Break the Ice (Road Trip Romance Book 10)

by A. K. Evans

  Luckily, I quickly realized I didn’t need to interact with him. I didn’t need to talk to him.

  The cold shoulder had become my crutch.

  Eye rolls.

  Glares.

  I was the picture-perfect image of a woman who had been hurt but never let the hurt seep into the deepest depths of her soul.

  But it was all pretending.

  Because deep down, on the rare occasion I allowed myself to feel the pain, it killed me.

  For some reason, I was feeling the overwhelming urge right now to kick the pretending up a notch because I was here with one of my best friends as she celebrated her birthday.

  Faye had just turned twenty-seven. She was the last of our group of eight to make it to that age. And while it was frustrating for her as a teenager who didn’t want to be the last to get her driver’s license or drink legally, she’d reached the point in her life where this was a good thing. As time went on, Faye would be considered the lucky one. After the rest of us all turned thirty, she’d be able to brag about still being in her twenties.

  Though, if we continued to do things like we were doing today, I wasn’t sure we’d ever truly feel bad about ourselves. We’d all joined Faye at Lily Canyon’s newest water park. The group collectively decided we’d spend the day out having a blast in the heat and sun before we took Faye out for dinner later tonight.

  For the most part, it had already been a great day. In fact, I had no doubt Faye was thoroughly enjoying herself. Everyone was.

  Even me.

  Then again, that was only possible because I’d spent my day doing what I always did when we were all out together and Mack was present.

  I steered clear.

  I avoided his gaze; I rarely looked in his direction, and I absolutely did not get close enough to talk to him. I focused my energy and attention on the people who deserved it.

  He used to be one of them.

  Now, he wasn’t.

  The eight of us had decided to be a bit more daring after we’d all sat in tubes on a lazy river. So, we’d moved on to a new attraction a couple hundred feet away. We each grabbed a mat and climbed the stairs to the top.

  There was an eight-lane slide. We all lined up at the top, each of us taking our own lane, and when we were told by the ride operator that we could go, we dropped to our bellies and rode our mats to the bottom.

  Once we made it there and all moved off the slides to return our mats, Faye declared, “This has been the best birthday of my life.”

  I smiled, feeling happy for her.

  “Have you done everything you want to do here yet, or do you still have a few things on your list?” Easton asked her.

  “Surfing,” she answered, her eyes bright and hopeful.

  Easton looked surprised by her response, and I couldn’t say I didn’t understand. I’d seen indoor surfing and wave simulators before, and I had no confidence in my ability to do it. I hadn’t expected that Faye would be interested in tackling one. “Surfing?” Easton repeated.

  Faye nodded. “I might not be any good, but I really want to try it.”

  Mack walked up, threw his arm over her shoulders, and said, “It’s not hard. You can definitely do it. I’ve got faith in you.”

  “You’ve gone surfing before?” she asked.

  I didn’t want to pay attention because I didn’t want to hear about where he might have gone surfing before or who he might have gone with, but I couldn’t help myself. Even if I refused to look at him, I still paid attention to every word he said.

  “Nope. But how hard can it be?” he shot back.

  That earned him an eye roll and a muted sigh.

  Such cockiness.

  “Guaranteed that you don’t last even a full minute,” Ryder declared, clearly wanting to challenge Mack.

  “You want to bet on that?” Mack fired back.

  “I will,” Ben jumped in.

  “I’ll bet that I’m not going to last,” Dakota declared.

  “Yeah, I’ll be lucky to stand up on the board,” Beth chimed in.

  I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t normally stay quiet during conversations with my friends. But when Mack had started the conversation and was the ringleader of the discussion, I generally didn’t comment.

  “What’s it’s going to be, Slater? You up for the challenge?” Ryder pressed.

  “You know I am. Is everyone else going to try it out, or am I going to do it and have to listen to everyone else claim they could have done it without ever trying it?”

  Right.

  Because that was just Mack’s nature.

  Everything was a competition. Everything was about proving how good he was, how much better.

  It didn’t matter what his physical prowess was. He sucked at being a loyal friend.

  “Ten bucks says that Ben stays on longer than you,” Ryder said.

  “Make it twenty,” Mack challenged him.

  “Twenty on Ben, and five on each of the girls.” Easton upped the ante.

  Well, that was just foolish.

  I mean, I didn’t think I’d be completely horrible, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d ever be able to compete with Mack.

  Great.

  Now I’d be responsible for Easton losing some cash, too.

  “Oh, let’s go,” Faye bubbled. “I can’t wait.”

  If it hadn’t been her birthday, I probably would have found a way to back out. But since I needed to be a good sport for my best friend, I had no choice but to follow the group toward the wave simulator.

  When we approached, I realized there were essentially two lanes for surfing. There was a divider in the center to prevent anyone who fell from crossing over into the next lane.

  Not wanting to waste any time, Ben and Mack were the first to go. Unsurprisingly, they both had absolutely no issues with it. Watching them, if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that they’d grown up practicing every day.

  I guess that’s where I differed from them. The things that came naturally for someone like Mack—things like sports, confidence, and betrayal—were incredibly difficult for me. There was a time when I felt confident about physical activities, back when Mack taught me things. But that was before he showed me just the kind of guy he truly was. And after that, I never learned a new sport again.

  My only hope was that when it was my turn to surf, I would be able to put some of the things he’d taught me about snowboarding to good use.

  It seemed neither Ben nor Mack was prepared to lose because neither of them showed any signs of losing control. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be about skill. This was going to be about sheer determination and stamina. And if that was the case, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Mack would hold on just long enough to take the win.

  Sure enough, it wasn’t much longer when Ben went down and Mack came out victorious.

  When he began to strut over to Ryder, I forced myself to look away. I didn’t need to be pissed off that he’d succeeded at the same time he was half naked.

  For the next several minutes, the rest of the group took their turns attempting to surf. Faye hadn’t initially succeeded on her first try, but by the second time around, she’d managed to stay upright for an extended period. She was ecstatic.

  “It’s our turn, Marley,” Dakota said.

  “I’m prepared to embarrass myself,” I mumbled as I followed behind her.

  “Well, at least you won’t be alone,” she replied. “I have little faith in my ability to do this. But Faye’s second run was promising. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  I laughed. “Yeah. Maybe.”

  It was only a matter of seconds later when I realized one thing. Luck was never on my side when it came to things like this. And when I had an opportunity to look like a complete fool, especially in front of Mack, it would happen.

  Beth might have been worried earlier that she wouldn’t even be able to stand up on the board, but she’d managed to do that. And while she didn’t stay up
for long, she’d proven herself to be successful.

  Or, at least, far more successful than I was.

  As soon as the staff member had let go of my hands, I went down. I landed entirely on my right side, my shoulder taking the brunt of the fall as my forearm got trapped between the ground and my body.

  It all happened so fast, but the pain shot up and down my arm while the water forced my body backward toward the rear wall and into the rear runout area. I sat up slowly and felt slightly dazed.

  It took seconds for Ben to fill my vision. “Hey, are you okay?”

  I wasn’t. “Yeah, yeah. I’m alright.”

  “You took a nasty fall, Marley. Are you sure?”

  I shook my head, feeling grateful I was covered in water. At least it would hide the tears threatening to fall.

  Ben’s features softened. “Come on. I’ll help you out.”

  I walked beside Ben as I held onto my right forearm. I wanted to massage it as much as I wanted to just hold on and prevent it from moving.

  As soon as I’d gotten away from the wave simulator, I glanced up and saw that Mack was leaning his forearms over the edge, watching the next person on the simulator. He hadn’t even looked in my direction.

  And even though the rest of my friends approached to make sure that I was okay, somehow Mack’s actions hurt even worse than the pain in my arm.

  But it was okay.

  Because I knew just how to pretend like it didn’t even matter.

  Mack

  It was all my fault.

  I’d pushed to make a big deal about the wave simulator. I couldn’t just keep my mouth shut and do it for the fun of it, like Faye had intended.

  And now she was hurt.

  Marley.

  She’d fallen so hard, and I winced as I watched it happen. I wanted to go over and help her. I wanted to make sure she was okay.

  But I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t because she’d written me out of her life ten years ago.

  I constantly had to fight the natural instinct to approach Marley. It’s almost surreal to me to even believe that there was a time when we got along considering we’d been on the outs for so many years. I wanted nothing more than to forget there was ever something wrong between us. But that time had long since passed, with no clear indication from Marley that there was any reasonable opening.

  My life had never been the same without her. And although we saw one another on a regular basis through gatherings with our mutual friends, I still didn’t have her in my life. Especially not like it used to be.

  It had been ten years, and I still wasn’t used to it.

  I closed my eyes and dropped my head down. I had to stand here and act like I didn’t care what had just happened to her. I’d been doing that for years now, and it never got any easier.

  My ears were honed in on the conversation happening only a few feet away from me, and I was never more thankful for my friends. They all knew how things were between Marley and me, and somehow, they all managed to keep it from ever getting too awkward.

  Then again, Marley and I seemed to have reached a place of understanding with the state of our relationship. Or our non-existent relationship. She glared at me at me occasionally, and I wondered what brought us to that point.

  There had never been an answer; there had never been a change.

  And despite how horrible things were between us, I still cared what happened to her. So, I listened.

  “Are you alright?” Beth asked her. “That looked painful.”

  “Yeah,” Marley murmured. “My arm hurts a bit, but I’m okay.”

  She wasn’t.

  I knew she wasn’t.

  I could see it written all over her face when she first sat up after being taken down. And the way she held her arm as Ben guided her back to where we all were said it all.

  Her arm didn’t just hurt a bit. It was killing her.

  “I’m so sorry,” Faye said. “I never should have suggested this.”

  “Oh, it’s fine,” Marley insisted. “I’m just… well, you know I’ve never been known for my athletic abilities.”

  At her words, I was assaulted by years of memories, all of them with her. When it came to any sports or physical activity, she’d come to me for help. I loved every single second of teaching her, too.

  But I’d never have that again.

  How was it possible to hate myself for something when I didn’t even know what it was that I’d done?

  “We should head out,” Faye suggested. “That was the last thing I wanted to do anyway.”

  “No. Don’t let me ruin this. I’m fine. Honest. I’ll just sit out on the next one to give myself a minute to pull it together. Then I’ll be good as new,” Marley insisted. “Finish your competition.”

  A damn competition.

  It had been my stupid idea.

  Marley was hurt again.

  And just like the last time, I was to blame.

  Two

  Marley

  Present Day

  It’s just me.

  No.

  No. no. no.

  I had a million questions running through my mind—Why was it just him here? Where was Ryder? When was everyone else going to get here?—yet, I asked not a single one of them. That was because it was him, the man I’d grown to despise.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  So, I did nothing.

  I merely stood there, unable to move and in complete shock that it was just the two of us in the house. I wanted to run away. I wanted to march right back out to my car and drive myself home. If nothing else, I wanted to tear my eyes from him and go back down the stairs until someone else arrived.

  But I couldn’t.

  Because as much as I hated what he’d done, it didn’t change the fact that he was absolutely stunning. Age had only made Mack that much more physically attractive than I had thought he was all those years ago.

  But that didn’t matter.

  Looks meant nothing if what was inside was ugly. It pained me to even have that thought. I hated knowing that the guy who I used to think was my best friend wasn’t as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside.

  And he was truly breathtaking. Dark hair that was almost always covered by a baseball cap in the summer or a beanie in the winter. He had a jawline that could have easily put him in the running for a lead role on a daytime soap opera, and he often kept a few days’ worth of scruff on his face.

  His body?

  His body was to die for.

  I mean, considering his profession as a fitness guru, it made sense. Though, in all fairness, Mack’s body had always been exquisite. It was just that he now had a bit more size and made a living teaching people how to take care of theirs.

  Yes, I knew everything about Mack, even if I hadn’t spoken to him in roughly fifteen years. What was there to say anyway? It’s not like I could trust a word that came out of his mouth. He had lied to me, after all. Promised me he’d always have my back. But when push came to shove, he didn’t. When it meant that he’d get something out of it, Mack didn’t stand up for me.

  But it was good I found out.

  Because now I could look at him, appreciate the physical appearance, and save myself from being hurt by the ugliness inside.

  I needed a game plan for the next couple of hours. I needed to find a way to manage the next few hours until the rest of our friends arrived.

  Apparently, I’d remained quiet too long trying to cope with the reality of the situation and the fact that we were here alone that Mack felt compelled to speak to me.

  “I… I didn’t… I came up here ahead of Ryder because I knew the storm was coming,” he stammered. “I refused to miss out on this trip, and I didn’t want to risk the traffic, accidents, or the possibility that the road leading up here might close to stop that from happening.”

  Oh God.

  What if they closed the road?

  It would just be the two of us here. I couldn’t. />
  No way.

  Maybe he hadn’t planned on finding me here alone without the rest of our friends, but Mack clearly didn’t seem to have the same problem with me as I did with him.

  I mean, he had just spoken directly to me for the first time in fifteen years. Of course, aside from the fact that he informed me of why Ryder wasn’t there, I guess I should have expected his explanation.

  Mack had always been an incredibly athletic, and he had loved snowboarding. In fact, he taught me how to do it all those years ago. Any sport, any physical activity, had come naturally to Mack. He excelled at all of it.

  Being a good friend, though? Not so much.

  And it was me hearing his voice now and remembering what he’d done that had broken my heart all over again.

  If there was one thing I knew, it was that I had no intention of breaking down in front of him. He didn’t deserve to have that.

  So, doing my best to remain unaffected by him, I narrowed my eyes on him. Sending him a nasty glare, I clipped, “Excuse me.”

  With that, I walked back down the stairs to give myself some much needed distance from my former best friend.

  Only when I made it to the bottom of the stairs did I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding from the moment that I locked my eyes on him.

  Mack

  Cold as ice.

  That was Marley Richardson.

  The moment she disappeared down the stairs, I sighed.

  Though we’d seen one another regularly over the last fifteen years because of our shared group of friends, Marley and I hadn’t had a single exchange.

  Actually, that’s not entirely true. The two of us had had plenty of interactions over the years, but there was not a single one that resulted in either of us speaking to one another. They’d all been negative, too. Marley often glared at me, much like she’d done only moments ago, or rolled her eyes regularly whenever I said anything around our friends.

  But we hadn’t had a verbal exchange ever since that one day near the beginning of our senior year in high school. I’d gone to pick her up in the morning just like I always did, only to learn from her mom that she wasn’t feeling well and was going to stay home from school. When I came home from school that day, I immediately went to her house to check on her and see how she was doing. That’s when she cut me out of her life and told me she never wanted to speak to me again.