by Shey Stahl
“Yeah, okay.” Jake rolls his eyes.
“What are you doing here?” Another girl, shorter than the other one, comes up and shoves Jake’s shoulder, knocking him off balance.
Spinning around, he scowls at her. “Jesus, do you have to be so fucking violent?”
“When it comes to you, yes. Who’s this?” The girl looks at me, and I finally realize who she is. The maid from my hotel—you know, the one who refused to clean my room and gave me the suck off gesture.
Suddenly, Nash finds us, and then Zain. I didn’t even realize they were here. Nash takes the opportunity to greet Alicia, the snotty maid. “Hey, kid.”
I don’t think she likes being called kid because she shoves him too. “Go fuck yourself, Nash.”
I lean into Jake. “Is she always so pleasant?”
His eyes widen. “You really have no idea.”
“Oh, I think I do. I met her before, remember?”
He laughs, not comprehending my comment, and watching Nash with her.
“Well, excuse the shit out of me,” Nash says, backing up, holding his palms up. “What’s up your ass tonight?”
“Not you,” Alicia replies, giving him a wicked grin.
“Two in the pink, one in the stink,” he counters, giving her a hand gesture I’m sure she knows well.
“Get away from me, Nash.” She pushes him again.
Jake rolls his eyes. “They’ve never got along. He broke her heart.”
My eyes snap to his face. “You can’t tell at all.”
“How’s Mom and Dad?” Alicia asks Jake, reaching for a drink from the bar, but doesn’t seem the least bit interested in what Jake’s response will be. She’s staring at a guy at the end of the bar.
“They’re fine,” Jake tells her, even less interested in the conversation with her than she is with him. Family functions must be a real hoot with these two. “You should go see them sometime. They’d appreciate it.”
“You never told me you had a sister,” I whisper when Alicia turns to talk to a guy who approaches her.
“Oops. Must’ve forgot.” Grabbing her by her shoulders, he pushes the tiny girl toward me. “Meet Alicia. My sister.”
Naturally, Alicia scowls at me. “Enjoying your trip, I see.” She glances back at Jake. “Another city girl?”
Say what?
Jake doesn’t reply. Instead, he turns and walks toward the bar, leaving me standing there with his sister, who evidently still hates me. I’m actually kind of annoyed about it too. I barely know this girl. No way do I want to be talking to her.
We don’t say a goddamn thing to one another. Five minutes later, Jake returns with two drinks for us, and I remind him of how I know his sister. “She’s the bitchy one from my hotel. The one who refused to give me towels and ratted me out to the front desk about the headboard.”
He smiles, bringing the shot of tequila to his lips. “I’m not surprised. She’s a bitch.”
“You don’t get along?”
Jake shakes his head quickly. “Never have and never will. I’m positive we have different parents.”
Without so much as a goodbye, Alicia walks away.
“See.” Jake leans down, letting his lips touch my bare shoulder. “She’s a bitch.”
“How come you didn’t tell me she worked at the hotel?”
“I didn’t know.” He shrugs. “We’re not close, Kendall. She basically ran away from home at sixteen, and I don’t know anything about her. She lives about three miles from me, and this is the first time I’ve seen her in like six months.”
I guess maybe Island Boy and I have pretty similar pasts. Only his is his sister and my mystery relative is my mother. And I chose that situation.
Smoke mists the air, creating a heavy and stuffy atmosphere. My chest feels tight as I try to breathe, not just because of the smoke, but also the amount of alcohol I have once again ingested. I’m gonna need to do a liver cleanse when I get home. Needing some fresh air, I step outside for a minute when Jake goes to the bathroom. That’s when his sister finds me.
I don’t like her because, well, she doesn’t like me, and she doesn’t even know me. “You know you’re just the city girl of the month, right?”
Hearing that from her rubs me the wrong way. It wakes me up to exactly what I’ve been doing here with him, thinking this was something special. “And you’re just a maid.” It’s rude of me to say, because in my mind, nobody is “just” anything. There’s more to everyone than what meets the eye. But if she’s going to be blind, thinking I’m just city girl and only that, well, so am I.
Alicia tosses her cigarette to the ground and walks past me down the dark alley, with Amara following her. Damn it, I had a feeling those two were friends.
“Who was that girl?” I ask when Jake pulls me back inside.
“What girl?” His lips are on my skin again as we sway to a slower song and he holds me close to his chest.
“Amara,” I say. “Was she your girlfriend?”
He smirks, not admitting or denying it, but then he surprises me. “Ex-girlfriend. She cheated on me about a year ago.” Then he laughs, shaking his head. “So if you were hoping to find a well-adjusted man, I’m not him.”
My heart twists, and a wave of guilt rolls over me, prickling my skin like a heat rash. I want to literally kick my own ass for getting involved with him.
It’s nearing one in the morning, and I’m just about to ask Jake if we can go when he whispers in my ear, “I got a surprise for you, City Girl.”
“What’s that?”
He kisses my cheek, the sensation lingering long after he pulls away. “You’ll see.”
Letting go of me completely, Jake nods to the DJ, and then reaches around the side of the stage and grabs a guitar. As he makes his way on stage, whistles and shouts break out in the crowd.
Is he going to play? Oh my God, he’s going to play. Holy shit.
With a smirk only Island Boy can deliver, he begins strumming the guitar and immediately follows with the lyrics to “I Love A Rainy Night.”
This guy, he’s trouble. Jake Pierce is fucking trouble. I knew it from the beginning, but now I’m 100 percent sure of it. So much trouble. With his heart in it, he sings that song with so much energy I have to wonder if there is anything he can’t do.
Keeping his eyes on mine, he licks his lips and bursts out into the chorus. What gets me is when the song comes to the part where he says, “and I love you, too….” and winks at me.
What does that mean? Is he talking to me?
I’m ready to take my shirt off and scream the words back at him. Damn drinks. And then I think to myself, “Who am I? This isn’t me.” And then I say, “Kendall, what has become of you? You’ve been here five days. There’s no way you have feelings for him that would rationalize any of this. Stop thinking that way. He’s just an island boy enjoying a city girl.”
But then he sings one more song for me. “When A Man Loves A Woman.” This most definitely isn’t the club to do it in, given they played mostly hip-hop it seems, but Jake knows what he’s doing, and I think everybody in here gets a kick out of it.
Any man who can rock Michael Bolton not only owns my fucking heart, he has some serious self-confidence. Jake rocked the shit out of that song, by the way, albeit extremely drunk. He even falls to his knees before me and throws his head back with such raw emotion you would have thought he’d done this before.
I’d never in my life been sung to, even when I dated that musician. He never sang directly to me. I understand groupies, the thrill, all of that. Now more than ever, do I understand it.
When Jake returns, covered in sweat, and sits down at the table, cheers, claps, and whistles follow him. He grins at me, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “Enjoy the show, City Girl?”
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
“No. I’m pretty good at everything.” His immediate response makes me laugh.
“I can’t believe you can sing.”
&nbs
p; He laughs. “I take it you approve?”
“Oh, fuck yeah! That was insane.” And then it dawns on me what his sister had said. “I bet you sing for all the city girls, don’t you?”
Jake cracks a sarcastic smile. “You would think that, wouldn’t you?”
After my conversation with Alicia, I’m trying any angle I can to find a reason why this isn’t going to work with Jake and me. And when the reason won’t come, I make one up. Believing her, when deep down I know she’s wrong.
I don’t like that I want Jake in my life for more than just an island fling. It actually pisses me off. I want this to just be an island boy and city girl thing, but my fucking heart, the needy bitch, she keeps telling me what to do. The problem is, that plan had ended when I went back to the bar that second night.
Jake said a heart is always on the line. I believe him now. He’s absolutely correct in that assessment. How is this city girl going to mend an already damaged heart when the time comes for me to go back to reality?
Jake and I don’t end up going back to his place like he said we would, since Zain apparently has his girlfriend there. I’m beginning to understand Jake doesn’t spend a lot of time at his house. It’s just a place where he sleeps. Occasionally, and not lately.
At my hotel room, it’s once again becoming a familiar sight for me: me standing halfway inside the door and Jake waiting to come in, or, as has happened on a few nights, carrying me in.
But tonight, his hands are on the doorframe, and he’s looking at me. I can’t focus.
His hardened expression doesn’t change, so I ask him again, “What scares you in life?”
“Everything about you,” he answers.
Leaning inside the door, he runs his left hand over my hair and keeps his eyes on mine, letting me know he really had been listening to me earlier. “I’m scared. I’m not afraid to admit that. I’m scared that when you leave, I won’t feel this any longer.”
Shit.
Jake waits for me to say something, anything, but I can’t. Instead, my lips find his.
“Just say the word, and I’m yours, City Girl,” he mumbles against my mouth. “Whatever you want.”
I want to believe Jake, but his sister’s words, “City Girl of the month,” bring up something I hadn’t seen before. I hate the control he has over me for how little we actually know each other. The cynical side of me is preparing myself for my heart to be broken… by me. I need to let him go. Time and the reality of this situation are not on my side. Surviving the fall is the best I can hope for.
1 part raspberry rum
1 part light rum
½ part passion fruit juice
½ part pomegranate juice
½ part mango juice
½ part soda water
Add all ingredients together except the soda water. Mix and strain over ice into glass. Top with soda. Garnish with an orange twist.
When you think about it, your life can change rather quickly, and in ways you never even imagined. You can go from bad to good, and even more quickly than that, back to bad.
The next day after Jake and I spent the night in my room, I find myself at the bar again, even though I told myself I wasn’t going. I tried to think of reasons and ways around his words last night, telling myself he meant none of it and I know he’s going to break my heart, and pushing him away is a natural reaction.
When that doesn’t work, I decide to try a different approach. Being mean. I don’t want my heart broken again. The problem is, it already happened the moment I took him back to my hotel room.
I don’t have to try very hard to be mean either. Jake’s on edge too, sensing my mood. I’d spent the better part of the day there, and, come sunset, neither one of us move or say much to each other.
Around seven, a woman walks into the bar, her smile bright and all for Jake. She’s a middle-aged woman, dark hair, golden skin, with a rough smoker’s voice.
“Shit, woman.” Jake laughs, shaking his head. “Long time no see.”
She wastes no time in coming around the side of the bar to pull him into a hug. “It’s good to see you.” They part, both smiling, as she sits down at the bar, two chairs down from me.
“It’s been at least a year,” Jake remarks, reaching for a glass and two bottles behind him. I notice he’s making her a whiskey sour. Apparently these two have a lot in common.
Immediately, I wonder if they’ve slept together. Sure, she could be his mother, but still, the thought is there for me.
“I’ve been in Australia for a while, but I’m back,” she tells Jake when he hands her the drink he made and a coaster. “I’m working with Atlantis now.”
Jake motions to me with a tip of his head. “Oh yeah, you and Kendall here are in the same business.”
“Is that right?” The woman turned to me, her dark brown eyes shining as the last sliver of sun pierces into the bar through the straw roof.
“What?” I stumble, wondering what the hell he’s talking about. Jake pushes another drink in my direction when he notices I finished mine.
“Stevie here works with the concierge at hotels. She gets the high rollers what they need.”
“Don’t say it like that, Jake.” Stevie laughs. “You make me sound like a prostitute.”
I’m not going to lie, when she walked in, I had some theories on that.
Leaning toward me, she reaches her hand for mine. “I’m Stevie Benton.”
“Kendall Landon.” After I shake her hand, we get to talking about what she does here in the Bahamas and the States. It’s exactly like what I do back home, except she does it for people here while they’re on vacation. I know enough about my job that when my clients go on vacation, they never make their own dinner reservations or schedule private scuba diving lessons. I do that.
So does Stevie.
“Have you ever thought of working on the islands? There’s a lot of business here.”
The thought had crossed my mind more than once since I’ve been here. We get to talking about what exactly she does for guests at the hotels when I ask, “What about the concierge? Don’t they provide your clients with what they need?”
I already know the answer when it comes to my own clients. No way in hell Justin, or even Revel, would allow the concierge to do anything for them. They want someone they can trust and who knows their tastes.
Stevie explains everything about her job here and how she obtains clients. And then, to my surprise, she hands me her business card. “If you’re interested, call me. I’ll set you up. It’s crazy busy here.”
When Stevie leaves, Jake’s mood is almost cheery. Until Liam shows up. The man is everywhere these days, but I know it has something to do with the fact that he loves competition. It’s in his combative nature, and he wants to seal the deal. With me. I’m not exactly sure which one of us he’s trying to get a rise out of though, Jake or me. I’m almost positive it’s Jake.
Something changes in Jake again when Liam walks in. It’s like that first day when Amara’s mom had been in the bar. Jake watches me, his eyes scanning my face as Liam approaches us, his hand sweeping through his hair.
Liam sits next to me and orders a beer. Jake hands him one without so much as looking at him, and then goes about tending to the rest of the bar, his eyes never far from me.
Liam smiles, his hand boldly on my thigh under the bar. “You enjoying yourself?”
“Yeah, I’m having a good time.” I turn into his touch, giving him my eyes, like a goddamn idiot. “What about you?”
“I’m having a great time.” His fingers move a touch higher, and though it makes me uncomfortable, I don’t move away from him. “Have you gone snorkeling yet?”
“Snorkeling?” It seems like a strange question for him to ask. “No. I haven’t, but I plan to Monday with my friend.”
Liam nods, his eyes on my chest, and then they find my eyes again. “I could take you guys out. My buddy Messer has a boat.”
“That’s okay. I’ll just go
with whatever the hotel recommends.”
“Why?” His brow scrunches. “There’s so much more to see on the islands than what tourists get to see.”
I know that. I’ve already experienced it the way everyone should. The thought makes me glance at Jake. His back is to me as he talks with an older couple at the end of the bar. I can see his stance though and the whites of his knuckles as he grips the edge of the bar.
“Whatd’ya say?” Liam presses. “Your friend can come too. There’s plenty of room.”
“Thanks, but no. I promised Rylee I would be with her that day.” I change the conversation. “What brings you here? Just a vacation?”
“Yeah.” Removing his hand, he reaches for his beer and finishes it off. “I’ve been coming here for the last three years.”
“What brings you back here? There’s beauty all over the world. Why the Bahamas?”
Jake returns, standing about a foot from us as he mixes a drink, his eyes cast down.
“You don’t think it’s beautiful here?” Liam asks, leaning into me to bump my shoulder with his.
My eyes shift to Jake. “There’s certainly beauty here, but there’s amazing places in the world. Australia… Fiji….”
“I’ve been to all those places.” Liam’s gaze follows mine to Jake. “Can I get another one, man?” Without waiting for a response, he glances over at me again and winks. “I can go anywhere I want.”
“So why the Bahamas?” I ask again.
Liam shrugs. “Friends, I suppose. I’ve made some good ones here. Everybody needs legal help,” he teases.
Jake slams Liam’s beer down on the bar. “Last one. You need to leave.”
Liam snorts. “What the fuck is your problem, man?”
“You. You’re my problem,” Jake snaps. The look on his face and the way his words are delivered make me shiver. “I told you not to come back, yet here you are.”
Liam looks at me. “Some things are worth coming back for.”
Jake’s jaw clenches as he folds his arms over his chest. “Finish your beer and leave.”
“Jake, stop,” I urge, not wanting them to get in a fight. “He’s just having a beer.”