Damaged Love - Jaxson Kidman Page 0,19

don’t fall thing.

I stopped and turned and Gia was laughing at me.

I moved for her again and she took off.

Growling under my breath, I ran after her a second time.

This time she wasn’t going to let me get her.

She even went as far as starting to dance while running. Jumping into the air and kicking her legs out. Making left to right patterns in the sand, just messing with me.

My arms, legs and lungs didn’t stop moving.

Each time I got within a few feet of her, Gia would look back and then speed up.

Finally, I called it quits.

I stopped running and I collapsed to my knees.

I made fists and hit the sand.

By the time I looked up, Gia had turned around to come back to me.

She waved her arms.

“Winter!” she cried out.

Gia fell to the sand right in front of me.

“Winter… are you okay?”

“Fine,” I said. “Just out of breath.”

“No head pain or anything?”

“What? No. Oh, wait, you thought…”

“Yeah,” she said. “Remember last time?”

“Oops,” I said.

“It’s not funny,” she said. She slapped my shoulder. “You scared me.”

“You deserved it.”

“Oh, come on, Winter, I’m just messing around. I got you to run.”

“True,” I said. “Just… don’t say things like that… okay?”

“Can I ask you a really honest question?”

“Sure, Gia.”

“Are you mad because it might be true?”

I swallowed hard. I shook my head.

If I could lie to almost everyone about not having my memory, I could serve up a small lie to Gia. I shouldn’t have wanted to lie to the person I considered to be my best friend, but…

How could I talk about Noah, Easton, and Xavier with her?

It was impossible.

Because I had no idea what I was thinking.

All three were gorgeous, in their own ways.

Noah with his white shirts and clean, sexy look. Easton with his gruff look. Always so messy and so wild. But it worked. And Xavier was just big and protective. I had no clue what he was thinking. Ever.

I chewed on the corner of my bottom lip for a few seconds.

“There’s too much happening at once, Gia. I didn’t want this many people to know.”

“Then you should have lied better,” she said. “You ended up with a conscience instead.”

“Yeah. I screwed up. I should have just stuck with Evie and Darcy.”

“Really?”

“I’m kidding,” I said. “What’s wrong? Can’t take a little joke?”

Gia fake laughed and rolled her eyes. “How did running feel?”

“Terrible,” I said.

“It’s not supposed to feel that bad.”

“Well, I had to chase you down,” I said.

“Next time just listen to me.”

“Next time?”

“Oh, these clothes and shoes are yours now, Winter. You’re my new running partner.”

“Excuse me?” I asked. “Running partner? No. You can run. I’ll gracefully jog the beach.”

“Without a bra?” Gia asked. “So you can bounce around and have the guys staring at you…”

Gia put her hands under her chest and bounced air boobs with a smile on her face.

“Goodnight, Gia,” I said.

“Goodnight?” she asked.

“I’m tired,” I said. “I’m going to shower and get some sleep. That a problem?”

“No.” She looked at her phone. “Oh, shit. I didn’t realize what time it was here. Fuck.”

“What’s wrong? Hot date?”

“I wish,” she said. “I have something to do with my mother. You know how she is.”

“No, I don’t.”

Gia looked at me. “Funny. She just wants to hang out. Talk.”

“She loves you.”

“No. She needs someone to give her attention. She can’t function alone and without attention. Shit. I better get going.”

“Are you sure about the clothes and shoes?” I asked. “This stuff can’t be cheap.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing we’re rich,” Gia said.

Gia got to her feet and jogged away to get her orange cones and go home.

I sat back on my heels and my fingertips flirted with the sand.

I guess I was a runner now, huh?

I laughed.

My plan was to stick to what I said before… I was only going to run if someone was chasing after me.

Simple as that.

I curled my fingers into the sand and smiled.

At the same time I got that I’m being watched feeling again.

A tingling feeling on the back of my neck that pushed through my body to the front of my chest.

It was like when you watched a scary movie and then had to walk through your house and you were creeped out that something was going to happen.

A feeling of eerie dread.

I licked my lips.

My mouth started to go dry.

Very slowly, I looked to my left.

I squinted my eyes and looked as hard as I could.

There was nothing visible.

I looked the other way.

Nothing.

I carefully stood up, my