But I don’t have to. He nods because he gets it. Wonderful people are wonderful, but they’re boring for mentally divergent individuals such as ourselves.
It’s in these little moments of connection that I feel most afraid. The mean back and forth is somehow easier for us than the connection.
The garden path opens up, and we take a right into the pool area. Cat and Bennett give us a wave as we pass. They’re reclining on loungers and watching Eve and Ice Pick chicken fight with another couple in the water. I really don’t know how Eve balances him on her shoulders.
“We should join them,” I say. “We did tell them we’d meet them here, and we kind of no-showed.”
“Because someone ran off.”
“Because someone else was being a buzzkill.”
“Because someone else was?—”
I hold up my hand. “We will be here all day. We will take this back to Adam and Eve if we don’t stop right now.”
He huffs and turns back for the hotel. “I’ll meet you back down here in ten. Don’t dawdle.”
Chapter Sixteen
Aven
By the time I get down to the pool, it really is a party. All of the usual suspects are in attendance, so I take the opportunity to introduce Quinn to the entire sordid lot. Hell, she’s related to three of them, so she might as well get to know them. Her eyes brighten every time she hears the last name Carter.
Keeping the secret of her lineage has weighed heavily on me since she mentioned wanting to belong to something. She belongs more than she realizes. Sure, she knows the truth, but she can’t do a damn thing with it until Jim tells the rest of the group.
Once the girls have finished gushing over Quinn’s figure in a teal one-piece swimsuit, the lady of the hour spreads a towel over a lounger and reclines among her admirers. She’s safe as houses with that crew, so I wander over to the hot tub to join the men.
Ezra, Bennett, and Ice Pick recline low in the water, while Maverick sits on the edge and dangles his feet in the roilingspray. Grim and Rosie rest nearby on sun loungers. Per usual, they’re nude, so my gaze doesn’t linger very long.
“Grab a cold one and join us,” Ezra calls.
I don’t drink on the job, so I shake my head, but I’ll join them in the hot tub. I slide into the water and position myself across from them so that I can still keep an eye on Quinn. She’s in her element, surrounded by women who are just as silly as she is.
“Don’t you think beach weddings are a little overdone?” Bennett says to Ezra, and I see that I’ve walked into a very awkward conversation. One that I hope they don’t include me in. “I get that’s what Kindra wants, so you’re kind of bent over a log, but it’s so cliché.”
Ice Pick adjusts in the water, sinking a little lower. “Shit, if I could convince a woman to marry me, I’d let her pick whatever she wanted. I hate that I blew my chance with Quinn.”
“Chance with Quinn?” Ezra says with a laugh. “That’s Aven’s territory.”
“Shit, I done it again,” Ice Pick mutters.
I sit forward and shake my head. “Ach, she isn’t my anything. I’m just keeping an eye on her. You know the score.”
“Yeah, I know how that one goes,” Maverick says. “One minute, you’re just doing a job. The next, you’re making space in your nightstand for her sex-toy collection.”
“Jim got me too, but it’s not all bad,” Bennett says. “His next business venture should be a matchmaking service.”
“Yeah, well, not me.” I shake my head again to really drive the point home. “Once we get paid, I’m moving on.”
The men share a look.
“I mean it. Once I have the funds to...to get back to Scotland, I’m gone.”
I nearly fucked up and mentioned the real reason for the money. The debt I need to pay. It’s not something I want to talk about with anyone, least of all them.
“What’s in Scotland? You got some hot piece of ass to get back to or something?” Bennett asks.
“More like a nice piece of green land.” I shrug. “A little place to keep all to myself. Aye, I think that sounds like my slice of heaven.”
