“I appreciate that you’ve protected me from a lot of potential pitfalls,” I tell him, and I’m being totally honest. He’s been a good guide and a brilliant confidant on a lot of my professional choices. “But this is a personal matter, not a business one, so I’m going to handle it personally.”
He sighs so loudly that it sounds like wind coming through the phone. I walk across the parking lot; the sun is shining and the saltwater air is warm. I really do love San Diego. I could see myself here long after my career is over. “Do I need to hang up on you again?”
I’m half joking, but only half. My father doesn’t see the humor in any of it. I don’t remember the last time I heard him laugh at anything, actually. “Don’t forget you have that meeting in Los Angeles and the—”
“Concept meeting for the workout gear. I know. I’m on it.”
“Call me after the business meeting and before the concept meeting,” he orders. “I am sending you some sketches I had drawn up to better explain your vision.”
I nod, even though he can’t see me. “Yeah. I will. I always do.”
Of course, when he says “my vision” he means his vision of my vision. But whatever, the sketches might be good.
I hang up as I climb into my car, which is brand-new because it turns out I wrecked the engine on the last one when I ignored the check engine light. I went for a top-of-the-line Audi Q5 hybrid. I sit there staring at my phone for a few minutes and then finally break down and text her.
Hey Steph, are you going to Ty’s BBQ?
It doesn’t even take a full minute to get a response.
Yeah. I hope you are too.
I smile.
See you there.
Chapter 8
Stephanie
Everyone is drunk. Silly, stupid, fun drunk. All twenty of the guests at Ty’s impromptu barbeque. I take another sip of my mojito and dig my bare toes deeper into the warm sand. I lean back in my beach chair and realize I’m slightly dizzy, which means I’ve had way too much to drink. So I subtly, and even a little regretfully, poor the rest of my drink into the sand under my chair and quickly cover it up.
“Are you going to eat that?” Avery drops to his knees in the sand behind my beach chair and wraps one of his long arms around to reach for the half-eaten hamburger on my plate.
I whack at his hand, grab the burger and take a giant bite, turning my head so he can see the ketchup and mayo smeared on my lower lip.
“Classy, Steph. Remind me to take you to a five-star restaurant sometime soon.” He winks at me. His brown eyes are sparkling in the late afternoon sun and he has a nice light golden glow to his sun-kissed skin.
He laughs and uses his thumb to wipe the condiments off my chin. It’s a thing a mom or dad would do to a kid but somehow, when Avery does it, I feel a sexual rush. He smiles deviously and then sticks his thumb in his mouth to lick it off. Holy fuck, my ovaries just did backflips. To lighten the tension building—in my body, if nowhere else—I take the remaining chunk of hamburger and shove it into his smiling face.
He laughs and grabs it, finishing it in two big bites that were much more elegant than the one I took. Maddie laughs, too, as she walks by carrying a plate of burgers fresh off Ty’s grill. “You know we’ve got enough to go around; you two don’t have to fight over food.”
“It’s a mating dance, Mads,” Alex interjects from his spot lying flat on his back on a towel a few feet away. “Don’t interrupt them. Maybe they’ll actually finally get to the good stuff this time.”
Avery and I flip him the middle finger at the exact same time, and he lets out a belly laugh. Avery gets to his feet. “I’m grabbing another burger.”
He wanders toward where Maddie has put the plate on a camping table we’ve brought down to the beach in front of Ty’s place. Maddie shoots me a smirky little smile and I roll my eyes. She’s joined Larue on the Stephanie-and-Avery-Should-Hook-Up bandwagon.
She came into my room last night with the silliest little grin on her face and said, “So Ty tells me Alex thinks you should hook up with our neighbor.”
I nodded and shrugged. “Larue also probably thinks I should bang the entire team.”
“He thinks every girl should bang the entire team. And they should all start with him,” Maddie snarked, and sat on the edge of my bed while I brushed my teeth in the master bathroom.
I nodded and kept brushing until she said, “But why not you and Avery?”
Then I choked on my toothpaste. “Avery? No. We’re just friends.”
“Why?”
