulous, and I tried not to take offense that he sounded so surprised that the star senior quarterback was interested in me.
Jeremy’s mom had just dropped us off at The Breeze, the closest movie theater to us. Like Jeremy had told Danny, every year, we had gone to the movies the night before school started. Since I’d made Jeremy see Can’t Hardly Wait (holy swoon, Ethan Embry!) last year, it was his turn to choose. We were going to see something called The Sixth Sense, and I had no idea what I was in for.
We’d just settled into our seats when he’d turned to me and asked about Danny. I wasn’t all that into the guy, but when he’d asked me out, I’d wanted to say yes. I didn’t regret it, nor was I particularly excited. I just had to do something to keep Jeremy off my mind.
I shrugged as I popped a Junior Mint into my mouth. “Why not? Jenna says I need to put myself out there. I’m fifteen years old and I’ve never been on a single date. Don’t you think it’s time I do that?”
He frowned. “Why? What does age have to do with anything? I’m about to turn sixteen and I’ve never been on a date, either. You don’t see me saying yes to the first girl who asks me.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. We both know he’d been asked out many times.
“Yeah, well, what about Heather? I heard you two got pretty close this summer.”
His eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. He opened his mouth to answer, but the lights went down and the screen flickered.
I guessed that was that.
I wish I could say that our hands brushed in the popcorn tub or our thighs touched as we sat next to each other. But that would be a lie. In truth, we both moved to the opposite edges of our seats. It was uncomfortable until creepy stuff started happening on the screen and I leaned over, gripping his biceps for dear life.
“You didn’t tell me this was a scary movie,” I hissed.
He grinned down at me, his eyes full of amusement. And then he did the unthinkable. He closed the distance between us and kissed my forehead.
“Don’t worry, Sierra. I’ll protect you.”
My skin tingled where his lips had been. He turned back to the screen, and the rest of the movie passed in a blur. I remained attached to his arm the entire time. Ghosts freaked the hell out of me, and I knew I would have trouble sleeping that night.