Existing (28 page)

I rub my han
ds on my knees to try and warm them up. “A little, maybe. I’ll feel better when I’ve got my dress on and some make-up on my face or something.”

Charlotte laughs. “You don’t need a dress and make-up. You ooze sexiness.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”

“There’s something mysterious about you. You have that look about you where people seem to want to find out what your story is.”

I laugh.

“Cabe obviously thinks so.”

I shoot her a look.

“Oh
, come on,” she laughs, “you must know there’s something about you.”

“Not you
too,” I sigh.

“Ooh
, why? Did Cabe say the same thing?”

I laugh. “He did
actually.”

She cranks the music up when Mumford and Sons comes on the radio and sings her heart out to
“Little Lion Man” until she bounces her car into her driveway.

“Home sweet home,” she smiles. “Don’t forget
to excuse my Mother. She’s a little nuts.”

I
smirk and climb out of the car.

“I hung your dress up this morning, so you shouldn’t have to iron it
.”

I think back to our shopping trip and wince. “
Thanks. Are you sure it’s not too short?”

“Hell no,” she laughs as
we walk through the front door. “Mine is at least two inches shorter than yours and you and Ava both loved it.”

“You have amazing legs,” I counter, following her up the stairs.

“You do too, so I don’t know what you’re worried about.”

I
look around the landing and hear the shower on in the bathroom. “Is that your Mom?”

“Yeah,” she sighs and walks into her bedroom. “She’s probably going out to try and find herself a boyfriend.”

I sit on her bed and let the mattress swallow my backside up. “What happened to your Dad?”

She sits on the stool at her dressing table and leans on her elbows. “He left when I was two. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Okay, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she sighs
, turning around to face me. “He left my Mother for another woman and has this whole new life and they have loads of money and we don’t. It’s just annoying.”

I nod. “I can understand that. Do you speak to him or anything?”

She empties the contents of her make-up bag next to me on the bed and starts to sort it into color shades. “He sends money at birthdays and Christmas with a card, but he never calls or anything.”

“That must be tough,” I say. “I’m sorry I’ve upset you by asking.”

“Never mind. Let’s just forget it,” she says. “We need to get you ready for your date.”

I smile at her but see the sadness running over her face like waves over the shore. “What are you doing with my hair?”

She leans forward and fluffs my hair up in her hands. “I’m thinking sexy beach babe curls with a funky side parting.”

I can feel my injured knee t
hrobbing as I hold on tightly to the banister and make my way down the stairs behind Charlotte.

“Wow,” says William when his eyes fall on Charlotte
as she steps off the bottom stair.

I grin
. Charlotte is wearing a figure-hugging, white dress. The color alone would have looked stupid on anyone other than Charlotte, but with her olive skin and green eyes, she looks stunning. She’s curvier than I am, but wearing a dress like that where it clings to her rounded hips and round breasts, she reminds me of Marilyn Monroe and all the boys loved her figure.

“Thank you,
” I hear Charlotte say from around the corner.

I take a deep breath
, smooth my little, navy blue wrap dress down, and step off the last step onto the wooden floor. The sound of my stiletto touching down against the hardened surface makes everyone turn around. I focus on Charlotte’s face and her big wide smile before I glance down at the floor and then look up through my lashes at Cabe. He steps forward wearing a pair of black pants and a stylish grey shirt that he’s left open at the top and walks right up to me. I can’t stop myself from peeking at his defined chest through the gap in his shirt.

He leans down
, forcing the rush of hot air from his mouth to skim over my ear before he whispers, “You look absolutely beautiful.”

I feel my cheeks grow
hot and smile. “Thank you. You don’t clean up too bad yourself.”

He laughs and offers me his arm. “Shall we?”

I take his arm and let him guide me down the front walkway and into the back of a car that isn’t his. “I can’t walk in these shoes,” I admit.

He laughs. “I don’t know why girls wear shoe
s that they can’t walk in, but you all do it.”

“It’s because high heels make our legs look longer and leaner.”

“You don’t need heels to help you with that.”

I take my arm f
rom his and climb into the backseat. He slides in beside me and smiles his signature smile at me. “You really do look stunning, Rose.”

“Stop it.”

He chuckles. “Okay, it embarrasses you, I get it. But don’t ever think that you can walk down a set of stairs, looking like you do now, and that I won’t say anything about it.”

The passenger side door opens and a gush of cool wind flies into the car as Charlotte slides into her seat. “You two okay back there?”

“Sure,” Cabe replies, looking out the window as we pull away.

“Are you playing in the game on Monday night?”

I glance up at William and see him staring in his rearview mirror at Cabe.

“Yeah
,” Cabe replies.

“I think it’ll be a tight one. Seaside
is all over it this year.”

“Yeah
, but I heard their striker broke his ankle and he’s the only real reason they’ve been doing so well.”

“I’m not sure,” replies William
, pulling onto the coastal road. “People have to get the ball up the field to him.”

Charlotte turns around in her seat and rolls her eyes at me. I grin and try not to be obvious about it as I listen intently to every deep, smooth word that comes out of Cabe’s mouth.

It turns out that Noah’s house is literally around the corner from my house. As we pull up in the driveway, the huge, three-story beige house looms over us. The corner of the house is all glass and the people inside have the lights on, meaning we can see the room that is already packed with people, dancing and drinking. Wooden planks supporting the glass window curl around the edge of the house that has more windows splattered around the side of it. I lean around and look at the backyard, where I see a balcony surrounded by a low glass wall and a garden that has long grassy steps leading directly onto the beach.

“This house is amazing,
” I say.

“Yeah, it is,” agrees Cabe, coming to stand next to me. “I live just down the road.”

“You do?” I ask.

He points to the end of the street. “That’s my house. My parents have no idea that I’m here, so I hope they don’t come looking to see what all the noise is.”

I notice he says parents
, which means he must live with his Mom and Dad. So why did Sebastian sound American, whereas Cabe is so very clearly English?

“Wow,” I breathe. “Does your house step
open up to the beach like this one?”

He nods. “It’s overrated. Trust me.”

We walk up the pathway to the front door behind Charlotte and William.

“How so?”

He shrugs. “You really don’t want to be sat in the sun room at the back with nothing but a thin sheet of glass separating you from the storms that blow in from the sea. It gets a bit rickety at times.”

I love his
little English words and phrases. “Hmm. I guess I hadn’t thought of that.”

“No one does. They all just imagine the house in the summer and being able to roll out of bed and onto the beach. Which is great
, don’t get me wrong, but once you’ve done it a hundred times, you’ve done it a thousand.”

The front do
or suddenly opens, sending the heavy beats and base of the music escaping past us, where it bounces and echoes around the street.

“Welcome,” say
s a boy who I assume is Noah with a big smile. “Two rules only, my friends. One, please don’t have sex in my parents’ bedroom and two, have a good time.”

Cabe laughs and steps into the house
, shaking the boy’s hand. “How’re you doing, Noah?”

“I’m fine,” he says
, pushing his long, black hair out of his face. “Getting a little smashed, which is how it’s supposed to be at a party!”

Cabe steps aside and pulls me gently into the room
, weaving his fingers through mine. He’s held my hand before when he dragged me out of Xavier’s house, but my fingertips weren’t burning and tingling like they are now. Where our palms are connected, it feels like there’s a ball of fire we’re containing in there. “Noah, I’d like to introduce you to Rose.”

Noah looks to Cabe, then down at our
hands, and then back up to my face and grins. “Nice to meet you, Rose.”

I smile and shake the hand he’s offered with my free one.
“Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for letting me come to your party.”

“No worries
,” he says with a smile. “I hope you have a good night.”

He leans in and whispers something to Cabe
, which makes Cabe smile and turn his head toward me. “Yes I did, mate,” he says.

Charlotte and William say
‘hi’ to Noah next and then we’re being led into the kitchen, where people are bumping into each other and spilling drinks everywhere. “There are lots of people in here,” I whisper, feeling my skin prickling. I forgot that I’m not used to this, and everything about the party and the way that Cabe has grabbed my hand is out of my comfort zone. I feel like I need some air.

As if he’s read my mind
, Cabe leans over two boys playing some sort of drinking game with shot glasses and hands me a beer. “Let’s go outside.”

I
take my beer and follow him out onto the balcony and revel in the cool air that covers my skin. I can taste the salt from the sea on my lips when I lick them.

“What are you thinking?”
he suddenly asks.

I turn and smile. “I
guess I was thinking about swimming in the sea. I haven’t done it yet.”

“It’s cold,” he says
, nodding toward the midnight blue waves. “Like really cold.”

“I can handle the cold,
” I say, smiling at him.

“Come on then!” He grabs my ha
nd and leads me down the metal steps, over the grass and eventually onto the beach. “Take your shoes off.”

“What?” I ask, doing as I’m told anyway. “Why?”

“We’re going paddling!”

“Paddling?”

“Wading,” he says.

“No way.
Charlotte will kill me.”

He grin
s and pulls his shoes off. I watch him roll his pants up to his knees. He plucks my beer from my hand and wiggles it into the sand. “Charlotte isn’t here, is she?”

I glance back up to the
house and slowly shake my head.

Before I can do anything else
, he hooks his arms behind my knees and picks me up as if I’m as light as a feather and runs into the water with me. I scream but find myself laughing as he runs into the waves, splashing water up and around us. He throws me out of his hands and grabs me around the waist before slowly lowering me down his body until my feet touch the water. I gasp, which makes him throw his head back and laugh.

“I told you it was cold,
” he whispers.

“Alright,” I say
, trying to wiggle back up him. “You’ve proven your point.”

“No
, I haven’t.”

He lets me go and I plunge into the water until it stops just above my knees. I glance down and see the water wobbling a few inches away from my dress.

“Oh my God, my dress!” I turn and start to walk through the water toward the shore when I feel a wet hand grab my arm. I spin around at the same time that his hands curl around the side of my face. “Cabe, I-“

He stops me from talking by sealing his soft lips over mine. His are cooler than mine and I can taste the sea and fresh air on them
as they move slowly against my own lips. He removes his left hand from my face and brushes his fingers seductively down my bare arm, causing shivers and goose bumps to explode all over me. I place my hand against his chest and feel his heart racing underneath his shirt. The warmth of his skin seeps into my palm. He controls the rhythm and pace of the kiss, moving gently at first until I feel his tongue brush against my bottom lip. I shiver and feel the air in my lungs surging up my throat and out of my mouth as we kiss. It seems to propel him into kissing me harder and faster. His hands push up through my hair, making a hot, tingly feeling swarm in the bottom of my cold feet and fly up my spine. I give myself up to him and let him kiss me the way he wants. Breathing deeply, I finally pull back and see him smiling in the moonlight.