Page 35 of Please Don’t Go (The Midnight Strike #1)

JOSEFINE

I set the ball for Daniel, and he jumps and spikes it hard. No one on the other side is fast enough to get to the ball before it’s landing on the sand.

Behind us, Vi and Kainoa loudly celebrate our second win as the music from Daniel’s Bose speaker plays “Pa’Que Retozen” by Tego Calderón.

“This can’t be.” Grayson stares, bewildered, raking his fingers through his disheveled hair.

“Oh, it be,” Daniel returns with a smirk and holds out a sand-covered fisted hand in my direction.

I don’t gloat about it the way the others do, though I do bump my fist against his and press my lips together to stop myself from laughing at the other team—Pen, Angel, Grayson, and Noah—who are arguing about their failed strategies.

Well, it’s Pen and Angel arguing. Grayson looks like he was blindsided by their loss, and Noah is staring at the pair with a bored expression on his face.

“H-how? Have you played volleyball before?” He stares at Vi and me with narrowed eyes, suspicion lacing his words.

Vienna laughs, brushing the sand off her stomach. “I told you I haven’t, but the game is pretty easy when you’re not playing by the rules.” She has, but they don’t need to know that.

“I don’t like to lose, so I don’t,” I add.

He scoffs. “Are y’all saying I suck?”

“Yes,” Kainoa and Daniel fill in for us.

“You’re just not that good, Gray. Face it, you suck ass.” Kainoa clicks his tongue, trying to look serious but his lips crack into a furtive smile.

While Grayson tries to defend himself to the guys, Vi and I step aside to drink water.

We’ve been at the beach for almost an hour and I surprisingly feel okay. Usually, I’d feel awkward, but everyone’s been nice. Though Noah’s been quiet, but Daniel says he usually is. Not that I have room to talk because I’ve been quiet too.

“You seriously can’t tell me you don’t feel that?” Vi says once we’re out of earshot.

I grab my water bottle and hand her hers. “Feel what?”

She softly groans, eyes widening as if she were asking are you for real? “The insane chemistry between you and Danny. Like please just fuck ,” she exasperatedly whispers that word. “Already.”

I pretend I didn’t hear that and drink my water.

But she’s not giving up because she continues to speak.

“I know I’m being annoying, but I’m telling you I feel it and I’m not even involved. No, I’m pretty certain everyone feels it. Hell, the fishes probably feel it too.”

“I think you’re reading too much into things.”

“Point one: He stares at you a lot. I bet you if we turn around right now, we’ll find him staring at you.” I don’t turn but she does. A muffled squeal gets trapped in her mouth as she presses her lips together when she looks forward again. “He’s looking over here.”

“His stuff is over here. Maybe he’s looking at his water.”

“Point two: He calls you Jos.”

“Wow, a nickname. You all call me Josie.”

“Point three: You call him Garcia.”

“Again, it’s just a nickname.”

“No one else calls him that.”

“Because they call him Danny.”

“Gray tried to call you Jos and Danny told him not to.”

“I’m sure he was just messing around. They seem to do that a lot.”

“He may have looked like he was joking, but we both know damn well it didn’t sound like it.”

“Again, you’re reading too much into it.”

A tight-lipped smile graces her face and she blinks slowly like she’s about to lose it. “Point four: He touches you and you don’t like being touched.”

I close my bottle and throw it on top of my bag. “Mild shoulder squeezes. That means nothing. And are you forgetting I’m teaching him how to swim? We touch each other a lot.”

“You’re killing me, Josie.” She tips her head back and grumbles, “Killing. Me.”

“You’re delusional, Vienna. Delusional. Daniel’s a flirt. Trust me, he’s not into me. He wouldn’t ever be.”

Life would be grand if I was the delusional one. Because then I could picture scenarios of Daniel and me together, and I could let myself be a hopeless romantic. Pretend like he wants to touch, hold, and kiss me. I wish I could put myself in a bubble and live in ignorant bliss.

I really wish I could because maybe then I’d believe that someone decided to look past my flaws and like me anyway because I was enough it didn’t matter.

But things don’t work that way. No one just looks past the flaws and decides they like you that much to stay. Maybe it works for other people but not for me.

I don’t mean that in a please want me, like me, need me pity way. That’s the reality of my life, and accepting things for how they are is easier than pretending it’ll happen eventually because the world is filled with nothing but disappointment.

I already have enough of it; I don’t want any more. It is why after we arrived at the beach, I decided to annihilate the light he had set in my heart.

It was painful to do but necessary. Either way, we wouldn’t work out. Relationships and I are complicated. We don’t align. And it has nothing to do with my failed relationship with Bryson but rather with my mom.

How can I manage to be with someone when I couldn’t manage to figure it out with someone who was family?

I must’ve zoned out or my face must’ve given something away because she stares at me with remorse.

“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll shut up. I was excited and got carried away.” She pauses, chugs half her water, then says with all seriousness, “I’ve no doubt you two would be mates in?—”

I hold my palm out. “Stop, just—” A snicker tickles my throat. “Mates? Vienna, no. Please don’t finish that.”

Vienna’s a romantic. Anything and everything is a little love story waiting to happen. I don’t get her fascination with falling in love, but she’s a firm believer of that word. Also, she’s a huge fan of paranormal romance.

We walk back to everyone as she explains what knotting is and why wolves do it.

“Wait.” Grayson’s head snaps in our direction. “What did you just say about penises?”

I shake my head, but it’s already too late. Vienna’s eyes glitter with excitement.

“ Werewolf penises,” she says and like she did with me, proceeds to explain how knotting works to everyone.

Surprisingly they raptly pay attention, a little too intrigued.

“That sounds insane,” Daniel says to me. I hadn’t realized he was standing next to me or when he moved, but he’s close, too close. I can feel the hair of his arm brushing against mine. “Mates. That’s kind of cool. Insane but cool.”

“Cool?” I lift a brow and look up to find him already staring at me. “That just sounds insane to me.”

“I don’t know. The thought of someone out there being made just for you sounds nice.” He stares at me deeply, like he’s studying me for long enough that my heart beats a little harder. When he looks away, the beats wane. “Don’t you think?”

“No.”

“No?” He doesn’t look shocked, just curious.

“No.” I add some distance between us because friends shouldn’t be this close to each other. His eyes flicker between the gap, pausing there momentarily before shifting back to me.

Thankfully, everyone seems to have moved on from mates and knots because they grab the volleyball and we start our third game.

At our fourth game and the other team’s third loss, Grayson requests a change of teams.

“These two are doing nothing for me.” He points at Angel and Pen who stare at him, annoyed. “And I’m sorry, buddy…” Now he’s talking to Noah. “But you also suck.”

“Are you high? Or where the hell is your mind because you sucked worse than all three of us combined,” Pen shoots back.

“I wish I was. That way I could pretend you guys weren’t shit.” He darts his attention to us. “Can I have Josie and Vi on my team now?”

“No,” both Kainoa and Daniel instantly reply.

A devilish smirk curls on Grayson’s face, and something glints in his eyes, almost like mischief or something knowing. I’m not too sure but he directs that look only toward Daniel.

“Don’t be like that, Danny.” It feels like there’s more to that sentence, but he doesn’t add to it. There’s something about his smile and the way Pen smiles, inserting herself in the unspoken conversation, that makes me feel weird.

I don’t have the time or energy to try to figure out what the hell is going on, so I turn to Vi. “Pen, you, and I with Grayson? What do you think?”

“Yeah, this game was getting boring. Maybe this will make things a little more interesting.”

“Hey! I thought we were having a good time together.” Kainoa sounds offended and follows Vi as she goes under the net.

“You’re abandoning me?” Daniel playfully asks.

“Just for a little. I’m kind of curious.”

“About?”

“How many wins it’ll take before you call it quits.”

There he goes, flashing me his crooked grin. Fuck, my heart. “Cute,” he patronizingly drawls. “So, this is what the game has done to you?”

“The game? No, I’m just a confident person who never loses.”

“Loser drives back home?” He arcs a brow. I can’t help the way one corner of my lips just merely curls. His eyes clock the movement and his own smile widens. “Deal?”

“As long as you promise not to be a sore loser?” I go under the net.

“Wow, okay. Let’s get the game started,” he orders and hands me the ball. “But just so we’re on the same page, once you lose, we’ll still be good, right? You won’t hold any grudges?”

I scoff and stand in front of him with the net between us. “Daniel?”

“Yes, Josefine?” His voice is light and teasing but haughty.

“Disrespectfully, fuck off.” Mine, not so much.

He throws his head back and laughs. “I like it when you’re mean to me.”

“I thought you were into being praised?” I say, a little quiet and playful.

“I’m into anything you do,” he murmurs just as quietly and playfully. Then he winks at me and we part.

We all gather just a few feet away from the ocean after three more rounds of volleyball.

The games were the most intense but fun I’ve had in, well, forever. I swam competitively all my life and that was intense, at times fun, but never left me feeling the way I do now. Even though we did lose the second round, we won the first and third.