Josh placed the food on a nearby table, and we all sat down, divided everything out, and began eating. The aroma of the Surf Shack's famous fish tacos filled the air, mixing with the salty sea breeze.
“How was your trip?” I asked, curious about his time in London.
Josh smiled, his eyes lighting up with memories. “It was good! It went by really fast, but it was good.”
“Good, I’m glad,” I said. I wanted to know more, but I didn’t want to pry. I didn’t know how much he wanted to discuss in front of Rylan.
“Yes,” Josh said. “I have a lot to think about and we can talk about it more later, but it was really a very good trip. So tell me what all has been going on here? The deck looks great!”
“It does, doesn’t it? That’s all him,” I said, gesturing to Rylan.
Josh looked at Rylan, confused.
“What do you mean?”
Rylan blushed. “I came over a couple of days ago to see if she needed help, and then I took care of the deck.”
“He did more than just take care of the deck,” I said. “He helped my friends load up all of their luggage, took care of the trash for me, and then cleaned off the deck, driveway, and sidewalk.”
“That’s awesome, Bud,” Josh said, clearly proud of him.
Rylan shrugged his shoulders. “I just tried to help wherever I could,” he said.
“I really appreciate it, and it looks great.”
Rylan smiled and then went back to eating his food, the satisfaction of a job well done evident in his eyes.
After dinner, Josh walked through the house and checked everything over while Rylan went down to play basketball. My ankle was hurting from how much I had been walking around, so I decided just to sit down and wait for Josh to finish. When he was done, he came back outside and looked at me with a huge smile on his face.
“It’s ready!” he said. “Everything is absolutely ready.”
“Really? I’m so glad!” I said. “I thought it was. I looked at it all this morning and I thought that we had taken care of everything that was on our list.”
“Yes!” he said. “Everything is there that needs to be there, and there’s nothing there that shouldn’t be there. It’s great!”
I stood up and hugged him. “Thank you so much for all of your help! There’s no way I could’ve done any of this without you.”
“Well, I appreciate the compliment, but you would have figured out a way,” he said, looking down at me with tenderness. “That’s one of the things I admire most about you. I absolutely love the fact that you will figure out a way to make things work, and you don’t give up.”
I felt myself blush at his compliment, and I looked away, the warmth spreading through me.
“Are you free tomorrow morning?” he asked. “I would love to be able to talk with you more about everything that happened in London.”
“Yes,” I said. “Now that everything is done here, I really have nothing to do. I planned out the party and I’m just ready to go. What time?”
“How about I pick you up at seven? I know you can’t surf, but maybe we could just go
sit down by the water and talk.”
“Perfect," I said. “I will have the coffee ready to go!”
“You’re the best,” he said. He looked at me for a moment, and this time I could not stop the butterflies in my stomach, no matter how much I tried.
Chapter 16
Josh
I rolled over on my side and looked at the clock next to my bed. It was only 4 AM, but I was wide awake. I still had three hours until I was picking up Jenna, but I knew there was no way I could get back to sleep.
