by Case, Jaimie
“It’s a special place.” He shrugged. “Not a place to take anyone I’ve dated thus far.”
“Okay,” I said, but I wanted to ask him why he was taking me, but I suppose I was a longtime family friend, so I didn’t really count. Yes, he had kissed me, but it had all been in good fun. He’d turned me down so many times before, he’d made it quite obvious that he wasn’t interested in anything more with me.
12
“Are you cold?” Nolan asked me as we sat and watched the ocean from his blanket. “I can give you my sweater if you want.”
“No, I’m okay, thanks.” I shook my head and gave him a small smile before taking a sip of my cider. “It’s beautiful out here at night. I always forget that. I should come out here more often.”
“This is one of the main perks of living in Canyon Beach.” Nolan nodded toward the ocean and jumped up suddenly. “Take your shoes off and come with me.” He held his hand down to pull me up and I smiled at him quizzically as I stood.
“Where are we going?” I slipped my sandals off and put my bottle down on the blanket.
“For a walk,” he said and tugged on my hand. “Let’s go.”
“You’re so demanding, aren’t you?”
“Never,” he said with a laugh as we set off walking. “So are you upset?” He looked at my face as we walked along the side toward the water.
“Upset?” I stared at him, feeling confused. “Upset about what?”
“Jose,” he said looking away from me. He bent down and picked up some shells from the sand and showed them to me. They looked almost translucent in the moonlight and I stared at them transfixed by their beauty.
“No, not at all,” I said with a quick laugh. “I was a little confused, yes, and slightly offended, but upset? No, not at all.”
“You didn’t wish that he’d asked you on a second date?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have said yes if he had asked.”
“Then why did you agree to go on a date with him?”
“Why?” I thought about it for a moment. “He looked cute and well, I had a vision of him making me empanadas.”
“Enchiladas?” he asked.
“No empanadas.”
“What?” It was his turn to be confused, and I started laughing at the absurdity of the entire situation. As I laughed, Nolan’s expression changed from confused to bemused and he just stared at me with that sweet sexy look on his face that always made me melt. It reminded me of the times he’d been there to cheer me on or tease me as a teenager or in college. He’d always looked at me as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of me.
“It’s stupidness, really.” I sighed as I finally stopped laughing. “I knew the date wasn’t going to be great from the messages, but I still felt he was the best of the bunch.” I perked up as I just remembered that I’d seen that Lucas had sent me a message on the dating app right before I’d met up with Jose. I went to reach for my phone but I didn’t want Nolan to tease me.
“What’s got you so happy all of a sudden?” Nolan looked at me suspiciously. “Oh wait, don’t tell me you got another letter from Fitz?”
“Actually, yes, I did,” I said with a small smile. “And he also sent me a message on a dating app.”
“He what?” Nolan’s jaw dropped. “How did he do that?”
“He joined the app and messaged me, silly.” I laughed and pulled my phone out. “See.” I brought up the app and showed him Lucas’s profile.
“That’s Lucas Sacramento.”
“Yeah, I know that.”
“He told you he’s Fitz?”
“No, not yet,” I admitted. “But it has to be him.” Nolan gazed at me for a few seconds and he seemed to be thinking about something.
“So, have you written him back yet?”
“No, I’m going to message him later.”
“I meant Fitz,” Nolan said stiffly. “Have you written him a letter?”
“No, I’ll do that tomorrow or something.” I shrugged. “Why?”
“No reason.” He took out a pack of gum and offered me a piece. I shook my head no and he continued. “Do you know what you’re going to say in your article?”
“Yeah, maybe to not be superficial and to not just swipe for good looks.” I nodded as I realized the idea that had just popped to my mind made actual sense. “I mean let’s be real, everyone knows guys just want to swipe on hot women, but a lot of times women give good-looking guys a pass in the bad personality department, just because they’re cute. It’s just not a good way to date. And well….” My words drifted off as I didn’t really want to tell him the rest of my thoughts.
“Well, what?” he asked me, his eyes gazing into mine as he took a step closer to me.
“Well, just because a guy is good-looking doesn’t mean he’s good in bed.” I reddened as his gaze became more interested.
“Is that right?” He cocked his head to the side. “This is something you know to be true?”
“This is something I know to be true,” I said with a nod, though it wasn’t something I knew to be true from experience, rather from talking to friends about it.
“So, you’ve been with a lot of good-looking men then?” He grabbed my hands and pulled me to him. He looked down into my eyes and I could feel the warmth of his body seeping into mine. My thighs felt like they were on fire when his leg casually bumped into mine.
“Well, not exactly.” I could barely get the words out. I was so breathless and captivated by his smile.
“Do you think I’m good-looking?”
“You’re okay,” I said quickly looking him over dismissively. No way was I going to tell him how drop-dead gorgeous I thought he was. Or how being so close to him made my entire insides want to tremble and melt against him.
“Just okay?” he said with a chuckle as his lips came down on mine.
“Just okay.” I nodded slowly, my lips pressed against his lightly. My heart was racing, and I wanted to just pull him into me even harder and kiss him. Before I knew what I was doing, my arms were around his neck and I was kissing him hard. His lips pressed against mine and he kissed me back just as hard, his hands fell to my ass and I could taste the IPA he’d just been drinking on his lips.
“You taste like apples,” he whispered against my lips as he tugged on my lower lip with his teeth. He sucked on my lip and I melted against him. His hands slid up my back to the nape of my neck and his fingers played with my hair. I could feel his hardness next to my belly as he pushed into me and my legs trembled slightly at the feel of him. His chest was warm to the touch as I reached my fingers up under his shirt. I ran my fingers across his abs and the tightness of his muscles always amazed me. I wondered how often he worked out. Not that I was going to ask. I didn’t want him to know how perfect I thought his body was. His lips moved from mine and started to kiss down my neck and then to the spot just below my ear.
“I want you.” He groaned as he blew into my ear, the feel of his breath tickling me and I gasped. “I want to taste you.”
“What?” My fingers played with his hair and I felt my breasts crushed against his muscular chest.
“I want to taste all of you. I want to see if your wet pussy tastes like apples as well.”
I gasped loudly then and my eyes widened as he stared at me.
“Does that shock you?” he asked as his hand slid up under my skirt and along my thighs. He reached up to the hem of my panties and he grinned as he slipped my panties to the side and touched me gently with his fingers. “I knew you were wet.”
“Nolan.” I groaned. “What are you doing?”
“What do you want me to be doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” he asked a sly smile on his face as he moved my panties away from me. “You really don’t know?”
“Nolan,” I said, not knowing what he was really asking of me. “I…” My voice trailed off as he kissed me again and this time there was no hesitancy on his pa
rt. He kissed me as if he’d been waiting all his life to have his lips taste mine. He kissed me as if he couldn’t get enough of me and I kissed him back as well. All of our chemistry and headbutting was finally coming to a head and it was explosive.
“Let’s go back to the blanket.” He growled as he picked me up and carried me back down the beach.
“I thought we were going for a walk.” I squealed.
“You still want to walk?” He looked shocked.
“I wouldn’t mind feeling the waves on my feet.” I smiled shyly. “I love the ocean.”
“You love the ocean, huh?” He grinned and before I knew what was happening he was running back toward the water and laughing.
“Nolan, what are you doing?” I squirmed against him as I realized he was headed into the water. “Nolan,” I screamed out as he let me down gently and I felt the cold swoosh of water covering my legs. He grinned at me and then bent down and pushed a small wave of water on me and splashed me.
“Here’s the water you wanted.” He laughed as I reached down and started swatting the cold water onto him. We splashed each other back and forth for a good couple of minutes and then he pulled me against him and started kissing me passionately. I melted against him and ran my hands down his back. He pulled away from me and grabbed my hand and we walked back to the blanket.
“I guess you’re not thinking about Lucas right now,” he said as we lay down on the blanket and his hand fondled my breast. His eyes were gleaming and he had a secretive smile on his face.
“I need to go home.” I jumped up suddenly, even though my body missed the touch of him. “I’m cold and wet and I need to shower and change.”
He looked at me for a few seconds as if he wanted to change my mind, but he just nodded and gathered up his stuff.
“Okay then, I’ll take you home.” And with that, our moment was done.
13
“Heathcliff, I’m home,” I sang out as I entered my front door after waving goodbye to Nolan. The drive home held felt awkward, and I really hadn’t known what to say. My brain felt all sorts of discombobulated as I settled into the couch and played with Heathcliff’s ears. Why was this all so bloody complicated? My life had gone from zero to two hundred in a mere couple of weeks and I wasn’t sure I could handle all the adventure. Heathcliff whined at my feet as I got ready to turn the TV on. “You want a treat?” I asked him and he whined again. I sighed as I realized that I needed to take him on a walk, a long walk. I’d let him out in the garden to do his business, but he wanted to actually run. “Okay, boy.” I yawned as I got up and headed toward the coat rack where I kept his leash. “C’mon, let’s go for a walk. Lucas can wait,” I said as if Heathcliff cared at all. Heathcliff ran toward me, tongue hanging out and tail wagging and I knew that he was extremely happy at the fact he was going for a late night walk. “Ugh, you know that this means I’m going to have a very late night. I have to respond to Lucas and I have to write my article for tomorrow. Malcolm has texted me three times tonight to see how the date went and I can’t just write, ‘it was a hot mess, the end,’ or I will lose my job.” I moaned as Heathcliff sniffed along the street, not paying any attention to me. I walked him for another fifteen minutes before heading back home again.
He ran to the kitchen to drink some water while I settled back on the couch and picked up my phone. I was excited to read Lucas’s message on the dating app. I decided that I would send him a letter and a response to his message and tell him some of the same things. That way he would definitely know that I knew it was him.
I clicked on his message and read eagerly, reading it out loud to savor it. “Sup, Jules, how’s it going? Remember me from school? I look a bit different, but so do you. Who knew you’d get so hot? Wanna grab a drink and catch up some time. Maybe discuss some of the best books we’ve read recently? Lucas.” My jaw dropped as I finished reading his message. “Oh my God, Heathcliff,” I shouted to my dog because I had no one else to talk to. “Heathcliff, he just outted himself.” I was so excited I could barely contain it. I pulled out his last letter again and looked at his message. In both pieces of correspondence, he had commented on the fact that he loved books. He’d basically just confirmed what I already knew. I thought it was so sweet that he was using my love of books to connect with me. I smiled to myself as I responded to his message on the dating site first.
Hey Lucas, of course, I remember you! I heard you just got back into town. It would be great to catch up and talk books! :) When were you thinking of getting together? Jules
I pressed send and then I got ready to write him a letter, but I realized that it was close to midnight and I still hadn’t done any swiping or messaging and I hadn’t written my first article, plus there was a slight melancholy in my soul as I thought of Nolan and our time together. I lightly touched my lips as I thought about the press of his lips against mine. The moment had felt magical and meant to be, but I knew that to Nolan, I was nothing but a fling and someone to mess around with. He had turned me down too many times, and I wasn’t going to let him hurt me again.
I closed my eyes and tried to stop the memory of my biggest disappointment from playing in my head, but I couldn’t. It had been the weekend that Nolan and Jackson had visited me in college. I’d been a senior and about to graduate, excited about the fact that I’d gotten a reporting job at the Canyon Beach Chronicle. My boyfriend Mark and I had just broken up because, frankly, the relationship had sucked. He’d been awful in bed and I had never orgasmed from the five-minute sex we’d had. He’d always seemed more obsessed with trying to slip it in the backdoor than trying to pleasure me and most of our time in bed was me telling him no to anal and then him coming quickly on my stomach.
Only Stella and Betsy knew how bad he’d been in bed and I’d sworn them to secrecy. When we’d broken up, I hadn’t been that devastated, but when Nolan had said he was coming to visit, I’d pretended to be upset over my breakup with Mark so that I could save face. I didn’t want Nolan thinking that I’d harbored a crush on him since high school. That first night Nolan had been so sweet to me and taken me to dinner. He had been older and more mature, having been out of college for a few years and we’d had a really fun night. And then we’d gone back to my room to watch a movie. He’d kissed me so tenderly and I’d kissed him back passionately. He’d removed my clothes and taken me with his tongue and I’d orgasmed into his mouth, my whole body trembling with pleasure and then because I’d been so overwhelmed and happy, I’d started crying. I hadn’t been crying out of pain though, I’d been crying from pleasure. However, Nolan had frozen and asked me what was wrong and I’d told him that I was still upset over my breakup with Mark. I hadn’t wanted him to know that I thought I was in love with him. I mean, how crazy would that have been? And before I knew what was happening, Nolan was pulling my clothes back on me and jumping up and telling me he had to leave. He’d told me that I wasn’t in the right emotional state to just hook up and that that was all that he’d wanted and he’d left. I cried more tears than I’d ever cried for Mark. Just thinking about that night in combination with my first kiss and asking him to sleep with me was enough to make me weary about being with Nolan in any way. He had a track record of breaking my heart and just walking away. I had been right to end things before they went further this evening. Nolan Montgomery could not be trusted with my heart and I wasn’t going to go down that road with him again.
14
“This article is wonderful, Jules. Just wonderful.” Malcolm looked up from his screen and beamed. “We’re going to have it go live as soon as Nolan sends us the edited video.” He nodded happily to himself. “This should get us a lot of hits.”
“I hope so.”
“I’ve already had some calls from other businesses in town that want to sponsor some of the dates and buy ads.”
“Wow, really?” I was slightly confused. “But how come? The first article isn’t even up yet. How do they even know about it?” But as I spoke the words, I realized
that I already knew the answer. This was Canyon Beach, everyone knew everyone’s business, sometimes even before they knew it themselves. “Actually, no need to answer. I already know.”
“So when’s the next date?”
“Going to work on that now, hopefully in a couple of days,” I said with a small smile, not wanting to tell him anything about Lucas.
“And how are you and Nolan working together?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” I shrugged, ignoring the image of his body against mine and the way his fingers had touched me the night before.
“Good, good,” he said with a small smile. “Okay, well, get to work. I’m excited for your next article.”
“Thanks, Malcolm,” I said as I stood up and walked back to my desk. I checked my phone to see if there were any new messages from Lucas but there weren’t. He really wasn’t very fast to respond and I was starting to find it all a bit annoying. I picked up the letter I’d written before bed and decided to drop it off at the post office and then grab a cupcake and coffee from Betsy’s shop.
Dearest Fitz,
I’ve heard about that book and will definitely check it out. I just recently read Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson and it was amazing. It is a YA thriller/murder mystery, but so much more than that. Have you been dating much since you’ve been back in town? It would be great to catch up and talk books! Hope to hear back from you soon.
Jules
If he didn’t get the hint from this letter, he was never going to get the hint. I hurried to the post office and dropped my letter in the post box. As I was walking out, I saw Nolan at the counter talking to someone. I was about to leave when he looked up and noticed me.
