Page 34 of Plotting Summer

“Again, I'm sorry I was late,” he says, glancing over at me. “My last meeting ran a lot longer than I'd expected.”

“It’s fine. Though we might have to shuffle a few things to make sure the timing works out.” I point at him. “And you can’t take off points from my outing for the food being cold.”

“Noted.” Tristan lifts the basket and takes a whiff. “Wow. That smells amazing. Is it BBQ?”

“Chancie’s.” I know it’s Tristan’s favorite. At least, it used to be.

“You went to the mainland to get me Chancie’s?”

“I’m in this to win it.” I smile. “And I hope you’re hungry, because I may have gone overboard on the portions.”

“I’m always hungry, especially for Chancie’s.”

I don’t doubt that he’s always hungry. It must take a lot of sustenance to maintain that exceptionally toned physique. Though, considering his shopping cart at the mainland store, BBQ ribs and cheese grits probably aren’t on his daily eating regimen.

I step up to the garage keypad and type in the code.

“So, am I allowed to know the plan for this evening?” he asks.

The garage door lifts and I smile, gesturing to two beach cruisers parked next to Tala’s golf cart. “We’re taking a bike ride.” It’s the simplest of the ideas Jane and I discussed, but most of my other ideas involve water, and there’s no way I’m doing any water activities on day one of my period.

Tristan’s gaze roves over Heath’s bright blue bike. “It has a … bell.”

I barely hold in my laugh at the uncertainty in his voice. “I guessed you’d like that feature.” I take the basket from him and secure it on his bike’s rear rack with the bungee cords Tala set out for me. “And since yours doesn’t have a basket in front like mine, I’m going to let you tote this one.”

He stares at the bike and back at me. “Heath rides this thing?”

I can no longer fight a smile, and I set my hands on my waist. “You’re not too cool for a beach cruiser, are you?”

“It has a bell,” he repeats, as though that’s the very symbol of lost manliness. “If Beau sees me on that thing he’ll never let me live it down.”

“I won’t tell Heath you said that.” I look at the bike and then back at him. “It’s fine if you would rather forfeit the competition.”

His gaze flies to me. “Oh, there’s no chance I’m forfeiting.”

I pat the seat of the cruiser. “Then you’d better get on the bike.”

He chuckles, shaking his head, and closes the distance between us until my neck is craned to look up at him. “You realize you’re setting a precedent right now, don’t you? A precedent I fully intend to utilize in my upcoming plans if you won’t back down?”

Nerves lift my stomach, and I’m not sure if it’s because of his proximity or his threat to plan something I might be opposed to. “Go ahead. I’m not scared.” I’m totally scared.

Tristan throws his leg over the bike, holds my gaze, then dings the bell. “Let’s do this.”

Once we get the bikes out and I shut the garage door, I hop on Tala’s cruiser and start pedaling before Tristan realizes what’s happening. “First one to the lighthouse wins,” I call over my shoulder. With the way Tristan lights up, I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t have made this part a competition.

When I pull my bike up next to Tristan’s, I’m huffing and my legs are shaking with exhaustion. It’s now apparent that beach cruisers are meant for exactly what they were named for—cruising, not racing. Though even on a bike meant for racing, I’d probably be dying.

“You almost had me there.” Tristan, unsurprisingly, is not the least bit out of breath, and I know it’s because he was going easy on me—keeping a pace I could just barely keep up with, then pulling ahead right at the end so he could collect the win. Otherwise, he’d have been here twenty minutes before me.

Unable to speak through my puffing, I drop the kickstand and walk to the basket attached to Tristan’s bike to grab waters for us. I hand him his, then take a seat on one of several large rocks in front of where the bikes are parked. They’re used to block golf carts from driving on the sandy walkway to the lighthouse since, being that it’s situated on a tidal island, the pathway’s submerged beneath the water half of the time. Thankfully the tide shouldn’t be in for another hour and a half, but we should probably plan to eat after just to be safe.

Despite how my tailbone aches against the warm stone, it feels nice to not have weight on my legs. “Maybe I let you win,” I say, finally catching my breath a little. I twist the lid off the water bottle and guzzle the entire thing in one go. “You seem like you needed it after the ego hit of having to ride a bike with a bell.”

He dings the bell again. “I appreciate that. Especially after your Diet Coke win yesterday.” He glances at the basket. “Speaking of, is there some sort of prize for my victory?”

“Unfortunately not. Though I should have pegged you as one of those people who needs to be rewarded with every success.” Wow. I am on fire with this banter. I’m definitely going to have to jot down a few of these one-liners I’m throwing out there.

He leans forward on the handlebars of his bike, locking his gaze on mine. “How about I get to ask you a question, then? And you have to answer.”