Out with the Tide: A Small Town Romance by Julie Olivia

Author:Julie Olivia [Olivia, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Shower Thoughts

Cassidy

The night before my sister’s graduation, I attend our usual Friday night family dinner. Marina doesn’t come; she and Lulu are too busy finalizing arrangements at Florally Yours. But my mind drifts in her absence.

The wisps of hair separating over her face in the breeze. Her freckled cheeks. Her plump lips, sometimes parted, as if anticipating something from me—a laugh or a look—maybe just the way my eyes roam over her, which I cannot stop doing for the life of me.

I think about the way her hand slips so easily into mine.

How maybe we could slip just as easily together.

“Where’s Marina tonight?” Wendy asks.

I swallow, coming back to reality with my siblings mulling around in the front yard. It’s the twenty-minute goodbye ritual, having started in the kitchen after dinner and traveling to our cars. Jasper was two seconds away from closing his car door, but Ma barely mentioned dessert to Sam, and he went running back in the house. Jasper’s head fell back on the seat with a groan. Now, another ten minutes later, Wendy is sitting next to me on the porch with Jasper lurking like a gargoyle beside her.

“Huh?” I ask.

“Marina?” Jasper reminds me, leaning against the porch railing with his arms crossed.

“Oh.” I blink. “Working.”

I smile to myself. I love seeing her among the plants. I have an Eve-like fantasy of her with just a single plant covering her, and if I just push it aside⁠—

Wendy grins. “Did we interrupt your daydreams?”

I scoff. “I’m not daydreaming.”

She holds her hands up. “Sorry, fantasizing.”

“That’s not—” I look at Jasper for reassurance, but all he does is shrug. I sputter out a laugh. “I’m not fantasizing about anything.”

“Right. Your face definitely doesn’t transform when we talk about your roomie.”

I link my fingers together and shake my head. I try to make my laugh casual. “Yeah, she’s gorgeous. I’m not blind. But nothing is happening.”

Except for my massive crush.

Except that I think about her constantly.

Except that I keep imagining her soaking wet dress draped over her perfect figure.

“I don’t believe you,” Wendy says. “You can’t wait to get home to her. Come on. Details, please.”

Jasper nudges Wendy with the toe of his boot. “Cass doesn’t have to talk about it.”

She pinches the knee of his jeans, tugging on the fabric. “Not everyone keeps everything inside, like you,” she teases.

He scrunches his nose with a playful smile. Wendy’s elementary school teacher demeanor is exactly what he needed in his life.

But Wendy is right.

I cannot wait to get home to my girl.

No, my friend. My roommate. Not my girl. That’s ridiculous.

But that thought follows me as I take the footpaths home—dirt trails with backyards on one side and tall grass overlooking the sea on the other. It’s silent, as Never Harbor always is. But my mind is loud as hell.

I walk through the townhome front door, scuffing my shoes on the mat Marina recently purchased saying hello! while goodbye! is upside down on the opposite side. She knows how to make this place a home, and I’ve never enjoyed coming back to it as much as I have lately.

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