Page 97

Chapter 24

I woke up alone in the bed. I couldn’t ignore the disappointment I felt when I realized Alec wasn’t here. But, then again, it was Alec. Sighing, I pushed the blankets back and got up. It was mildly depressing to realize I had nothing to do today, no one to be with.

I was sure Dan would be with Maddison, considering they were together last night. I pushed the feeling of regret back. I couldn’t regret what happened, Dan was never mine to lose in the first place, which sucked.

My door was flung open and I spun around, startled by the sudden entrance.

“Alec?” I looked completely and utterly stunned to see him.

“Chloe?” He replied with a smartass tone to his voice, closing the door he strolled towards me with two cups of coffee.

“Thanks.” I took the coffee out of the hand he was offering me. “I thought you had left.”

“I went to get coffee.” He grinned slightly, amused by my surprise at seeing him again. “Miss me, did ya?”

“Hardly,” I scoffed, sitting on the edge of my armchair.

“What are you doing today?” he asked, before taking a gulp of his coffee.

“Nothing, you?”

“Surfing, wanna come?”

“Surfing?” I arched an eyebrow. “I don’t surf.”

“Don’t surf or haven’t surfed?”

“Haven’t.”

“Well, today you’re going to learn.” Alec placed his coffee cup on my bedside table. “Put some bathers on that skinny butt of yours and get ready to learn the waves.”

“If you’re teaching me, I won’t be learning much,” I chuckled with a teasing tone, amused by his eagerness.

“Whatever you say, buttercup. Now get up and get ready.” Alec shot me a wink before he walked out the door.

“You know the cups don’t take themselves to the kitchen, right?” I yelled as he closed the door. I heard his chuckle from outside the door.

I got up. Well, it looks like I have something to do today after all. But I still wasn’t sure if it was wrong of me to be spending time with Dan’s brother.

***

“STOP LAUGHING!” I yelled with a smile, throwing my towel at Alec’s back. Though he barely noticed because he was laughing so hard. “I told you I didn’t surf.” I dodged the glances from strangers as they walked by.

“But your face…” Alec held his stomach. At this point I was ready to hit him with the darn surfboard I was holding. “It was so tiny and…” Another wave of chuckles came and Alec was once again barely able to stand.

Grinding my teeth, I walked past him, shouldering him and loading the surfboard onto the back of his truck. I leaned against the truck door and glared at Alec who was laughing still! I told him surfing wasn’t my thing. Let’s face it. It was unhealthy to stand on a board on water, clearly unsafe!

I got dumped a million times by the waves, which, I may point out, didn’t get one laugh out of Alec. So, needless to say, when I finally stood up, maybe I was overexcited and yeah I screamed in excitement and maybe I took a little too much pride in the achievement, considering the wave was barely a foot high. But it was still a darn WAVE! Who cares if it couldn’t even knock over a small toddler? A wave is a wave.

“Hurry up, Alec!” I stomped. I was sick of him laughing. He hadn’t stopped since the event happened and yeah my screaming did bring some unwanted attention from onlookers on the beach, which just made this so much more awful because not only was I dealing with chuckles over there, I was receiving shy giggles from the passersby who witnessed it.

God knows how, but finally Alec made it to the truck.

“So…” Alec’s laughter slowly dried up as he loaded his surfboard on top of mine, though his very large grin was still firmly in place. “What do you want to eat?”

“Food,” I grunted before slamming the truck door with a tad more force than needed.

“Is someone a little grumpy?” Alec teased as he got in the truck. I ignored how attractive he looked with his muscles sparkling with water and his hair towel dried.