Until Alex - J. Nathan Page 0,9
head retracted. “You know?”
I gulped down the fairly noticeable knot in my throat. “My aunt already warned me about you.”
He laughed softly, an edge to the sound. “Did she now?”
I nodded, trying to keep the nervous ripples swelling inside my stomach at bay.
One side of his mouth lifted into a cocky grin, like he could somehow sense my nerves.
Damn him.
“So, what’d she say about the hottie in 2C?”
I furrowed my brows, pretending he’d asked a serious question. “There’s a hottie in 2C?”
His voice lowered. “So I’ve been told.”
Okay, so cocky and confident. Usually an obnoxious blend, but somehow he worked it. How utterly frustrating. And oddly delicious. “Maybe you could introduce us. I’m new here, and a hot friend might make things bearable.”
Hayden suppressed another smile as he mimicked my move, resting his arms on the edge of the pool directly across from me. Great. Now I couldn’t escape the finely chiseled muscles rippling in his biceps and forearms.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
My eyes snapped from his muscles to his grinning face. Okay. So he caught me staring. So what? “What question?”
“You got a name?”
I swallowed. What was up with the swallowing thing? “Alexandra. Alex.”
“You living here now, Alex, or just passing through?”
Why did I like that given the choice, he opted for my nickname? “Nope. I’m here ‘til I graduate college in May.” As the words left my lips, a rush of sadness swept over me. I tried to conceal it with a small smile. But given Hayden’s intense gaze, he saw through my façade.
Thankfully, he didn’t say a word. He just nodded, seemingly understanding there were things I had no intention of disclosing.
Without another word, he lifted his face to the morning sun and closed his eyes. Mimicking his move, I let the sun’s rays spread over me, heating my body to the core. At least I assumed it was the sun’s effects.
As the sun moved in and out of the wispy clouds fluctuating the air’s temperature, we relaxed in comfortable silence. It gave me time to think. More time to think. The doctor said my mind would settle down, but it would take time. My pain ran deep. It was raw and intense.
The anti-depressants he prescribed didn’t work. Hence me swallowing the entire bottle in need of sleep and a clear mind. But that just got me a hospital stay and a one-way ticket to my aunt’s.
Not my finest hour.
Being hundreds of miles away from my old life was supposed to help. So far, it hadn’t.
Grief overwhelmed me.
Guilt and anger ate away at my soul.
Except when I was around Hayden.
I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t explain it. But I’d take it. Because here in the pool, I could smile. I could laugh. I could breathe.
It took no time for the sun to sting my cheeks. Since I’d forgotten sunscreen, and my fair skin burned so easily, I needed to move into the shade.
When I opened my eyes, Hayden’s gaze was locked on mine from across the pool. I expected his eyes to jump away, to pretend they’d been staring at something else, but they didn’t.
“Is sharing your pool as bad as you thought it would be?”
A slow smile slid across his lips. “Could be worse.”
I smiled back. “Worse, huh?”
He nodded.
“Like ‘swimming with sharks with a big gouge in your leg’ worse?”
He considered my question before shaking his head. “Like ‘getting ready to bang a hot chick and realizing you don’t have a condom’ worse.”
I choked out a laugh, completely blindsided by his response. But given the devious twinkle in his eyes, he was trying to get a rise out of me. Looking for a reaction. Testing me.
Giving nothing else away, I lowered myself into the water, allowing the coolness to soothe my tender sun-kissed shoulders and cheeks.
“You a swimmer?”
I pushed my wet hair out of my eyes. “Hardly.”
He lowered his body into the water, submerging himself underneath. When he resurfaced, he raked his fingers through his dark hair pushing the wet locks off his forehead. “So if I challenge you to a race—”
“You’d kick my ass.”
His lips tipped into a grin before he moved away from the wall and swam to the far end of the pool. I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on his right shoulder, but he spun toward me before I could determine what it was. “What makes you so sure?”
“I’ve seen the muscles.” Once the words were out, I wanted to swallow them back. Not because I was embarrassed. But because