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 scared of rejection.”

“Audrey, I would never reject you,” he said facing her. He took her hands in his, “Never, just give me a chance to prove that to you.”

“Tate, you say that without all the facts. You don’t know me.”

“I know you, and I like you, what other facts could there be?” he asked confused, “you confuse the hell out of me, you know that?”

“I know, and I need to explain but I just don’t know how without sounding like a psycho.”

“Audrey, just say it. I would never judge you, I care about you,” he said. They sat staring into each other’s eyes, her mouth moving but words not leaving her lips as they shared a long heated look. He wanted nothing more than to close the gap by pressing his wanting lips to hers, but then his phone rang and he knew the moment was gone.

Looking away, Audrey said, “Answer your phone, Tate.”

Fuck!

Glancing down at his phone, he saw that it was Erik, “What dude?” he answered rudely.

“Well shit, bad timing?”

“Something like that.”

“My bad,” Erik laughed and Tate knew he didn’t care at all that he had irrupted anything. “We still on for tonight.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well come on, let’s get ready. I know there is some hot mamacita who wants my body, let’s go! Vamanos!”

“I’m pretty sure it’s against the law for a Russian to speak Spanish. That was horrible,” Tate said dryly with a roll of his eyes.

“Shut up, and come on,” Erik said, and then hung up.

“Are they ready?” Audrey asked, without looking at him.

“Yeah, lets go,” he said standing up. He helped her up and when she tried to walk away, he stopped her by her wrist, bringing her close so he could whisper, “This conversation isn’t over.”

Audrey looked up, her sad eyes meeting his. He hated that look, he wanted her to be happy and a part of him was second guessing his harshness, but she needed to know how he felt.

She nodded, and said, “I know it isn’t, it probably never will be.”