“That’s what I hear. Sounds like a pretty good setup this resort has.”
“You didn’t want to go on a walk with the four of them?” he asks.
“And be a fifth wheel? How could I ever have turned that down?”
He smirks. “Simone and Bailey are good girls like you.”
“Oh, yeah? And you know this how? Went there and got rejected?” The margaritas have fueled my engine.
He smiles that player grin that says he knows it all and I’m just a naïve little girl. “I didn’t go there. I only hook up with women who aren’t interested in more than the night ahead.”
I nudge him in the stomach with my toe. “Because you’re so above it all, aren’t you?”
He grabs my foot, which is so strangely erotic. “I just like my freedom. You can’t fault me for that.”
“I’m enjoying my freedom.” I tug my foot away from him before I get hot and bothered right here in this pool in front of God and everyone.
“Ten bucks says you left a boyfriend in Oklahoma.”
I hold out my hand to him. “Pay up.”
He gives me a skeptical look. “How do I know you’re not lying to me?”
“Why would I lie?”
“Ten bucks.”
“True, and I could use it right now, but it’s no lie. I didn’t leave a boyfriend there. I left an ex-boyfriend. Huge difference.”
“I guess it is.” He narrows his gaze at me. “Are you going to tell me the story?”
I turn away, biting the inside of my lip. “It’s not my favorite subject.”
“Then what is? Skiing?”
“Actually, I’d be happy to never go fucking skiing again in my life.” The drink is definitely getting to me. I don’t really cuss unless I’m drinking or really mad.
“Skiing equals boyfriend memories?”
I cup water in my hands, then watch it flow out, trying to avoid looking at him.
“Where is this asshole now?”
“Up my dad’s butt, I suppose.”
“So he got your dad in the breakup?”
“He can have my dad. I’m not interested in a father who takes his daughter’s cheating fiancé’s side over hers.” My stomach sours with the swirl of the drink and the betrayal of my father.
He lifts his eyebrows. “Fiancé, huh? Now you’ve got to tell me the rest of the story.”
I pick up my cup. “Margaritas cause loose lips.”
“Nah, they just help you get out all the bullshit inside that’s erupting.”
I consider him, wondering if he’s really interested or if he’s humoring me. “So you’re saying if I unburden myself to you now, I’ll feel better?”
“Guaranteed. And the best part about it is you know I’ll never tell anyone.”
“How do I know that?”
“Because I’m loyal.” The intense look in his eyes makes me believe him.
“Guaranteed, huh?”
He crosses his heart, not breaking his gaze from mine.
I’m just tipsy and desperate enough to take him up on his offer, even if he’s only humoring me…or trying to soften me up so I’ll hook up with him later. “I walked in on my fiancé in bed with another woman.”
He winces. “That’s tough.”
“Yep.”
“Where were they…in your bed?”
“Well, technically, it was his bed. I hadn’t officially moved in yet. I was still living at my dad’s house.” I hold up a hand. “I know a person in her mid-twenties should have her own place, for the record.”
“I just moved out from my mom’s place last week.”
“Really? Like for the first time?”
He nods. “Keep going.”
“The whole thing was particularly painful because he and I had given up on foreplay years ago, and the two them were engaged in...” I make a motion with my hand.
“Oral?”
I scratch my neck, hoping my face isn’t candy-apple red. “Mmm-hmm.”
“Why had you given up on foreplay?”
I mess with my eyebrow, hoping to cover my eyes. “That should have probably been my first sign, right?”
“Would have been mine. So what happened?”
“I had a whole speech prepared, but I chickened out and bolted.”
“You knew you were going to find them?”
“I was clued in by a friend…my only friend.” I try to put everyone close to me who kept it from me out of my brain.
“Who was the woman?”
“She was one of our friends…or his friends, I should say. I thought she was my friend.”
“That’s shitty.”
I nod, trying not to let it all come flooding in again, but it’s hard to keep the memories at bay. “We were all friends—this group of us, like five couples. We hung at each other’s houses all the time. Those New York shopping trips I mentioned earlier today? She was a part of those. She was a part of everything.”
“And the whole time, she was with him?”
“Yeah. I’m like, why not just go be together? She’s married, but she and her husband don’t have kids or anything.” I go to take a drink from my cup, but it’s empty.
“Are they together now?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” I say, realizing that statement is becoming true.
“What about your ex? How’s he handling you leaving?”
I inhale a deep breath. “I don’t know. He keeps texting. I get the feeling he thinks this is just a little bump in the road.”
“How do you feel?”
I think carefully before responding, wanting to make sure I get my wording correct, not only for Brett’s sake but for my own. “Relieved.”
He lifts his eyebrows, waiting for me to elaborate, but I’m not sure I want to get into the rest right now. I duck under the water, unable to take the humiliation anymore. While I’m under there, the degradation of five years of bullshit hits a crescendo, and something inside of me snaps.
9
Brett
When Kylie emerges from the water, she closes the distance between us. I hold my position steady, but I have to admit, she’s throwing me off guard.
Smoothing her dripping hair out of her face, she says, “What’s wrong, super stud?”
I try not to chuckle at her choice of wording. Sometimes she’s like a girl from a different era…like she’s been in a storm shelter for fifty years and
