Delia Bay

by Lauren Cooper

  I.DIDNT.CARE.

  Spotlights & Dark Nights

  MY LIPS WERE NUMB, but insanely lit. It was almost like he’d set my skin on fire but extinguished the flames with just his touch. I sounded like some romance heroine when in reality I was just a girl. A girl living her life the way she wanted, drinking, partying and fucking the sheriff on the regular. Reid was different, oh so different. The electricity in the air had affected him too, he just didn’t realize it.

  After I’d dropped him at the cabin, I’d run to my apartment and grabbed my board. The sticky, heavy air calling my name. My skin needed the release of the waves. I knew he was there even before his angry voice boomed across the sound of thunder. I felt it, felt him. The way he made my hairs stand on edge, my heart skips a beat. I felt it. The deep yearning to be near him as if my next breath depended on it. Ever since I watched him, all male and all inked walking out of my mama’s bathroom, I couldn’t look away. I had to have a taste, a lick.

  It had taken every ounce of self-restraint on my part to walk past him when my feet hit the sand. I wanted, craved nothing more than to jump into his arms and let him know he wasn’t alone. Wasn’t the only one needing to feel something. My life wasn’t hard, no. But it wasn’t the best either. It wasn’t Instagram perfect. I had flaws, lots of them. I had wrinkles and stretch marks, freckles and saggy bits. It was during my teenage years when all of my closest friends become obsessed with Social Media that I noticed the change. I wasn’t bothered. Sure, I had make-up and kept up with the latest fashions, but did I need them? No. I had my own brand of perfect and Reid fit really well into the seams. For now.

  When he pulled away from my mouth, the all-male taste of him disappearing just as quickly, I’m sure I whimpered but he didn’t acknowledge it. I was stuck in the sand as he ripped my board from my arms once more and treaded up the sand to the walk. I followed dumbfounded as if he was a beacon in the dark night that was urging me to follow in his footsteps.

  Was that it? A kiss and nothing more? Blame the storm for fucking with our heads? God knows the boys in high school used that excuse more than once.

  The storms in Delia were spectacular, bright and threatening. Perfect for an evening of surfing.

  “Move. Home now” Reid’s deep voice grits ahead of me as his green eyes glance over his broad shoulders, urging me forwards. The skin he touched is on fire, his brand remaining there long after he’s moved his hand away, but I daren’t complain. The sudden urge to argue warms my bones, forcing my feet to turn towards his haunting green eyes.

  “I don’t want to go home” I pout, shoving my bottom lip out between my teeth for good measure.

  “I swear to god Luna” he snarls, his lip curling upwards. A darkness in his eyes turns threateningly terrifying forcing my smile from my face and moving my feet forward. With a roll of my eyes I follow his shadowy figure up to the boardwalk, the usually bustling wood empty.

  I loved thunderstorms, it made my bones buzz. The distant rumbles of thunder sounded above me as I followed Reid’s retreating back further up the walk.

  “Where do you live?” he glances briefly over his shoulder, my board swaying beneath his arm.

  “Above the shop” I crinkle my brow in his direction, remembering the bone crushing lyrics he’d been singing that day.

  “Why do you live above the shop? Don’t you get sick of being around work all day?” he huffs, his strides growing as he quickens his pace so that I struggle to keep up.

  “No” I shrug. “It’s easier actually. I can run down whenever I need to”

  “Why would you need to? Is your boss that much of an asshole?”

  Ah. I thought he would have at least heard it on the grapevine that I owned Moonbeam by now. I’ve never had to explain to anyone around here how I came to have the shop, everyone just sort of knew. It was the way things were around here. You didn’t need the local newspaper to tell you when the village elders yacked enough.

  “I own Moonbeam” I say quietly, slightly worried about his reaction. Reid is an unknown character to me. I don’t know him at all. Aside from his name and the fact that he’s covered head to...well at least his you know, in ink. My tongue dries in my mouth when he turns up the street towards the shop, the fairy lights from the storefront light up the new display Rach and I had worked on just yesterday, bringing us to a stop outside the small door that leads upstairs to the apartments. I chance a glance up at him, the darkness around us drowning out the bright green in his eyes but that doesn’t stop the burning sensation I get in my skin. Staring straight through me, I suddenly feel naked with my wetsuit pulled down to my hips. It had never bothered me before but somehow, now with him, it did. Everything seemed to matter around him and I didn’t even know him.

  The next words to fall out of my mouth would make or break this new relationship we’d formed. Could you even call it that?

  The way he’d kissed me left my lips tingling in the way that too-minty gum would. They were numb, but somehow feeling too much at the same time.

  “Do you want a drink?” I tilt my head towards the door, hoping that he doesn’t take the offer to mean something else, but then on the other hand after that kiss, hoping that he wants to do that again. In every sense of the word, I cared about him. For whatever god forsaken reason, I was drawn to this guy and I wanted to take care of him. If a drink would help him trust me just a little, then that’s where we would start.

  “Sure” he shrugs. It’s the friendliest movement he’s ever done during our conversations, and that small glimmer of hope wakes the butterflies in my belly.

  I make the move towards the door, doing a quick glance at the shop front to make sure all is as it should be given the ungodly hour, before entering the key code to open the door. The hallway is quiet tonight much to my relief, maybe my new neighbor has drugged himself up enough to shut him up for good. Pulling my apartment key out of my bikini top I shove the key into the lock and swing the door open.

  “I’m just going to change. Make yourself at home” I point to the living room with an outstretched arm as Reid positions my board against the hallway wall. Gingerly he walks in that direction, his heavy boots sounding too loud on my wood floor and making me all too aware of his presence. Shaking my head, I move towards my bedroom, shoving the rest of my wetsuit down to the floor before hanging it over the shower rail in the ensuite.

  I throw on some cream harem trousers and a dark tank top, forgoing any underwear well.... because I couldn’t be bothered. I was at home and if I had the chance to not wear a bra then I was taking it and besides it wasn’t as if I was carrying around a pair of watermelons.

  On second thought, I didn’t know what was going to happen tonight, so I threw on a sports bra that was comfy enough that I didn’t feel like I had my tits under my chin and pretty-ish enough just in case.

  Not that I was hoping....okay. I’m a liar but I guarantee you would be to with Reid Archer in your living room!

  Throwing my wet hair into a bun I gave my cheeks a pinch before attempting the walk back to my kitchen. The sudden flurries in my stomach made me second guess the idea of inviting him up here and my legs felt a little wobbly. It was the Delia thing. We were unashamedly too polite for our own good and sometimes that ended up putting us in awkward situations.

  “Beer?” I ask out loud without looking in the direction my eyeballs are pulling me to. Instead concentrating on getting to the vintage fridge and pulling out two drinks.

  “Sure” his deep voice sets the skin on my bare shoulders on fire. The feel of his tongue sweeping across mine too real in my mouth. I use the magnet on my fridge that Rachel gave to me as I ogled over the pretty waves on the front, she’d gotten it years ago on her trip to the med, to pop open the beers before I suck in the courage to move to my living room.

  It’s like he’s everywhere. Too broad shoulders take up too much room in my small living room, his smell is everywhere. Even the larger than average wall hanging above my white sectional lo
oks out of place with him here. When it’s just me it’s home. Cozy. But Reid makes everything seem out of balance, it was almost like my personal tectonic plates had shifted.

  When our fingers briefly touched as I handed him the beer bottle I could have sworn I stopped breathing all together. Call me whatever but it happened. I would have blamed it on the heat, the storm, the fact that my flat was covered in healing stones for the too intense charge that was left between us. Anything but putting it all on him. Reid already seemed like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, I couldn’t bear to put anymore there. I sat myself down on my sectional, huffing as I did and chancing glances in his direction as he viewed the art work dotted all over my walls, the beer bottle clutched in one hand while the other remained firmly in his jean pocket. From dream catchers to wall hangings, quotes that I loved and polaroid’s of me and the guys at the beach, my walls were a miss-match of my life. Much like my furniture. I wasn’t one for interior design really, but things that I liked and colors that went well together in my eyes.

  After I’d bought the shop and spent a good year’s rent on the deposit for the flat above it I was practically broke. Top that with my Chevy and I was living off ramen noodles from the corner store in town for months on end. But right now, none of that mattered as Reid shrugged out of his leather jacket, draping it over the back of the too-big bright yellow arm chair on the side and taking a seat in it.

  There were so many questions hanging around us, the air thick with the unattractive tension. I shifted in my spot, unable to take his staring any longer. Bringing my feet up onto the couch, I lean back against the arm and cradle my beer in my lap, chancing a glance in his direction once more. His long index finger runs across his bottom lip, my teeth grit together with the sudden urge to bite down on it. I squeeze my thighs together hoping to extinguish the sudden intrusion of feelings there. When did a man so good-looking and brooding ever walk into my life? With a crinkled brow, his green eyes trained hard on the label of his beer bottle, he swallows quickly before bringing the glass to his lips.

  “So, why did you come to Delia?” I risk asking, needing to know even a slither of information about the mysterious City Boy. It hadn’t escaped my notice that he was here alone, well aside from Gus. There was no one living with him, a girlfriend who’d hung around him. No Kids.

  “Life” he shrugs after swallowing his drink, keeping his eyes trained anywhere else but on me. I was suddenly nervous about what he thought of me and my apartment, I guess he was used to more upmarket places than this. Those broad shoulders stretch the fabric of his shirt, revealing more ink up his slightly ripped bicep. I tear my eyes away, Reid is one of those men who clearly looks after themselves but not so much that you fear they might snap you in half with just a look. God knows, if I didn’t surf I wouldn’t get any workouts done at all. I was a free-spirit person, exercise was not free-spirit, it was the devils form of torture while he hung a full bottle of wine and the best damned milk chocolate in front of you just for shits and giggles. It takes me a second to work up the courage to look at him, the silence around us not as heavy as it was before but an ache in my chest tells me I should drop the questions already. The darkness that’s so clear behind his eyes breaks my heart, the natural helper in me wants to know who hurt him and how I can help him. I run through every scenario in my mind about the possible reasons of why he came to Delia of all places, but I come up empty.

  “Trying to figure it out?” his husky voice washes over me, the ache in my chest growing.

  “Delia wouldn’t have been my first choice if I was running” I shrug my own shoulders before taking a sip of my own beer.

  “Who said I was running?” he questions, narrowing his eyes.

  “No one. I just assumed that’s what you were doing, and you don’t speak much so” I shrug some more and glance around my living room, unable to take the hurt in his eyes any longer.

  “I like the quiet” Reid’s voice is quiet as he balances his thick arms on the arms of the chair. We’re quiet for a few minutes, the only sound in the room coming from the old refrigerator and us sipping lightly on our drinks, that is until Reid shifts his weight and slight disappointment sits in my belly at the thought of him leaving already, even if we’d hardly said two words to each other. To my surprise he stretches, making the fabric of his t-shirt rise up his stomach revealing his abs and that gorgeous poppy flower on his hip again. I bite my tongue to stop the barrage of questions from spilling out all over the floor between us. If Reid is staying in Delia, then he needs at least one friend and I don’t want to ruin that already. I daren’t move in the off chance I might scare the poor guy off.

  “I had nothing left back in the city for me” his nostrils flare, the nose ring he has shines in the low light of the side lamp. I keep quiet again, hoping that without pressure he might just open up a little. I’m not asking for much, just a general back story, that’s what new friends do don’t they? Where are you from? What school did you go to? Do you have any siblings? All perfectly normal questions that seem like a lead weight when I’m around Reid.

  “I lived in Bancroft. I lost everything I had there and followed Gus here” he lifts his right shoulder as if it’s nothing but the slight tremor in his voice tells me there’s more to it. I can’t take it much longer and my crazy ass brain comes up with a ludicrous idea to lighten the mood. It’s nights like this that I need Rachel here to keep me on a leash. I get nervous sometimes and come up with crazy ideas like I did just last summer. There was a massive mix up with stock for the shop and I was beyond stressed, as a result I thought jumping off the Southside cliff into the Sea was the best idea ever. It wasn’t, obviously. I’d broken my arm and learned the hard way.

  “Wanna’ play a game?” I shoot up from the couch, dropping my half empty beer bottle on the coffee table.

  “Beer pong?” I tilt my head and it takes just a split second before I see a shadow of a smile on his lips.

  “What? Did you think I meant Monopoly or something?” I huff, going to the counter in the kitchen to grab the plastic cups.

  “No. Twister would have been good though” his flame-heated voice washes over all my naughty parts and I smack my head into the counter in shock.

  “Fuck!” I hiss, dropping the cups and rubbing at my scalp, successfully erasing any dirty images in my head of him bent over in all manner of positions. Glancing over the island I get the remnants of a full-blown smile off Reid’s gorgeously hard-lined face.

  Oh, so man thinks he’s funny does he?

  “Oh, it’s on!” I nod, bending to grab the cups at the pack of beers from the fridge.

  “Think you’re funny?” I ask as I get to my knees by the coffee table and start setting up the cups.

  “I know I’m funny” he leans forward, resting his inked elbows on his knees, his face remaining dead serious. I ignore the fluttering of want in the lower half of my belly, the itch in my fingers to brush that too-thick dark hair from his eyes and instead I concentrate on filling up the cups with beer.

  “You know how to play right?” I cock an eyebrow in his direction as I pull out a new ping-pong ball from its wrapper. It’s all Cash and Austin’s fault this stuff is at my apartment anyway, they leave their shit here all the damned time.

  “I work in a bar. Of course, I know” he huffs, throwing one of my cushions onto the floor before leaning his knees on it. I follow his movement and grab one of the too fluffy white pillows from the couch and sitting opposite him. We spend the next hour concentrating on getting our balls into the right cups, laughing when one of us misses and smirking when we watch the other down a cup of beer. We’re pretty wasted by the time we have two cups left. We’d drawn. The competitive side of me was clawing at my skin to beat this too-good looking son of a whatever at this game. I was winning.

  “You’ll never win” he glances up at me through his hair, his elbow resting on his knee that’s bent beneath him, the rip at the knee giving away just a slither of ski
n.

  “Watch it” I snap, my sharp tongue coming out to play.

  “Want to make it more interesting?” his seductive tone has me glancing in his direction immediately. My living room lit with the glow of the side lamp casts a rosy glow around the room, making it seem warm and welcoming. The witching hour of the night meant that no lights were streaming through the window, even the moon was in hiding tonight. The ache I’d felt earlier in my chest had long gone, instead replaced with a deeper need for Reid to be something more than just an acquaintance.

  “These are our last two drinks. If I get a ball in, you have to drink and do a dare. Same for me” he raises a challenging eyebrow in my direction, his menacing look turning marginally playful.

  “Okay” my voice is quiet as I fiddle with the hem of my t-shirt. My agreement comes far too easily but I don’t think any woman in their right mind could ever say no to those emerald eyes. All kinds of ideas are running through my head of what I could dare him, but luck would have it that it’s his go next. Of course, the smug City boy gets the ball in first go.

  I roll my eyes before grabbing the cup and swigging back the beer quickly, leaving remnants of the liquid on my chin. Slamming the cup back on the table, Reid’s eyes follow the tiny droplets until I wipe them with the back of my hand.

  I inhale deeply waiting for the ridiculous dare this still-a-stranger man will come up with. I don’t know this man, he could literally dare me to do anything. Stuff twenty giant marshmallows in my mouth? Do ten shots in a row?

  “Take your top off” his words render me stupid. My muscles go lax and my body refuses to move. My mouth falls open in shock but my hardening nipples against the fabric of my bra tells me I’m far from surprised. It takes me a second, but I know I should react to this as more than what it is. It’s a dare. That’s all.