by Angel Lawson
The main road continued past the church, through Jacob’s neighborhood, up to the edge of the town by the water. I swallowed back years-old anxiety and Oliver didn’t slow when we passed the small dirt road where I drove that night looking to end the pain, but he did squeeze my hand, letting me know he remembered.
Oceanside had its own small resurgence as Allendale’s popularity grew in the movie industry. Small restaurants and shops started opening and tourists now visited the off-the-beaten track town for the beautiful views and gorgeous beaches. These new places were mingled in with the old, and from the outside Oceanside probably seemed like a quaint town. No one had a clue the devil ran through this place.
Following the GPS, Oliver drove down a small side road to the warehouse.
“Amber just wants verbal communication that everything is set for Saturday,” I said, unbuckling and hopping out of the car. Hand in hand, we walked into the small office.
A woman worked at the desk, a phone held to her ear. She looked vaguely familiar and when she looked up at me, joint recognition took place.
“Heaven?” the woman said, eyes widening.
“Emily, right?” Discomfort settled in my belly seeing the girl from my past. My nerves only settled when Oliver rested a hand on my lower back.
“Yes, Emily McKeever.”
“Of course! It’s been forever. How are you?”
She shrugged, her curly black hair falling over her shoulders. “Not too bad. I’ve worked here since high school—took over the front office a few years ago. What about you?”
“I’m good. I’m back in Allendale, working as a makeup artist.”
“And special-effects expert,” Oliver added. “She works on TV shows.”
Emily’s jaw dropped. “Really? That’s so exciting! Do you get to see the actors?”
“Sometimes,” I said, realizing she has no understanding of my job and the people I worked with. I fought back a smile. Emily had been one of the ones involved in the spreading of the “Heaven is a whore” rumor in school. And now she worked at a warehouse desk and I worked with celebrities. Justice felt nice.
Emily must have known it, because she raised her eyebrows. “I remember how much trouble you and Justin got in back in the day. The rumors and gossip. All that nastiness with the police.”
“Yeah,” I said, not letting her jar me. “All of that seems like a long time ago.”
“I remember hearing about you and all those boys and thinking there was no way it could be true. You had a hard enough time getting one date, not to mention four. I mean, if you’d had dates, why would you and Justin cook up that crazy scheme in the first place?”
Oliver tensed behind me, ready to come to my defense. I squeezed his hand and ignored Emily. “We came in to check on an order for this weekend.”
“Let me see…” she thumbed through a stack of papers. “The Wasserman/Rollins wedding?” She looked up questioningly, eyes shifting over to Oliver and giving him a tiny smile.
In response, Oliver’s fingers brushed over the tattoo on my back and dipped into the waist of my jeans. Emily watched us, taking in every bit of our intimate touches, before saying, “Everything is ready to go. Five p.m. wedding. A hundred guests. We’ll have it set up an hour beforehand.”
She handed me the paperwork. At the top, the bride and well, bride, were listed as A. Wasserman and G. Rollins.
“Is this your wedding? Are you guys getting married?”
“Oh, no.”
“We’re not getting married,” Oliver said with a cheeky grin, “yet.”
I rolled my eyes but I blushed anyway. “It’s for my friend Amber and her fiancé, Ginger. They live in New York now but Amber grew up in Allendale. Justin knows her.”
A small grin twisted her lips. “I bet.”
I glanced at Oliver. What was that about?
“How is Justin?” I asked. “I haven’t seen him in a long time.”
“Oh, you know he moved after high school. People had a hard time with his, you know, personal life. Not that I have any problems with it, but Oceanside has never been very open-minded.”
“No,” I said, remembering how my mother and I were basically run out of town after my father left. “No, it’s not. Well, I guess I don’t blame him for leaving. Any of the old gang still around?”
“Oh yeah, Paul actually manages the company. His uncle owns it. He’s back in the warehouse now.”
Paul. I’d kissed him at a bonfire in high school, but he was one of Justin’s biggest antagonists. He’d been friendly with Spencer back then, too.
“We really need to run,” I said, clutching the paperwork. “Everything looks great. I think the wedding should go off without a hitch on Saturday.”
Emily nodded. “I’m sure it will.”
“It was good to see you again.”
“You too, Heaven. I’ll tell Paul you came by. He’ll be very interested to hear about the details of the wedding.”
There was something about the way she said it that sounded like a warning. For what?
“Ugh,” I groaned when we were back in the car. “Running into people like Emily make me remember why I hate this place.”
“She’s got a lot of opinions, that’s for sure,” he said, shifting his car in gear.
“She always has.”
Oliver backed out of the parking lot and two figures standing by the warehouse door caught my attention. Emily and Paul watched us drive away. The look on their faces made me uneasy—probably just leftover feelings from the past. There was a reason Justin and I used Emily and her group of friends to spread the rumor about the two of us having sex. They were gossips and shit-stirrers. One thing was for certain; I didn’t trust these people then and I didn’t trust them now.
With summer on the horizon, the afternoon warmed up. To my surprise, Oliver took the rest of the day off, encouraging me to lounge with him by the pool.
“We have to pick up Anderson in three hours.”
“We can do a lot of things in three hours. Lying by the pool is one of them.”
“If I get burned, Amber will kill me,” I said, after finally agreeing to stop by my apartment for my bathing suit.
“Don’t worry, babe. I’ll lather you up.”
I snorted. “I bet.”
Back at his house, I changed in the small bathing house adjacent to the pool. It wasn’t my first time in the pool. The summer after graduation we spent hours here. Lounging, dreaming of college. But now that Oliver owned the house, it felt different. I felt less like a visitor and when I walked out of the small building adjusting the ties on my bikini, I had a sense of confidence I was unfamiliar with.
Oliver emerged from the house carrying a stack of striped towels, fumbling when he saw me.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, dropping the towels on a lounge chair. A similar sentiment clung to my tongue, seeing him walk across the pool deck in blue- and gray-striped board shorts. They clung to his narrow hips, the string tied under his navel. The golden scattering of hair caught my eye and I longed to run my fingers through it, knowing that my touch sent a powerful jolt through his body.
He’d crossed the deck in an instant, fingers blazing over the skin along my side. He fingered the ties at my hip, then the ones behind my neck. “I should have suggested this days ago.”
“If I’d known you’d be game for playing hooky all the time, I would have.”
He responded with a kiss, deep and toe-curling, and I wondered how in the world I’d let him out of my life. What had I been thinking? Clearly, I hadn’t been.
To his credit, after a few well-placed kisses, he did lather me up, making sure to double up where the scars lingered after so many years. His hands skimmed over the tattoo and there was no doubt of his desire when he brushed against me, but he held off and let me stretch out on the lounge chair that was less chair and more couch.
“This is new?” I asked, resting my head on the pillow.
“I may have orde
red it a few weeks ago when I saw it in a catalogue and thought of how useful a mattress would be by the pool.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Planning ahead?”
“I’m a very good businessman, Heaven. I’m prepared for most situations.”
Our fingers linked in a lazy, unrushed way. I felt the build-up, the slow pace, and that too was different from our times before, when classes and friends and sports were always bearing down on us.
“Remember that time,” I said after a while, rolling over on my side. Oliver’s eyes glued to my chest, “when we came here late at night and skinny-dipped?”
“I do. You were wearing a white cotton bra and panties and I swear to God I almost came just seeing you emerging from the water, all wet and see-through.”
My cheeks heated. It wasn’t from the sun. “Stop. It’s not like you hadn’t seen me naked before!”
“I won’t stop. I literally almost ejaculated, seeing you. Instant reaction. There’s something about a thin layer of see-through clothing that makes a woman’s body even more appealing. At least, I think so.”
“You just like a challenge.”
He laughed. “You’ve got me there.”
We stared at one another for a minute, both of us thinking back to that time that seemed so long ago. We’d been so young. So horny all the time. He reached across the space between us and dragged his finger between my breasts, sending sparks across my skin.
I ran my hand down his chest, grazing his nipples with my nails, and tugging at the knot holding his shorts around his waist.
His stomach caved and his thumb circled the swell of my breast. I was so interested in Oliver, so interested in where his hands were moving, in how his body was reacting, I didn’t see the shadow streak across the pool deck or notice Jackson cannonballing into the pool until he shouted and landed with a crash in the water.
Cold water rained from the sky, showering over me and Oliver. I jerked up, droplets running down my body.
“Dammit, Jackson!” Oliver shouted and we both scrambled off the chair, but he was already lifting himself out of the water. He smirked when he straightened and that was when I noticed he was only wearing tight, black boxer briefs.
“You two looked like you needed some cooling off,” he said, sauntering over. Water rolled over his muscular physique and the little grin that tugged at his mouth made my stomach twist with desire. His eyes skimmed my body, leveled at my erect nipples. “Although Heaven may be a little too chilly.”
Bold as ever, he reached for me, dragging me against his cold, wet body. His lips were warm but it did nothing to soothe the goosebumps across my skin. Instead my body reacted, sending a surging shiver down my spine. It wasn’t until I felt the second set of hands grazing down my shoulders that my body warmed up—overheated actually, and once again I found myself blessed by the caresses of two men.
Jackson kissed me, then released me with a controlled spin so I faced Oliver. His eyes searched mine, making sure this was okay. I showed him how much with a kiss of my own, tiny ones atop his brown, round nipples. He sucked in a breath, his hands cupping my breasts. Jackson leaned into me, the hard length of his erection pressing into my behind.
This was good, so good. Why had we waited to do this?
My heart raced at the possibilities and I tasted them, both different, both familiar. How far would this go? I wondered. We hadn’t done much more than this. Hot make-out sessions that tended to end with me spiraling. So far, neither of them had gone that far themselves. I was letting them set the pace—wanting them to be okay with what we were doing, but now that I was so overheated and everyone was half naked, it was hard to think clearly.
I latched a hand in both their shorts and opened my mouth to ask them to go to the mattress with me, to see how far they’d go, when the sound of the back gate opening scraped against the pavement and we all looked up.
Hayden and Anderson stood in the doorway, eyes widened and jaws slacked. Oliver and I dropped our hands, like children caught doing something naughty. Jackson on the other hand, let his fingers linger, kissing me once on the neck, letting his intentions be known.
“Anderson,” I said in a shaky breath. “You’re…here.”
“I caught an early flight. I wanted to surprise everyone.”
“Surprise…” Jackson joked, but Hayden’s expression went from shock to full-out rage. He didn’t react or respond verbally, he just walked away.
Anderson stood there silently, his jaw working in tight circles. This was not how I wanted him to find out. I stepped away from the boys and toward the fence.
“I think I’m going to go put my bags in the house,” he said, walking in the direction of the back apartment. Hayden was surely already in there—thinking god knows what.
“Anderson,” I said, running after him. The tie on my bikini slipped and I grabbed it just in time. “This isn’t how I wanted to see you again. I wanted time to talk to you—we all did.”
“We can talk later,” he said, his voice less angry than I expected. Unfortunately, anger I could deal with. Whatever he was thinking—feeling--I didn’t know, and honestly, it made it worse.
I let him go, knowing he needed a moment, and glanced back at Oliver and Jackson. They both looked worried as well, probably, realizing like I was that one stupid impulse, one dumb moment and this could be over before it even started.
40
Anderson
The door closed with a click behind me and I dropped my bags on the floor. Hayden raced across the room, a flurry of motion. His hands were full of clothing and an open suitcase sat on the floor. He dropped the pile in and went back to the closet.
“What are you doing?” The question was dumb, but I felt dumb, or dumbstruck at least.
“Going home.” He tossed in a pair of shoes and scooped up a row of medication bottles on the counter. “I can’t deal with this any longer.”
“How long has that been going on?”
“Those three?” He shook his head. “I have no fucking clue.”
“But you’re angry about it?”
“You’re not?” He laughed darkly. “I figure if anyone would blow a gasket about the three of them not only getting together behind our backs but escalating, it would be you.”
“Why me?” I asked, but I knew. The fact I wasn’t more…something…about the situation confused me as well. Anger did flit by for the slightest moment when I first rounded that corner, but something about seeing my friends that way, Heaven that way, surrounded by love and positive energy…I didn’t hate it. I kind of understood.
“You’ve never been one for change, Anderson. And what we just saw out there? That was a big fucking change.”
I pushed the game controllers off the armchair and sat down. “I think you need to calm down and we need to go back down there and talk to them—figure it out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out, man. I’m leaving. Going back home to my job, to my career, to—”
“Your girlfriend?”
Hayden inhaled sharply. “Sabine has nothing to do with this.”
“She doesn’t? Why the hell not? Because if there was the slightest chance I could ever fall in love with anyone else, I’d be with that person right now.” I laughed darkly. “You want to know why I’m not angry? Because I’ve been there. Everything bound and tied up in a twisted rage. And then that shifted into grief. Then depression and despair. I thought I was managing, but then you got hurt and Heaven came crashing back in our lives and I realized I needed to get over myself. So I spent the last few months dealing with my own issues about our relationship, about the break-up and realized anger wasn’t part of the equation. Sadness? Yep. Loneliness? Absolutely. But anger? No.”
Hayden gave me a dirty look and went into the bathroom to pack his travel bag.
“I decided to give her some space,” I said, watching him run around. “And during that time, we’ve established a relationship again. A friendship. But I came here to win b
ack her heart, hoping that you guys would be ahead of me, like you’ve always been.” I rubbed my hair and glared at Hayden, who stood before me, jaw and shoulders tight. “I’m happy to see her with Oliver and Jackson. A little surprised, but happy. And I plan on doing whatever I can to get her to forgive me and see if she’ll take me back. If they’ll all take me back.”
Hayden twisted the shirt he held in his hands, his mind absorbing everything I said. Maybe, just maybe, I’d get through and we could salvage this.
When Hayden finally spoke his voice was low, raw. “I can’t live in both worlds, Anderson. I can’t maintain the image I need to for my endorsements and be a participant in that relationship. If anyone found out about Heaven and her background and our,” he waved his hand between us, “relationship, they’d massacre her in the press. They’d massacre me.”
“That’s no way to live, Hayden.”
“You know why this isn’t about Sabine?” I shook my head. “Because Sabine isn’t my girlfriend. She’s a fucking showmance set up by my agent when he did a little digging on my past. He’s worked like a maniac getting my past cleared up online, but we both know the internet is forever and it’s only a matter of time before someone connects me to all the shit that went down years ago. Bryant thought Sabine was the perfect solution to my image concerns. She was already my PT, beautiful and willing.”
“Wait…what?”
“I’ve been in trouble with her and Bryant since I went to that premiere with Heaven and our photos were splashed all over. I’ve done everything I can to pull away from her because I’m terrified they’ll dig into Heaven’s past. What if they find her medical records or all the dirt on her father? I’m scared for her. Scared for me.”
“Heaven can make her own decision about this. Talk to her and see what she thinks.”
“No. I told you. Even if she’s okay with it, I’m not. I’ve worked too fucking hard for everything to fall apart like a house of cards. I already don’t know if I’ve got a spot on the team. If I’ll pass the doctor’s exam. But even if I do, and the world finds out that not only do we have this past with Heaven but things are even more intense, more convoluted now? I just can’t do it. The whole thing is a fucking mess and the best thing I can do is walk before any of us gets hurt more.”