Shipwrecked Summer Read Online Free Page B

had nothing to do with that,” I lied. “I thought I recognized someone I knew, that’s all. Nothing more to see here.”
       He stared at me. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not attractive to lie? It’s okay to admit it if you were thrown off when you saw me with my girlfriend, but I didn’t do anything wrong. I never pretended to be into you and I don’t know how you possibly came up with that idea earlier.”
      My mouth dropped and for the first time in a long time I was rendered speechless for a few seconds. “I…where are you getting all of this from? I never said you did any of those things. You were nothing but rude to me the first time I met you and now I’m supposed to be into you? You’re making something out of nothing, you know, and you sound like an idiot.”
       “Lexie. Please. I know you had expectations about what would happen between us this summer. It was written all over your face on the beach before. But how could you think anything would happen with us? You had to have assumed that I had a girlfriend. I’m a Jersey shore lifeguard!”
       My eyes felt as if they were about to burst out of my head and I had to take a deep, steadying breath. “Why? Why would I just assume that? You’re not that hot and clearly your personality isn’t anything to write home about.”
        Jeff just leveled me with a cocky grin. “Fortunately for me and unfortunately for you, Brittany seems to think otherwise.”
       “Good for Brittany and good for you!” I yelled, fully aware of the scene I was beginning to create. We sat only a few yards away from the bonfire. “So why are you here with me when you could be off somewhere getting ready to jump into bed with her?”
       “I just wanted to see if you were okay. You looked so, I don’t know, sad when you walked down here. But I have no interest in you, Lexie. None. Maybe you’re hot where you came from with that damn accent and all, but you aren’t anything special in Jersey. We don’t do the Southern belle thing here. You better start getting used to that.”
       “Who the heck do you think you are?”
        I looked up in surprise. That was exactly what I wanted to ask Jeff, but it hadn’t been me who’d said it.
        A blonde guy, no red cup in hand, stood a few feet away from us, eyebrows raised, stare trained on Jeff.
        Jeff looked taken aback for a second but quickly recovered. “I could ask you the same thing.”
      “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “All that matters is that you can’t talk to anyone like that, let alone this girl. I mean, how rude do you have to be?”
       “This has nothing to do with you. Mind your own business.”
        The blonde guy ignored Jeff and turned to me. “Come on, you want to get back to the bonfire?”
       I looked at Jeff, who stared at me with some of the hardness gone from his eyes. It was almost—almost—enough to make me pause and try to fix whatever it was that had gone wrong with him, but I was determined not to let him get to me...again.
        “Sure, let’s go.”
       Without another look at Jeff, I stood up and walked back up the beach next to my…my what? My savior didn’t sound right and he certainly wasn’t my hero or even my knight in khaki shorts. I settled on just thinking of him as a nice guy. Whatever he was, it was opposite of Jeff, and that was good enough for me.
        “Thanks,” I said to him before we reached the bonfire. “You didn’t have to do that.”
       He shrugged, but didn’t meet my eye. “I was just taking a walk and heard the end of your conversation. Didn’t sound like something any guy should say to a girl.”
       “Well, thanks. Really.” I looked down at my phone and realized it was almost midnight. My eyelids suddenly felt heavy and I stifled a yawn. “Anyway, I think I’m going to head back to my house. Have a good night, okay?”
      He nodded and raised a hand in farewell