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His piercing eyes meet mine, and I can guess who he's referring to.
"Tell that to the man who opened the door to the woman who showed up soaking wet on your doorstep."
His lips purse and the light in his eyes dim. He almost looks regretful. Now I feel bad for how I said it. It's not his fault I ended up uninvited at his beach house. It was a fraudulent online vacation rental website.
All things being considered, he did more for me than was required of him.
"I'm sorry for the way I treated you when you showed up. I wasn't expecting this."
"What? You weren't expecting some romance author to show up during a hurricane and seek refuge in your beach house? How unprepared of you. I suppose you'll need to add that to your hurricane checklist. Prepare for an unhinged woman to show up at your house and eat all of your groceries and befriend your next-door neighbor and your niece."
I was trying to make light of the situation, but he doesn't respond.
He reaches out his arms to help me out of the boat—his hands grip my hips while my palms drape over his shoulders to hold my balance.
He lifts me up with not even so much as a grunt from lifting my weight.
The second my feet touch the dock, he releases me and turns to head up the boat ramp.
I follow him as he leads us towards the parking lot where his jeep is located.
"We'll make a quick stop to get your necklace on the way to the apartment."
"Thank you for finding it. I can't believe I left it. I almost never take it off. Where did you find it?"
"Cammy found it," he says. "When she was folding the laundry. It was in my sheets."
"Oh God," I mutter to myself.
Cammy found my necklace in Seven's bedding.
No wonder she knew that Seven is the one who helped me check off my Mexico fling.
"Did she ask who it belonged to?"
Seven snickers at the question as if I just told a joke. He reaches out and opens the passenger door of the Jeep for me.
"You mean the same eighteen-year-old girl who tricked you into a fishing date with me and then sped off, leaving you stranded? No, she didn't ask who it belonged to. She already knew," he says,
Did he just say date?
"Wait. I'm sorry, did you just call this a date?" I ask. "I didn't know—"
"No," he says quickly. "I didn't think this was a date. I shouldn't have said it like that."
I nod and then turn from him to climb up in his lifted Jeep, trying not to let him see the disappointment on my face.
I take my seat and reach for the seatbelt.
"It's not a problem. I just would have worn something different if I had known it was a date."
I expect Seven to close the door, but he stalls after my comment and stares back at me.
"What would you have worn if this had been a date?" he asks.
I slide my palms over my denim shorts as I contemplate his question. I shouldn't be thinking about going on a date with Seven, but "Go on a first date" is an item on my list and as far as I can tell, Daniel hasn't had any problems going on dates, so why should I?
"If this had been a date, I would have worn one of my summer dresses over my bathing suit. Not exactly an ideal outfit for fishing. Why do you ask?"
