Spring Break

~ 17 ~

Damn, I think I just drooled a little bit myself.

Being around him made me all tingly and warm inside so I tried to distract myself from his proximity and his sexy body by reaching into my purse for sunscreen. I had to rummage around before I finally found it and squirted a bit of the cream into my hand before offering the bottle to him. He shook his head as I started to spread it around, rubbing it into my skin.

I was mostly doing it just to see his reaction and to have some shameless fun. I loved it when I got to be the one to mess with his head and not the other way around.

"I love this place so much," I spoke as I listened to the birds chirping and nature coming to life. I mostly loved the smell of salt in the air. "Give me a beach, waves, sunshine and I'll be set for life."

"Have you thought about what you're going to do once you graduate?" Alex asked, keeping his eyes on mine for too long, which could only mean one thing. He was struggling not to look at my boobs.

I shrugged, pretending not to notice. "I don't know. I haven't really thought about what I want to do or where I want to go. I suppose I'm more of a live-in-the-now kind of girl."

"I don't have that luxury," he replied. "My dad's so focused on my mistakes that I can't afford to be even more of a failure."

I rubbed the sunscreen on my legs and made sure that there was no residue left on my hands. I observed that Alex was now looking at the ground, pretending his dad's disapproval didn't faze him in any way. If I hadn't known him for years, I'd have believed it.

"I don't get it," I told him. "He's always been harder on you than on anyone else."

"He screwed up his own life by settling down before he was ready and now he's angry at me for living the life he wants," Alex confessed, still looking at the ground.

"What do you mean?" I asked, the first time I heard about this.

"My dad accidentally got my mom pregnant soon after they met. Their parents forced them to get married. The two of them thought that eventually, one of their babies would bring them closer. It wasn't until Kyle was born that they decided to go to therapy and actually work on their marriage," he explained.

"I didn't know that," I said softly, meeting his eyes. There was a twinkle in his eye before he took the sunscreen from my hands and motioned for me to lie on my stomach so that he can rub it on my back. If we weren't having this conversation, I might have let out a flirty comment.

"He doesn't like me because I remind him of him. He thinks I'll get someone pregnant, drop out of college and as a result waste his money."

"I'm sorry that your dad's such an ass to you," I said, for the first time realizing that I was wrong. I didn't necessarily know everything about the Anderson boys. I didn't know their family life behind closed doors.

His hands traveled from my shoulders down my back as he rubbed in the cream. He was being very gentle and I could tell that he's had plenty of practice.

"Do you want to know why we spend most of the time at your house?" Alex asked me.

"Because you're obsessed with my mom's cooking?" I teased.

The corners of his mouth turned up for a few seconds and our eyes met. There was something about the way he was touching me that made me feel breathless.

"We all try to avoid their fighting. Whenever dad's in a mood, we all like to leave the house."

"Does Jake know?" I asked Alex as he finished putting sunscreen on my back. He nodded.