Our Kind of Love (18 page)

Gosh, I hope he’s not upset after I told him I
couldn’t run with him in the morning. Like I said, I need to sort out
everything and make a decision. If I want to end whatever is there between us
before it grows deeper, or break up with Nate. I’m weighing heavily towards
ending things with the latter, since he’s cheated on me. Then again, aren’t I
doing the same thing?

I didn’t sleep at all last night. Of course,
that’s nothing new. Only this time I was up thinking about a steamy kiss and
what I’m going to do today.

The moment light encapsulates my room I climb
out of bed, take a quick shower, and get dressed in black jeans and a
sleeveless top, putting on my flats before I snatch up my phone from the
dresser and tiptoe downstairs.

Mom and Dad aren’t up yet. I saunter across the
kitchen and sneak out the side door, making my way across the lawn to Claudia’s
house. Hopefully she’ll be forgiving when I tell her Micah and I kissed,
because I really need her advice.

Mrs. Nunez is inside the kitchen when I approach
the glass door. She’s doing some cleaning before she starts breakfast. I tap on
the door and wave. Her brows shoot up as she strolls over to let me in.

“Buenos
dias
, Senora
Nunez,” I smile at her.

She inclines her head as she replies, “Buenos
dias
,
mija
. It’s so early. You
know that friend of yours isn’t up yet.”

“I know, but I wanted to talk to her about
something important before heading off to work. You mind if I run upstairs?”

Mrs. Nunez pats my arm lightly. “You know you
don’t have to ask,
mija
. Go on.”

Meandering up the stairs, I quietly open
Claudia’s room door and enter. I walk over to her bed and shake her arm to wake
her up.

She groans, “Hmm…go away, Eleanor.”

“It’s not your stepmother,” I chuckle.

Turning over, Claudia squints up at me then
buries her face back into the pillow. “Reign…do you have any idea what time it
is?”

I sit down on the side of the bed. “I know, but
I really need to talk to you about this.”

She pushes up and throws her messy hair out of
her face. “What is it?” she asks, rubbing her eyes.

“First, you have to promise me you won’t be
mad.”

Claudia dips her head and stares down her nose
at me as if I’m being silly. “You know I’ll never be mad at you.”

“Okay,” I exhale deeply, then come out and say
it, “Micah and I kissed last night.”

“Whoa!” That certainly wakes her up.

“I know. I mean, I tried to fight my attraction
to him all this time but then we started running together and it only got
harder and harder. Now I don’t know what to do.”

“Hold up! Wait a sec,” She slithers down next to
me. “You’ve been running in the mornings with Micah and you kept it a secret
from me?”

I purse my lips and frown as I nod.

“Okay, I’m jealous that you get the chance to
sweat with that hot stud muffin, but this is not about me.”

She slaps me on the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Reign!
Open your
eyes! Why are you in my room moping, talking about you don’t know what to do?
You should be with Micah right now, smooching in the sunrise and doing other
delectable things with him.”

“But,” I hop off the bed and begin to pace the
room. “There’s Nate—”

“Forget about Nate!” Claudia springs to her
feet. “He’s just a cheating
dickbag
, anyways.”

Settling in one spot, I bite down on my bottom
lip as she comes up to me, squeezing my arms. “What’s the problem? It’s obvious
who you want to be with; gosh your eyes are glowing so much right now because
of Micah.”

“I guess I’m scared of all that I’m feeling for
him. Not to mention he’s probably not gonna stay in Newport after August. And
there’s so much I don’t know about him still.”

“Jeez, stop being so analytical. How about you
give it one day at a time? For now, just enjoy each other. Don’t worry so much
about perfection, Reign. If it’s meant to be, it’ll work out. What you need to
do is set it straight to Nate. Tell him you’ve fallen for someone else because duh,
you have.”

She giggles and jerks my arms. I throw them
around her, hugging her tightly. “You’re not mad about Micah then?”

“Of course not.”
She
eases me out to look me in the eye. “I told you, he likes
you
. Even a
blind person can see that.”

Twisting me around, Claudia smacks my butt and
shoves me towards her room door. “Now go, you have one to dump and another to
do business with,” she laughs, “Choices, choices.”

“All right, see you later,” I say as I open the
door.

“Text me the juicy details, or better yet, snap
me a pick of you and Micah together.”

“Bye, Claudia,” I wave her off and step outside,
heading out of her house and over to the beach where hopefully, I have a sexy
new boyfriend waiting for me.

TWENTY
-
THREE

Micah

THE FIRST sunrise you see after a passionate kiss
is so much different from the ones you glimpse on any other day. You’re more
motivated to stop and stare.

Even though Reign told me she wouldn’t be coming
out for a run this morning, like a fool I still jogged down to the beach and
waited for her. I had a feeling in my gut last night and when I opened my eyes
earlier, I thought that today would be a great day for me. But she’s usually
here before daybreak and the dark clouds have already moved aside, giving way
to the blazing sun almost an hour ago. I have to get it in my head that she’s
not coming for real.

Sulking, I twirl around to head home, that’s
when I see the familiar radiant face and sparkly eyes smiling back at me. I
stop instantly. An air of relief rushes out of me.

“Hey,” she says, her voice sounding sweeter than
ever. My heart begins to pound so much I fear it’ll leave dents in my chest.

Reign swings her arms and slowly walk down to me
in the sand, her olive skin beaming in the sun. “How’s it going?”

“
How’s it going?
” I repeat in a playful tone,
folding my arms. “Not so good. Let’s see, I slept like crap last night ‘cause
you told me you had stuff to think about, and you didn’t even want to go
running with me this morning, so I’m kinda bummed out that you didn’t get to
admire my body earlier when I was drenched in sweat.”

She beams at my pouty face and inches closer,
tipping up in her sneakers to give me a kiss on the cheek. Then she reaches her
arms around my neck and breathes, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing to think about. I
want to be with you, Micah.”

I ease her away to confirm what she said. “You
mean that, you really want to be with me?”

“Yes,” she says with a laugh. “I do.”

I yank her into my chest and kiss her hungrily,
slightly reenacting the moment of passion from last night.

Though our first kiss can never be outdone, the
feeling is still there, it’s even deeper. Reign stays in my grasp for several
long seconds before finally backing away to catch her breath. A broad smile
spreads across her face. It melts my heart.

“So, did you tell him?” I just have to know.
That’s the only way she’ll assure me she’s mine now.

My stomach plunges when she shakes her head and
mutters, “No. Not yet.”

Noticing the excitement is wiped off my face,
she quickly adds, “I’ll tell him later, after work.”

“Sure,” I say lowly. “I mean, I can’t expect you
to change up everything for me in only a couple of hours.”

Hooking her arm around mine, Reign leads me up
the beach towards her car.

“Wanna hang out later?” I ask her. “That
singer’s back in town, the one you like. Allysen…something…”

She giggles before saying, “Allysen Callery, and
yes, I’d love to hang out.”

“Cool. It’ll be our first official date then,” I
tell her.

Turning her head down, Reign tries to hide her
blushing cheeks. She smiles innocently and tightens her grip on me. I nuzzle
her closer to my side, draping my arm over her shoulder and then I kiss her on
top of her head.

“You’re so cute,” I tell her.

She pushes me teasingly then dashes ahead,
shouting over her shoulder, “Last one to the car buys breakfast!”

“Yeah right!”
I yell
back, jogging up behind her. Reign leans against the door, a smug grin at her
lips. “Even though you just cheated,” I say, pressing into her. “It’s not like
I’d really let you buy me breakfast.”

She locks her fingers around my neck. “Well,
what if I wanted to treat you?”

“I can think of other ways you could treat me,”
I tease back.

Suddenly, her face tenses and she slowly loosens
her hands from around my neck, switching to this awkward mood as she messes
with the door. “We should get going then,” she says, “So we can have enough
time to eat and get ready for work.”

“Yeah.”

I amble around to the passenger side and hop in.
Reign lingers a moment before climbing in as well.

Reign and I drown ourselves in another
passionate make out session before she drops me off at my house so we can get
ready for work.

After showering, I haul on a grey shirt and blue
jeans. My phone rings just as I step outside and closed the door. I assume its
Pete, calling to try and convince me to talk to Ashley again.

When I look at the screen, it’s Greg’s name I
see instead. I stop midstride on the stairs, considering whether or not I
should answer. I don’t want any reminders of Haxtun, now that I’m starting to
feel happy again.

Jabbing the phone inside my pocket, I scurry
downstairs and take out my bike, riding to work.

I arrive at the restaurant shortly and park my
bike around back. My phone starts to ring again as I’m about to enter. Damn,
Greg’s not giving up. I finally answer to get it over with.