Summer Lights

Chapter 2

“I never stopped loving you.”

- The Best of Me, coming to theaters October 17

Chapter 2

June 11, 2006

Today I met River Ferguson…

“Ow!” I grimaced. “That’s definitely going to leave a mark.” Pulling myself up into a sitting position I gingerly massaged my bruised temple and glared at the soccer ball sitting no less than a few inches from me in the sand. For the last hour I’d been laying out here on the beach, working on my tan when the stupid thing had come from out of nowhere, rudely awakening me out of a dead sleep.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a subtle movement and pause.

“Oh man, I’m so, so sorry,” a particularly deep southern accented voice drawled.

Turning in the direction of this particularly deep southern voice I raised my head, squinted against the bright light of the sun and found a pair of stormy green eyes staring down at me.

“We were just playing around,” he continued, “when dimwit over there decided to be stupid and kick the ball in the wrong direction. We didn’t mean for it to beam you in the head like that.” He bent down in the sand and started to raise his hand. For a second I thought this stranger with the stormy green eyes might actually touch me. Instead he dropped his hand back to his side. His brow wrinkled and I could see concern etched in his face. “You alright? I mean that red mark looks like it might hurt.”

“Wow,” was about the only word I could intelligently muster at the moment without sounding like a simpleton. Tall, dark and handsome was ripped, finely defined and chiseled in all the right places. To put it in layman’s terms, he was smoking hot with big fat “T”.

When I didn’t answer him he asked me again. “Miss, are you okay?”

Shaking my head, I sighed. I hadn’t realized I was still staring at his bare chest until he chuckled.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, rubbing the side of my head again. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Leaning over the edge of the towel, I grabbed the ball and lightly tossed it to him. “I do believe this is yours.”

“Thanks,” he said, catching the ball with ease. “Again, I’m sorry about the…” he gestured towards my head. He was leaning in so close that I could smell the mixture of sweat and something else that was spicy and little bit sweet. I instantly wanted to lean in closer to him but thought better of it and refrained myself.

Turning my head I stared out at the ocean and noticed a group of four other equally smoking hot guys watching us. They were whispering and laughing, probably at me. “Look, it’s all good,” I told him, unable to hide my irritation. Turning back around I stare up at him, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand. “A little bump on the head never really hurt anyone. I’m a big girl so you can go ahead back to your friends and finish your game. I’ll be fine.”

His eyes took a slow perusal over my body. My skin suddenly felt overly warm. “I have no doubt about that,” he replied with a mischievous grin touching the corners of his lips. “But you should at least let me buy you an ice-cream down at Scoops. I hear they have they the best butter pecan ice-cream in the state.”

“You heard right. They do have the best ice cream in the state. Take it from someone who knows.”

He stood up and planted the soccer ball firmly on his hip. I watch him as he bites his lower lip, drawing my full attention to his sensual mouth.