by Mells, J. C.
Rufus and his companions were all stretched out along the stern of the boat on towels, each one using their life jackets as a pillow. Rufus was currently rubbing suntan oil onto Freddie’s back, and I had to look away before I got too hot and flustered at the scene. A hot guy rubbing oil onto another hot guy’s back – yeah, pretty steamy no matter where you fell on the sexuality spectrum.
We came to a stop in a cove about twenty minutes away from the marina. The water around us was like glass – clear, blue, and not a ripple to be seen.
“Make sure you wear a vest if you go for a swim,” Charlie reminded me, when he saw me eyeing the water.
“It looks so calm though,” I said in reply.
“Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States, missy. There’s a strong undercurrent and I’ve been sailing on it long enough to realize it can go from flat as glass to waves in seconds. Last week, two boaters drowned from swimming without life jackets on.”
“But, then again,” Bellamy interrupted, “they weren’t swimming in a cove, but out in the middle of the lake. Don’t put the fear of God into the poor girl, Charlie.”
I gave a chuckle as I watched the two old friends bicker back and forth about the dangers of Lake Mead.
“Don’t worry,” I finally interjected, “I’m going to wear my vest.”
“Good girl,” Charlie smiled at me, before glaring at Bellamy.
An hour later and Rufus, Zoe, Freddie, and I had swum over to the rocky cove area to give the Restons some family time. Rufus and Zoe had befriended a group of college kids with a keg, and were over with them drinking beer out of red plastic cups. Freddie and I preferred to lay out on a large flat rock to work on our tans.
Although not particularly chatty, probably still in recovery from his sexual escapades of the night before, Freddie seemed pleasant enough.
“Would you mind putting a little cream on my back, Cali,” he asked, turning over onto his front. The metrosexual had a waterproof fanny pack filled with items he might need in a pinch.
“Sure thing, Freddie,” I smiled. “Didn’t I see Rufus oiling you up earlier?”
“That was phase one,” he chuckled. “I’m up to phase two, and need a higher SPF.”
There was nothing suggestive about the request, and after this long day following an exhausting night, this was no surprise.
He was a large man, and so to make sure I didn’t miss any spots, I straddled him, sitting comfortably on his muscly ass cheeks.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Freddie,” I giggled. “You’ve just got a lot of back area to cover.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” he chuckled. “I’m so worn out I may just fall asleep with you sitting back there.”
“I hope you’re comfortable,” someone said from behind us, blocking our sun.
I looked around to see Thatch, fresh from the water – deliciously so – standing over us, his face hidden in silhouette.
I could immediately sense he wasn’t in a particularly good mood.
“Hey, Thatch,” Freddie said in a friendly voice. “You coming to catch a few rays with us?”
“I just came to tell you guys that we’re planning on leaving in about an hour. Is that good for you?”
“Yeah, perfect,” Freddie answered as I moved off him and sat back down in my spot. “We’ll make sure the others know too.”
Thatch nodded, not looking at me.
“Where’s the little guy?” I asked, determined he would not walk away before acknowledging me in some way.
“Taking a nap in the cabin. My dad’s watching him.”
“You heading back right now?” I added.
“Yep.”
One word reply.
Yeah, he was mad about something. It couldn’t be about me putting lotion on Freddie’s back, could it? Who the hell knew? One minute he was hot and the next he was cold. Personally, I preferred the hot, but what can I say? I was obsessed with him and he didn’t want me to be.
“I’ll swim back with you then, if that’s okay with you Fred?”
“Yeah, go for it Cali. I’ll make sure the rest of us are on the boat within the hour.”
Thatch was already making his way back to the water.
“Last one back is a loser,” I said as I ran past him and dived in.
He may be in a foul mood, but Thatch Reston would never turn down a challenge.
Although he beat me back to the boat fair and square, he did have the grace to reach down and help me out of the water.
“Thanks,” I smiled.
“No problem,” he replied.
“Are you going to have that stick up your butt for the rest of the afternoon?” I asked.
“Maybe. I quite like how it feels up there.”
“Oh, really? Well, that is very interesting indeed,” I smirked again. “You know it’s always been a fantasy of mine to use a strap-on with a guy,” I said waggling my eyebrows mischievously. Yeah, I know, it was dangerous territory teasing him like that, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.
Thatch paused for a second, looking straight into my eyes.
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” he said in a low voice. “But if you aren’t, I’m sure Freddie or Rufus will be up to the task.”
He turned on his heel and headed into the cabin.
{17}
Cali
I’d been dropped home from the lake, and all its ensuing tensions, at about six that night. What had started off as a relatively fun day had turned into Thatch practically ignoring me and although I’d had fun with Rufus and his friends, I was thankful to finally get home again.
Needless to say, Bellamy managed to persuade me to show up for work the next day. It ended up being a rough one. It was so busy that Thatch even did some flash in between appointments.
That wasn’t what made it rough though. I enjoyed being busy. What made the day awkward was Thatch’s continued avoidance of me. This was further exacerbated when an NBC reporter came in to take a little footage of him at work for Ultimate Ninja Athlete. Apparently it was just some quick shots of him at work to edit into the promo they worked on Saturday night.
As soon as I saw that cameraman, I high-tailed it into Bellamy’s closed room. I’d been chatting with his client prior to her work getting done, and she had no problems with me coming in to watch the process.
“I’m just getting in the way of that news crew out there filming the great Thatch Reston as he tattoos,” I joked at her, and she laughed.
Bellamy instantly gave me a nod, knowing the real reason I needed to hide.
“Not ready for your fifteen minutes of fame yet?” his client giggled.
“You got that right,” I sighed. If she only knew.
The reporter and his crew were quicker than expected, and thirty minutes later it was safe to show my face again.
I kind of wished I didn’t have to. Thatch was in a foul mood. If he talked to me at all, it was a one-word response or a pissy retort. I wondered for a minute if he’d found out that I’d been in his house Sunday night while he was out. Or, maybe he knew Bell had shown me the painting? No, Bell would have warned me if that had been the case. But then again, Thaddeus did like to tell his daddy everything… I shook my head to stop the incessant worrying.
It was pretty obvious that Thatch hated all the media attention that was connected to this endurance contest he was competing in. While much milder than anything I’d experienced myself, it was still a huge upheaval to his busy, yet quiet life.
I tried to stay well out of his way for the rest of the day.
Right before I was about to take my lunch break, Steve from the gym walked in.
“Hey, Cali,” he grinned, “I missed you Friday night. You should’ve come out with us.”
“Hi, Steve. Sorry, I couldn’t make it. I had plans I couldn’t get out of,” I lied.
“I just wondered if I could persuade you to join me for lunch next door. I’m on my lunch break and figured yo
u might have the time to take one, too?”
“That’s really kind of you, Steve. I’m just not sure I can right now.”
“Of course, you can,” Thatch interrupted, coming up from his station at the back. “You should absolutely go grab a bite with Steve. Take your time, too. We both know how you love to… socialize.”
Wait, did he just imply what I think he did?
Fuck Thatch Reston. If he wanted to play matchmaker just as my stepsister was so fond of doing… well fuck him!
“In that case, I’d love to join you for lunch, Steve. I didn’t realize what the time was. Let’s go to that diner down the street though, you know, the one next door to the motel. I’m really in the mood for their All American Slam. It’s been ages since I had a good Slam.”
“Sounds awesome,” Steve beamed, completely oblivious to the double entendre I added for Thatch’s benefit.
Thatch watched in silence as Steve and I left the shop.
Once alone in the restaurant with Steve, I regretted my decision to agree to this lunch ‘date.’
My God, Steve was boring. He loved to talk. It was a shame it was only about himself. He droned on and on about the hospitality management program he was majoring in at UNLV. I suppose, to be fair, had I been in a better mood I might’ve found something interesting in how to run a successful restaurant or how to open up a new hotel, but I wasn’t, so too bad Steve. Actually, too bad me. I was the one having to sit through this long and one-sided conversation.
The hour dragged slowly and I was only able to eat half the salad I ended up ordering. Yeah, they didn’t do All American Slams – that’s a different chain, or so I’d read. Steve never noticed or said anything about it.
“I could swear we’ve met before,” Steve said, bringing me out of my thoughts and back into the conversation.
Shit, was he going to put two and two together about who I was? I’d been working off the assumption that, take me out of my usual environment and I wouldn’t be recognized – as who’d ever believe the daughter of Brock Huntington was answering phones in a tattoo shop?
“No, I only moved to Vegas a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, nice. Where did you move from?”
Suddenly Steve was all about hearing from me for the first time since we’d sat down.
“Damn, Steve, look at the time! I’ve got to be heading back to the shop now. Thanks for joining me for lunch though. It was nice to have some company.” I stood up and handed him a twenty-dollar bill that more than covered my share of the check. I couldn’t help but notice he neither refused it nor gave me change after he paid up front. It’s not that I needed the money, but there are some standards when you invite a girl to lunch.
“We’ll have to do it again sometime,” he smiled, as we made the short walk back to the tattoo shop.
“Absolutely,” I lied again. I gave him a small wave as I went back into Reston’s and he watched me enter before heading across the street and back to the gym.
As soon as I walked in, Thatch glared at me. I guess there had been little improvement to his mood. If anything, it looked like it was ten times worse, judging by the way he was noisily moving things around his now-empty station.
In an undisguised and deliberate way, he’d pushed me onto a guy in a manner that was not unlike how Lake used to use me – only without the part that he got something out of it for himself.
Fuck that. I stormed over to his workspace and placed a fifty-dollar bill on the counter.
“What’s that for,” he asked, anger still blazing in his eyes.
“That’s your cut, boss. I took out the motel room expenses and my service fee, of course, but that’s your share fair and square. Let me know if there’s anyone else you need me to take care of before I leave for the day.”
I turned on my heel, picked up my bag and walked straight out of the shop. Fuck him. If he thought I was spending even one more minute with him in that small space, he could think again.
Of course, the bravado didn’t last too long once I was in my car and on my way home.
I pulled over on the highway, got out and threw up the salad I’d just eaten thirty minutes earlier.
{18}
Cali
I spent the early part of the evening with my neighbors. Let me rephrase that. I spent the early part of the evening crying on Zak’s shoulder while Tony helped Hayley with her homework in the other room. I think I scared the little girl with all my carrying on. I told them about Thatch and the way he treated me today, but I think I was crying more because I’d forced myself to throw up.
I hadn’t done that in almost three months. I also hadn’t told them about the car trunk full of potato chips and candy bars I had stopped to pick up on the way home. In fact, had they not come out and invited me over as soon as I pulled into the drive, I’d be sitting in a pile of junk food wrappers right about now. Thank God I’d had the strength of mind to call Bellamy and he eventually talked me down from my crisis point.
That was a couple of hours ago and I was in a different mind-set now.
At least, that’s what I told myself very determinedly.
To be on the safe side, I was avoiding both the trunk of my car and the kitchen alike. I was avoiding going into the house at all, if truth be told. After dinner with the Solanos and the long heart-to-heart that followed it, I came home through the side gate, stripped off my clothes and just started swimming.
I was on lap fifty-six when I noticed I wasn’t alone.
Thatch, May-He-Rot-In-Hell, Reston was sitting on my patio chair watching me.
The second I noticed him, I gave a start and swallowed a mouthful of chlorine water. Coughing wildly for a minute, I managed to make it to the edge of the pool on his side of the patio.
“What are you doing here?” I asked angrily, spluttering on the last bit of water caught up in my throat.
“Watching you.”
“Oh, no you don’t. You don’t get to watch me. People who treat me the way you did today do not get to watch me. That means, watching me swim is absolutely and one-hundred percent off the table.” I slammed my hand down on the concrete tile next to the pool for emphasis.
The slam splashed a small puddle up into my face and I squinted. So not the emphatic look I was going for.
“We need to talk, California,” Thatch said, his face half in the shadows so I couldn’t read his mood. Although, I could tell it was a little better than it had been all day.
Was he going to ask me to get the hell out of his town? Was he going to call me a whore in a roundabout way again? Not on my watch, he wasn’t.
“I don’t think there’s anything else to say, is there? I think you covered just about everything this afternoon. Apparently I’m a self-centered, no-good, drug-addicted whore, not worthy to even be in the same room as you or your family.” Yeah, I was mad.
“That’s not exactly what—”
“Well, it might just as well have been.” Pouting: not a good look on me – or anyone for that matter.
“I just want to talk,” Thatch repeated as he stood up and walked into the pale light of the one solar-powered lantern that came on automatically every night. He stopped right at the edge of the pool above me.
My God, he was beautiful. I never found layers of bulky muscle to be attractive, and Thatch’s slim, toned, well-defined athletic build was perfection itself. His hair was tousled and his dark eyes flashed with a curious mixture of desire and sorrow. He may want to talk, but despite his words earlier today, I don’t think either one of us had complete control over this overwhelming pull of attraction between us. Maybe that’s what had him so riled up earlier.
I was going to be strong though.
I think.
“I’m naked,” I said in a small voice.
“I noticed,” he answered with a crooked smile.
I took an empowering breath. “So if you think I’m going to have a conversation with you while you’re lording over me and I’m down here naked... th
ink again, Sunshine.” I rested my chin on my hands, which were flat on the concrete, and my elbows spread either side of my face. I pushed my body in flush against the side of the pool. The free peep show ended now.
“Fair enough,” he replied. “I know how we can level the playing field.”
Before I could even begin to form the words of protest in my mind, he had shucked off his shoes, jeans, T-shirt and underwear.
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, not believing what was happening. I heard the splash as Thatch jumped into the pool next to me.
“Okay, so now we’re both naked and vulnerable,” he said in a low voice.
I opened my eyes to see Thatch standing about five feet away from me. I was right at the part of the pool that began to slope into the deep end, and I could still reach the bottom with the tips of my toes. Thatch was standing in the shallow end, the water coming up to his waist, his upper torso on full display.
I couldn’t stop my eyes from traveling across his body as rivulets of water meandered down the contours of lean muscle and through the ridges, dips and crevices of his chest and abs.
“If you keep looking at me like that, we aren’t going to get much talking done now, are we?” There was that cocky grin I remembered from the hotel room three months ago. I hated the fact he still had this hold over me.
Or, so I told myself.
He walked over to the corner of the pool nearest to him that housed the steps. Thatch turned and sat down on one of the middle steps, positioning himself so only his upper abs and chest were above water.