disappeared...
Wha???
Jessica gasped when she saw something white, black and orange bounding out of the ocean. Drops of water dripped from the mysterious creature’s thick wet shaggy fur. Her feet teetered awkwardly on the edge of the roof. Is that really a tig...
Then as she hurried to find her balance, her legs wobbled and in seconds Jessie’s flopping backwards.
Great, Jessie. This is how you die. Snapping your neck after falling off of the roof of the crappy summer home your dead dad left you...
CRASH!
She squirmed in the sand and weakly wriggled her toes, trying to make sure she still had feeling in all of her limbs. When Jessie I looked up, a tall man with a cool self-possessed smile on his face stared back at her. His eyes studied her luscious curves, soft cute features and tempting kissable lips.
Holy crap! Jessie squealed in her head. She felt suddenly transported into one of her those weird dreams. She dreamt of two tigers chasing her in the shadows, but it always ended just when they’d pounce.
The strapping stranger gazed down at her with these two deeply enchanting golden-bronze eyes. He had a nicely dark tan covering all over his muscular arms. And had a beastly presence, with rock solid nicely defined abs.
“Took quite a nasty fall,” he flirted with a sinful grin.
Jessica still tried to gather the jumble of thoughts in her head, feeling mortified and wholly distracted by his sweaty abs.
“Yeah, where have you been all my life, huh?... I’m falling all the time with no one to catch me...” she snorted.
Jessie pursed my lips hard, feeling stupider for having made that idiotic joke.
“Let’s see if you can stand.”
She just nodded to avoid suffering any more diarrhea of the mouth.
“Ow!” she cried.
When Jessica tried to take a single step, Maisie burst around the corner with her hands thrown in the air. Her best friend stopped fast in her tracks when she saw the deeply tanned stranger.
“ Woah ...” Maisie blurted speechless.
“Is that it? I almost die and that’s the best you can say?” Jessie teased.
“Where did you come out of?” Maisie asked circling the stranger like a hungry vulture.
“My name’s Calder McCall. I live just down the way,” he pointed. “I own a small bed and breakfast on Sunset Hill—The Olde Harbour Inn. It’s funny, I didn’t ever think anyone would buy up this old place...It’s been sitting here empty for years.”
Jessica listened, curling her arms into her chest and took another weak step forward. But the whole time in her head she imagined herself bundling in his arms.
“Ouch!” she howled.
“ Hmm , maybe I need to take a closer look at that...” Calder said gripping his chin and his golden eyes staring down at her ankles. “If you need a ride, it’s no problem...”
“Nah, I don’t think any of that is necessary,” Jessie told him waving her polished hand. She didn’t know the first thing about how to let another man take care of her. She left home at sixteen and became sort of a know-it-all ever since. Maisie would say she’d become a ball-busting bitch who didn’t know the first thing about being soft and cuddly—at least, not emotionally. Jessie’s always been thick. Okay, curvy.
Fine, fat...
And she just accepted that. Jessie learned long ago that fat girls just don’t fall in love. Harsh, probably. But denying it didn’t make it any less true. Dating wasn’t for girls like Jessica Rigg. Maisie never suffered from a shortage of hair pulling frustration dating dudes (i.e. dicks—Maisie’s words not hers...) that would abandon her best friend the next morning after a drunken hook up.
Maisie took Jessie’s arm and she could already see the scheming in her eyes.
“Don’t think. Just go,” she whispered in her ear. She then shoved Jessie hard in the small of her back and into Calder’s strong arms.
Calder looked at Jessie and her heart thrummed so hard, it felt like a bird had been trapped in her chest.
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