My pulse takes over where the ocean left off, drowning my thoughts. With one sentence, he’s destroyed my game. It’s not his fault, no. He’s telling the truth, but I wasn’t honest with him. I told him she sucks my dick. “Fucking vultures,” I say, trying on ambivalence, pretending I didn’t hear what was said, praying Caroline’s delicate manners dictate she doesn’t rat me out. “You ready, Caroline?” I ask.
“I think you have the wrong idea about me,” she replies to the men, looking them in the face one at a time. Sliding into her flip-flops, she says, “Tyler is just my friend.” A bead of sweat breaks out on the side of my face and slides down to my chin when she turns to look at me. “Right?” One brow is raised, daring me to say anything different.
“Sure. Just friends,” Aidan answers, chuckling underhis breath, extending each word in obvious sarcasm. “Whatever you say.”
These men are like me. Or most of them, anyway. We’re here because we don’t have attachments in the way of wives and long-term girlfriends rooted in San Diego. By proxy that makes us the players, the flirts, the men who don’t settle down or get serious. We’re good at this. My friends think I’ve had a piece of Caroline, and now I’m willing to share the wealth. They will continue to think that until I tell them otherwise. Until I show them.
I wrap an arm around Caroline and can feel the anger leaking from her pores. She’s seething, once in the past she called itspitting mad. “It’s not whatever I say, it’s the truth,” Caroline hisses, pointing one finger at the group. Their lazy smiles vanish when they realize she’s not of our normal variety. “I am sincerely offended you think I’m sleeping with Tyler. Or doing anything with him, actually. I’m not. I won’t. We are just friends.”I won’t. I won’t. I won’t.Nothing else registers as truth except those two words. “Business partners,” she adds to drive her point home. “Insinuating anything else is purely bad form.”
That’s when the ocean stops beating against the docks, and the gulls stop crying, and my oxygen fizzles into something that isn’t conducive inside a human body. Their faces say everything I’m not. I don’t have to. Until she tells me to. “Tell them, Tyler.” She uses my given name instead of my nickname, and I think about how long it took for her to get comfortable enough to drop the legal name. Glancing at her, I see her red cheeks and thetears of betrayal pooling in her eyes.
There’s no way to salvage this, and at the very least I’m staking my claim. “She’smyfriend,” I say, emphasizing the middle word through tight lips. They mutter their understanding and confusion under their breath. “Mine. Got it?” I say again, meeting their eyes one by one.
Uncomfortable silence descends, and with their heads down and their tails tucked, my brothers depart for the office. Caroline slaps her driver’s license against her palm as she shrugs out of my grasp. “Such gentlemen. My word, I’ve never in my life been so thoroughly embarrassed.” Her shoulder is warm under my palm as we walk to the parking lot. I don’t bother replying to anything she’s saying. I’m too busy wondering how long it’s going to take for the guys to tell the entire troop that I’m hanging out with a chick I’m not banging and what that means for my cred.
We depart, her bicycle in the bed of my truck, Caroline sitting next to me stammering on about their rudeness. My stomach does this dance—the salsa of death and nerves. Unknowingly, she’s exposed me in a raw, jagged way. I don’t have too long to deal with that feeling because she connects the dots quicker than I thought she would.
“Did you tell them we were sleeping together? Is that why they said that?” She licks her lips, as her gaze dances over the side of my face. We’re almost to the dusty turn-off for Bobby’s Bar, and I keep my eyes focused on the prize.
“If I did?” I throw my hand down on the turn signal and let off the gas pedal. No one is behind me, in fact,only two cars drove by going the opposite direction during our short jaunt. “What if I did, Caroline?” I ask while pulling into an empty gravel parking space marked only by a lime-colored post.
She sniffles and looks out the window. “Then I made the right decision being finished with you after tonight. After all of my obligations are fulfilled.”
I tsk. “You’ll be seeing me every Friday, remember?” I correct.
Caroline shakes her head, blonde waves moving over her bare shoulder. “That’s business. Why would you lie to them? I don’t understand.” When she shifts on the worn-out cloth and meets my eye, I almost cave. I almost tell her the testosterone-filled truth.
I lie instead. Mostly to preserve the integrity of our night and hopefully salvage my dignity. “I didn’t tell them anything. It’s guys being guys, and they were telling you the truth about my sexual history.” If she knows one thing, she should know what kind of sexual monster I am. I’m not afraid of scaring her off at this point. I’m afraid of not having her.
Blushing, she turns away. “You’ve never had a real girlfriend?” A topic we’ve never broached before. Blessedly, it’s not about the guys anymore. I have had a girlfriend. Once. It’s why I’ve never had another one again. The burning inside my chest and the wound she left when things ended made a gaping, black hole that proved how much power I gave her without realizing it.
I take a deep breath. “Are you offering?” I return, sliding my palm across the truck seat to cover her hand.
FIVE
Tahoe
Caroline rears back,pulling her hand away from mine like I’ve burned her. “What is with you guys? Is everything an invitation to be lewd and rude? Let’s just go inside and get a drink so I can go home. My slippers and Netflix are calling, and they’re a million times more polite than my current company,” she sasses.
Throwing my head back, I examine the loose layer of fabric hanging from the ceiling. It smells like mothballs, and I almost didn’t buy this truck because of it. I make a loud gurgling noise. “Are you done killing me yet?” I moan, clutching my neck with one hand. “You have to at least attempt to have a date with me. That means you have to like me.”
“Pretend to like you, you mean,” she spits back, folding her arms under her glorious tits. I check my line of vision back to her face.
Resting my arms on my steering wheel, I put my head against them. “Are we back to this again? You like me, Caroline.”
“I do not,” she quips, tilting her chin up.
Frowning, I add, “And I like you too.” I want to tell her how hot I think she is when she’s arguing with me. How I’d love nothing more than to rip off her clothes and fuck her in the cab of this old-ass truck—until her ass cheeks smell like my grandma’s old sweater closet. “More thanlike,I’d fathom a guess,” I add, when I become aware she’s waiting for me to say more.
That gets her attention, her posture lightens and the lines between her eyes relax. “I’ve heard enough lies for today, I think. How about that beer?” Her words don’t match the expression on her face.
I sigh. “Look. No one is even here yet. Let’s allow the town drunk to get going before we go in there. I’m not lying to you. I do like you. Maybe you don’t like me, but you’re attracted to me, and that’s enough to stroke my ego enough to live another day. What do you say? Truce for the night? Not even the night. Just this one date. Technically, you did promise.”
Caroline sighs, a heavy emotional heave that tells me she’s done with me and this conversation. “That’s a lofty assumption. One that stinks of a serious ego problem. You don’t have to pretend to like me, Tyler. I was perfectly fine before you arrived, and I’ll be just as fine when you leave.”
What if I don’t want to leave?The thought comes to mind quickly, like a bolt of lightning striking, the thunder following is me realizing exactly what that means. I’ve found something I want. Strike. Boom. Blast. Silence. I need to find a way to make Caroline mine.
“Bronze Bay has its finer points. Don’t count on my leaving anytime soon,” I say. “I’m sorry my friendswere…rude.” The apology tastes like chalk, but I know it’s necessary.
