Page 7 of Salto

What was I doing?

His head tilted slightly to the side. “Hmm. So you have a name then?”

“Scarlet,” I finally offered after a small beat of hesitation.

“Scarlet,” he repeated, like he was testing it out.

On a normal day, I would've never entertained this conversation. I didn't have time for flirting. Between practice, classes, recovery, and trying not to completely fall apart under the pressure of my own expectations, my schedule was already full.

“I'm Rove,” he said, extending his hand.

I accepted the handshake, and the calluses on his hands immediately caught my attention.

Not rough in an unpleasant way. Just enough that I instantly knew he worked with his hands.

My eyes flicked back up to his, and a nervous laugh escaped me.

“What?” he asked, one of his brows lifted.

“Nothing.” Where did you come from? I wanted to ask.

“That sounded convincing.”

“I don't normally run into people here,” I admitted. Super attractive, tattoo-covered people... I didn’t add.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

“And you like it that way, don’t you?”

Whoa.

My brain short-circuited. “Excuse me?”

“You like that no one comes here, don’t you?” His smile held an effortless confidence. “And I’m totally interrupting your workout.” He looked down as if some self-awareness was kicking in. “I’m sorry. I’ll go.”

He started to walk away, and I found myself taking a step after him. Like there was something pulling me toward him.

Don’t go.

“No, no, you’re not interrupting,” I said quickly. “I’m pretty much done anyway. It’s just, I was actually about to head out.”

He stopped and turned back toward me. “Me too.”

His gaze met mine again, and I noticed his eyelashes weren’t the same white blond as his hair. Instead, they were dark as night. I’d never paid such close attention to the color of someone’s eyelashes before. But I was having trouble not noticing everything about him.

“Want to walk together?” he asked, pulling me out of the spell I seemed to be under.

I hesitated.

I wasn't getting any weird vibes, and the beach was starting to fill with people. Plus, his car was probably in the main parking lot, and mine definitely wasn't. We'd naturally split off once we got there.

But I didn’t even need those justifications.

I simply wasn't ready for the conversation to end.

“Um, sure. Why not?”

We started toward the concrete path, walking side by side with a couple of feet between us.