When I can’t think of a reason not to, I simply agree—half convinced that something is going to pop out at me. Nothing does, but it does little to disarm my suspicions. It isn’t until I start grabbing stuff to put away that I realize it. “This is not mine. Whose clothes are these?”
The monsters burst into laughter. Easton rushes to me from around the bed and grabs my hands. “Hear me out. Hear me out.”
“This should be interesting.”
Blake rushes to come to the aid of her partner in crime. “It was my idea, and I’ll totally buy you new stuff if you flat out aren’t comfortable, butttt—well, knowing you, you won’t try new things unless someone’s forcing you, so this is us doing that.”
I’m almost positive I should be insulted by that. “Brady,” I say, directing my attention towards the weakest link. “What did these two do?”
He chews on his lip for all of ten seconds before he cracks under pressure. “Well, Easton got some new clothes for the trip. It started because he was showing them off to Blake, and they decided it would be nice if you got some too. But you hardly ever buy things for yourself! And, well, now long story short, the little monsters ran away with the idea and it got out of hand. I told them to tell you.”
With all that I am, I hope that I never need his help hiding a body. We’d be behind bars before they could serve a proper search warrant.
“Uh-huh. And did that have anything to do with you running inside and getting dressed last minute?” I ask Easton.
“I needed to swap out what you packed with the new stuff! You’re so type A that I couldn’t trust you wouldn’t notice if I did it before then.”
After laying all them out to inspect, there’s a rather unfortunate theme. “Is my wardrobe not revealing enough for you people? Short shorts and see-through shirts?”
To make me feel better, Brady says, “We’ll match now! Isn’t it great?”
Awesome. “You know, I’ve always wanted to show strangers at a restaurant my nipples. I’ll finally be able to cross that off my bucket list.”
“You can’t deny me my god-given right to show my boyfriend off in immodest clothes. It would be terrible.”
He’s mostly teasing, and I’m sure Blake is serious about replacing anything I won’t wear. However, Easton is correct. I can’t deny him anything. The things we do for love.
Later, after dinner and enough drinks to forget how ridiculous I feel in this outfit, Easton and I sneak off from the group to listen to the waves crash against the shore. It’s dark now, but the light from the resort gives us just enough illumination to make out each other’s features.
His back is to my chest, practically melted together with my legs bracketing his. Those troublesome fingers of his are busy drawing patterns against the soft skin on my thigh. With the smell of his shampoo in my nose and his warm skin chasing away the chill of the breeze coming off the water, I am totally surrounded by Easton and have never felt more at peace than in this moment.
“We really can move on now, huh?” he asks eventually.
Since Aaron hung himself in a jail cell before his trial a few days ago, Easton and I haven’t really had a chance to talk about it. I’ve made a couple of attempts, but he wasn’t ready then. His focus was on the trip. Now that we’re here, it might be finally setting in. “Yeah, sweetheart. We really can. How are you handling the news? It’s okay if you feel weird about it.”
I’d be surprised, honestly, but death has weird effects sometimes. “The only thing that bothers me is that he didn’t deserve to get to make that choice. It wasn’t like it came from a place of pain and regret. He was too proud to rot in prison, but those boys whose lives he took should have had their day in court. Just like me and Asher should have been able to know he was being punished for what he did to us. But at least he really can’t hurt anyone anymore.”
“It was a cowardly way out, in his case.” The trial was going to be a big thing. The evidence of his financial crimes with identity fraud and what he did to all five of them laid out for a jury to bury him. He never would have seen the light of day as a free man again. “Hopefully Asher sleeps better at night now.”
“I’m sure I will, too. No more monsters hiding under the bed.”
No more monsters is more than I thought we’d have at one point in time. Even before finding out the depths of the danger Easton was in, there were still more dark shadows lingering in his eyes than he should have had. Someone so purely sunshine should have never known about the things that go bump in the night. However, life sometimes deals you a rough hand, and things don’t go the way they should. It’s all about where you go from there.
Easton turns his head so that his nose almost brushes against my jaw. “I’m going to love you forever, Chase. As many turns as we get on this planet, I’ll find you in every one just to love you another time. It’s never going to be enough.”
I lift his chin with my thumb to look directly in those ocean blue eyes. “And every single time, I’ll be waiting for you so we can begin again.”
EPILOGUE
EASTON- THREE YEARS LATER
Take the leap… just believe in yourself and you can’t go wrong.All lies. Horrible, filthy lies. I hate anyone and whoever said that dumb shit to me.
“You doing okay, sweetheart?” Chase asks, nudging me back to reality.
Well, it’s a bit of a loaded question. Am I physically fine? Yeah, sure. Nothing is bleeding or on the verge of falling off, I don’t think. Emotionally speaking, it’s not like I want to dive off the pier and drown myself. However, this is a huge commitment, and for the life of me, I cannot remember why I thought it would be a good idea to do it.
My brother answers for me, more eloquently than I could have managed. “It’s just buyer’s remorse. It’ll settle when the shock wears off.”
