“Right.” John’s mouth straightened, and Evan knew he’d hit home.
He stuffed the Kindle and sunscreen lotion into his bag along with the towel. “Thanks for the drink.”
He didn’t wait for John’s response, just stalked off. He was too irked at John’s behaviour to give him any more of his time. He was pissed off on Harry’s behalf—fuck, more than pissed off. Harry didn’t deserve to be treated like John treated him or talked about behind his back. He sure as hell didn’t deserve being cheated on. Harry deserved someone who appreciated him.
As he left the outside deck and made his way to the bank of elevators, he vaguely thought that maybe his own reaction was a little bit over the top. But he pushed that aside—sort of. Harry was his friend, and he could be indignant on Harry’s behalf. It didn’t mean anything.
Oh, God.Lying to himself wasn’t going to help, and he had no idea how to handle his growing feelings. Thank goodness he wouldn’t be seeing John or Harry anymore that day. He and Amber were planning a casual dinner and then to catch the movie that was showing in the auditorium. He’d be able to sit down and get lost in the movie instead of dwelling on his own wayward thoughts.
10
After a morning spent being fittedfor costumes, it was nice to escape poolside.
“Hey, Harry! Come sit by me.”
Harry turned to see Amber waving at him from a poolside lounge chair. He wandered over. “Hi.”
“Hello.” She smiled up at him. “You can have Evan’s seat. He’s in the pool.” She waved her hand in the direction of the lounger where a blue and white striped towel was spread out.
“Are you sure?” He didn’t want to take Evan’s place….You want to take Amber’s place, don’t you?whispered the little voice in his head. “I… ah…”
“Sit, Harry. Evan’s happily agreed to make up the numbers for a game of water polo. He won’t be back for a while.”
He hesitated only a moment longer before placing his drink on the table. He folded what was obviously Evan’s towel and placed it at the foot of the lounger. He shook out his own towel and sat down on it. “Thanks for this.”
“No problem. It’s nice to see you outside the show rigmarole. We missed you last night.”
“Last night?” Harry lifted his feet and stretched out in the sun.
“Yeah. You weren’t at dinner. I know we didn’t have firm plans, but we waited for a while. When you guys didn’t show, we went into the dining room and ate because we didn’t want to miss the start of the movie.”
“That’s right, the movie. I forgot that was playing. How was it?”
“You didn’t miss much. A rom-com. I’ve seen better, but it was a bit of light-hearted escapism.” Amber picked up her sunnies and popped them on, reclining back and tilting her face towards the sun.
Harry did the same, closing his eyes for moment as he settled into position. He sighed. Escapism sounded great. He opened his eyes and turned his head Amber’s way. Her eyes were closed behind her shades, and a small smile played on her lips. She seemed happy to let the conversation fade, basking in the sunshine. He glanced around. The majority of the chairs were taken with passengers snoozing or reading or chatting, but people watching didn’t capture his attention. Okay, so maybe that was a lie—watching acertainperson was definitely on the cards. His focus turned to the pool, or more accurately, lasered in on one guy in the pool. He could spend hours just watching Evan—the way he moved, the sheer joy reflected on his features as he interacted with the others.
“You like him.”
Harry pulled his gaze away from the group frolicking in the pool to find Amber looking at him, sunglasses now pushed back on her head. He met her eyes. Was she asking him a question or making a statement?
“I… uh…” He looked back to the pool, focusing immediately on Evan. “Yeah, he’s a good guy. He seems to make friends easily.”
Evan was happily splashing about with Mei and Dennis and Stavros and Stephanie, plus some other random people who’d formed the teams. He was certainly easy on the eye as he stroked across the pool with strong shoulders and his well-defined biceps to reach the ball.
“That he does,” Amber agreed, her tone light and friendly.
Harry gave her a brief smile, and she grinned back. He couldn’t hold her gaze, feeling like an arsehole for admiring her boyfriend in a way that was definitely not just admiration and felt a hell of a lot more like attraction. He picked up his glass, taking a long sip of the fruity cocktail.
A shout came from the pool, and he turned back to the game just in time to see Evan rise from the pool, water sluicing down his chest, to smash a ball in the direction of the goal. His aim was perfect, and the ball bounced on the surface between two players then straight into the net.So much for him not having any ball skills, although maybe it was a fluke shot.Evan’s grin was wide as he high-fived Dennis. He shook his hair, the strands now darker when wet, flicking water in shower of drops. Larger drops ran down his torso, and that tattoo—
“Not too bad to look at either, wouldn’t you say?”
Harry nearly choked on his Tequila Sunrise at Amber’s words, surprised at her directness. He recovered quickly. “Err… Dennis?”
Amber chuckled. “Evan, you dope. You know who I’m talking about. The guy you can hardly tear your eyes from?”
“I… uh…” Harry hadn’t been this lost for words in forever.
