by S. E. Hall
“I already know, whatever you’re gonna say next, my answer should be an automatic, unequivocal, no.”
“But you still wanna hear it, dontcha?” She waggles her eyebrows, she-devil personified.
I act put-out, throwing in a loud, despondent sigh (so when I have to claim to have really fought her off later, I don’t feel so guilty). “I suppose, let’s hear it.”
She’s nodding her head before she even starts speaking. “I say we get away from the resort, go exploring the town, do some shopping! A girl’s day!”
“Uh huh, helluva plan, B. I’m sure Dane won’t flip shit too hard at the thought of just the girls wandering around Jamaica alone.”
“What if we promise to bring him back some pot? I hear it’s not hard to come by around here.”
“Yes, why didn’t I think of that?” I snap sarcastically as I roll my eyes. “As long as we assure him we’ll stop and fraternize with the local drug dealers, I’m sure that’ll put his mind at ease. Work with me, Bennett, not against me.”
Nothing short of catastrophic, she throws herself on her back in the lounger, arms flying up and out. “One afternoon! I think we can manage! Shocking, I know, but I do live every day of my life by my damn self, like a fully functioning adult!”
“Easy, Ben,” I say friendlier than I feel. I’m certainly not looking to be insensitive to the differences in our lives, a significant other at my side who watches out for me, but I’m also not about to sit silent while that other gets dogged either.
“Maybe we could—”
“I got this,” she interrupts me, firing away on her phone.
Not a Fan of Field Trips
After a round of golf, all us guys grabbed a table at the bar to have a beer. Which turned into several beers. The head on mine hadn’t even settled before Beckett’s groaning out his alert.
“Oh, shit, incoming.” I turn to follow Sawyer’s gaze at what, or who, ever has caused his warning, even though I know it’s not my woman approaching. I’m well aware where Laney is, and that she’s fine, I’m sure feeling better than she has all day. Despite her attempt to hide from Whitley under a huge hat and sunglasses and blend in with the crowd at the pool… I found her. I always do.
Laney never “blends in,” and it’s all the sexier that she’s oblivious to the fact.
Seems I spoke too soon. Our post-game hideaway is being infiltrated by the women, Laney included in the pack.
“What the hell women?” Sawyer, obviously not wanting to get laid anytime soon, asks them.
“Simmer down, Fagger Vance.” Laney pops off effortlessly. I’m not the only one who dies laughing, Evan spraying the drink he’d just taken everywhere.
“Damn Laney, very nice!” Zach holds up his hand for her to high-five. “Wish like hell I would’ve thought of it first.”
Sawyer looks around, confused. “I don’t get it?”
“Bagger Vance, the movie about the golfer?” I explain.
“Oh, yeah! Shit, that was a good one, Gidge.” Sawyer smiles at her, respect for a great jab evident in his eyes.
“Thank you.” My girl curtsies, then maneuvers her way onto my lap. “Did you have fun?” She asks me.
“I did.”
“Did you win?” I’m surprised that wasn’t her first question.
“We did, Zach and I.”
“Atta kid.” She does nothing to hide the pride in her purr before planting a hard kiss on my mouth. Her competitive streak isn’t limited to herself; she loves it when her man beats the others in the group. I’d worry it was borderline unhealthy… if her reaction wasn’t so damn hot.
“Anyway,” Bennett’s voice booms, causing Laney to startle and jolt back from our kiss. “We’ve got to get going, daylight’s burning. Ladies, Zach, you ready?”
“Ready!” Whitley’s at her side in a flash, beaming. Followed by Emmett, giving Sawyer a small wave. And lastly, Zach kills his beer and stands.
All of them now looking to Laney expectantly.
I am the only person here who doesn’t know what’s going on. That, I know without question.
Laney’s stone still in my lap, waiting for me to ask, and I’m waiting on her to tell me.
And Sawyer’s grinning for ear to shit-eating ear, way too excited over the drama about to unfold to have a dick.
“Oh, no, please, allow me,” Bennett huffs, rolling her eyes with a flare that gives Laney a run for her money on the technique. “Dane, we’re gonna go sightsee, shop, all the girls. And before you wind up in your alpha, bossy, protective hysterics, Zach.” She curls her hand around his arm and flashes a satisfied smile up at him, “agreed to come with. So we’re safe.”
Zach’s going with them?
What happened to his whole “exotic girls in the pool” agenda? Dozens of half-naked, bronze-skinned women prancing around screaming of invitation and... he’s offering to chaperone shopping expeditions with four women of whom he has not a chance at?
And where the hell was I in the developmental stages of this plan?
“Damage is done then.” I grin, confident my upcoming point won’t fail. “Already one man tagging along, what’s one more? Come on, baby.” I help Laney up and out of my lap so I can stand, and when I do, she’s dragging me away from the group.
“Babe.” She rests a hand on my chest and looks up at me with wide, pleading eyes. “Bennett kinda wants to do something with her girlfriends only. Well, and Zach, cause we knew we’d be safer taking a guy, but he’s not part of a couple. It gets hard for her sometimes, all of us together, and she’s, alone.”
How am I supposed to argue with that?
“I’ll be fine.” She cups my cheek and snickers softly. “You worry too much.”
“Just stay close to Zach, alright?”
“Promise.”
With a sigh of defeat, I take her hand and lead us back to our friends, less than thrilled with this whole half-cocked idea. “Zach, there’s four of them. You sure you got this?”
“You know better than to even ask me that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my shopping on. Ladies?” Zach holds out an arm to usher them away. Laney barely stops to give me a quick kiss before falling into line.
Once they’re out of view, I turn and ask Sawyer and Evan, drinking their beers like nothing, let alone our women meandering off in an unfamiliar city, just happened.
Sawyer opens his mouth to enlighten me but Evan stops him just sigh of whatever brilliance he was about to spew. “Let me take this one. Dane, I hear ya, strange place, they might get lost or whatever, I get it. But Zach is more than capable of lookin’ out for them, and, they’re grown-ass women. Can’t exactly forbid them. If we were in Kuwait, I’d agree with ya. But we’re not. So try and relax. Sit down, I’ll buy ya a beer.”
Unable to resist, Sawyer has to have the last word. “Look on the bright side, Kendrick. Of the four women, yours definitely has the best odds in the street fight you’re imagining. Hell, mine’s only packin’ a sweet smile and calm personality in her arsenal. And Evan’s? She’ll try to sing the bad guys to sleep.”
“This is why I asked that you let me take this one,” Evan grumbles and shakes his head. “You’re about as helpful as tits on a boar.”
Four hours later and they’re still not back. Laney’s phone is sitting on the nightstand by our bed, so I know why she’s not answering my calls or texts. And I’m not sure if Bennett and Zach have their phones, but even if they do, I’m well aware they wouldn’t answer to passive-aggressively remind me they think I’m too overprotective of Laney. Emmett and Whitley’s radio silence? No idea.
But I’m done sitting here wondering while doing nothing to solve the problem.
Thankfully, four hours and no return calls or texts was enough to bring Sawyer and Evan around to my way of thinking too.
“Track the GPS on their phones,” I tell them both as we load up in the cab. “Worth a try.”
“What?” Evan laughs.
“What, what?” I loo
k at him exactly how I mean to, like he’s wasting time.
“Track. Whitley’s. Phone.” I only just stop short of including condescending hand gestures as I repeat myself.
“Gotta say, I never thought this would be a sentence I found myself having to ever say, but, I don’t have a tracker on Whit’s phone, man.” He stares at me exactly how he means to, like he thinks I’m insane.
“Don’t look at me, you crazy fucker. I don’t even know Emmett’s phone number. I just tap her name that she programmed in there,” Sawyer adds. “Damn phone’s like working a NASA program. You’re lucky I know how to turn it on.”
So this is our plan? Sit here in the back of the cab like the Three fucking Stooges, no idea where to tell the driver to go?
Yeah, can’t think of any reason why it won’t work.
Except for the fact that our women are missing, IN JAMAICA, suddenly no one knows how to work a god damn phone and there isn’t even close to enough room in this backseat for all three of us.
Anybody ready to start doing things my way, the first time?
Call me overprotective.
Call me crazy.
But at least I answer when you call me!
An idea comes to me. Maybe…
“Did you pick up any other groups here today?” I lean forward and ask the driver.
“Yah.” He nods, answering in a heavy accent.
“Was it four women, one with red hair, one brown and two blond? And a big blond guy?”
“Yah.” He bobs his head again, then turns around with abig smile… and holds out a joint. I realize I probably look like I need to calm down, but…
“Did you offer them a joint?” I ask, just as Sawyer reaches out and snags it from his hand.
Again with the “yah.” At this point, I’m not sure if he’s baked out of his mind, actually answering me or simply repeating the only word he knows over and over.
“Did they take it?” Evan asks him.
“Yah.”
Okay, now I actually hope it’s the latter.
“Can you take us to where you took them?” I hold out an American hundred dollar bill, and he’s flooring the gas as he grabs it.
One death-defying cab ride later and I breathe for what feels like the first time in ten minutes as my feet blessedly find the ground.
Takes less than a second to deduce that I breathed too soon. My hands clench in fists and my anger threatens to boil all the way over as I take in the scene around me. Evan either feels the same, or picks up on the dangerous vibes coming off me, because he’s quick to push my shoulder. “Let’s start down this way, not gonna find ’em just standing here. Sawyer, come on.”
Well don’t I feel stupid for being concerned? This area isn’t sketchy at all. And so what if we’ve been offered weed half a dozen times and a trio blowjob for the price of one in the first twenty minutes of our search… seems totally legit, right?
“Lighten up, Kendrick. You’re a businessman, you should appreciate that she was gonna give us a good deal.” Sawyer attempts some very ill-timed sarcasm.
I’d ask if he was high, but I already know the answer. Yes, he’d stopped someone on the street to borrow a lighter to partake of the blunt he’d gotten from the cabbie. Well, tried to partake I should say. Two hits and he called mercy, tossing it down on the ground.
“Sawyer, enough,” Evan grinds out for me. “Situation’s serious now, even I’m getting worried, which means Dane’s about five seconds from completely losing his shit. This isn’t safe and we need to find the girls. So help, or shut the hell up.”
“Damn.” Sawyer scrubs his hand over his face. “You’re right, sorry. Okay.” He claps, trying to convince himself he’s suddenly clear-headed. “Let’s do this, what’s the plan?”
“We keep walking. There’s three of us, so we use that to our advantage and miss nothing. I’ll check inside the places we go by. Evan, you watch the other side of the road and make sure they don’t pass us coming back up. Smoky, you keep an eye on the cabs in case they pile in one. And everyone keep trying their phones.” It’s the best plan I’ve got, and even I know it’s a shitty one.
I text the group again, so damn mad I can barely type.
Me: Swear to God, if any of you are seeing this and ignoring it. Where the fuck are you? The rest of you can do whatever you want, but tell me where Laney is right now.
Evan: Whitley too. Enough is enough.
I look over at Evan, somewhat shocked. It’s not often you find us on the same side of a matter, but even more seldom he willingly jumps in a group text.
He must see the surprise on my face. “Got your back on this one. Some real bullshit they’ve pulled.”
“Me too, Kendrick. I’m not sure what they lace their pot with here, but as soon as there’s only one of you, I agree with him.”
Fucking Beckett.
Now Trouble Found Me......... Sweet!
As I sit in this bar, trying to ignore the building lump of dread in my stomach, my brain throws out a random memory.
Back in high school, Kaitlyn put me in a similar situation as tonight… and her plan didn’t work either. We were sleeping at her house that night and her parents had told us to be home from Parker’s bonfire by midnight.
We’d both gotten caught up in the music, our friends, and lost track of time. When I checked my phone and saw it was ten minutes to twelve, I panicked, grabbing Kaitlyn by the arm and scrambling for her car. And then she stopped, as if not a care in the world, and told me, “No way we’ll make it home in time now. We’re already late and in trouble, might as well stay and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. Make it worth it.”
It was a dumb theory then, and an absolutely asinine one now.
Shopping and lunch was fun, we really did have a great afternoon taking in all the sights, sounds and carefree atmosphere Jamaica has to offer, but now… not so much. Clearly, Bennett had made some last minute changes to our plans and forgotten to jot down the memo for the rest of us. Because when we all agreed to stop and rest our feet over one drink, I missed the not so happy ending where me, Whit and Emmett said we’d camp out in the corner for damn near two hours while Bennett danced the night away.
This bar is sketchy at best and Bennett’s no longer even spending time with us, but I’m desperately trying to cling to my last shred of patience and support my friend. I know she gets tired of constantly hanging out with all the couples, thus the reason I’m still even attempting a smile and my ass remains glued to my chair.
But I’m not a complete idiot.
“Whitley, can I see your phone?” I hold out my hand as I ask. I’d left mine back in my room, and as much as I’d rather be forced to listen to “Uptown Funk” on endless repeat than the lecture I’m positive Dane has prepared, I know it’s past time to check in with him. If I’m feeling antsy, weary of how long we’ve been gone, there’s no doubt Dane’s about to crawl out of his own skin.
“It’s dead.” Whit frowns, her aggravation not quite matching my own… cause it never does, but I can tell she too has had all the fun she can possibly stand. “Let’s just tell Zach we’re ready to go.”
Zach’s been a champ today, all four of us always within his sights, carrying our bags, he’d even paid for lunch. Even now, he stands only a few feet away, keeping himself close to our table, but his gaze is focused, and I mean zeroed in to red-dot pinpoint, on Bennett, dancing with some guy who’d moved in on her just as finite the minute we entered the bar. And I haven’t quite put my finger on it yet, but her dance partner looks familiar.
“Yeah, see if you can get him over here and tell him, but I still need to let Dane know we’re okay,” I agree with Whitley then turn to Emmett. “Em? Phone?”
And in classic Emmett form, she chews on the corner of her lip and hesitates, giving me a look riddled heavy with guilt. “Bennett asked us not to talk to the troops, remember? If we call them, her night’s over and we broke a promise. Shouldn’t we let her have fun a little longer?”
“Em, you’re a good friend, but it’s not fair to the guys to leave them worried this long either. I’m not saying Bennett has to leave, she can stay all night if she wants. I’m sure Zach will stay with her. But I’m tired, and honestly, I don’t feel comfortable or safe anymore. I’m just gonna tell the guys we’re okay, and if Bennett’s not ready to go, then I’ll have them come get us. We’re just sitting here anyway, and I don’t know about you, but I’m afraid to even rest my elbows on any surfaces. Now, hand me your phone, please.”
I only added the “please” for prosperity. I’m giving her five seconds to comply before I drag her over this table and rip it right off her person.
As neutral as they’re trying to play it, I’m not fooled, Emmett and Whitley fail at hiding their relief. They know as well as I do that they’ve both been waiting impatiently for me to take the reins and give them an out. Well wish no more ladies, I’m willing to play the bad guy.
But Emmett wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if she didn’t at least try to compromise one last time. “As long as we tell Zach we’re ready first and see what he says; not really fair to get the guys mad at him, like he forced us to stay or ignored us, when we didn’t say anything.”
“Agreed.” I nod. “Zach!” I yell, seeing as how Whitley’s “loud” voice has yet to get his attention over the noise. He hasn’t done a thing wrong, and I definitely don’t want the other guys misplacing blame on him.
My big mouth is more than enough and he immediately turns toward us and hustles to our table, keeping one eye on Bennett the whole time. Which makes me feel better, marginally. He really is able to watch two places at once.
“You girls good?” He asks.
“Yes and no. I mean, we’re breathing and all, not stowed in the bottom of a boat being sailed into sex slavery, so yes. But we’re ready to go, so no. And I’m willing to bet Dane’s hit his threshold on us being gone.”
“Alright, you three stay put and I’ll go tell Ben we’re leaving. Why don’t you shoot Dane a text? I, uh, seem to have lost my phone or I would’ve already.” He pats down his pockets as he fumbles through his explanation.