Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“I’ve been saying it for weeks that you should have a hot rebound.” He picks up his glass and swirls the liquid inside. We’re at a table on the outdoor patio section of the Easy Breezy. It’s starting to get dark, but there are still a lot of people out on the beach. I think it’s someone’s bachelor party or something. “And if it becomes real, great, and if it doesn’t, also great! No headache afterwards.”
“I don’t want a rebound. I want more. I’d thought we were building something more, but maybe …” I sigh and sink against the banister to my side. “It’s all in my head.”
“What was this guy’s name again?”
I look away and clear my throat. “Cal.”
“Cal? Like, short for Calvin or something?”
“Sure.”
Chase chuckles, sitting back. “Finn and Cal … I’m not hearing bells with that combo. Cal. Sounds like a straight-curious dude headed back to his dusty little town after the weekend’s over. Probably has a wife and six kids, too.”
Or a nationwide scandal involving his fist and the big-name director whose jaw it collided with. “It never felt like a fling. I know he didn’t come here for sex. He came for an escape from … from a situation in his life.”
“Hmm, okay …”
“Things just got serious between us for a minute. Then hot. Then fun. And serious again. We’re growing closer … but I’m worried that the moment his ‘situation’ ends, he’ll be outta here. Where does that leave me?”
“But … you haven’t actually had sex yet?”
I frown at Chase across the table. “No.”
“Easy fix. Just do the do with him.”
I sigh. “Did you even listen to anything I just said?”
“You’re making all of this too complicated, dude. Just do it. Boink him. You’re clearly into him, he’s clearly into you. The math isn’t complicated.”
The math is more complicated than you can possibly imagine, Mr. Chase. Of course I don’t say that. I just slump against the table with a sigh and stare off toward the beach.
I have to be honest with myself. How did I think this would end? With River and I getting together? That if the day comes that this scandal blows over, he’s not going to head back home to his huge life as a movie star?
But the way he looks into my eyes …
The words he says …
How he captures me with poetry and makes me feel like I’m the only person on this island worth his breath.
But how can I trust it? Chase wants to talk math? How about the math of how tiny a number I am in the grand life of a guy as big as River Wolfe? Did I seriously think he was falling for me? Imagining a life with me here in this small, washed-up beach town? Am I really that desperate to have a boyfriend again after the demise of me and Theo?
“Just boink him,” mutters Chase again before downing the rest of his drink, burping, then gazing off at the hotties on the beach, for whatever reason constantly discounting himself as one of them. “Oh, hey, you hitting up Teegan’s party this weekend? Cooper should be there with Seany, if you wanted to catch up with him.” He pauses. “I think.”
The last thing I need is one of Teegan’s parties.
And maybe I already know what advice the wiser and more grounded Cooper would give me: End it with River. Definitively. Protect your heart.
I only closed the door between me and River.
I need to fix the lock, too—and throw away the key.
While I drive home, I go over what I’ll say to River. Even after parking, I have a speech in my head, ready to say it’s over, to apologize for the extra pressure I’ve laid on him, and to move on. It’s not his fault I interpreted what’s going on between us as anything more than him relieving stress in his difficult situation. I can’t imagine the burden he’s being crushed beneath with this unfair scandal, and I won’t begin to pretend I know how that feels.
The world’s eyes are on him. It must be a nightmare.
Upon entering the house, however, I find both of my sisters and my father in the foyer by the stairs—Brooke seated on the first step, Heather and my dad standing next to her, and a ton of tension on their faces.
Then they all turn to me.
Oh no.
The jig is up, I just know it.
Brooke couldn’t keep the secret. Heather caught River. Dad, too. Everything just crashed right to the ground while I was blowing off steam at the Easy like a careless fool.
Then my dad smiles. “And there he is, man of the hour. Your ears must’ve been turning red.”
I freeze.
Or maybe they didn’t find out?
Heather comes up to me. “You’ve really got a hell of a lot of nerve, little brother, keeping this secret from me.”