Page 66 of Next Time We'll Fall

“Okay.” My smile falters for a little bit.

This is not as fun as I thought it was going to be, but maybe that’s because I’m not used to being on TV or around people like this.

“Five, four, three, two, one.”

“Hi, I’m Juniper. I’m from Coconut Beach, and I’m ready to meet the man of my dreams.”

“Perfect.”

The guy gives me a thumbs-up, and I smile back at him.

Maybe this isn’t so bad.

He asks me another question, and then I think about the answer when, all of a sudden, I feel someone staring at me.

I turn to the right and freeze.

Rafe is standing there, staring at me, a frown on his face.

I feel uncomfortable, and yet I feel powerful.

Rafe looks absolutely shocked and mortified, and I realize that I’ve gotten under his skin.

I’ve gotten under his skin in a way I’ve never been able to get under before.

And I quite like it.

If you want me, Rafe, come and get me, I think to myself.And if not, let someone else have me.

I’ve waited enough years in my life to see if this will ever happen, and I am ready to move on because if it isn’t, I deserve a good guy. And if it is, I am fed up with waiting. I give him a little wave and then turn back to the camera.

I strut my stuff up and down the beach, letting my ass bounce as much as I can, along with my boobs. I want Rafe to salivate over me. I want him to see what he is missing.

Chapter 17

RAFE

I feel like a creepy stalker as I watch Juniper strut her stuff in her itsy-bitsy, teeny bikini up and down the beach.

She looks amazing with her long, dark hair hanging down her back and her curvy figure.

There are other women who are strutting their stuff like peacocks to be admired by every male in the vicinity, but I don’t notice any of them. I only notice her. I know she’s seen me as well because she gave me a small little wave, almost teasing, taunting in its simplicity, in its casualness.

I want to stride over and interrupt the shoot. I want to pull her into my arms. I want to scream to the world that she’s mine. And yet I don’t. I want to but I know that I can’t.. Because she’s not mine. Juniper Meadows has gotten under my skin in a way I never thought was possible. Just years ago she was a pretty butterfly that I never paid that much attention to, but in the last few months, I began to notice her more and more. Began to need to know her better. Began to want something more. Something deeper. Something real.

Ever since Mia and Luke started to proclaim they were in a relationship, I’ve felt some sort of pull, some magnetism toward Juniper. Maybe it is because she is always friendly, always has a smile on her face. Maybe it is because she is such a good friend to Mia. The way that she treats customers, the way that she carries herself. And even when we bicker back and forth, I still feel something.

I can still clearly remember that night years ago on her eighteenth birthday. The way she blew the candles out and made a wish, and then her eyes sought mine. I sauntered over to her because I was attracted to her like a moth to a flame. And even though I knew I should give her space and distance, I couldn’t. She looked at me and just smiled. I asked her what she’d wished for her birthday, and she told me she couldn’t tell me or it wouldn’t come true.

I placed a tendril of her hair behind her ear and brushed an invisible speck of dust off her shoulder.

She looked up at me with wide, innocent, beautiful brown eyes.

So haunting.

So familiar.

So full of tenderness.