"Do you?" he asked.
"Does it matter?"
"Do you?"
"Y'all are trippin'," I said, stepping around Ryan with every intention of heading upstairs to get out of that room full of crazy people.
"Don't go upstairs," my mom called.
"I'll be back down in a little bit," I said.
"No," she said. "Stay down here."
"I think she needs to go to the beach," Paige said.
I looked around at the room full of people and all of them were staring straight at me. "What's going on," I asked.
"You have a visitor," my mom said.
I glanced at her, waiting for her to continue. In those seconds, in spite of all the Nico talk that had just taken place, I honestly assumed she'd say Travis had stopped by to see me.
"I'm not really in the mood," I said, glancing out the back door onto the deck.
"Probably better that way," Cody said. He looked at Mom and Dad. "I'll just go out there and tell him she doesn't care to see him."
"Nooo," my mom said as if the thought made her sad. She looked at me. "Do you not want to see him?" she asked.
"Travis?" I asked.
It was that moment that it occurred to me that they could be talking about Nico. My heart was now beating a thousand miles an hour, and all the blood that had rushed to my face, had now left it. There was absolutely no way that could be true. Charlotte told me with her own mouth that he had been on the flight back to California with them.
"Who's Travis?" my mom asked, looking at Cody with a slightly concerned expression.
"That guy in the white house with the Lion statues."
Mom looked at me. "Do you like Travis?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"Do you like Nico?"
I groaned and rolled my eyes like my family was being ridiculous and impossible, which they were.
"You've got a visitor out there on the beach waiting for you," Dad said.
"He came a long way, and he's been waiting a while, so you better get out there," Cody added.
"Is it Nico-lo-de-on?" Ryan asked. She twirled around, totally unable to see the absurdity in her question since he was clearly in California.
"Yep," Cody said.
"What?" I asked.
"I said, yep," Cody said.
"Yep to what?"
"Yep, that's who's waiting for you on the beach."
I tilted my head at him. "Who?"
"Nico," he said.
"My Nico? Lo, I, Logan's Nico? The Nico who was at this house?"
He nodded with an amused smile.
"Nico from California?"
He nodded again.
"Is here?"
Another nod.
"At this house?"
Nod.
"At this beach?"
Still nodding.
I pointed toward the back of the house in the general direction of the ocean. "Are you telling me that if I walk out that door right now Nico will be out there?"
Cody's smile broadened at my excitement. Paige was standing right behind him, and she was nodding with an excited expression when I glanced at her.
"You promise?" I asked, shifting my attention to my parents.
I got nods from both of them as well.
"You swear?" I asked, looking back at Cody and Paige.
More nods.
All nods.
"Are they serious?" I asked Andy and Willow's section who had been silently watching the whole thing.
Smiles and nods came from that area as well.
"I'm gonna go out to the beach, and if y'all are kidding me, you're gonna be in the worst trouble you have ever been in in your whole lives," I said.
"Go!" Paige said.
I knew by the way she said it that she was anxious for me to get going.
I took off running the instant I realized they were telling me the truth. I still couldn't understand how it could possibly be true, but I knew by the looks on their faces that they weren't lying to me.
I took off running, but there was a small problem. My brain was moving faster than my body. This made for a clumsy exit where I hit my shin, and hip, and other various body parts on furniture and other household obstacles on my way out.
"Slow down," my mom said, giggling as I ran past her.
I vaguely heard Ryan say she wanted to come with me, and everyone yell to tell her she couldn’t, but I didn’t glance back. I opened the sliding glass door and ran onto the deck without bothering to close it behind me.
I had never in my life flown down a set of stairs like I flew down the ones that led from the deck to the sandy path below. It was by some miracle that I made it down them safely because I seriously flew. I mean that in the most literal way possible without actually sprouting wings. I felt a gliding sensation as I went down them. I think I might have taken about three stairs at a time.
The path that led to the beach was stretched out before me, and I ran down it like I was an Olympic sprinter. I was breathing heavily when I made it out to the open beach, but Nico was nowhere in plain sight. There were several people standing around talking when I looked toward the right. They were a ways off, but I recognized them as the people who owned the property next to ours, and I instinctually waved at them.
One of them pointed at me as I started to look away, and I did a double take when I saw who it was.
Nico.
It was Nico.
He was standing with the group of people I recognized as our neighbors, smiling straight at me. My feet were stuck. I could not for the life of me get them to move even though my brain was already over there standing right next to him. My hands went up in a what in the world are you doing here pose as my feet stayed firmly planted in the sand.
He smiled and threw his hands up in the same manner before waving at the neighbors and heading in my direction. My knees were weak, and I was already out of breath from my journey from the house, so it took me a few seconds to get going. I was so out of it that it felt a bit like I was wearing a shell made of stone that I had to break out of before I could move.
Nico was wearing a huge smile as he strode toward me with long, confident steps. The neighbors had gone back to what they were doing, and were no longer paying attention to us. Not that it would matter since I really didn’t care what they were doing.
"Am I dreaming?" I yelled as I finally started walking toward him.
His smile widened and he shook his head, continuing to walk toward me.
"Are you here?" I yelled, starting to jog.
We were both moving quickly, and the gap between us grew smaller and smaller by the second. Watching him walk toward me with every intention of catching me in his arms when we made it to each other was just about the most glorious site I had ever seen.
It had been the most surreal five minutes imaginable, and it was culminating in a scene where I ran into his arms. It also happened to be twilight at the beach, which only added to the dream-like nature of it all.
Nico caught me in his arms just like I knew he'd do. I ran straight into him, trusting that he'd be able to withstand the impact. He laughed when he caught me, spinning me around one time since my momentum had been so great when we made contact.
I held onto him tightly for several seconds before he put me on my feet. I pulled back to stare at his face, just so I could be certain that it was actually him. He smiled down at me with his unmistakable green eyes framed with dark lashes. My eyes roamed over his perfect face from his eyes, down the straight line of his nose to that curved mouth with the little indention above his upper lip. I watched as the corners of his mouth stretched upward in a breathtaking grin.
"You okay?" he asked smiling sweetly at me.
It was only then that I realized how heavily I was breathing. "Fine," I said, smiling at him. "I just ran from the house in about three seconds," I said. I glanced down at my side for a second before looking at him again. "I think I might have injured myself, I'm not sure."
&nb
sp; This made him laugh. His chest shook as he held me tight. "I hope not," he said.
"Probably gonna be a few deep bruises all over my body, and I think I got about ten splinters on the way down the steps. I'm not really sure how I got down here. I think there might have been a magic carpet involved."
He could tell by the way I was smiling that I was fine, so he smiled back at me like he was entertained by hearing how quickly I ran out there to meet him.
"All that to come out here and see me?" he asked smirking at me.
I couldn't' help myself. I reached up and put my hand on his face. The shape of his jaw fit perfectly into the palm of my hand.
"How did you get here?" I asked.
He smiled. "On a plane," he said.
"Did you go to California earlier?"
"Was that today?" he asked, staring into space as if trying to remember. He smiled. "Yep, I think it was."
"And then you turned right around and came back here?"
"Pretty much how it went," he said, nodding in agreement.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm coming to say goodbye," he said.
For a terrible second I thought he meant a final farewell, but then I realized he meant that he regretted leaving without saying goodbye when he left this morning.
"You came all the way back here to tell me goodbye?" I asked.
He nodded, still grinning down at me.
"Thank God you forgot to set an alarm," I said since it was the first thing that came to mind.
He laughed at that.
"I thought you had something for work," I said, remembering him talking about it.
"I do. I'll make it back in time, though. My flight leaves tomorrow at noon."
"So, you're spending the night here tonight?" I asked.
He nodded. "If that's okay."
I put my head on his chest and hugged him tightly. "I can't believe it," I said.
"And I don't have to wake up early to make my flight," he said. "I can stick around and give you a decent goodbye."
Chapter 18
"Those are two words I wouldn't use in the same sentence," I said.
I was standing on the beach wrapped in Nico's arms, and already I was dreading the time when he had to leave the next day.
"What words?" he asked.
"Decent and goodbye."
He pulled back and stared down at me with a smile. It was growing darker, but I could still appreciate the color of his eyes. The neighbors had gone inside, leaving Nico and me alone on our stretch of the beach.
"I'm not sure those words belong together either," he said, staring down at me with a loving smile. "I've never felt that way, though" he continued.
"What way?" I asked.
"Like I hate goodbyes."
"I'd be mad, too, if forgetting to say it caused me to come all the way back over here when I just got home."
"Saying goodbye didn't make me do that," he said.
I shot him a curious glance. "You said you came because you didn't get to say goodbye," I said.
He made a face that said I should know better. "That was just an excuse to come see you again."
I figured he wanted to see me, because why else would he come all this way… but hearing him say it plain as day like that made a familiar jolting sensation hit me in the gut. I rested the side of my face on his chest feeling relieved and somehow complete. I breathed in the clean smell of him and absentmindedly wondered how he still smelled good after traveling all day.
He placed a kiss on my head as he patted my shoulder. "Let's walk for a little bit," he said.
I nodded, and we set off down the beach at a slow pace. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, holding me close to him as we walked. We went at least a full minute without saying a thing to each other. We were on the dry sand at first, but we slowly drifted to the wet sand as we walked. Occasionally, waves would come up far enough to cover our feet.
"Where are your shoes?" I asked when I looked down to see that he was barefoot.
"Up by the house," he said.
"Did you really fly across the country two times today?" I asked.
"Coast to coast, and back again" he said with a smile in his voice.
I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. "Thank you," I said simply.
He squeezed me. "Tomorrow's probably gonna be just as hard as today was, but unfortunately I won't be able to do it twice. I don't have a choice with that closing on Monday. I have to be there."
"I know," I said, trying to sound casual even though I was most certainly not looking forward to it.
"I know a final goodbye's inevitable, but I'm glad we got to put it off a few more hours."
"What do you mean by final goodbye," he asked.
I glanced at him with a little smile. "The one where you can't turn around and come right back," I said, reasonably.
"Yeah, but that doesn't make it a final goodbye," he said, sounding somewhat offended.
Oh, how I wished that were true. How I wished I could continue on this sunset walk wrapped in his arms for the rest of my life. "It's final for a while at least," I said, still being logical.
"Just till I get on another plane, or you get on a plane, or we facetime or talk on the phone."
I breathed in a long, unsteady breath at the words that sounded like promises coming out of his mouth. Words such as those made me feel shaky and dazed—like I didn't know what to say next and wouldn't be able to get it out of my mouth even if I did.
"Why are you being so quiet?" he asked, pulling back to glance at me.
I looked up to see him smiling. It was like a dream. I had been imagining all those years that one day he'd look at me the way he was looking at me right at that moment, and it was difficult for me to comprehend that it was actually happening. I didn't really know how to handle it. Just smile, Mia, and act normal. I smiled. "I don't mean to be quiet, I'm just thinking about everything." I smiled again, trying to come across as non-dramatic as possible. "I don't want you to feel like you have to make me any promises or anything."
He stopped walking and turned to face me, taking my hands in his as he stared directly into my eyes. It was growing darker, but it was still light enough to see each other clearly. We were standing in a place where our feet were barely under water, but just then, a wave came rolling in that went up our shins, almost all the way to my knees. Even with this unexpected rise in water, we didn't take our eyes off of each other.
"Sneaker wave," I said.
He smiled at me but didn't respond to my comment. "I'm sorry if you're scared that I don't want to, or that I won't be able to make promises to you, Mia," he said with an earnest expression. "I hate my past and every poor choice I've made if it translates to making you scared of me. I want to make promises to you."
His expression was so sincere that I had to look away. It was too much for me to handle.
"All I'm saying is that it's okay that we have to go back to our lives," I said, glancing at him.
He cocked his head to the side and looked at me with a confused expression. "No it's not," he said. "We're not just going back to our lives how they were." He tilted his head, still focusing on me intently. "Is that what you think?"
I shrugged innocently. "Well, that's what I thought," I said.
He smiled at me like he thought I was being silly and it was cute.
"What?" I asked.
"We're not just forgetting about each other when we get home this time." He tilted his head again. "Is that what you want?"
"I mean, I just assumed…"
"Stop assuming," he said. "What do you want?" He paused, but I couldn't find my voice. "What do you want to happen with us, Mia?"
I smiled, feeling nervous and entirely on the spot. "What do you want?" I asked, scrunching my face up but still smiling.
"I told you what I want. I want you. I want to be with you."
"That's sort of geographically difficult," I said, making him smile.
&nb
sp; He held both of my hands with one of his as he used his other arm to wrap around the small of my back, drawing me close. "We'll make it work," he said. "What I'm asking is, do you want to make it work?" He stared down at me like it was an honest question—like he actually didn't know I had been crazy about him for years.
"Nico—" I started to tell him I was wholly devoted—his to do with as he chose, but I hesitated, unable to make such words come out of my mouth. My heart pounded in my chest. "Nico, yes, I want to make it work," I said. "I just don't want you to feel pressure to—"
He cut me off. "Stop saying that," he said. "It just makes me feel worse than I already do. Let me prove to you that I can do this. Don't be scared of me, and don't make excuses for me to get out of the very thing I'm trying to get into."
"This is freaking me out," I said, smiling and shaking my head dazedly at him.
"What is?"
"These words we're saying."
"Why?" he asked.
I stared at them. "Because they're perfect," I said. "They're better than I wished they'd be."
He stood there looking down at me for a few more seconds. I thought he was about to let me go and start walking again, but instead he said, "I don't know exactly how it'll all work out—we'll have to take it day by day, but I know this is it, Mia. We're gonna just have to figure out how we can be together—we'll have to make arrangements."
I reached up to run my fingers through his hair and down near the closely cropped part above his ear. My fingers felt alive when I was touching him—like pixie dust might start flying in the places we made contact.
His comment about making arrangements made me think about work. I had already thought about the possibility of working with Nico, and knew our skills would complement each other's.
"We're gonna be able to do some cool stuff together," I said when the thought crossed my mind.
"Oh, I'm thinking of so many things we can do together," he said in a way a player would say it.
I giggled and slapped at his chest even though he was clearly joking around. "I meant at work," I said.
"I know you did," he said, grinning down at me. "And you're right, we're gonna build an empire together and whatnot…" He paused briefly and raised his eyebrows at me. "But we're also gonna have a bunch of other kinds of fun."
Back to the Beach (Hunt Family Book 4) Page 12
