With anger still thrumming through my veins, I go back inside. The girls are gone, only Cooper is here. I head straight for the mini bar, grab a filled bottle, and bring it to the kitchen where I use a steak knife to break the seal.
“Didn’t go well?” Coop asks, leaning against the fridge in his bathing suit with one shoulder, arms crossed over his chest.
“I need to fire someone.”
Coop’s eyebrows jump. “Post drink?”
I swallow two fingers and set the glass and bottle on the counter. “Yeah, it’s a phone call.”
“He asked you to do it?”
I shake my head.
“Who is it?” he asks.
“The GM here.”
“Natasha? The hot one?”
I nod.
“No wonder you’re drinking. Perk: once she isn’t your employee…”
He’s trying to make me laugh, not encourage me to add another poor decision to my already long list of bad decisions, but the exhaustion of this moment and the betrayal it’s packed with prevent the idea from being even remotely funny.
“You guys go down to the pool. I’m going to make this call, and I’ll be down shortly.” I start to turn toward the staircase and stop. Chloe is making her way down the stairs in a one-piece bathing suit that is sexier than any bikini I’ve ever seen. It’s green, and the top dips between her breasts to nearly her navel, the two pieces laced together with a matching piece of fabric below her breasts.
She stops, her eyes lifting to mine, greener and brighter with the bathing suit. A shy smile teases her lips. “Sorry,” she says quietly, before continuing down the steps with her bare feet that reveal multiple tan lines from summer.
I consider moving so she can’t pass me and forcing a conversation. Try to draw out some apology for last night and remind her that I’m an arse, and that’s the one part about me she can always count on.
She slips past me without even a glance, and I hear Cooper talking about what truth or dare question he’s going to ask Vanessa, and Chloe laughing in return.
Firing Natasha wasn’t half as rewarding as I’d hoped. She’s damn good at her job, but it was a necessary decision. I knew she’d keep my father apprised of everything—expected it in fact—but her lies crossed too many lines. I would never be able to trust her, and if she was willing to cross me so quickly just to earn the praise of my father, who else would she willingly stab in the back? She wasn’t upset in the least, which I quickly realized meant she’d be calling my father in the morning to appeal the decision, and I’m not fully sure he’d support my choice, which means I’ll need to reach out to him first. The idea of asking him to stand by me on this—of having to defend myself when he should have been the one who fired her when she contacted him—ratchets up my anger. My thoughts splinter into the realm of what-if? when I think about the possibility of my father choosing Lewis as the incoming CEO, and I pour myself another drink.
I consider what would happen if I invested in Cooper and his business ventures—living on the island the three of them have painted numerous times while discussing their future. The four of us with our feet in the sand and not caring about budgets or bottom lines or trends. The idea leads me to my wardrobe, where I rifle through my clothes that the hotel’s staff hung and laid out for me, finding a pair of swim shorts that I quickly change into and tossing my phone on the bed on my way out.
I take the elevator down to the outdoor patio, finding the others gathered around the table as thunder rumbles in the distance.
“We’re debating if it’s worth getting in. The girls think they’ve already pushed their luck with the ghost tour and that if they get in, the storm will start.” Another roll of thunder cracks as he finishes telling me this.
The pool is small but deep, not made for much aside from to impress. Still, the privacy is welcomed.
“Hey, Ty,” Coop says as I look across the brightly lit city.
“Yeah?” I say, instantly hating the jarring smile he flashes.
“Truth or dare.”
“Bloody hell.”
Chloe and Vanessa laugh, waiting to hear what I choose.
“Dare.”
Cooper rubs his finger against his chin like he does whenever he deserves a kick to the gonads. “I dare you to lose your shorts and jump in.”
“No way,” Chloe says. “There have to be some boundaries. I made you order a drink. These dares are starting to—”
Her words come to an abrupt stop as I throw my shorts at her and jump into the pool.
Laughter greets me when I surface, and then there’s a squeal and a splash as Cooper tosses Chloe into the pool after me.
“Cooper Ronald Sutton, we’re no longer friends,” she warns him, brushing the water from her face.
“Ronald? Your middle name’s Ronald?” I ask.
Coop flips me off. “You said you wanted to go swimming. You needed a little push.”
Vanessa howls with laughter.
“The water’s nice, yeah?” I ask Chloe when she looks at me.
She glances away, her cheeks tinted with embarrassment.
“Are you embarrassed?” I ask her, knowing full well that she is.
Vanessa throws my swim shorts into the pool. They fall a couple of feet away and float along the surface.
“That’s okay. It actually feels pretty nice,” I say, stretching to my back and kicking my feet up to glide backward.
“Oh, God,” Cooper grumbles.
“If you’ve got it, flaunt it, right?” I say.
Chloe has her back turned to me. I’d bet this hotel that her eyes are closed.
“I thought we were swimming?” I yell to the others.
“Put your fucking shorts on,” Cooper says.
“You dared me to take them off.”
“I need a drink,” Coop grumbles.
“Ditto,” Vanessa pops up from her chair.
“Get dressed by the time we come back, or I’m
