Guard the Heart

Chapter Eight

After speaking with Connor the previous night, Kim was on edge the entire day. She kept twisting her whistle around her finger and pushing back strands of crinkled curls to distract herself. Every once in a while, she would catch herself sneaking glances around the pool at each of the individual lifeguard chairs - looking for him.

Once she'd realized she was doing that, she forced her gaze firmly on the swimmers and refused to let herself look away.

Needless to say, by the time her lunch break rolled around, Kim was exhausted. Her eyes were strained from looking into the sun, and each of her limbs ached with the simplest of movements. All she wanted to do was take a well-deserved nap; going to the beach had been a terrible idea.

Well, not completely terrible. Her eyes had been opened to another side of the story, and her recent revelation had brought new waves of thoughts about her and Connor to her mind - thoughts she couldn't shake away.

Kim grabbed a wrap from the lunch shack and found Chris sitting by himself at one of the smaller tables. She made her way over to him and slid into the seat across.

"Hey," she greeted, smiling, "what's up?"

Chris looked tired, to say the least. There were prominent bags hanging beneath his eyes, and his face was set in a deep scowl. "Nothing," he said gruffly, fingers digging into his sandwich.

Her lip twitched as she took a small bite from her wrap. Lettuce began spilling immediately after the first nibble, and she had to tighten her grip to keep it from falling apart completely. "You drank too much last night, didn't you?"

He groaned, rubbing the side of his face with a palm. "Too many shots. Really terrible thinking on my part."

"No shit. You knew we had work today. Why would you do that to yourself?"

"Don't know." Chris shrugged and focused his attention on devouring his sandwich. After taking a few bites, he pulled the bread apart and took the bottle of mustard from the table's center, spilling a heap of the substance onto his tomato. "I was in the mood."

"I told you - drinking leads to stupid decisions." Kim took a gulp of water, and the stream that ran down her throat relieved her. "I'm not going to tell you what you did was right."

"I know."

"But I understand where you're coming from."

Chris arched an eyebrow, leveling her with a look. "Do you really?"

"Yes," she said, picking at a stray lettuce leaf. "Last night was chaotic for me, too."

"You were there?" He shoved the rest of the sandwich in his mouth and began licking the remains of mustard off his greasy fingers. "I thought you hated parties."

"I do," Kim said quickly. "But you know how Savannah is - there's no changing her mind once it's set."

"Mmhmm."

"Last night wasn't that bad, though." Kim winced a bit, and set her wrap down, even though she'd only made it halfway. "It was better than it usually is."

Chris groaned again and rubbed at his temples, stroking along the skin. "You didn't drink, right? You couldn't have. You wouldn't have."

"I didn't," she allowed. She held out the rest of her wrap to him and watched him take it from her hands and devour it instantly. She wasn't that hungry anyway. "Good thing since I would've looked exactly like you today."