“Then, let’s rent somewhere.” She leaned forward and grinned widely.
“You serious?” I raised my eyebrows at her. “You think you’re ready for something like that? Something that full-on?”
“Damn right,” she said emphatically. “I’ve spent my entire life holding back on what I want. I’m not going to wait a minute longer.”
“So, okay, let’s say I’m off running a seafood restaurant,” I said, unable to hide my smile at the fantasy of it. “What would you want to do?”
“I don’t think acting will be an option for me anymore,” she said. She sounded sad. “But honestly, I think it’s time I moved on from that anyway. I don’t want to spend my whole life on sitcoms, you know?”
“So, what do you want to do?” I asked.
She opened and closed her mouth, and I wondered if anyone had ever asked her about her dreams before or if she’d just been expected to go along with what everyone else told her to do.
“I guess it could be fun to run a boutique,” she said, trying to sound casual, but the smile creeping up on her face told me differently. “I think that would be cool.”
“For clothes and stuff?” I tried to sound knowledgeable, and she threw her head back and laughed.
“Yeah, for clothes, accessories. You know, stuff like that,” she confirmed with a fond shake of her head.
“We could get one property,” I suggested. “Run both of them out of the same place.”
“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?” She looked at me intently.
“Yeah, I am.” I said, looking into her eyes. I still felt like we didn’t have our feet on the ground, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“Then, let’s do it.” She suddenly smiled at me, and something clicked into place behind her eyes. A certainty. A sureness that the last few days had been lacking. I still wasn’t sure this was the right thing to do, and I wasn’t making some kind of enormous mistake. But as long as I could look into her eyes, I could pretend this was the right choice. I could pretend I was sure about it.
“What, like right now?” I raised my eyebrows, and she nodded.
“Well, after we’ve had something to eat.” She smiled as the food approached. “I’m starving.”
We ate quickly, and spent the whole meal talking about our plans. I felt a tingling on the bottom of my feet, like an itch, like something was telling me to get up and get out there already. And I wasn’t going to ignore it.
We finished up, paid, and headed out to the waterfront. I tucked her hand into mine, and we walked perfectly in step like we fit together. I allowed myself a big-ass, cocky grin as I saw a few people glancing in our direction. Yeah, I was with the coolest, most gorgeous woman in the world, and she had just chosen to be with me over everything else. It was a damn good feeling, even if it was a huge risk for both of us.
I was falling for her, hard. I had to admit it, however much it felt wrong for me to be this into her this soon in the relationship. We’d only hooked up a few times, had only spent a few days in each other’s company, but none of it mattered in the least. I came to Sand Dollar Beach looking for fun, and it had led me to Aria. Neither of us had gone out of our way to search for someone but stumbling into it felt more real and intimate than anything our families could have ever arranged, or anything they might have approved for us.
“Hey.” She pulled me out of my head and came to a stop. It took me a second or two to figure out what had caught her eye, but when I saw it, a huge grin broke across my face.
“Holy shit, that’s perfect,” I muttered, breaking away from her to walk around and check out the front of the building.
It looked small from the outside, but the huge plate glass windows showed off a deep space inside. It had a large “for rent” sign sticking out of the front, and I could see where they’d removed the lettering from the previous tenant’s sign. Aria looked over at me, and there was this wild glint in her eyes that told me she was thinking the same thing I was.
“This place,” she said. “There’s enough room for both of us.”
We stared back at each other, daring each other to say what we were both thinking. Could we really do this? Talk about a commitment. It was one thing to start dating seriously this soon, but it was a whole other thing to set up a business together.
“If we’re going to do this, we should do this before Dad figures out I’ve got this card and cancels it,” she said.
I liked her reasoning. “And before my father tries to stop me,” I agreed. I felt this buzz in my chest, one that told me this was something ridiculous and stupid and impossible to turn down.
She whipped out her phone and started to type in the number to the real estate agent advertised on the sign. A smile formed on her lips. For the first time since that morning, she seemed to be thinking about something besides what had happened with her father.
“I’m calling them,” she announced, turning to me with her eyes shining with excitement. She left a message to say she was interested in the property and please call her back. When she ended the call, she lunged toward me and planted a kiss on my lips.
I slipped my arms around her waist and pulled her close. This entire day had started so badly, but already, I was looking forward to what the future held for the two of us.
She pulled back and looked up into my eyes. The bags she was carrying full of the clothes we’d bought knocked against our legs. She cocked an eyebrow at me.
“Want to see how I look in this new lingerie?” she breathed into my ear.
My cock twitched in my pants. Without another word, I grabbed her hand and tugged her along behind me in the direction of the beach house. Giggling joyfully, she hurried to catch up.
Chapter Eighteen
Aria
“How do I look?” I asked, striking a ridiculous and dramatic pose in the new dress I’d picked up the day before.
Elliott gave me a slow up-and-down, and something smoldering away in my stomach suddenly flared up into a full-blown fire.
“Amazing,” he said, glancing at his watch as he stepped toward me. Pressing his mouth against my neck and inhaling deeply, he lifted his lips and murmured into my ear. “You know, we’ve got time before we have to leave.”
Before he could get another word out, Tucker appeared at the door, and I quickly ducked away from Elliott. Even though we were officially together now, I still wasn’t used to cuddling in front of other people. It just felt wrong, even if it was just Tucker.
“You guys ready to leave?” Tucker asked.
I nodded. “I think so,” I said, pulling on a pair of heels and reaching for my jacket.
Elliott swept it up before I could get to it and held it out so I could slip my arms into it.
“You don’t have to be so gentlemanly,” I teased. “Doesn’t suit you.”
“Yeah, I’m not used to this level of manners,” Tucker joked. “Who are you even?”
Elliott shot Tucker a dirty look and then headed for the door.
“So, where is it we’re headed again?” Elliott asked.
Tucker pulled on his jacket and patted the pockets to check he had everything. He was also staying in the house, and while it meant we didn’t have the privacy we’d had before, I actually thought he was sweet in a goofy sort of way, and I was happy to have someone to hang out with.