Page 49 of Return Policy
“I’d love to get to know Theo a little better.” My jaw ticks as she grins over at me. “Can you make a formal introduction? He’s a smoke show.”
Shaking my head, I exhale heavily to expel the burning feeling in my veins. “No fuckin’ way.”
“Why not?” She juts out a pouty lip. “A sunflower needs lots of honey bees, Elijah.” She gestures a hand loosely towards her body.
I let out a deep laugh before stopping abruptly. “No.”
“What do you mean,‘no?’” she repeats using air quotes.
“Ifmysunflower wants a honey bee, I’ll be the only one sucking up her nectar,” I say, picking up my almost empty iced coffee and taking a long, loud, slurping sip. Her pretty lips part open before she snaps them shut. Sage loses it in the back seat, cackling so hard I might need to give her an inhaler. Sophia sits with her arms folded in her seat and while her body language says she’s annoyed, the wicked grin on her face tells an entirely different story.
“Well, what about—”
“Theonlyone,” I cut Sophia off firmly. Sage winks at me in the rearview mirror, which only encourages my teasing as Sophia’s cheeks tinge bright pink.
“Mm-hmm,” Sophia hums, sinking into her seat. “We’ll see about that.”
I turn into the beach parking lot, pulling between a few familiar cars. We amble down the path toward the ocean and once my toes sink into the warm sand, I pause for a moment, taking it all in. The salty air, the blazing sun on my skin, and the beautiful girl who I’ll win over.Eventually. We make our way toward the guys, who’ve already made their presence known on the beach, and put our stuff down.
“What’s up, E?” Theo calls over, a cheerleader already tucked under his arm.
“Just another day in paradise, T.” He strides over to us, dragging the poor girl along.
“Hey, Elijah.” She turns to the girls with a wide smile. “I’m Stella.”
The girls pull her into their orbit, and they chat while setting up their towels.
“She given in to the Anderson charm yet?” Noah asks, handing me a can of Bud Light in one of Theo’s custom koozies.
“Soon.”
“Yeah, right.” Julian chuckles, sticking his surfboard in the sand and joining our conversation. “You’ll be lucky if you ever get to first base.”
“Bullshit, I’m a home run kinda guy,” I say before taking a long pull of my refreshing beer. “Ready to meet the spicy purple Skittle?” I ask Julian.
“Oh, you know it,” he says, rubbing his hands together.
“Sage,” I call over to her, and the girls look our way. Sophia’s eyes go wide before schooling her expression as she and Sage walk over, whispering to one another along the way. “This is Julian.”
“Uber driver. I’d recognize that neck tat anywhere.” Sage smirks, holding out her hand.
“Hi.” He shakes her hand slowly. “Glad I made an impression.”
Her hazel eyes sparkle, and I search for an exit from this conversation I’m clearly no longer a part of. His eyes flick over to her surfboard. “Wanna catch a wave?”
“You any good?” Sage cocks a brow.
“I guess you’ll have to find out.” They pick up their boards and jog out to the water. Sophia stares after them with an unreadable expression on her face.
“You alright?” I ask, biting my lower lip to suppress a smile.
“Mm-hmm.” She watches as Julian and Sage dive into the water with their boards.
“Are you praying there’s an Uber driver/rider confidentiality clause?” I ask, repeating Julian’s lame excuse for keeping his damn mouth shut.
Her terrified gaze flicks to mine. “Possibly.”
“Anything you’d care to share with the class?”
