“Trill?”
Oh, right, he asked me a question. His body is making me stupid. “Are you sure you don’t want to spend some alone time with Zach?”
“I’ll be with Zach all day tomorrow while you’re at uni,” he replies, tilting his head back and drinking. I watch his throat work as he swallows, and I suddenly feel the need to fan myself. I glance around and see that I’m not the only woman to notice the fine specimen sitting next to me. In fact, any female within the ages of fifteen to sixty on the beach seems to be watching him. I glance at Xander, who is now looking at me, either oblivious to all the attention or used to it.
“Maybe you should put a shirt on,” I mock-whisper. “You’re creating a spectacle.”
“What?” he asks, mouth twitching. “You should talk. Any male that walks this way zooms in on your tits and ass.”
My mouth drops open. “That’s not true.”
I’m wearing a one-piece swimsuit, but the sides are cut out, showing a little of my stomach. It doesn’t show much cleavage, but obviously, every flaw on my body can be seen. I walked out with a t-shirt over it, until we were about to get into the water and Xander asked me to raise my arms and he pulled it off. He assumed I wasn’t going to swim in a t-shirt and I didn’t correct him. He’d smiled at me then lowered his gaze, taking me in, before reaching his hand out and leading me to the water. He didn’t make a big deal out of anything or make me feel too awkward about him seeing me in something so revealing for the first time.
“It is true,” he murmurs, “but I can’t say that I blame them.”
“Smooth talker,” I mumble, causing him to chuckle.
“Just the truth, babe,” he replies, leaning back on his elbows.
“There you are,” comes a voice from behind me. April plops down next to me, sitting on the sand. She looks to Xander. “Hello, sexy stranger from the other night.”
He nods, his eyes crinkling. “April.”
I look at my best friend. “I thought you were going to be here an hour ago.”
“And I thought you would have called me with juicy gossip about why you’re hanging out with him,” she says, wiggling her finely arched blonde eyebrows. “Are you finally getting some action?”
I sigh heavily. I’m used to her lack of filter, but did she have to say that in front of Xander? Her eyes sparkle. Of course, she did. “Why are we friends again?”
I glance at Xander to see him watching our banter with amusement.
“Because you love me,” April replies in a singsong voice and then adjusts her ice blue bikini top. “Where are all the hot guys today? I swear, they’re all in hiding.”
“They probably heard you were on the prowl,” I fire back, smirking.
She rolls her eyes. “If they heard I was on the prowl, they’d be lining up.”
Looking to Xander, she says, “So I heard you’re a friend of Zach’s. How long are you in town?”
Xander glances at me before replying. “Not sure yet, maybe a week or so.”
Before, he’d said a few days, so a week was an improvement.
Staring into the water, I squint when I see a familiar mop of reddish-brown hair. “Is that Zach in the water?”
Xander and April both look along my line of sight.
Yes, it’s Zach. He’s chest deep in the ocean, his mouth all over some woman.
“When did he even get here?” I ask, wondering why we’re only just seeing him.
April sniffs. “Who knows with him? He’s an easy pussy magnet. If it’s easy, he’s there.”
Something once happened between Zach and April, but neither of them will speak of it. Things were awkward for a while, but now they’re back to being friends. However, whenever April has to actually see him with another woman, this side of her comes out. I personally think they hooked up and Zach ran scared. It sounds like him. I don’t think he wants to be in a long-term relationship right now, or at least that’s what he’s said in the past. I’m curious, but I don’t want to pry. April will tell me if she wants me to know.
Xander chuckles. “He’s single and likes to enjoy life.”
April glares at him. “Of course, you’ll stand up for him.”
I stand up and dust the sand off my ass. “Is it safe to go back into the water?”
“What do you mean?” Xander asks, also standing up.
I point to Zach, who I’m pretty sure is having sex in the ocean.
In the open.
In broad daylight.
“Fucking hell, there could be kids around here,” April growls, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest. “Do you guys want to get something to eat?”
My stomach chooses that moment to growl, as if it heard what April was saying and was answering for me.
“We’ll take that as a yes,” Xander says, casually wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you fed.”
April glances over at me and mouths the word ‘hot’. I shake my head at her and mouth ‘stop it’ back to her. She grins and quickly catches up to us, coming on the other side of me and threading her arm through mine.
“So, Xander,” she starts, her tone casual, but I know her better. “What is it that you do for a living exactly?”
And let the best friend interrogation begin.
*****
“Do you have any children?” she asks him, making me almost choke on my French fry.