Because Beards
Page 47
He laughed, but not in a mean way. “Great. I’ll see you there, then.”
“Yeah. Good. Okay. See you then.” She turned away and walked back to Elena before he could see her blush yet again. Good Lord, she was blushing way too much today. Hopefully tonight she could keep a handle on it.
Matt sat in the sand, his long sleeve t-shirt pulled down to protect his arms from the chill in the air this late in the evening. He glanced at his phone again, checking the time. Eight twelve. He’d said eight o’clock, and he’d been so antsy that he’d gotten here early, helping Ben, his friend from high school, get the fire started. The others sat closer to the fire, talking and laughing, a few people already dancing to the music playing on a speaker dock for an old school iPod that someone had brought. And Hannah was late. He swigged his beer, his eyes scanning the bluff hiding the parking lot. Should he text her? See if she was still coming? Or—
Someone bumped his shoulder and he turned to see Ben standing next to him, his hairy legs sticking out of a pair of tan cargo shorts next to Matt’s shoulder. “Dude, what are you doing? You were here early. I figured you’d be eager to hook up with someone or at least hang out and have a good time.”
Matt shrugged. “I’m waiting for someone. She’s not from around here, so I want to make sure she knows she’s in the right place.”
Ben laughed. “You’re bringing a date, but you didn’t even offer to pick her up?”
“I never said it was a date.”
Ben shook his head, laughing some more. “Whatever, man. How are you planning on scoring if she came separately? That’s amateur hour right there. You know better than that.”
“I never said I was meeting a girl.” Matt glanced up at his old friend with his eyebrows raised.
Ben just chuckled and nudged Matt’s shoulder with his knee again. “With the way you’re over here checking your phone every three seconds and staring at the parking lot, I know it’s not a dude. Unless there’s something you’d like to share?”
Matt punched Ben in the thigh. “Shut up, dude. I’m not gay.”
Ben backed up, laughing harder. “Alright, alright. I know. And you did say she and her. But it’d be cool with me if you were gay. I’m enlightened like that.” He swigged his beer, holding in a laugh and backed away, kicking up sand as he moved to escape Matt’s second punch. “I don’t need a dead leg, dude. I plan on dancing tonight.”
Matt stood up, brushing sand from his shorts, his eyebrows raised. “Oh, yeah? Anyone special?”
Ben rubbed a hand over his close-cropped brown hair, calming down. “Mindy’s here.”
Matt’s eyebrows climbed further up his forehead. “You guys still a thing?” Mindy and Ben had dated for their entire senior year.
Ben tilted his head. “Not really, but we hook up sometimes when we’re both in town. She went to school in California, though, and I’m at UW, so it’s not like we could really be together anyway. You know how long distance stuff is.”
“Not really. But I can’t imagine it would be easy. Did you guys even try?”
Ben shook his head, “Nah. We both decided it wouldn’t be worth it. But it’s not like we broke up because we hate each other. And neither of us have anything serious going on with anyone else, so why not fuck and be friends while we’re in the same place?”
Matt nodded, taking another pull out of the beer bottle in his hand. “Yeah, sure.” He didn’t know if he could be that casual about sex with a former girlfriend, but if that’s what Ben and Mindy wanted, who was he to judge?
Ben said something else, but Matt didn’t catch it, because Hannah appeared on top of the dunes blocking the parking lot from the beach. The wind off the water caught strands from her ponytail and pulled them free, whipping them around her face, the evening light making her hair more golden.
He nodded. “Uh-huh. Cool, man. My date’s here. I’ll catch up with you later.” He was vaguely aware of Ben’s laughter behind him, but he couldn’t give a shit right now. She came. He strode toward the dunes to meet her, a smile stretching his lips wide, relief that she showed up settling over him, calming his nervous energy.
Her dark-haired friend walked beside her, both of them wearing short shorts and tank tops, and the friend had a bag slung over one shoulder. Matt’s brow creased when he saw a guy with dark hair trailing behind them, about the same height as the girls. Why would she bring along a guy?
Matt stopped at the base of the dune. None of them had seen him yet, their attention focused on their feet as they took large steps down the steep dune.
Finally, Hannah looked up, her face lighting up in a big smile. “Hey.”
“Hey.” His smile matched hers. Maybe the guy was with her friend.
She came to a stop in front of him, and he barely noticed the other two stopping beside her, all his attention on Hannah. She motioned to her friend. “This is Elena. I don’t think you guys introduced yourselves earlier today.”
He shook his head, turning his attention briefly to the friend. “Hey. I’m Matt.”
She huffed a laugh, her lips tilted in a private smile. “Yeah, I know. Nice to meet you.” She was pretty, too, curvy and stacked, long dark hair and a deep tan. He’d noticed her this morning, too, thinking either girl was a nice possibility. But it had been Hannah who’d ultimately captured his attention. When her green eyes had locked with his on his way into the water something had passed between them, and he found himself drawn to her. Given that she’d approached him on the beach, the feeling seemed to be mutual.
Elena hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “This is my little brother, Tomás. He’s the reason we’re late.”
Matt turned a quizzical look on Hannah. She nodded. “He begged to come. I’m here with Elena’s family for the summer. Her parents weren’t going to let us come if we didn’t bring him along.”
“Okay. No big deal. We have pop and beer in the coolers by the fire. Everyone’s cool, though. It’s fine.” He gestured toward the growing group of people surrounding the fire. There were probably twenty or thirty people there now, all their old friends from high school that were home for the summer gathering by the Jetties like they always had growing up. As long as they didn’t get too loud or rowdy, no one bothered them down on the beach.
He led the way, wanting to reach for Hannah’s hand, but stopping himself. He’d get her to dance with him, then he’d have an excuse to touch her. The orangey quality of the light made it harder to tell, but she still seemed to be blushing half the time he talked to her. He didn’t want to scare her off by being too forward too soon.
Hannah walked a few steps behind Matt, Elena and Tomás behind her, trying to keep up with his long strides in the sand. She’d worn cute strappy sandals, and regretted the choice now that sand kept getting under her feet. At the first chance, she’d take them off. And then get her sweatshirt from Elena’s bag. The wind made it colder than she’d expected down here by the water. The condo buildings shielded the parking lot from the wind most of the time, so it hadn’t felt that cool when they’d gotten in the car to drive into town.
Matt stopped by the coolers and cast a look at her over his shoulder. The way his eyes raked over her body, bolder and more appreciative than anyone ever before, had goosebumps rippling up her arms and over her chest. She shivered.
He turned to face her. “Cold? It gets chilly here at night. Here, let’s get you closer to the fire so you can get warm.” He pressed his hand to her lower back, guiding her toward the fire, and then wrapped an arm around her, his hand rubbing up and down her arm. Leaning down, he pitched his voice so just she could hear. “I’ll keep you warm.”
Oh. Maybe she’d let Elena hang onto her sweatshirt after all. Matt keeping her warm? Yes, please. She sent a wide-eyed look at Elena, who smirked and gave a little wave of her fingers before fishing drinks out of the cooler for her and her brother.
Hannah held herself stiffly, unused to people she barely knew wrapping themselves around her, even for the ostensibl
e purpose of keeping her warm, but as his heat enveloped her from behind, she couldn’t help but relax against him, enjoying the feel of his firm torso against her side, and the way his muscles moved as he continued to rub her arm. A rush of heat spread from her chest to her face. She’d blame that on the fire this time. She wasn’t blushing again, dammit.
“Better?”
She turned her face up to see him smiling down at her. She nodded. “Much.” And she tried to keep herself from blushing again while she cast about for something else to talk about. Matt didn’t seem too worried about their silence, his hand slowing, but still stroking up and down her bare arm, the movement turning more sensual and less the business-like chafing intended to warm her up. She couldn’t suppress another shiver and the goosebumps that popped out on her arm and chest, even though she felt hot all over.
“I thought you said you were better?” He chuckled and moved behind her. “Here. Maybe this’ll help.” He pressed his chest against her back and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against him. Now she felt positively hot, but no way was she going to move away, even if nerves fluttered in her belly, and another wave of heat washed over her front, which was definitely not from the fire.
After a moment she felt his chin come to rest on top of her head. “This okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“You know,” his voice rumbled in his chest, and she could feel it where she pressed against him. “We’re not going to be able to dance or anything if we have to stay here like this in front of the fire all night.”
“Oh.” Should she tell him that she had a sweatshirt? This was so great, but dancing with him sounded like fun, too. Screw it. Hopefully he wouldn’t immediately let her go when she told him she did have a sweatshirt after all. “Well, Elena—my friend—she has sweatshirts for all of us in her bag. I can get it whenever.”
“Okay. Good.” She could hear the smile in his voice, but he made no move to release her. She smiled and snuggled further into his arms, and he tightened them around her. “So you said you were here for the summer. When do you go back home?”
“Early August. We got here about a week ago.” Elena’s mom was a teacher, and her dad ran some kind of online company. Hannah wasn’t clear on the details but it meant that they could go away for like two months every summer. This year, Hannah got invited along, and her parents had said yes.
“Wow. That’s some vacation.”
“I know. My parents could never do that, but Elena’s dad can work from anywhere, and her mom has the summers off from school, so they always pick somewhere different and get a vacation rental for a couple months.”
“You must be good friends with Elena, huh?”
She smiled again. “Yeah. We’ve been friends since elementary school. She knows all my deep, dark secrets.”
He laughed—a full, throaty laugh—his chin lifting off her head for a moment. The sound warmed her as much as the fire and his body. She liked hearing him laugh.
“All your deep, dark secrets, huh? I’m not sure I believe you have many of those. You seem far too sweet and innocent for that.”
His words had her twisting her head around to look at him. “You think so, huh?” He was right, but she’d never admit it to him. She was tired of being the sweet, innocent good girl, always doing what she was told, never having any fun. That was part of why Elena had egged her on today when Hannah had drooled over Matt at the beach, and why Elena had agreed to basically babysit her younger brother at a party full of strangers. Hannah loved her parents, but they were ridiculously overprotective, not letting her date until last summer, and even then mostly with groups. Elena’s parents were more relaxed, and this summer was her chance to do things her restrictive parents would never allow. Like go to a party to meet a guy she barely knew and snuggle in his arms to stay warm. Who knew what else could happen?
A bemused smile met the challenge in her words, but he just shrugged. “Babe, I’ve seen you blush more times than I can count today. Yeah, you’re definitely a sweet and innocent little thing.”
Another blush flamed over her face at his words. Shit, she wished she could get that under control. But she couldn’t, and she had no comeback to his statement, so she turned back around, staring into the fire again.
His mouth came down near her ear, his breath fanning over her skin, raising more goosebumps down her neck. “You wanna know one of my secrets?” He paused, waited for her to nod, and then went on. “I like your blushes. And the goosebumps that you get when I touch you or whisper in your ear. I like that you’re all sweet and innocent.” She shivered in his arms. “And I like that you shiver against me like that, especially since I know you can’t be cold now.”
Mortification that she was so transparent washed through her, followed by pleasure at his words. He liked her reactions. He liked her.
He nuzzled her ear for a second, sending another wave of goosebumps and heat washing down her neck, then rested his chin on top of her head again.
“What about you?”
“Hmm?” Matt had no idea what the girl in his arms was asking about, distracted by the feel of her body against his, the fruity smell of her shampoo and the lingering scent of sunscreen from her day at the beach.
She turned her head to look back at him over her shoulder again. Maybe he should let her get her sweatshirt so they could sit and face each other while they talked. But he was enjoying holding her too much to let go just yet. And he hoped he’d get to hold her some more later. She really was so innocent with her blushes that stained her skin the prettiest pink. Would she know how to dance? How to kiss? More? She wasn’t that young, probably only a year or so younger than him, so he doubted she’d never been kissed. But had she gone any further? He made sure to keep space between his hips and her ass, no matter how much he wanted to grind himself against her. She blushed when he whispered in her ear. She’d freak if he let her feel his hard-on right now.
“I said, ‘what about you?’ How long are you here for?”
Oh, right. “I leave the first week of August. Football practice starts a few weeks before classes.”
“Oh. Where do you go to school?” There was something strange in her voice.
He gave her a quizzical look. “Marycliff University over in Spokane.”
“Oh. Cool. Yeah, I’ve heard of it.” That strange quality was still there, and she seemed stiffer in his arms.
“What about you? Where do you go to school?”
She turned her face away from him and mumbled something that he couldn’t catch.
“What? I couldn’t hear you.”
Her chest swelled under his arms as she took a deep breath before turning her face toward him once more, but she wouldn’t look at him. “I said Hanford High School.”
He froze. High school? She started to squirm in his arms, but he didn’t let her go. “Wha—“ He cleared his throat. “What year are you?”
She stopped moving, but held herself stiffly against him, the only reason she touched him at all was because he still held her back pressed against his chest. “I’ll be a senior in the fall.”
“So you’re seventeen?”
She gave a short nod. “I’ll be eighteen next week.”
He relaxed, his arms draping around her again rather than clamping in frozen dread. She was eighteen, or would be soon enough. That wasn’t so bad. “Cool. I’ll be a sophomore at Marycliff next year.”
She relaxed against him again. “Oh. So that makes you …?”
“Nineteen.”
She relaxed some more, the tension leaving her body, resuming the comfortable way they’d been standing before. “Cool. You like Marycliff?”
“Yeah. It’s a good school. I got a football scholarship that covers most of my tuition, so it’s been a good deal.”
“Wow.” Her voice was full of admiration. “No wonder you’re ripped.” She stiffened in his arms again, like maybe she was embarrassed that she’d said that.
He l
aughed. “Yeah. Between surfing and football I work out a lot. What about you? Do you have college plans for next year?”
She nodded, relaxing once more. “Yeah. My parents really want me to go to WSU since it’s close to home, but I’d rather go to UW.”
“So you’d spend your school year over in my part of the state.”
She chuckled. “Yup. But you’ll be in Spokane, so it’s not like we’d see each other.”
He opened his mouth to say something about maybe meeting in the middle on breaks, but stopped himself. Where the hell had that come from anyway? He barely even knew this chick. “True.”
They fell silent, and Matt wasn’t sure what to say after his almost blurted out desire to see her again after tonight, after they both left for the summer, going back to their real lives. Even though he’d grown up in Westport, it no longer felt like his real life after just one year of school. The only thing he really missed in Spokane was being able to surf more than just the few weeks he was home in the summer. He’d come home a few times in the spring before the surf got really gentle, but his dad had been annoyed with him, telling him he needed to stay at school, focus on classes, and give up his stupid dreams of surfing. The only reason his dad was okay with him surfing as much as he did during the summer was because he got paid decently to teach lessons. Even then, his dad almost constantly told him how much more money he’d make working on a fishing charter. But he couldn’t stomach doing that. Yeah, he’d get to spend all day on the water, but not like he wanted.
When his dad went off about that stuff he mostly just nodded and kept his head down. Arguing didn’t ever do anything except start a yelling match, and he hated those, hated the confrontation, and hated that even when he was right, he’d lose. Sometimes he’d mention how he’d given his word to Trip, the owner of the surf shop that he taught for, and his dad had raised him to be a man of his word. His dad would grumble a bit, usually something about Trip being a hippie stoner—which wasn’t entirely untrue—but then drop the subject. For a while. Usually until he saw Matt getting ready to go surfing or coming home after being on the beach. He’d learned to avoid his dad for the most part, which wasn’t too hard since the man worked long hours as the harbor master, so this summer he’d escaped most of the lectures.