Flirting with Boys by Abbott, Hailey (books to read for beginners .TXT) 📕

turned around just once, he dropped her a wink as if to say he totally knew she was avoiding him.

“Ah, just as I remember it,” Mrs. Saunders exclaimed as Celeste opened the front door. She inhaled deeply and stepped over the threshold into the cool, dim interior. Mr. Saunders brushed past, pulling his beeping BlackBerry out of his pocket. He went out onto the deck.

“Get those contracts in the mail!” Celeste heard him say before he reached back and slid the heavy glass doors shut. She turned to go, but before she could, Nick caught at her arm.

She turned around. He just smiled and put his hands in his khaki pockets. There was a long moment of silence. His eyes were so bright blue, they looked like chips of glacier. Celeste tried to hold his gaze, but it was too intense. She dropped her eyes.

“What?” she finally asked.

He smirked, infuriatingly still holding her arm. “I was just thinking about that night on the golf course—”

“Not happening, Nick. There will be no reliving of old times.” She was impatient to leave. Travis was out there somewhere, getting more pissed off by the second.

“Oh, good. I prefer to try new things anyway. I had a thought… .” Was he deliberately taking his sweet time to get the sentence out or was it just her?

“Nick, I have a boyfriend. And I’d like to keep it that way. So this,” she snapped, yanking her arm away from him and gesturing between the two of them. “This is going to be entirely professional this summer. You’re a guest at my family’s resort. That’s all.”

He widened his big sparkly eyes in mock dismay. “All I’m asking is if you could possibly bring me a sandwich from the kitchen—a fancy one with some sort of exotic-sounding cheese. And some fruit. And a Pellegrino with lime, if you have it. The drive up was really long, you know, and—”

Now Celeste could barely contain her annoyance.

Which was actually kind of good, since the more

irritating he acted, the easier it was to forget that he looked like a sun-bleached Zac Efron. “As you’re fully aware, you can just call room service. It’s their job,” she added pointedly.

“Oh.” He pouted for a second and then brightened.

“Well, I’ll call room service and ask if they can send you back with a sandwich for me. It’s that personal attention, you know, that keeps us coming back year after year.”

This time, Celeste just turned and walked out the door. She could hear him laugh behind her.

Celeste hurried down the path toward the mainte-

nance sheds, panting a little in the hot sun. Her hair straggled out of its braids and clung sweatily to her forehead. She brushed through an opening in a tall hedge and came upon a small, plain wooden building. She peered through the open screen door where a tall man with a shock of wild gray curls was kneeling in front of an open file cabinet.

“Dave, have you seen Travis?” Celeste asked. The man looked up and a wide grin split his face. A gold front tooth glinted in the sun.

“Why are you so eager to find him?” he asked. He straightened up and grabbed a Big Gulp from the desk, noisily sucking up some Mountain Dew.

Celeste made a face. “That stuff is so nasty, Dave.”

Dave grinned again. “Sixty-four ounces just isn’t enough.”

“So, um, have you seen Travis?”

Dave turned back to the files. “I sent that boy out with the mowing crew to break him in a little. They’re doing the golf course.”

Celeste groaned. The golf course was acres of rolling green hills, palm groves, and ponds. It would take her hours to find Travis out there. “Thanks, Dave,” she called through the screen.

She trotted over the flat, grassy lawns, past the first sand trap and the caddy shed until, with relief, she saw the big green riding mowers circling the first hole.

Travis’s curly head bobbed on the seat of one. He seemed to be struggling with one of the gears. He shoved it and the mower stalled and then died. Travis gave the steering wheel a whack with his fist.

“Trav!” Celeste called out and waved. He looked up and then climbed down off the mower and kicked at one of the wheels before coming over.

Celeste quailed a little as he approached. She could tell by the vein throbbing in his forehead that he was still mad. Slowly, he walked over and stood in front of her, not saying anything.

She reached out and put her hand on his forearm.

“Travis—look, I know you’re mad about earlier.”

He raised his eyebrows at her and looked away.

Celeste rushed on.

“But it’s not how it looks at all! That guy—that was Nick Saunders. He and parents have been coming here forever. They’re our best customers. We’ve basically grown up together.”

Travis was still gazing over the golf course. “Well, that didn’t seem like a particularly brotherly hug.” His voice was cold.

“Travis—look at me! He just grabbed me—I didn’t

even have time to react.” She struggled to keep the tears out of her voice but her throat was swelling dangerously.

“Look, don’t be like this. I’m not interested in Nick Saunders. All I’ve been thinking about since yesterday is spending the summer with you. It’s my job to be nice to him.” She paused for a moment and took a breath. He bent down and peered into her face.

“Are you crying?” he asked, his forehead wrinkling.

“No,” Celeste said, as a tear trickled down the side of her nose.

Travis wrapped his big arms around her and pulled her into his chest. Celeste buried her nose in his shoulder and inhaled his smell of cut grass, clean sweat, and Lever 2000 soap.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Travis murmured into the hair at the top of her head. “I’m being a jealous jerk. I just hate thinking of you with anyone else. Can we forget I ever said anything?”

Celeste nodded. “That sounds great.”

Travis slid his arm around her waist and started guid-ing her back to the grounds