Page 35 of The Perfect Distraction

“Not by a long shot,” he said breathily.

Damn. Even his voice was doing funny things to her this morning.

“Spin around,” he said, making the motion with his hand.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” she huffed.

“Hey, it’s only fair. I’m half-naked over here.”

Nobody could ever accuse her of being unfair. She did a little pirouette, feeling more than ridiculous, and then turned back around to face him. His hand was over his heart, and he was pretending that it was pounding out of his chest. A bit of an exaggeration, but it was a sweet gesture.

“Okay. Show’s over,” she said and sat back down.

Leaning casually against the deck railing, he smiled and said, “So, about today.”

Finally, they were getting to the reason for his call.

“Yes?”

“What do you think about going to the beach?”

Great! Terrific! More of seeing him half-naked.

“And before you say no, because I can tell you’re considering it, hear me out.”

She nodded.

“Petoskey State Park isn’t far from here. There’s a great beach, and we’d have a good chance of finding some Petoskey stones. We can pack a picnic lunch and hang out there for the day. What do you say?”

It sounded perfect and a bit dangerous because, as they’d just proved, they couldn’t keep from flirting with each other. It felt like they’d opened a huge can of worms and the slippery things were toppling out right and left. However, it was Saturday, the sun was shining, Joey was with his mom, and there wasn’t anything to stop her—except her.

“Say yes,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.

She made the mistake of looking across the yard at him, and her head bobbed without her permission.

“Great! Pick you up at eleven.”

He turned around and started to go into his house, but she said, “Wait. Who’s packing the lunch?”

“I am,” he said.

“But you don’t even know what I like.”

“I’ll surprise you.”

You already have. “Okay,” she said with a sigh.

“It’ll be fun. I promise.”

Of that, she was certain. Having too much fun was what she was worried about.

Bathing suits. The bane of her existence. She’d brought two, and she wasn’t satisfied with either of them. The first option was a black one-piece with a deep V in the front. She had average-sized breasts, so her boobs didn’t fall out, but she still felt overexposed. The second option was a blue and white striped tankini with a built-in bra that pushed up her breasts so the fleshy parts showed at the top. The one-piece screamed: I’m trying to be sexy without revealing too much, and the two-piece screamed: I’m trying to pretend like I have bigger boobs than I actually do. While in Harbor Springs, she hadn’t expected anyone she knew to see her in them. So much for that theory!

In the end, she went with the tankini and covered it up with a pair of shorts and a tank top. She packed a beach bag with sunscreen, a towel, and her book (although she doubted she’d do much reading), and she was slipping on her flip-flops just as Colton came out of his house. She perused him out the window as he walked across the yard, and once again, she liked what she saw. He was wearing navy-blue board shorts with the Nautica symbol on them, a plain blue T-shirt, and flip-flops. He’d thrown a beach towel over his shoulder and was carrying a large red cooler with one hand.

Pretending like she’d just happened to walk outside, she stepped onto the porch as he was loading the car and said, “Oh. Hey!”

“Hey,” he said as he shut the hatch on his SUV.