my lip, hating the disappointment I feel knowing that he doesn’t live here.
“My brother, mum and dad.” His bare foot kicks at a piece of dead seaweed. We both watch it fly through the air and laugh when the dog goes chasing after it, pulling his owner with him. “Do you have any siblings?”
“No, my mum isn’t the most maternal person in the world.”
He frowns, tilting his head so he can see my face clearly. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
My lips pinch together and I wish I hadn’t said anything. The last thing I want to do is make myself out to be some kind of sob story. “Are you enjoying Skegness?”
“I am. It’s a nice little seaside town.”
“That it is.” We lapse into a comfortable silence, the sound of people screaming with glee carrying to us through the air. It’s from the small theme park just over a mile away. Skegness is such a small town you can hear the screams from almost everywhere if you listen closely enough, just as you can forever smell the salty air of the sea.
“So Gwen is short for...?”
“Guinevere.”
“That’s an interesting name.”
“It matches my personality oh so well.” I grin and he returns it with a simple, “That it does.”
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. “Caleb is just Caleb, right?”
The smile remains on his face. How I wish I could just smile that beautifully all of the time. “Yep. And how old are you, Gwenny?”
“Gwenny?” I snort, quirking a brow at him. I’m not sure if I like that.
“If we’re going to do this whole dating thing, we’re going to need pet names. So what’s mine?”
Dating? Pet names? This beautiful man wants to date me? “Umm…”
He waves me off. “That doesn’t matter. Those are details we can figure out another time. So… age?”
“Are you profiling? Making sure I’m the right target for your list of victims? What is it I have in common with the others? Is it my green eyes or my sparkling youth?” I jest.
He throws his head back and laughs; it’s a beautiful sound. “You know, Gwenny?” His arm slides around my shoulder as casually as if we’d known each other for years. “What a glorious day this is.” As he pulls me tighter to him, I smell the scent of coconut lingering on his skin. No doubt it’s the scent of his sunblock, but it’s delicious all the same. “But on a serious note, I’m twenty. Just turned twenty, two weeks ago.”
“I’m eighteen, nineteen in five months.”
“You fit the profile perfectly,” he states, his smile gone and replaced with a failing psycho smile. He’s just too cute to pull it off. “Is there anywhere quiet we can go so I can act out my insane plan to dismember you and throw your remains into the ocean for the sharks to eat?”
I will myself to stop giggling, but I can’t help it. I feel like such a floozy.
We turn before we reach the pavement and start heading back the way we came. His arm drops from my shoulder but he remains close as we walk silently along the yellow sand. The air bites at the skin where his arm kept it sheltered moments ago.
I want his arm back.
“We’re going to meet at this spot…” He stops us again after a few minutes of peaceful walking and stamps his foot on the sand before throwing his arm out to show me the area. “At the same time tomorrow.” He leans in, dipping his head so his eyes catch mine. “Is that okay with you, Gwenny?”
“Don’t you want my number?” I’m sure that’s the normal way to do things.
He shakes his head. “I have a feeling I’ll get an apologetic text. I figure if you don’t have a way to let me down, you won’t.”
“Crafty.” I grin. He seems to be good at reading people because that sounds exactly like something I would do. “I like it.”
“Good, come on. Ice cream. My treat.”
“You’re not dressed,” I announce, pointing at his dark blue, flower motif shorts and lack of shirt.
He seems to contemplate this for a moment before his mischievous eyes come back to mine. “You don’t miss a beat, do you?” I shrug in response. He continues. “You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”
Throb. Throb. Throb. Goes my heart.
“W… what does that have to do with you being half naked?” I stammer, trying to calm my heated self.