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She glared at him. “All right, Perkins, strip.”
“So bossy,” he teased. He peeled off his sweatshirt, and Jess couldn’t help but sneak a glance. Even in the darkness she could see the outline of his toned abs. She wanted to dip her pinky down the crevices at his hips.
“Jessica, if you get a peek, I get a peek. It’s only fair.”
She whipped her head back toward the ocean. “No peeking.”
“Not even one?”
Without looking in his direction, she reached over and grabbed his arm, squeezing his tricep as she shoved him hard. He laughed, feigning a fall as she peeled off her T-shirt. She quicked a look at him and noticed he was peeking, his cheeks pink as his eyes grazed over the lace of her bralette at her shoulders.
“KEVIN.”
“Sorry, sorry!”
“I thought you said we could be adults about this!”
“We can! Okay, we both got a peek. Now, no looking.”
She unzipped her shorts and dropped them to the sand, and before she could lose her nerve, she removed her bralette and her underwear. Her skin felt ice cold, but the back of her neck felt like someone set it on fire.
Kevin also paused, the two of them standing there completely naked, looking straight ahead.
“On the count of three,” he started. “One, two—”
She ran and didn’t wait for three, listening to his howling laughter as he chased after her. She held up her arms and dived into the ocean. Her body sliced into the sea as her hands brushed against strands of seaweed, the taste of briny seawater on her lips.
Everything about being in the ocean felt right to her. She thought back to the last time she actually dived into the ocean, and realized it was when the Scoopers jumped the thirty feet off Sunset Rock to celebrate Rory, Melanie, and Tyler’s graduation. She’d been so busy she almost forgot that the sea was even here, so close to the cottage around the corner. Coming back to the waves was like coming home, and as her head broke the surface and she breathed in the salty, sea air, she realized she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Even if her adventurous soul wanted to camp in forests or go to grungy rock concerts, her heart belonged here. And to her surprise, the thought didn’t scare her. It left her with this deep feeling of fulfillment—something she had yet to feel in her twenty-three years of life.
Kevin’s head popped out of the water a few feet away from her. He pushed his long hair back with his hand, his tattooed torso bobbing in the water. “This is probably the most exhilarated I’ve felt in my entire life.”
“Your life must be pretty boring then,” she jested.
“On the contrary, my life is perfect,” he said. “I just never realized how much I needed my boys to be free in the ocean.”
“Your…boys?”
He winked at her. “My boys.”
“Oh…oh dear god,” she grunted.
He laughed. “Jessica, look at us! We’re halfway through the list.”
She plunged her head into the water and exhaled, big bubbles coming out of her nose. She came back up for air. “Kevin, I think we should put a pause on the list. We have to focus.”
“No can do, sweetheart,” he said. “We finish the list by Labor Day. That’s the rule.”
“How in the world are we going to—”
He held up a hand to stop her. “Jess, I’ve already come up with solutions. Are you ready to hear them?”
She frowned. “Fine.”
“Next weekend I have a plan to tackle the rest of the list. Give me twenty-four hours, and it will be over.”
She furrowed her brow. “How?”
“You’re just going to have to trust me, sweetheart.”
