Back to the Beach (Hunt Family Book 4) (11 page)

Chapter 17

I was standing over Ryan's shoulder watching her lose tragically at Pac-man when my phone started ringing. I had been on high-alert waiting for Nico's call, so it only took me about half-a-second to get the phone out of my purse.

The word "Mom" was written across the screen, and I tried my best not to be disappointed about it.

"Hey, Mom," I said, putting the phone to my ear.

"Hey, honey, where are y'all at?"

"Kirk's," I said. She didn't respond right away, so I said, "Why?"

"Because I think Cody's anxious for Ryan to get home," she said. "It's getting close to her bath time."

I pulled the phone away from my ear just more enough to glance down at the clock. "It's barely 8 o'clock, and it's Saturday night. Tell Cody to just chill for a few seconds."

"You know how they have a routine," she said.

"I know, but we've only been here for like ten minutes. It won't kill her to take her bath a little later one night."

"Did you even order yet?" Mom asked.

"Yes, Mom, we're done with our ice cream. Ryan just wanted to play a couple of video games."

"Well, I think you should probably be getting back."

I let out a groan. "Dee-dee's not even finished with her sundae yet. Tell Cody we'll come when she finishes."

"All right, but don't be long, and come straight home."

"Yes ma'am," I said, with only the slightest sarcastic edge.

"Okay, bye," she said.

"Bye."

I put my phone in my purse and glanced at Dee-dee with wide eyes.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Mom. She said Cody's in a hurry to get Ryan home."

Evan overheard me saying that and made a disapproving noise. "Doesn't he know a girl needs to party on Saturday nights?" he asked, tickling Ryan who wiggled and giggled on her stool, but kept playing the game.

"Well, we shouldn't disobey Daddy," Dee-dee said, scraping the last morsel of sundae out of her cup.

"We can disobey for one more game," Evan said as he pulled the last of his quarters out of his pocket. Ryan beamed at him and took the coins out of his hand before feeding them to the machine.

We took a long-cut home just to teach Cody a lesson for being so uptight about bath time. Dee-dee wasn't onboard with our plan, but Evan and I were both stubborn like that—and what was an extra five minutes, anyway?

The whole family was downstairs when we arrived, and everybody looked at us like they'd been anxiously awaiting our arrival.

"What took y'all so long?" Mom said from the kitchen.

"Nothing," I said. I looked at my brother who was sitting on the couch with his feet propped up like he didn't have a care in the world.

"She's gonna be all right if she takes her bath five minutes late," I said.

He shrugged and looked at me like I was a lunatic.

"I got a whole banana split," Ryan said.

"She didn't eat the whole thing," Dee-dee assured everyone.

"Almooost," Ryan said.

We were all standing by the front door, taking off our shoes and I shot her a conspiratorial glance, which made her smile.

"It wasn't very big, though," she said.

"Do you remember Logan's friend, Nico?" my mom asked randomly, coming to stand in the open space between the living room and the kitchen.

My heart stopped beating when I heard his name. I stopped breathing. "Do I
remember him
?" I asked, staring at her as if she must be kidding. "He was just here in the house with us."

The whole family was staring at me, and I could feel my face turning red.

"Did you like him?" my mom asked.

"Christy, don't put the poor girl on the spot," Dee-dee said. She and Evan both stepped in front of me to make their way into the house, but I just stood there in the entryway, unable to move from the onslaught of random questions from my mom.

"What?" I asked, even though I had clearly heard my mom.

"Did you like him?" my dad asked, adding to the already surreal situation.

I looked at both of them with what must have been a comically confused face, because they both smiled.

"Do you want to see him again?" Cody asked.

I threw my hands in the air. "What kind of question is that?"

"Do you?" he asked.

"Does it matter?"

"Do you?"

"Y'all are trippin'," I said, stepping around Ryan with every intention of heading upstairs to get out of that room full of crazy people.

"Don't go upstairs," my mom called.

"I'll be back down in a little bit," I said.

"No," she said. "Stay down here."

"I think she needs to go to the beach," Paige said.

I looked around at the room full of people and all of them were staring straight at me. "What's going on," I asked.

"You have a visitor," my mom said.

I glanced at her, waiting for her to continue. In those seconds, in spite of all the Nico talk that had just taken place, I honestly assumed she'd say Travis had stopped by to see me.

"I'm not really in the mood," I said, glancing out the back door onto the deck.

"Probably better that way," Cody said. He looked at Mom and Dad. "I'll just go out there and tell him she doesn't care to see him."

"Nooo," my mom said as if the thought made her sad. She looked at me. "Do you not want to see him?" she asked.

"Travis?" I asked.

It was that moment that it occurred to me that they could be talking about Nico. My heart was now beating a thousand miles an hour, and all the blood that had rushed to my face, had now left it. There was absolutely
no way
that could be true. Charlotte told me with her own mouth that he had been on the flight back to California with them.

"Who's Travis?" my mom asked, looking at Cody with a slightly concerned expression.

"That guy in the white house with the Lion statues."

Mom looked at me. "Do you like
Travis
?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"Do you like Nico?"

I groaned and rolled my eyes like my family was being ridiculous and impossible, which they were.

"You've got a visitor out there on the beach waiting for you," Dad said.

"He came a long way, and he's been waiting a while, so you better get out there," Cody added.

"Is it Nico-lo-de-on?" Ryan asked. She twirled around, totally unable to see the absurdity in her question since he was clearly in California.

"Yep," Cody said.

"What?" I asked.

"I said, yep," Cody said.

"Yep to what?"

"Yep, that's who's waiting for you on the beach."

I tilted my head at him. "Who?"

"Nico," he said.

"My Nico? Lo, I, Logan's Nico? The Nico who was at this house?"

He nodded with an amused smile.

"Nico from California?"

He nodded again.

"Is here?"

Another nod.

"At this house?"

Nod.

"At this beach?"

Still nodding.

I pointed toward the back of the house in the general direction of the ocean. "Are you telling me that if I walk out that door right now
Nico
will be out there?"

Cody's smile broadened at my excitement. Paige was standing right behind him, and she was nodding with an excited expression when I glanced at her.

"You promise?" I asked, shifting my attention to my parents.

I got nods from both of them as well.

"You swear?" I asked, looking back at Cody and Paige.

More nods.

All nods.

"Are they serious?" I asked Andy and Willow's section who had been silently watching the whole thing.

Smiles and nods came from that area as well.

"I'm gonna go out to the beach, and if y'all are kidding me, you're gonna be in the worst trouble you have ever been in in your whole lives," I said.

"Go!" Paige said.

I knew by the way she said it that she was anxious for me to get going.

I took off running the instant I realized they were telling me the truth. I still couldn't understand how it could possibly be true, but I knew by the looks on their faces that they weren't lying to me.

I took off running, but there was a small problem. My brain was moving faster than my body. This made for a clumsy exit where I hit my shin, and hip, and other various body parts on furniture and other household obstacles on my way out.

"Slow down," my mom said, giggling as I ran past her.

I vaguely heard Ryan say she wanted to come with me, and everyone yell to tell her she couldn’t, but I didn’t glance back. I opened the sliding glass door and ran onto the deck without bothering to close it behind me.

I had never in my life flown down a set of stairs like I flew down the ones that led from the deck to the sandy path below. It was by some miracle that I made it down them safely because I seriously flew. I mean that in the most literal way possible without actually sprouting wings. I felt a gliding sensation as I went down them. I think I might have taken about three stairs at a time.

The path that led to the beach was stretched out before me, and I ran down it like I was an Olympic sprinter. I was breathing heavily when I made it out to the open beach, but Nico was nowhere in plain sight. There were several people standing around talking when I looked toward the right. They were a ways off, but I recognized them as the people who owned the property next to ours, and I instinctually waved at them.

One of them pointed at me as I started to look away, and I did a double take when I saw who it was.

Nico.

It was Nico.

He was standing with the group of people I recognized as our neighbors, smiling straight at me. My feet were stuck. I could not for the life of me get them to move even though my brain was already over there standing right next to him. My hands went up in a
what in the world are you doing here
pose as my feet stayed firmly planted in the sand.

He smiled and threw his hands up in the same manner before waving at the neighbors and heading in my direction. My knees were weak, and I was already out of breath from my journey from the house, so it took me a few seconds to get going. I was so out of it that it felt a bit like I was wearing a shell made of stone that I had to break out of before I could move.

Nico was wearing a huge smile as he strode toward me with long, confident steps. The neighbors had gone back to what they were doing, and were no longer paying attention to us. Not that it would matter since I really didn’t care what they were doing.

"Am I dreaming?" I yelled as I finally started walking toward him.

His smile widened and he shook his head, continuing to walk toward me.

"Are you here?" I yelled, starting to jog.

We were both moving quickly, and the gap between us grew smaller and smaller by the second. Watching him walk toward me with every intention of catching me in his arms when we made it to each other was just about the most glorious site I had ever seen.

It had been the most surreal five minutes imaginable, and it was culminating in a scene where I ran into his arms. It also happened to be twilight at the beach, which only added to the dream-like nature of it all.

Nico caught me in his arms just like I knew he'd do. I ran straight into him, trusting that he'd be able to withstand the impact. He laughed when he caught me, spinning me around one time since my momentum had been so great when we made contact.

I held onto him tightly for several seconds before he put me on my feet. I pulled back to stare at his face, just so I could be certain that it was actually him. He smiled down at me with his unmistakable green eyes framed with dark lashes. My eyes roamed over his perfect face from his eyes, down the straight line of his nose to that curved mouth with the little indention above his upper lip. I watched as the corners of his mouth stretched upward in a breathtaking grin.

"You okay?" he asked smiling sweetly at me.

It was only then that I realized how heavily I was breathing. "Fine," I said, smiling at him. "I just ran from the house in about three seconds," I said. I glanced down at my side for a second before looking at him again. "I think I might have injured myself, I'm not sure."

This made him laugh. His chest shook as he held me tight. "I hope not," he said.

"Probably gonna be a few deep bruises all over my body, and I think I got about ten splinters on the way down the steps. I'm not really sure how I got down here. I think there might have been a magic carpet involved."

He could tell by the way I was smiling that I was fine, so he smiled back at me like he was entertained by hearing how quickly I ran out there to meet him.