She’s hesitant, and I can see her mulling it over, but something flicks and she smiles. “Sure, let me finish filling it up.” She happily hums away filling up Charlie’s plate. I quickly shove the bit of salad I have on my plate into my mouth before taking the plate from her. “We’re in cabin 37.”
I know, but she doesn’t need to know I know.
Walking through the darkness, I soak in the gorgeous atmosphere, the Tiki torches, the shimmery moon in the night sky, and the subtle noise of the waves crashing. I make it to his villa, and I hesitate. What if I walk in on him jerking off?Not that I would mind that.He wouldn’t be doing that knowing his sister was coming back with dinner.True.Wishful thinking on my part. I reach for the doorknob and let myself in.
“Derrick!” Charlie screams, and he looks mad. Really mad and shocked to see me there.
And I’m just as shocked seeing him … without a leg. The prosthetic limb is standing beside him as he rubs lotion into his knub.
“Get the fuck out!” he roars at me.
“I … um … here’s your dinner,” I say, placing it on the counter and scrambling out of the villa because I think he is going to murder me. Slamming the door behind me, I walk in a daze back to my villa.
He doesn’t have a leg.
Fuck. He doesn’t have a leg.
I had no idea.
Why didn’t he tell me?
All these questions swirl through my mind as I contemplate what I’ve seen. What happened to him? I can’t imagine what he’s gone through. Fuck. Why did Jackson not tell me?
“You don’t look so well, D.” Evan chuckles as I unharness myself from the zipline.
“Looks like you broke, D, Finn,” Christian teases as I’m unable to form words.
“That would be a first.” Finn laughs.
Ignoring all of them, I walk over to the bar, grab a bottle of water, and throw it back.
“Are you okay?” Jackson asks me. I give him a side-eyed glare. “I mean, about Charlie, not the zipline. He told me, well, Everly did because he chewed her out for letting you bring him dinner instead of her.”
“It wasn’t her fault, I didn’t knock. Is she okay?”
Jackson nods. “She’s used to his moods. The accident changed him, locked him in the perpetual state of what ifs and thoughts of what he has lost, not that he has a future and life to live, that it all didn’t disappear that day in Afghanistan.” Jackson looks out to the ocean, lost in his thoughts for a moment. “Seeing who he really is hasn’t changed the way you see him, has it?”
“What! No.”
He nods. “I want him to come to LA. Being stuck in the mountains, locked in the past, isn’t healthy for him. I’d hoped your friendship would motivate him to come, but I can see he still has work to do.”
“I like him. Don’t know why because his mood swings give me whiplash, but I do. He gives me butterflies. But he’s not ready for anything more than friendship, I see that now.”
Jackson is surprised by my confession. “And … um … seeing him like that, you’re still … um attracted to him?”
“Not going to lie, it was a surprise, but it also made everything else make sense. I ran into him yesterday when I went for a run. He was in sweats, it’s fucking hot, and I thought that was strange. Now I know why.”
“Charlie’s still uncomfortable about his prosthetic, as are the others. I feel guilty because I got out of it all lucky except for some shrapnel scars on my legs.” He points to the jagged bits of skin.
“Wow. That’s the first time I’ve noticed them.”
“Really?”
I nod. “You are always in jeans, I realize, but maybe I’m too busy checking out your abs to worry about your legs,” I tease.
Jackson smiles. “You’re a good guy, D, and I would love nothing more than to see you and Charlie together because I honestly believe you would be good for him, and when he gets out of his head, he’d be good for you. He wasn’t always this moody, brooding guy. He was the life and soul of the party, like you. He would be the first one on a dance floor, and he was always cracking jokes. I hate what this accident has done to him, but it’s affected us all in different ways. Mine is guilt. I couldn’t save my men that day. Every night, I see their faces haunting me. Why did I survive, and they didn’t?”
“There’s no rhyme or reason why some live and some die, it’s just life.”
