Page 23 of Her Pretty Words
“Thank you.”
He breezes past me on long legs, and I trail behind him. “Where are we going now?”
He spins around with a raised brow. “We?” he asks, feigning confusion. He faces forward again. “Iam going to the beach.”
He is insufferable. This is why I don’t like hi?—
“Care to join?”
“Nope.”
I can hear the smirk in his voice. “Still playing that game, are we?”
I scoff at his backside. “Whatgame?”
I follow him between our yards, onto the sand of the beach. I kick some behind me as I walk, and the tiny particles get into my flip flops. It’s dark now, the only light is offered by the moon. Hewalks backward to face me. “The one where you pretend not to like me,” he says, voice smug.
“Don’t flatter yourself.” I roll my eyes and open my ice cream. I’m about to put the wrapper in my pocket so I can throw it out later, but Grayson reaches out and steals it from me. He tucks it into the pocket of his pants instead.
“Don’t worry, Tato. We can play a little longer.” He winks.
I roll my eyes and hold up my middle finger.
He stops walking once we are about ten feet from the shoreline. He sits in the sand with his legs bent, taking the first lick of his cone.
I watch him, unsure if I am going to sit with him or go back home.
His calloused hand engulfs my ankle and yanks in a way that makes me lose balance and fall on my butt. I give him a scathing look, picturing flames in my eyes.
“I was making the decision easy for you, since I know how stubborn you can be.” Before I get the chance to answer, he changes the subject. “I never sit on the beach.”
Curiosity gets the best of me. “Why?”
“It’s never fit into my schedule.” He lifts a shoulder.
I laugh, arranging my body like his so my knees are tucked against my chest. “This is literally your backyard. Do you have time to go to the bathroom with that tight schedule of yours?”
“I guess I never thought about coming back here, honestly.”
“Well,Iused to sit out here all the time. My grandparents and I would lay on our backs and look for shooting stars.”
Grayson turns to me. I can’t explain what’s happening to my body, but I instantly run ten degrees warmer. “Try it,” he says, putting the dessert close enough that if I dart my tongue out, I would taste it. So, I do just that. It tastes exactly as he smells up close.
“Good?”
I take another lick, savoring the taste. “Fine,” I growl. “Yes, it’s good.”
He smiles, showing off two dimples. “Let me taste that brown ice cream of yours then.” He gestures to the cone in my hand. I hand it to him.
His eyes light up when he takes a bite. Not a lick, but a bite. How does that not hurt his teeth? “Let’s trade. Yours is way better than mine.”
I find myself laughing. “Have you never had chocolate ice cream before?”
“Obviously I have. But it really hits the spot.”
I grab the strawberry from his hand and let him keep mine. I finish it off, licking the remains from my fingers from where it melted.
Grayson sighs as he leans all the way back so he is flat against the sand.