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  Would it be totally creepy if I was standing behind you, watching you lay on the beach?

  Tate laughed as he typed back quickly to Audrey, she was so funny. It wasn’t creepy at all, and he wished like hell she was, but he knew she wouldn’t be. She had work, and Aiden stuff. She was busy, too busy to come and hang out with him.

  A little.

  Shit, then don’t turn around….

  Tate sat up quickly, turning around to see Audrey standing with her phone by her side while waving awkwardly at him. She stood with big black glasses on her face and a bright yellow sun hat on her head. She had a short yellow skirt on, with a black and white see-through top covering a black tank top. She even wore a pair of impractical black spiked heels, but it didn’t matter.

  Because she was there.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered before getting up, and closing the distance between them. Ignoring the awkwardness, he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. His grin grew when she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him just as tight. He pulled back slightly to see her bright face, but not to let her go, “What are you doing here?”

  She shrugged her shoulders, “I was bored, so I decided to play hooky in Miami. I happened to be walking down this beach when I saw you lying there.”

  Tate chuckled, “Liar.”

  “Ah, so you caught me. You’re not creeped out are you?” She asked with a worried expression.

  “Creeped out? No, not at all. I’m really glad to see you. ”

  Her face brightened as she moved out of his arms. “Good, so whatcha doing?”

  “Sitting, thinking.”

  “Sounds, like fun,” she said before walking towards the ocean, “Man, it’s beautiful out here.”

  “It really is,” he agreed following close to her, “how long can you stay?”

  “Just a couple days, I gotta be back Friday night for Aiden’s game.”

  Tate nodded, so he had two days with her. It wasn’t near enough but it would hold him over until he got home on Saturday. He watched as she sat down, crossing her legs before sliding her heels off and dumping the sand out of them. He chuckled as he sat down beside her, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

  “So from what the owner told me today, you’ve been killing in goal lately,” she said looking over at him with a bright smile.

  Tate laughed before pinning her with a lusty grin, “I would love to ask more about what she said about me, but what I really would like to know is how I came into the conversation.”

  For once he wasn’t worried about what the owner thought, he was more worried about what Audrey thought. When Audrey’s cheeks reddened, he knew that she had brought him up. “Talking about me, I see?”

  “Oh hush, I was just trying to tell you Elli is really happy with you.”

  Tate nodded, his eyes never leaving her face as he said, “Good, thanks for checking on me.” When she glanced up at him, he winked before pressing his tongue against his teeth. Audrey smiled before shaking her head and looking out towards the ocean.

  “Anyways,” she said causing him to chuckle, “I ran into Phillip in the lobby, he’s the one who directed me to you. In parting, he said that y’all are hitting the hotel club.”

  “We are. The club is having a Salsa night. Erik and Phillip are looking forward to the Latin women, apparently.”

  Audrey giggled, “I bet you are too. Maybe I’ll stay in. I don’t want to rain on your Latin parade.”

  Tate shook his head, “Actually, I’m not and you won’t. I want you there.”

  Audrey eyed him before grinning happily at him. “Oh, alright, if you insist,” she joked before digging her toes in the sand.

  They sat for a long time, talking about her trip and the ride to the hotel. They fell back into their rhythm as if they hadn’t been apart for almost a week. She was animated as always, and seemed really happy to be there. He couldn’t help but wonder why she came. Was this her way of trying to move things forward? Did she want to move things forward?

  Shit!

  “Okay,” he said, cutting off her story about the bellboy who told her she was a sexy piece of southern ass. Not only was it pissing him off, but he had to know or he was going to drive himself mad.

  “Whoa, was I boring you?” she asked, and he could tell he offended her.

  “No, not at all, but big question,” he said looking up at her. He hated that she was hiding her eyes, so reaching out; he slowly took the glasses from her face. When her wide gorgeous, caramel eyes, locked with his eyes, he flashed her a shy grin.

  “Well hurry because I am trying to tell you how I got a bellboy fired and that we might need to watch our backs for the Latin Mob.”

  Tate gave her a look and then they both burst out laughing. Holding his gut as he leaned against the sand, she let out her own little snort before covering her mouth and laughing harder.

  Man, they were crazy.

  “God, Audrey, you are such a dork sometimes,” he laughed.

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

  Still laughing, Tate shook his head. When they both had calmed down, Tate looked over at her, and she smiled. “What did you want to question me about?”

  Tate swallowed loudly, “What brought you here, Audrey? And don’t say it’s ‘cause you were bored.”

  Audrey looked away and shook her head, “I asked myself that same questions when I was standing behind you.”

  “What answer did you come up with?” he asked, still only looking at her. Women of all sizes walked by them in tiny bikinis but the only girl he had eyes for was Audrey and she was fully clothed. In his opinion, she was the hottest thing on that beach. Watching her profile, he watched as she bit down hard on her lip before looking over at him.

  “I wanted to do something that would make me happy.”

  Tate smiled, “So I make you happy.”

  Audrey smiled, “Cocky ass.”

  Tate chuckled as she rolled her eyes, looking back out into the ocean. Tate looked out towards the ocean too, still confused but glad that she was finally doing something that made her happy.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about the cupcakery and what you said,” she said, still not looking at him. He nodded as he waited for her to go on. When she didn’t, he glanced over at her to ask what she had been thinking about, but she whispered, “Question.”

  Her eyes were on her fingers that were running along her green sparkly toes. “Yeah?”

  “Have you ever wanted something so much and felt like it was within reach but you couldn’t grasp it?”

  When she looked up, he nodded, “Yup.”

  “What did you do?”

  Tate thought for a moment, and then said, “I continue to be there.”

  Audrey looked up confused. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s pretty simple, Audrey. I’m here, and I hope that one day, you’ll look me in the eyes and decide that you are done with this charade of being friends and that I can be your man. I want you to see that I can be there to help with your dreams. That I’m not some punk kid out to get some from you. I’m a decent guy, Audrey. If you would let me, I could be your guy,” he said all in one breath. He had been waiting for forever to say that, and it felt great to finally say it.

  Audrey’s eyes went wide before she looked back down at her toes. He waited for her to say something and when she didn’t, he let out a long breath. She was the most frustrating woman in the world but for some reason, he kept coming back. He knew the reason, but damn it, couldn’t she make it a little easier on him?

  “I don’t want to lead you on, Tate, I am still trying to figure things out,” she whispered. He almost didn’t hear her over the roar of the waves.

  “You are not leading me on, Audrey; you have no issue in reminding me that we are only friends. That you don’t want the things I want.”

  She looked up at him, quickly shaking her head, “That’s not true. I do want those things, Tate, it’s just difficult and I am scar