Page 19 of Beautiful Place By the Sea

I grimace. “Should you really be keeping that in your pocket?”

“Eh,” he shrugs. “Probably not.” He raises an eyebrow. “Why? Are you worried about me?”

My face falls at his mocking expression. “Definitely not. But I bet if you tell Rachel and her friends about it later, they’ll be very concerned about the parts of your body the box cutter might injure.”

I think he visibly shudders. “Very funny.” Oliver starts pulling copies of Ella Enchanted out of the box and stacking them on a nearby shelf.

“Oh my God!” I exclaim, grabbing a copy and hugging it to my chest. “This is my favorite book of all time!”

His eyebrows wrinkle over his nose, like he’s baffled by someone loving the best children’s book ever written. “Really?”

I nod emphatically. “I love everything about it. My grandma bought it for me. Here, actually. On our vacation when I was ten.” I blink back the tears I feel forming behind my lids. “We went back to our rental and devoured it in a day. I’ve probably read it 50 times since.”

It looks like his eyes soften a little. Like maybe he’s set down the mantle of trying to piss me off, if just for a moment, since I’ve exposed my humanity a bit.

“I haven’t read it,” he admits.

I hand him the copy I’m holding. “You have to.”

He shoots me a wry smile. “Well, thanks to your meddling, I’m not sure my night’s free.”

“Sorry,” I say, not feeling very sorry at all. Then an idea strikes me. “Hey, Maisie told me to pick out a free book to take to the beach with me. But I’m hereby passing my freebie off to you. Take Ella with you when you leave tonight. I promise, you won’t regret it.”

Oliver looks like he thinks he may regret it very much, but he nods. “Okay, fine. As long as you also promise to stop trying to get me arrested for hanging out with teenagers.”

I snort. “You can’t get arrested just for talking to them, weirdo.”

“Point taken.” He goes back to lifting stacks of books out of the box.

I really need to leave. “Okay, I’m going to head out. I’ll call the store at 7:45 or so to make sure you’re ready for Rachel and company.”

“Screw you, Ivy,” Oliver says, but he grins rakishly, so I know he’s at least kind of joking. My heart jumps a little at how he looks when he’s pretending to be angry with me.

I tell that part of my heart to STFU.

“See you Friday,” I reply cheerfully, waving over my shoulder as I make my way out of Shoreline.

Thank God my back’s to him so he can’t see my cheeks flush at the sound of his gravelly “Can’t wait,” which sounds not entirely sarcastic. It’s almost a little earnest, even.

I shake my head in time with the bell on the door as it swings shut behind me. I’m just lonely, and he’s a jerk. I definitely shouldn’t be having these thoughts about him.

six

When I get back to Beach Haven, I warm up some leftover pizza and grab the first of my new paperbacks, Ghost Writing by Callie Sheffield. It just came out and has been getting a lot of hype, so I’m really excited to start. Balancing my plate on top of the book, I head to the front porch to eat.

It would probably be an unpleasantly warm day if not for the ocean breeze, but thanks to the wind, it’s perfect. I can feel my soul relax as I inhale a seemingly never-ending string of cheese. Food, a new book, and an ocean view: what could be better?

Occasionally, my peace is interrupted by various profanities being hurled from Laurel’s room and making their way out the open windows to me. “You okay in there?” I yell after the fifth such exclamation.

“Why did you let me enter a PhD program?” she whines loudly.

“Would you have listened to me if I told you not to?”

“No,” she admits.

I grin, then toss a bookmark between pages 84 and 85. I should get to the beach.

Poking my head around Laurel’s doorway, I say, “I’m going to take a dip and then read on my towel. You’re welcome to come, if you want to.”