The Comeback Part 20

Gino's was a restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway. Out of the big bay window, if you craned your neck, you could see both the sunbathers and the surfers paddling out to catch the waves.

It was a dive, but we hung out there a lot. Gino never minded if we came in straight from the beach, tracking sand and dripping water everywhere. Gino's also had the best food in town. The best pool tables, too.

I was supposed to meet my best friend, Bridget, and some of our friends, but I was early, so I played cutthroat with a couple of college boys. I called the eight ball and sank it, putting the boys out of their misery. They left a few minutes later, looking like two scolded puppies.

I looked around again for Bridget and that's when I saw him. He walked in and went straight for the pool tournament sign-up sheet. I planned to win that tournament, which had a two-thousand-dollar cash prize, so at first I was just sizing up the compet.i.tion.

He saw me watching him and smiled. That's all it took. The rest of the package, his sparkling gray eyes, his curly black hair, his broad shoulders, that was all icing. My brain refused to listen to what my body was saying.

When he reached up and took a cue from the rack on the wall, I held my breath. Gino was going to go ballistic. The guy in the T-s.h.i.+rt must not have seen the sign, the one that promised pain and suffering to anyone who touched those cues.

Gino only let a few people keep their cues on that wall and n.o.body else was allowed to touch them. I didn't have a cue hanging on that rack, and Gino's was my second home. Gino always said, "Be patient, your time will come."

I jumped when Gino, who was sitting at this stool at the bar, let out a great roar and came rumbling over. I thought he was going to pulverize the guy, but instead he wrapped him in a great big bear hug.

"Alex, when did you get back in town?" Gino said.

Alex, his name was Alex.

Gino steered him in the direction of the kitchen. "Wait until Rose sees you."

Maybe Gino felt my eyes boring into his back, because he stopped and turned around. He couldn't possibly miss me, since I was standing there with my mouth open. I'm pretty sure I looked as intelligent as a guppy.

"Chloe, I want you to meet my nephew," he hollered.

Gino practically dragged the guy over to meet me. I was worried that he would think I was a troll or something. I frantically tried to remember the last time I'd washed my hair. This morning. Fantastic. I was safe from greasy hair.

Alex snagged a mint from the big jar of peppermints on the counter. I grinned. Then he touched my hand and I swear a sizzle started in my blood. "I'm Alex Harris," he said.

"You look familiar," I said.

"Alex is an aspiring actor," Gino said. "Maybe you saw him in a commercial." He said it in the same tone he'd used to describe someone who'd skipped out on a bar tab or cheated at pool. Uncle Gino clearly wasn't a fan of his nephew's chosen profession.

Alex held my hand a second longer than strictly necessary. Then I noticed Gino grinning like a fiend and immediately dropped his hand. We stood there, smiling at each other.

"Chloe, there you are," a voice said.

Three minutes into our relations.h.i.+p and Alex already had to take the acid test. Bridget.

My best friend was a golden girl. She glowed from the sun, her blonde beauty dazzling everyone within view.

We first met at the beach when we were about three. We both wanted the same sand shovel. We were locked in combat when our moms came and pried us apart.

"That's my shovel," Bridget said. "Give it to me and I'll be your friend." She smiled the sweetest smile, and I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen.

I let go of the shovel and she took possession of it with a happy sigh. I immediately burst into tears and hid behind my mom.

Bridget waddled over and handed me the shovel. She put her arm around me. "Don't cry!"

But I only cried harder.

"Here, you take it. I'm sorry," she said, her dimples dancing.

But I didn't want the toy anymore. I just wanted Bridget to be my friend.

So when she came over with that same look on her face, I knew that Alex was something she wanted.

Bridget was more than a gorgeous blonde; she had that indefinable something. She was so far out of my league, I was barely on the same planet.

Alex said a polite h.e.l.lo and then resumed eye contact with me. He didn't seem to notice that the quintessential California girl was standing in front of him.

"So, Chloe," she said, not taking her eyes from Alex, "Theo's saving you a place at the table."

I stared at the floor. I remembered that the old Chloe, the one who believed in true love, was gone. It was time to make a swift exit and leave the playing field to Bridget.

"I gotta go," I muttered. "Nice to meet you." And then I practically ran. I didn't hear whatever Alex called after me.

But I heard Bridget's giggle and his low rumble of laughter in reply.

To Do List: Read all the Point books!.

Airhead.

Being Nikki

By Meg Cabot

Suite Scarlett.

By Maureen Johnson.

Sea Change

The Year My Sister Got Lucky

South Beach

French Kiss

Hollywood Hills

By Aimee Friedman

And Then Everything

Unraveled

By Jennifer Sturman

The Heartbreakers

The Crushes

By Pamela Wells

This Book Isn't Fat,

It's Fabulous

By Nina Beck

Wherever Nina Lies

By Lynn Weingarten