Us at the Beach

by Stephanie Street

  Sighing, I folded my arms across my stomach, still feeling incredibly self-conscious. “Good. I’m glad it’s over. It was fine, but, yeah, I’m glad I’m done.”

  Dad nodded. “I get that. You’ve worked hard all summer, you deserve a little break before school starts.”

  I pulled at my cami, which clung to my sticky skin. “Dad, I’m going to go take a shower real quick, okay.”

  Dad smiled and gave me a quick wink before glancing over where Walker kicked the soccer ball away from his eleven-year-old brother, Pete. “You do that.”

  I rolled my eyes and started for the back door of the house.

  “Don’t take too long, Blythe. The burgers will be done in a few minutes.” Dad called out, effectively drawing everyone’s attention to my escape.

  Thanks, Dad.

  I just waved over my shoulder and made a break for it, beyond anxious to get cleaned up and wishing with all my heart I’d come in the front door instead of heading straight to the backyard upon returning home. I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text.

  Me: You are not going to believe this!

  Lilly: Ooh! Ooh! What?

  Me: Guess who is in my backyard right this second?

  Lilly: Chris Hemsworth!

  Lilly: Shawn Mendez!

  Lilly: A Jonas brother? Any of them!

  Me: LOL! No!

  Lilly: Ok. I give up then. Who?

  Me: Walker Thomas!

  Lilly: Walker Thomas?!

  Lilly: THE Walker Thomas that you’ve had a secret crush on since first grade! THAT Walker Thomas?

  Lilly: Why?!

  Me: For dinner. They just moved back. And guess where they live?

  Lilly: I can’t even.

  Me: The Hansen’s house. He practically lives in our backyard!

  Lilly: You have got to be kidding me! Are you serious?

  Me: I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

  After a quick shower, I dressed in a pair of navy capris and a white peasant top. I brushed the wet tangles from my hair, deciding it was too hot to blow dry it even in the air conditioning. Besides, I really didn’t have time. I knew my family wouldn’t start dinner without everyone present and I didn’t want to hold everything up. So, with a quick swipe over my lashes with mascara and a layer of gloss on my lips, I made my way back outside.

  I was right. When I opened the back door, I saw that everyone had gathered around the picnic table filled with all kinds of cookout fixings. And they were waiting on me.

  “Sorry everybody!” I called out as I made my way down the steps.

  “There you are,” Dad said, motioning toward me. “Okay, let’s get this party going. First, I’d like to welcome the Thomas family back to Indiana and especially back to Richardson and Thomas, CPA Firm. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you back, Rog,” Dad paused to smile and shake Roger’s hand. “I know Claire is just tickled to have Becky as our new neighbor and now our kids can play together, just like they used to.” Dad paused again, his gaze encompassing all of us, a satisfied smile on his face like all was right with his world. “Now enough of that. Let’s eat!”

  Everyone laughed when a very bored looking Joy cried out, “Finally!”

  We filled our plates amid laughter and catching up. I barely noticed what I put on my plate as I tried to avoid staring at Walker. The adults sat down at a glass topped patio table while the little kids sat at the picnic table. I opted for the back steps, far, far away from my siblings. Watching through my lashes as Walker dug a pop out of a cooler by the picnic table. He glanced at the kids, already laughing about farts and boogers. Eyes wide with a hell, no look about them, Walker turned to where I sat on the steps. A little smile turned his lips up.

  He slid his pop can into a pocket on his cargo shorts and made his way over to me. I slid to one side to make room for him.

  “You aren’t even going to say hi to me, Bly,” he asked, as he settled in beside me, close enough the hairs on his arms tickled my elbow. I inched away, hoping he thought I was just trying to give him more room. Oh my gosh, he smelled good!

  I glanced at him, rolling my eyes and trying to play it cool. “Hi.”

  Walker laughed and took a huge bite of his cheeseburger. My hand stopped halfway to my mouth with my own burger as I watched the muscles of his jaw work as he chewed, entranced. He even made chewing hot.

  Walker glanced at me and paused mid-bite. He raised a brow in question and I realized I was staring at him.

  With my mouth open.

  I quickly looked away and stuffed my face with my hamburger.

  Walker

  Oh, wow. She was just as adorable as I remembered. It had taken all my restraint to not laugh out loud at the expression on her face when she noticed me earlier, when she first walked into her backyard. Her cheeks turned ten shades of red before landing on green. It was hilarious. She was hilarious. It all came rushing back to me, all the fun we’d had as little kids. How much I liked hanging out with Blythe. I had a feeling I was going to enjoy it now just as much as I had before my Dad picked us up and moved us across the country.

  I couldn’t believe it when he’d dropped the bomb on us last month that we were moving again and I would be finishing out my senior year of high school in the same school district I’d started kindergarten as a kid. I should have been upset considering I’d been at the high school in California since my freshman year, but I wasn’t. All my best memories were here in Indiana and I planned to come back for college anyway. It seemed like a win-win to me.

  I glanced out the corner of my eye at Blythe, who after staring at me like a lunatic, was now studiously avoiding eye contact. I fought back a grin. She was just so cute.

  “So, babysitting, huh?” I asked before taking another bite of my burger. Blythe nodded and chewed faster, her eyes widening. She swallowed hard, her throat convulsing. I tried not to snort.

  “Yeah, all summer. Three little boys,” she croaked then cleared her throat. I watched with amusement as she picked up her pop and took a big gulp.

  “Three boys, huh?” Lucky little turds. I never had any babysitters that looked like Blythe growing up. And she was fun, too. She probably played games with them rather than messing around on her phone all day.

  Blythe rolled her eyes. “Yes, three. And man, are they a handful.”

  “Oh, yeah. What’s the craziest thing they did this summer?” Being a guy and having two brothers myself, I knew what kind of trouble little boys could get into.

  “Wow, I’m not sure I could narrow it down to one thing.” Her brows pulled down as she thought about it, crinkling her forehead and making me smile.

  “Okay, well, then just something crazy they did today.”

  Her eyes twinkled with the memory she was about to share. “So, you know kebabs, right? Those skewers you usually cook meat on?”

  “Sure.” I nodded and began working on the potato salad. Mrs. Richardson makes the best!

  “Well, I saw this idea online to make a rainbow kebab with fruit. You know, red strawberries, orange was cantaloupe,” she stopped and grinned at me from under her lashes. “You get the idea.”

  “I get it.”

  “Well, I pictured in my head that I’d set out the fruit and give them a skewer and they’d very nicely line up the colors and I’d take a picture of our beautiful kebabs, right?”

  “Right.” But I could feel the laughter already building, because there is no way three little boys didn’t wreck her whole crafty food idea.

  “Wrong. So very, very wrong. Instead, a fruit battle ensued.” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and swiped until she got to her photos. “Check this out.” She leaned into my shoulder, making me suddenly very aware of her. She smelled like strawberries. I focused on the picture on her phone. She was right, it looked like a war zone. A very colorful war zone. She scrolled through three or four pictures and then stopped on a picture of three boys and her. They were all covered in fruit. But they were smiling.

>   “Looks like they had fun.” I turned my head. My nose was just inches from her dark hair.

  She breathed a laugh. “Yeah, I think they did.” She turned to look up at me and gasped, realizing how close we’d become. I watched as her eyelids closed slowly over her golden-green eyes. And then she sat back, inhaling a quick breath. She clicked her phone off and stuck it back in her pocket. All business. “I’m glad I’m done, though.”

  I turned back to my potato salad. “What are your plans, now? Aren’t there still two weeks before school starts?”

  She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders a little. “Not sure. Sleep in. Catch up on Netflix.”

  I laughed. “Sounds fun.”

  Suddenly, Blythe’s dad clapped his hands. “Alright, everybody. We have an announcement to make.”

  All four adults were grinning like maniacs and it made me nervous. What did they have planned now? Wasn’t it enough that we moved thousands of miles?

  Blythe’s little sister, Joy, bounced around her father’s legs. “What is it, Daddy? What is it?”

  David Richardson laughed and patted her on the head. “Well, sweetheart, I’ll tell you. We-” he paused for effect, his gaze resting on each of us before he continued, “are going to the beach!”

  Wait. What?

  “What?”

  I glanced at Blythe when I heard her voice the very question running through my head. She turned to me.

  “The beach? Where?”

  I shrugged and turned back to our parents who were struggling against the swarm of little bodies surrounding them.

  “Okay, okay!” Blythe’s dad called out with an indulgent smile. “Rog, you want to tell them?”

  “You bet, Dave.” My dad bent down, resting his hands on his thighs above his knees putting him closer to Joy’s excited pixie face. “We, the Richardson and Thomas families are going to Cape Hatteras!”

  The kids erupted into cheering and dancing. Blythe and I looked to each other.

  “Where the heck is Cape Hatteras?” I asked.

  Blythe shrugged and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket once more, presumably to Google Cape Hatteras. I figured it was a good idea and dug mine out of my shorts pocket.

  “Cape Hatteras is made up of three islands. Hatteras, Bodie, and Ocracoke in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina.” Blythe looked up from her phone. “North Carolina?”

  “Oh, no,” I groaned. “How long of a drive is that?” Because I’m pretty sure I just spent a week in a vehicle with my brothers. I opened the maps app on my phone and plotted the route. “Holy shit!”

  Blythe’s eyes widened. “What?”

  I turned to face her, my expression grim. “It’s like a twelve-hour drive.”

  “And we leave in the morning!” My dad shouted above the fray.

  “Holy-,” Blythe paused to glance at me, “crap.”

  See what I mean? Adorable.

  Chapter Three

  Blythe

  We’d been here for two days. Two. Awkward. Days. After that initial night sitting on my back porch, I remembered that I was invisible and Walker was, well, Walker. And now I was stuck at a beach house with his family and mine, subjected to Walker in swim trunks and skin. And while this may seem like any teenage girl’s dream come true, it was more like my worst nightmare. Invisible. Remember?

  Not that Walker did anything to make me feel any more invisible than I usually did. It was more a matter of me knowing I’m invisible, and me knowing that he knows I’m invisible. The upside is- we’re at the beach and even Walker looking all fine and tanned and muscular with ocean water dripping off his skin-

  *Blythe wipes drool from her chin*

  -is not going to ruin all my fun this week.

  “Hey, Blythe!” His voice startled me from my creepy staring session. Luckily, I was wearing dark sunglasses and all I can hope is that he doesn’t realize I’ve been checking him out for the last twenty minutes as he body surfed.

  “Yeah,” I called back, hoping my voice didn’t sound as shaky to him as it did to me. Get it together, Blythe!

  “Come on!” He gestured to the water. “I haven’t seen you get in the water once in two days.”

  “I’ve put my toes in,” I defended myself.

  Walker pinned me with a glare. “Doesn’t count. Come on. Swim with me.”

  I bit my lip. See, the thing is I’m not a very good swimmer. And I have this thing.

  About water I can’t see the bottom of.

  And this water?

  You can’t see through it at all.

  There could be anything under there and I’d never know it. Shudders wracked my shoulders just thinking about it.

  “I’m good,” I told him and flipped over onto my back.

  “Seriously, you’re not going to get it.” My eyes popped open at the closeness of his voice right before he sat down beside me.

  “Um,” I couldn’t think, he was too close. And he was sitting beside me while I laid on my back in a bikini. I sat up and fought the desire to wrap myself up in my towel.

  “It’s not that cold. It feels pretty good actually.” Walker grinned a little as his eyes flicked down my body. “You’ve been frying long enough, haven’t you? The water will cool you off.”

  “I just- um,” I shrugged, still trying to recover from the heat of his eyes traveling over my body. I knew he didn’t mean anything by it, but it made me feel, well, visible. “It’s enough to stick my feet in the waves.”

  “Bly,” Walker rolled his eyes, propping himself on his arms behind him in the sand. “Come on, my brothers are too chicken to get past the breakers and it’s no fun swimming by myself all week. Just come out there with me.”

  I sighed. I have a feeling he won’t let me get out of this without a confession. “I can’t really...swim.” I cringed in anticipation of his reaction.

  He just sat there, his astonished eyes staring at me. “Are you serious right now? How is that even possible? And how did I not know?” His brows furrowed at the thought. Probably trying to remember me swimming all the times we’d been at the same pool parties as kids.

  “I am totally serious. And Indiana is quite landlocked, if you’ll remember. We usually swam in pools I could touch the bottom in.” And to this day, I never got into a pool if I couldn’t touch and see the bottom.

  “Wow,” Walker breathed, his gaze returning to the ocean in front of us. It was a beautiful view. This area of the beach was kind of deserted this time of day and it felt like we were the only two people for miles. It was nice because it was the first time all the little kids weren’t around. The dads had taken them all for a bike ride around the island. Walker and I both declined when they invited us and our moms decided it would be a good time to go to the grocery store.

  “I’ll just hold you.”

  Uh.

  Sorry, what did he just say?

  “Yeah, let’s go.” Walker jumped up from the sand and held his hand out to me. “I won’t let you drown, I promise.”

  And there it was again, one of those days that blindsides you. I knew as I stared at Walker Thomas’s masculine hand waiting for me to grab it, that if I did, there would be no going back for me. The awkwardness. The shyness. They would be nothing compared to the ache I knew would reside in my chest every moment I spent in his presence from here on out if I took his hand and let him hold me in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Because there was no way I wasn’t going to fall for this boy.

  “Bly, just trust me.”

  Walker

  I waited as a series of conflicting emotions flitted across her cute face. But seriously, I couldn’t take it anymore. She’d been parading around in that bikini, revealing a surprisingly hot body and well, I just had to do something about it. When everyone left earlier, leaving just the two of us behind, I knew I was in trouble. Especially when she decided to follow me to the beach and lay in the sun, taunting me. What guy in my position could ignore this opportunity?

  I r
aised one eyebrow, challenging her and I couldn’t stop the satisfied grin from curling my lips when she finally reached out and put her hand in mine.

  Yes!

  I led her to the water’s edge. The waves were tame compared to some I’d surfed in California, but they were still fun to play in. I love to stand past the breakers and jump with the waves that come all the way up to my neck and then let them carry me closer and closer to the beach and then swim out and start all over. It’s relaxing and perfect for flirting with a cute girl.

  We walked out until the water reached her shoulders. I felt her hand tense in mine. She is really tiny. The water hadn’t even reached my ribs yet and I still wanted to go out another few feet. I let go of her hand.

  “Walker!” she screamed, flailing her arms.

  Laughing, I slipped my arm around her waist. “Bly, I said I wouldn’t let you drown. Let’s go out a bit further.” I took another couple of steps. She couldn’t reach the bottom anymore. I held her waist but she was leaning away from me, trying not to touch me anymore than she had to not go under. That wasn’t going to work. I put my other arm around her, my hands gripping the bare skin at her waist.

  Yikes.

  Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  “You’re going to have to hold onto me, you know.” I was surprised at the softness of my voice when the words left my mouth.

  Blythe’s skittish gaze finally met mine, her pretty hazel eyes filled with uncertainty. I realized that even though we’d been friends as kids, we were practically strangers now and I knew I’d have to work to make her feel comfortable around me. So, I did what I had to do- I bent my knees and dunked her.

  Her arms wrapped themselves around my neck and she sputtered when her face broke the surface of the water, outraged.

  “What are you doing?” she cried, slapping my shoulder.