“You absolutely will not do that,” I tell him. “I draw the line at a nickname that could be misinterpreted as an STD.”
Collin barks out a laugh. Another real one. I’m glad I’m behind him, because I don’t want him to see how happy it makes me to know he’s laughing like that because of me.
My phone chimes from in my bag.
“Can you grab that?” I ask.
He reaches into my canvas tote and retrieves my cell. He glances at the screen. “You’ve got a message from an unknown number.”
All the blood rushes from my face. I grab for Collin’s towel and focus on wiping the sunscreen from between my fingers, trying to get my body to cooperate. I grab my phone from him without making eye contact. “I’m sure it’s spam.”
Unknown Number:Judging from your sister’s pictures, you’re in town. I knew you’d come crawling back to me. Will I see you soon? Name the place.
I swallow down the bile that’s rising in my throat and quickly swipe to delete the message even as my vision tunnels.
“Noli.” Collin sounds far away. “You okay?”
You will not pass out. You will not ruin Poppy and Mack’s weekend. Pull it together.
I blink a couple times, letting Collin’s soothing voice bring me back to myself.
When I no longer feel like I’m going to faint, I glance up at Collin.
Concern checkers the green in his eyes, making them look grayer.
“Totally fine. Probably got too much sun.”
“It wasn’t the message?”
“No. Just spam, like I thought.” I toss my phone into my bag. “I’m going to cool off in the water. Want to come with me?”
He studies me for a beat, like he doesn’t fully believe me. Like he’s looking for something I’m not saying.
He can look, but I’m not revealing this. Not to him, and not to anyone. I should be able to handle it. I need to be able to handle it. I can’t get close to another man—to anyone, really—to let them manipulate me like Nelson did.
“Yeah. Okay. Let’s go.” He stands up and holds out his hand for me.
I grab for it and let him hoist me up. He turns us toward the water, not letting go of my fingers. I don’t mind. Somehow, holding on to Collin makes me feel anchored. Like even though Nelson won’t leave me alone, at least for now, he can’t touch me.
“Did you ever come across any pirates in your time living down here?”
“Pirates?” I side-eye him to see if I heard him right.
He nods. “Yeah. They used to hide out all along the gulf coast to try to rob incoming and outgoing ships. I’d bet there are still some around.”
“Are you serious?” I chuckle.
He swings his gaze to me. “Don’t you mean,arrrrgggyou serious?”
I laugh at that. It comes up from my toes and hits the deep part of my vocal cords, ringing out loud and proud. “That was terrible.”
Collin doesn’t respond. I blink and clear my eyes, only to glance over at him and find him smiling back at me.
“I don’t care,” he says. “That’s what I was going for.”
“What?”
“To make you laugh. It’s my new goal.”
