Go Away, Darling - Alexis Anne Page 0,51
her shoulders relax and a smile curve her lips.
It had been too damn long since I touched those lips. I remembered every second of what it felt like, tasted like, to have her lips on mine. Every morning and every night I remembered with excruciating detail the heaven that was her body moving with mine.
The water was smooth today, like glass in some places, a slight ripple in others. The sunlight reflected off it almost painfully as we headed west, and then eased as I turned the boat south.
“Where are we headed?” she yelled.
“It’s a surprise!” As much as anything could be a surprise. She knew the area better than I ever would. She’d probably guess my intentions pretty quickly.
A large boat crossed ahead of us and I adjusted course slightly to take his wake a little less brutally. Liv braced her hands on either side of the windshield, bent her knees, and absorbed the impact as we passed over the waves. As soon as we were clear and back onto smooth waters she moved to the bow, looking over the side.
She paid almost no attention at all to where we were going and instead seemed to make the most of her opportunity to relax. To breathe in the salty air, feel the sun on her skin. She smiled the whole way there.
“Are we headed to Cabbage Key?” She finally asked with a confused look on her face.
I shrugged. “Want to get a beer with me?”
I couldn’t see her eyes, but I could feel her looking at me. “Yeah. Sounds great.”
Since it was weekday afternoon it wasn’t busy and I was able to pull right up to the dock. I fell in love with this place the first time Liv took me here. It was a small island with a historic house that was now a lodge. There were several cottages on the island you could rent for a few nights. It was also easy to wander the island or eat at the one and only restaurant. There was no way to reach the island except by boat. It was the kind of place that had dollar bills stapled up everywhere and surprisingly delicious food.
We snagged a table that looked out over the water and ordered two beers. She still had that blissed out look on her face, but her hands had begun to fidget with the paper napkin in her hands.
“Maybe we’ll have time to walk around before we head back.”
Her eyes drifted to the grass and then down to the rocks and sand. “You know it’s weird. This is the same water outside our houses, same sand, same everything, but it feels different.”
I could say the same about us. We were the same people who were on a collision course last year, but we didn’t feel the same anymore. “The wind is different. The shade. The island isn’t like Calusa Key at all.”
“That’s true. It’s a nice day.”
It was warm but not oppressively hot. I wanted to make small talk but every topic that jumped to mind was work related—hers or mine—and that felt like a huge part of what was holding us permanently in the friend zone. There had to be more to Olivia and Chris than baseball and photography. That was part of why I wanted to get in the boat and just go. “I found a new—well new to me—band that I can’t stop listening to. They’re super popular so you probably know them already. The Brothers Osborne.”
Her eyes unfocused. “I’ve heard of them but I don’t know that I can say I’ve heard their music before. What do you like about them?”
Aha! We could talk about something other than work. I felt like I’d just struck someone out and was doing a victory lap around the mound. “They're a little bit country, a lot southern rock. All their music makes me smile and want to relax. It reminds me of you.”
She blushed. “I make you smile and relax?”
“You know you do.” I didn’t push the topic. Instead I sipped my beer and enjoyed the view of the water, hearing “Pushing Up Daisies” in my head.
“How’s the commute?” She didn’t look at me.
“Not bad at all. Every so often I wish I could just crash after a late game, but then I think about waking up anywhere but my beach and it makes the drive seem like nothing at all.”
She studied me for a minute, looking like she was wrestling with something. “You know in