Page 58 of No Judgements

“That’s okay,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “We can take your scooter.”

My scooter?

This was getting worse and worse. If we took my scooter, that meant he’d be sitting behind me—if he even let me drive, which, knowing him, he probably wouldn’t, which was going to lead to a whole other argument—and since the seat on my scooter wasn’t that big, that meant—assuming I won the argument over who was driving—the front of his body was going to be pressed up against my back, and that I was going to feelallof him against me, because my scooter didn’t have a handle in the back for an extra passenger to hold on to, so he was going to have to hold on to me. And then...

No. Just no. This could not happen.

Determined not to allow this, I grasped at whatever excuse I could think of to stop it... and realized several were panting on the steps below and beside me.

“But... but what about your dogs?” I pointed at the Bobs. “You can’t leave them behind!”

Drew was standing on the top step. He turned to squint down at me, shading his eyes from the sun. “Of course I can. They just came in from a half-hour run on the beach. They’ve had their breakfast. They’re dogs. They’ll be fine.”

“But... but...” Think, Bree. Think! “The house—aren’t you afraid of looters?”

He laughed. “You’ve been listening to my uncle, haven’t you?”

I didn’t want to mention the pistol Ed had given me, which I still had in my backpack. Instead, I said only, “He did seem concerned.”

“Who’s going to find their way out here?” Drew asked, gesturing toward the debris-strewn beach. “Unless theyhave a boat. But it’d have to be a pretty big boat to navigate its way through those waters.”

I told myself to calm down. Just because we’d shared a couple of kisses and were probably going to share a scooter didn’t mean it was inevitable that we’d be sharing anything else.

Except that I couldn’t get the way those kisses had made my body feel—like it was alive for the first time in months—out of my mind.

This was the problem. I was starting to worry Iwantedto share something else. And that was only going to lead to—

“But I only have one helmet, so—”

“Relax, Fresh Water.” His rakish grin did the same unsettling thing to my insides that his kisses had. “There’s never been anyone I’ve trusted more than you to drive safely. And I’ve done a lot riskier things in my life than ride around without a helmet on the back of a girl’s scooter.”

I was sure this was true.

But I was even more sure that I was the one taking the bigger risk.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Most communities enjoy prompt and efficient recovery from large storms. Various emergency-response teams are trained to take immediate action to restore necessary services.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, having him sitting behind me on the scooter. For one thing, I was wearing my backpack—there wasn’t room for it under my seat once he’d stuffed his tool bag in there.

So there was a natural barrier between me and that electrical-charge-inducing skin of his.

But for another thing, he kept his hands to himself—well, except for the fact that he had to hold on to something, and that something was me. He didn’t have any other choice.

Still, after swinging one of his long, lean legs over the seat and making himself comfortable behind me, he asked, politely, “Is this okay?” before settling his big tanned hands on my hips.

And it was okay. Surprisingly so. I nodded and said,“That’s good,” relief flooding through me. I’d been feeling a lot of anxiety about what was going to happen when he got on the scooter.

But suddenly it all seemed to ebb away. I even sort of liked having him back there, his long hairy legs wrapping around me, radiating so much masculine energy. With the bright sunshine beating down on us, and the wind still whipping at us, it made me feel almost happy... and definitely secure. Even when he kept pointing at hazards in the road that I could plainly see—such as someone’s deflated swan pool floatie—and calling, “Look out!” in my ear, I could only laugh.

“Oh my God. You are literally the worst backseat driver.”

“Well, you’re the worst front-seat driver. You were headed straight for it!”

“I was not.”

“You were, too. Has anyone ever told you that you need glasses? Because you do.”