The Girl in the Mirror (Sand & Fog #3)

by Susan Ward

  “I’m fine, Daddy. It’s nothing.”

  “It doesn’t sound like nothing to me, and you never call me Daddy unless you’re trying to hide something.”

  My muscles grow tauter.

  Is that true?

  “I’m not trying to hide anything, Dad. Where are you?”

  “London. What’s going on, Krystal?”

  My hand tightens around the phone. If I don’t get him calmed down, I’ll have Mom on the scene in thirty minutes.

  No, can’t let that happen.

  How do I make this soon-to-be escalating problem go away before it blows up?

  Partial truth seems the only answer.

  “I broke up with my boyfriend.”

  “Boyfriend? You don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Well, I did until last night. Nothing serious, only one of those high school things, which is why I thought I should end it before I leave for New York.”

  “Why haven’t we met him?”

  “It wasn’t that serious.”

  “Krystal…” he says in exaggerated chiding.

  “Dad, please can we talk about this later? I’m upset. Can’t you tell? The last thing I want to do is talk about it.”

  “Maddy’s still with you, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then we’ll talk about it later. But I expect you to explain to me why you had a boyfriend we know nothing about. The boyfriend—not a problem. The not telling us—big problem.”

  Peachy. I’ve got that to look forward to.

  “Everything going OK with you?” I ask.

  “Yes, just wishing I was home.”

  “I wish you’d said goodbye to me before you took off.”

  I hear a ragged breath through the phone.

  That was a childishly mean thing to say to Alan.

  He’s a good dad.

  “I don’t like it when I don’t see you before I leave either, Krystal. I need to do better at that. Making sure I touch base with all of you every time I have to travel.”

  “It’s OK. I understand. You’re busy. It’s no big deal. I move out next week. Should make it easier. One less kid to remember.”

  I laugh, but my dad doesn’t.

  “No. It won’t make it easier. I’m going to hate not having you home. And I’m never too busy for you, sunshine.”

  I hear the sink shut off in the bathroom. “I’m glad you called, Dad. But I’ve got to go. Maddy’s waiting for me.”

  “All right, then. Try to have fun this weekend. Try not to feel down over Daryl.” God, my dad never misses anything. “Finding a guy isn’t hard. Finding a good one takes work. If he’s not the one, there’s no use trying to make him the one. Remember that. Trust your instincts. You broke up with him for a reason.”

  “I’ll remember, Dad.”

  “Cheer up and have fun. There’re lots of guys in this world—”

  Lots of guys in this world.

  Oh my—there’s one in my bathroom doorway and he’s naked.

  My fingers tighten around the phone as I watch Jacob crouch down over his bag, and I struggle to look at only his arms flexing as he rummages through his things and tosses clothes on the floor beside him.

  Damn, I can’t stop.

  My gaze moves lower to the package, and my cheeks burn. It suddenly feels like I’m in a sauna.

  God, when did I become a pervert?

  I’m on the freaking phone with my dad.

  I snap out of my trance and whisper, “I’ve gotta go. Talk to you soon, Daddy.”

  I tap off the phone.

  “Don’t walk around my room without clothes on,” I exclaim loudly.

  Jacob jerks up, startled. “Oh shit,” he says, grabbing the towel from the tile floor behind him and clutching it there as he rises. “I didn’t know you were back from the beach.”

  Flustered, he struggles to get the towel around his hips without showing anything.

  “From now on, assume that I’m here. It’s my bedroom.”

  He nods, wordless, and worse, without moving out of my vision. Having the towel around his hips doesn’t help a thing. He looks even sexier, staring at the ground, holding the white cotton with his hand there—no, don’t look there—and I shift my gaze back to his face, but my insides grow more jumpy.

  “Can you get dressed so we can talk?”

  “Sorry,” he mumbles as he snatches up his clothes and disappears back into the bathroom. A few seconds later he returns, wearing clean shorts, leather flip-flops, and a baggy t-shirt. “It won’t happen again.”

  “See that it doesn’t.”

  He reaches for his gun, lifts his shirt, giving me another fast peek of his abs, and it looks like he’s about to clip it to his back.

  “Put that down. No guns. Not around me. Not ever.”

  His hazel eyes meet mine evenly. “I’m required to carry a weapon at all times when I’m on the job.”

  GI Joe Merrick again. Only this time it doesn’t bother me. It’s helping to kill the naked Jacob effect.

  “But you’re not on the job.”

  For a moment he looks undecided, then he shoves the holster deep to the bottom of his suitcase and zips it closed.

  “Thank you. I don’t like guns. I never have.”

  He shrugs. “A gun is only as bad as the person who holds it.”

  That sounds like something he’s said before and the kind of thing a guy says to a girl.

  “If you want, I can take you to the range,” he adds, crossing the room to settle in a chair a good distance from the bed. “Teach you how to shoot, and then you’ll feel less uneasy around them.”

  “I don’t want to feel less uneasy around them.”

  He rakes back his damp hair. “You sound like my sister. Hated guns. Didn’t want to shoot. A few lessons and now she carries a Glock in her purse. Every girl should know how to defend herself. That’s my philosophy.”

  My eyes widen. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

  “Why should you? I’m an employee,” he says in a harsh, clipped way that makes me flush.

  His jaw tightens and he looks away.

  What’s up with that?

  Then I remember, belatedly, what went down at the volleyball court and why I was waiting in here for him.

  The tension swirling between us is suffocating.

  I take in a deep breath. “I think we need to talk about what happened outside.”

  His gaze shoots to mine and then he looks away quickly. “No, we don’t,” he says stiffly. “We’re good. My being here this weekend we can consider part of my job responsibilities. No need to talk about anything that happened on the beach.”

  Job responsibility?

  That was pretty cold and dismissive from a guy who just kissed me. I shake my head, frustrated with my thoughts. No, don’t think about that, Krystal. This is awful enough without going back there. Apologize for being rude and move on or the rest of the weekend might feel like this.

  “No, Jacob, we’re not good. You’ve been such a nice guy to me—”

  “Hey, forget it. I have.” The tic starts in his cheek. He stands up and pulls his cell from his pocket. “No need to say more, Krystal. I’m going to go out to the front patio for a while. I need to make a call. Grab me when you guys figure out what you’re doing next.”

  He retreats into the hallway and closes the door between us before I can answer him. I stare at the empty room. That was odd. He was really strange, even for Jacob.

  I was only trying to apologize.

  Why did he react that way?

  * * *

  Madison crinkles her nose as she slowly inspects me.

  “Krystal, why aren’t you ready yet? Start moving, girl. I want to get out of here.”

  I shake my head, annoyed. “I am ready.”

  Her golden brows go high on her forehead. “OK. I won’t say another word. Not even that your mother wears sexier
clothes than that.”

  Oh no, she didn’t.

  Did she really play the mother card—jeez, Louise—like that one is going to get me going?

  No, not responding to that.

  I start shoving things into my simple canvas cross-body bag.

  She looks around the room. “Where’s Jake?”

  “His name is Jacob. Stop pretending you’re besties to irritate me. I know what you’re doing, Maddy, and it’s not going to work.”

  “I’m not doing anything.” She rummages through my open suitcase. “Whoa. This is cute. I wish it was my size. I’d borrow it from you. You always have the most incredible clothes in hiding and you never take them out. What’s the point of having all these beautiful things if you don’t wear them? Is it like in that movie when the girl had that incredible collection of shoes in her closet that she never wore? You just want to know you have them? Why don’t you wear this?”

  She tosses something from the bag onto the bed.

  “I am not wearing that. Especially not that. It’s hideous. Kaley got it for me.”

  Madison’s eyes go wide. “Ah, no. Not hideous. Those shorts you wore on the beach were hideous.” She picks up the skintight sundress. “This is definitely fabulous. Try it on.”

  “I’m not wearing that. Not ever.”

  I look for my sunglasses.

  “Krystal,” she wheedles, making the outfit dance against her body as she closes in on me. “Try it on. For me. I bet you’ll look sensational in it.”

  “I don’t have enough boob for it and it’s way too short. It’s like Kaley shopped for herself, ended up with the wrong size, and said ‘I’ll gift it to Krystal.’ That wasn’t picked out for me.”

  She rolls her eyes. “That’s way harsh and not true. Your sister wouldn’t do that. That’s absolutely the right look for you.”

  I shove my feet into my shoes. “I’m not changing.”

  She sits on the bed beside me. “What’s wrong, Krystal? Did you and Jake have another fight?”

  “No fight. We don’t fight.”

  Her face scrunches up. “Yeah, right. Crackling tension every time the two of you are together says couple fighting all the time because they’re not sleeping together yet.”

  My face covers with a burn.

  How does she know that?

  “That’s not true.”

  She arches a brow, sharply knowing. “This is your last weekend home. You must have kicked Daryl to the curb for a reason. Maybe so you wouldn’t be a hillbilly harlot”—Well, that was dorky. Trite line from a movie. Crud, she is unmistakably my mother’s sister—“when you seal the deal with Jake. If you’re going to do it, you better do it fast. You wait too long you’ll be in New York.”

  “It’s not like that.”

  She makes her irritating teeth-on-lip sucking sound. “Then explain to me what’s really going on.”

  I climb from the bed, pretending to look for something so she can’t see the flush on my cheeks.

  “Stay out of it.”

  “If you used Jake as a way to break up with Daryl, that’s not cool, Krystal.”

  I whirl on her. “How could you think that? I wouldn’t do something like that, Maddy.”

  Her head tilts to the side as her eyes drill into me.

  “I didn’t,” I repeated more heatedly.

  She points at the bed. “Wear that, Krystal. If you want a guy, you have to let him know it. And what happens in Malibu stays in Malibu. Cut loose for once in your life. Wasn’t that the point of this weekend? Instead it’s been nothing but weirdness. Daryl out, Jake in, and Nick and I trying to roll with your craziness, but you two are a mess. If you’re into Jake, start acting like it, but if you’re not into him, tell him because Sierra is ready to step in any time. But what you’re doing, Krystal, isn’t good. I don’t need to know the details to know how you’re treating Jake is wrong.”

  A dozen sharp, defensive retorts fill my head, but for some reason I can’t say them. Maybe because there’s enough truth inside the speculation that even I don’t have the nerve. Or maybe it’s because that part about Sierra really pisses me off. Or maybe because…

  I snatch the dress from the bed. “Fine, Maddy. I’ll wear my hideous gift from Kaley. Happy? Can you stop picking on me now?”

  I don’t wait for her answer. I hurry into the bathroom.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Jacob”

  Can I be any more of an idiot?

  I pace the concrete in circles. No, not helping. Caged in with a girl I’m not even supposed to talk to, keyed up head to toe over her, and out of my fucking mind in less than twelve hours.

  This isn’t going to end well and I’ve screwed up big time. Nothing says loser like a random kiss. She’s probably thinking I’m some asshole taking advantage of the situation. Wrong, but fuck, I wouldn’t blame her if that’s what she thought. I’d think that if some guy I don’t know made a move on me out of nowhere.

  Why did I have to haul off and kiss her?

  Right feeling—how she felt in my arms floods my veins. Oh, better than right feeling—but wrong move. I fucked up. We were all clear and good to go at don’t be mad at me, Krystal, and I didn’t have to take it one step further.

  Krystal makes me crazy.

  She always has.

  All the guys on the team fall all over themselves for Chrissie and Kaley, but for me, it’s been Krystal from day one.

  The quiet sparkle in that world of blazing lights.

  She gets me tangled up over her without even trying. She’s not in the slightest bit flirty, and she’s never in a guy’s face in that way it seems every girl is every second of the day in So Cal. Krystal never puts out the signal or rubs up against me like Sierra did all morning, but she holds my balls in a vise grip without even wanting them.

  I sink down to the ground with my back against the wall. The way she stared at me in the bedroom. Nervous and—I shake my head—in that way where a girl’s trying to be the bigger person after a guy’s messed up.

  Yep, that’s what was going down in the bedroom.

  She was trying to fix my jerk move out on the beach.

  No, I didn’t need to hear whatever she was going to say about that. It would have been something that left me feeling more of a jerk. That’s how things that start you’re a nice guy always end.

  It was good I cut that short.

  Christ, what am I going to do?

  That caged feeling intensifies. It’s not possible to be around her, not like this, and not do something dumb again. She makes my wires get all crossed.

  I need to figure out a way out of this situation. She’s a job. Not a girl.

  I can’t forget that again.

  She’s Alan Manzone’s daughter. You had better not forget that again.

  I grab my cell from my pocket and switch it on. Notifications appear and I rapidly scroll through them. Fuck you, Brayden. Not answering that. How do you think it’s going? I’m in deep shit here.

  Janie.

  Janie.

  I need to call her. Later. She’ll know something’s up with me if I call her now.

  Crap, Jared. Schedule change. Why the hell am I suddenly working Monday? It’s my day off. The last one before I change assignments. I thumb through the text. Not going to answer, not yet. I need to talk to Brayden, get a heads-up on what kind of problem is coming my way this time.

  My eyes lock on the screen.

  Oh shit.

  My insides go numb.

  CP: Christian Parker.

  Six months and she hasn’t texted me once. Oh, this can’t be good. I tap it and read. Wants to talk to me before I leave for New York with Krystal.

  Brayden, you fucking asshat. You better not be flapping your gums. I search through the texts and hit the return call button for him.

  “Is everything OK?”

  I look up.

  Madison is standing above me.


  I switch off my phone and shove it back into my pocket. “A lot of work messages.”

  She crinkles her nose. “They text you even on your day off?”

  “Sometimes.”

  Madison sinks down on the pavement beside me. “It must be hard working for Krystal’s family.”

  I shrug. “Not hard. They’re nice people.”

  She gives me an amused look. “That’s not what I meant. I’m talking about you and Krystal being involved. And I know my bro-in-law. Alan must be up your ass every second you’re at the house. No one is ever good enough for the princesses. Not according to him. I’m amazed Krystal even manages to date. It must be rough.”

  She’s suspicious again. “No, Alan’s not like that. He’s very down to earth. And a man should be protective of his daughters. Someone has to be in this fucked-up world. I have nothing but respect for Alan.”

  She smiles. “You’re a pretty cool guy, Jake.”

  “You’re pretty cool, too.”

  “I’m hungry. You ready to go?”

  I spot Nick standing in the open front door, alone.

  “Where’s Krystal?”

  Madison lets out a slow, annoyed breath. “She’s changing her clothes. What’s up with her this weekend? One comment and she flips out. It’s like every little thing I say pisses her off.” She studies me then frowns. “You get into another fight with her?”

  My face warms. “No.”

  Her brows slowly move upward as she tilts her head.

  “Well, not that I know of.”

  Nick laughs. “I think he’s telling the truth here, Legs. Can you back off now and stay out of it?”

  “Fine, Nick. Consider me backing.”

  I spring to my feet. “Let me get her so we can head out.”

  I go into the house, down the hall, and stop outside the open bedroom door, taking in a breath to brace for more minutes with Krystal. Just let me get through something without jacking it up. Is that too much to ask?

  I knock on the frame. “Is it OK to come in?”

  “A little late to ask that, don’t you think?” she jeers.

  Why did she have to remind me of that? My seeing her tied to the bed nude, and her seeing all of me after my shower. Can’t she cut me a break?

  “I’ve already told you, I’m sorry—”