Alec glowers at him. “I cleared the bar,” he replies, as if limbo is a pass-fail examination and style points are irrelevant.
I’m laughing, full-body laughing, the kind where my eyes water and my ribs ache, but underneath the laughter my body is running its own quiet inventory of everything I just watched. The way his forearms braced. The strip of skin above his waistband. The cords of his neck when he tilted back. I want to keep laughing and I also want to put my mouth on his throat—not to mention other parts of his body.
He glances at me, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You think it’s funny? You’re next, sunshine.”
The endearment probably means nothing. I’m sure it does. Yet hearing him call me that knocks me so far off kilter that I practically trip over my own feet on the way to the limbo bar. I manage to recover and take my position. I bend, and the world tips upside down to firelight and dark sky, and asI’m arched under the bar my gaze finds Alec. He’s standing past the torchlight with his water glass, watching me, and the way his eyes move down my body has nothing to do with my questionable technique. I wobble, then catch myself. Inch by inch, I shimmy under the bar, my feet digging into the cool sand. Finally, I come up on the other side to cheers and applause.
Alec lifts his glass toward me. A small, private acknowledgment that nobody else catches. I don’t even want to think about all the places I feel his slow smile register in my body.
I need a drink. No more rum for tonight, but something cold to put a damper on the smolder Alec is currently lighting in me. As much as I want to light our “roommate protocols” on fire, I need to keep my head on straight for the duration of our cohabitation.
I walk up to the bar and wedge myself between a slim blonde who’s chatting up a humid-looking middle-aged man in a tropical shirt and a group of dudes shouting at the soccer game playing on the TV over the bar. The bartender sends me a nod of greeting and heads my way.
“Hi, Derek. Could I get a mango juice, please?” I glance over at Alec, the Tremblays, and the rest of my little posse as they’re chatting and laughing together. “Actually, give me another round for my friends too, please.”
“Coming right up, love.” He shoots me a wink and pivots to get my drinks.
“Oh, hello again.” The blonde next to me has lost her sweaty admirer, I realize as I swivel my head in her direction and am met with Honey Carlisle’s shrewd gaze. “Anna, is it?”
“Ella.” I return her tight smile.
Up close, she’s as flawless as she was at the pool, all cheekbones and polish. She’s wearing a breezy white linen dress that shows off her tan and strappy leather sandals with a bigdesigner logo on them. Everything about the woman screams “I’m expensive” and she’s looking at me as if she knows I’m more comfortable shopping the discount racks. She did the same assessment then, the quick once-over that took in my flamingo towel and drugstore sunscreen and drew her conclusions.
“Fun night,” she says, nodding vaguely in the direction of the limbo bar and my group on the beach. “You always look like you’re having the best time.”
“I try.” I make myself sound open and friendly, giving her the benefit of the doubt, even when the back of my neck is prickling the way it does when a customer is about to send their steak back for the third time.
“So, how long have you known Alec?” She traces the rim of her glass with a red-tipped fingernail. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind.” I’m not sure why the lie slides off my tongue so quickly. Maybe because I don’t want this woman to suspect I’m rattled by her. Maybe I don’t want her to see just how emotionally invested in him I truly am. “We met on the flight here.”
“Really?” She draws back in surprise. “How interesting.”
“Yes, it has been.”
She’s dying to ask more, I can tell. I can also tell that she’s trying to work through exactly what Alec and I are to each other. “I thought maybe you two were together when I saw you at the pool a few days ago. But then Alec said you weren’t, so…”
She lets the remark hang, but I don’t take the bait. I really don’t want to discuss Alec and me, least of all with her. It’s obvious she’s got her eye on him, and I have no right to be staking out any territory. Even though I want to.
Derek slides my drink order toward me on a tray. “That’s a lot to carry. You want me to bring this over for you?”
I shake my head as I pay the tab. “Nope, I’ve got it. Five years waiting tables has to be good for something.”
He chuckles. “Enjoy, Ella.”
“Thanks.” I take the tray, balancing it on my open palm the way I would carry four breakfast specials and a pot of coffee.
“You’re a waitress?” Honey’s question has about as much subtlety as a sledgehammer.
“Yep.” I stare at her, daring her to say whatever is sitting on her tongue like a bug she accidentally inhaled. “If you ever make it down to Sedona, come see me at the Red Rock Diner.”
The smile she’s been trying to hold in place melts into a bewildered sneer. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
I watch her judgy gaze flick away from me the moment before I feel a warm, strong hand come to rest at the small of my back. Alec.
“Let me help you with this.”
Ordinarily, I’d tell him I was fine. But something evil in me really wants Honey to see Alec come to my rescue, even though I don’t need him to. “Thanks. That would be great.”
