Our Kind of Love (7 page)

This makes me curious even though I haven’t been
going there.
“How come?”

He smiles and says, “You’ll know soon enough.
Just stay out for now.”

I nod.

“Well, goodnight, honey.”

“Night, Daddy.”

Shortly after finishing my juice, I mosey
upstairs and into my room, showering before bed. I haul on my blue PJs and
climb under the covers, lying there in the dark unable to fall asleep. I can’t
stop my mind from thinking about that touch, and Micah’s sexy smile.

I hear a buzz on the table next to my bed.
Reaching over for my cell phone, I see that I have a text. It makes me feel
guilty for thinking about another guy.

Nate:
Hey babe.
Missed u today.

Me:
Hey what are u still doing up? Partying?

Nate:
u
know
I hate partying without u.

I twist my mouth, not really believing him.

Me:
So you say.

Nate: I’m up thinking about u babe. I
miss u. Ask
ur
mom for the
day off tomorrow so we can hang out.

I consider his request. Some time together will
do us good. Before we know it, summer will be over and it’ll be even harder to
see each other in fall when Nate goes off to Brown in the city of Providence
and I’ll be at URI down here.

I give in to him. I can’t just spend the entire
summer working and neglecting my boyfriend. Mom will just have to understand.

Nate:
Babe?

Me:
OK I will.

Nate:
Awesome!
Can’t wait to see u.

Me:
Yeah, me neither. I miss hanging out with u too.

Nate: Well I’m dozing off babe. Call
me tomorrow and I'll pick u up. We’ll go chill at our special place.

Me:
OK see u tomorrow. 
Nite
babe
J

Nate:
Nite
. Dream about me.

Me:
I will once I fall asleep.

Nate:
Alright. Well I’ll dream about u. Luv u

He’s been saying that to me.
Luv u
.
Sadly, I can’t say it back even if it’s in text form.

Back
at cha
,
I send him instead.

Early the next morning I spring out of bed, put
on my pink robe and hasten downstairs to catch Mom before she leaves for the
restaurant. Dad’s at the table having breakfast and reading the newspaper,
while Mom’s munching on croissants and going over some papers at the island.
She turns and regards my appearance as I enter the kitchen.

Gesturing with her hand, she asks, “Why aren’t
you dressed yet? Honey, we open in two hours.”

I lean against the island next to her and reply
in a fake groggy tone, “I’m not feeling so good. Can I take the day off?”

Mom scoffs, places the half-eaten croissant on
the plate and drops her hands on her hips. “You just started helping out again
only this week. Reign, we’re already down by one and I don’t want my customers
complaining that our service has gotten slow and lose even more of them.”

“She can have a day, Sophia. Come on,” Dad comes
to my rescue. He reaches over and tugs her arm. “You get going. It’s all right
if she misses a day. Our daughter is human too.”

Looking down at him, Mom relaxes her face. She’s
unable to stifle back her smile. Gosh, they’re so in love. She brushes her
shoulder length hair behind her ears—which is a shade lighter than the cool
brown she was rocking a week ago—lowers, and gives Dad a kiss on the cheek.
“You know, if she was working for some other business, she wouldn’t have such a
luxury.”

“I know that, Mom. I just don’t feel like it
today,” I mumble, going over to the table to sit down.

Narrowing her eyes, she studies me with a
questioning look and asks, “Don’t feel like it, or don’t feel good? Which is
it?”

I swallow down the stiffness in my throat,
glancing back and forth between them with puppy-dog eyes as I mutter,
“
I don’t…feel good.”

Mom presses her lips together, shakes her head
in defeat, then she steps over to the island to finish her croissant. Picking
up her coffee mug, she turns back to Dad and gives him another kiss, this time
on the lips. “I’ll see you later.” Walking over to me, she brushes back my
messy strands and pecks me on the forehead. “See you later, honey.”

“Bye, Mom.”

She starts out the kitchen, taking up her keys
and black handbag off the table by the stairs before going out the front door.

I pick up a buttery croissant from the platter
in the middle of the table and pour myself some orange juice. Dad sets the
newspaper down next to his plate. He angles his head to one side and eyes me
knowingly. “So, what do you have planned that you don’t want to go to the
restaurant today?”

“Nothing really,” I smile innocently before
helping myself to another croissant.

“Hmm-mmm.”
He reaches
over and squeezes my shoulder, then rises from the table. “I’m gonna head into
town to deliver some things. You be good.”

“Aren’t I always? By the way, how’s business
going?”

“Good. Business is good.” He doesn’t elaborate.
Turning to leave, he utters over his shoulder, “Tell Nate I say hi.”

Dad doesn’t wait for me to get another word out.
He scurries out the front door.

After I finish eating, I quickly wash the
dishes, tread up to my room, shower, blow-dry my hair, and put on a jeans
shorts and sleeveless top. Then I call Nate to pick me up.

Our special place is out by the rocks on Ocean
Drive, not too far from where he lives. Only, it doesn’t look so special when
we hop out of his car, walk down the beach and I see that his friends are here
too.

Slowing down, I say, “Oh, I thought it was just
gonna be us.”

Nate nudges my arm. “Come on, babe. Don’t be so
antisocial.” He walks off and I follow behind, silently seething. Lucas, Ryan,
and Kimberly appear buzzed already. Kimberly flashes me a frown when she sees
me over Nate’s shoulder.

“Hey peeps,” Nate calls out as we reach them.

“Hey. So what’s on the agenda for today?” Lucas
asks, handing him a Budweiser.

“I thought we could go out on my dad’s boat
after hanging out here,” Nate replies. My stomach tenses. He knows I don’t do
boats. Even though he doesn’t know why, he should at least consider my
feelings.

“Cool,” Ryan enthuses, lowering to get another
beer from the cooler as he finishes the one in his hand.

Kimberly stares down her nose at me as the boys
chat. She’s wearing an itty-bitty red bikini with a bandeau top that barely
covers her huge boobs. Flipping her long blonde hair off her shoulders, she
jogs over to the water, splashing it on herself before diving under. Her thong
doesn’t leave much for the imagination. She probably thinks I’m lame, coming to
the beach without a bathing suit.

Whatever.
I
never planned on going swimming.

I look back at the boys and catch Nate watching
Kimberly.
Seriously?
He glances over at me with his
face burning red and half-smiles as if I didn’t just see him lusting at her
ass.

Seeming guilty, he breaks away from the guys and
comes over to hand me a beer. “Here you go babe.”

I shake my head and he frowns. “What’s up?” he
asks.

“Nothing,” I reply.

He shrugs me off then walks back over to Lucas
and Ryan, placing the bottle back inside the cooler as they resume their
conversation—so much for wanting to hang out with me alone.

Nate spends a full hour talking with his friends
and paying me no attention, while I sit by Kimberly as she sunbathes on the
sand. I try to have a conversation with her, only she’s so unfriendly and
uninterested.

“How was your first semester at Brown?” I ask
her. “Must be nice to live and study in the city of Providence.”

Kimberly keeps her eyes covered with her huge
sunglasses and lets out an exasperated sigh before answering flatly, “It’s all
right.”

The most I know about her is that her father is
the hospitality manager at Newport Harbor Hotel, and that he went to Brown
University, too. There’s also a rumor, well, Claudia told me, that Kimberly
hooked up with Ryan a couple of times. That’s probably why she’s always hanging
around the guys even though she’s a year older than us. It must really suck for
her, not being able to go to the same college with him.

Kimberly’s obviously annoyed with my presence
but I have nothing left to do but wait until Nate gets bored and wants to
leave, which takes him another hour to decide. Only, they’re talking about
heading over to Nate’s house to take his dad’s boat out.

That’s a big no-no.

“Let’s go babe,” he says, draping his arms
around my shoulder as he tows me up the beach.

The others follow behind.

“Nate, can we just skip the boat thing for some
other time?” I ask in a whisper so his friends don’t hear.

He scrunches up his face. “Why?”

“You know why,” I say. “I don’t like boats.”

Twitching his mouth, he huffs annoyingly, not
saying anything until we reach his car.

“All right, we’ll go another time.”

I pause at the passenger side door.
“Really?
It’s okay?” I confirm.

Nate smiles, edges closer and kisses me softly
on the lips. Easing away, he adds, “Of course it’s fine. I don’t want to force
you to go out on the boat and make it a miserable time for everyone else.”

He slips away and walks over to his friends to
tell them there’s a change of plans. Kimberly cuts her eyes to me, giving me a
death glare. I could care less about that. It’s what Nate just said that
bothers me, and the irritation in his words. He’s more concerned about me
ruining the day for his friends. His remark is…new.

I open the door and climb inside as he tramps
back toward the car. Hopping in around the steering, Nate backs off the grass
and pulls out on the main road.

“Let’s go back to your house and hang out,” he
suggests.

I don’t voice my apprehension, only do as he
says.

NINE

Micah

“GREEK SALAD and French onion soup,” John
mutters at my back when an old couple enters the restaurant.

I look behind at him before sliding off the bar
stool. “I take it they’re regulars who always get the same thing.”