Page 69 of The Worst Vacation Crush

I paused as if I were trying to decide whether or not to accept his offer. “You know what they say. Beggars can’t be choosers. I guess I’ll take the job.”

We both laughed as the light rain suddenly became a tropical downpour. He took both my upper arms in his hands, and we sank to our knees with our lips still entangled.

Well, that’s what we intended to do, at least. I froze halfway down at the sound of ripping fabric. I hurried up and stood bolt upright, rain dripping from the tip of my nose.

“What happened?” Kai asked.

I reached around behind me and patted my rear end. Yep. You guessed it. The seat of my britches caught on the rough bark of the tree, and the already stressed seam gave out. “I just ripped a hole in my shorts.”

“You and I don’t seem to have the best of luck with the seat of our pants, donut girl,” he said with his patented, teasing grin.

My jaw came unhinged as he unbuttoned his soaking-wet shirt and took it off. It might have been Kai's exceptional flirting skills, or it might have been the fact that his glistening pecs and abs were staring me down, but whatever it was, my insides were heating up in a hurry.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he slipped it around me and cinched the arms at my waist.

“Better?” he asked.

I patted my fully-covered backside and bit back a ridiculous grin as my eyes roved over the gloriously sun-kissed sight in front of me one more time. “Much better.” I was talking about my view, but I doubted he knew that.

“Awesome. Now, where were we?”

We reclined in the soft beach grass growing between the trees and basked in our newfound love. If my life were a movie, the credits would have started rolling on our happily ever after.

But life wasn’t a movie. If I wanted to keep this happy ending, I’d have to put the work in. And that was something I was more than willing to do.

I’d learned a lot about myself in the past week. I was tougher than I looked, and capable of more than I ever thought possible. Kai had taught me that.

I now loved in a fierce way that held nothing back. I wasn’t afraid to be seen for who I really was. Invisible Beth was gone. Kai had awakened the best version of me, and I was going to strut my stuff from now on…

Just as soon as I put on a new pair of pants.