by R. Linda
Grabbing the key to my room, I stormed out and slammed the door behind me.
The elevator ride was much faster on the way down than on the way up. I found Jack’s room quickly since it was so close to the elevators. Banging my fist against his door, I waited for him to answer. He had to be in there. Where else could he have gone?
“Jack! Open up. I know you’re in there,” I shouted.
The sound of a door opening beside me stopped me from yelling any further. “Indie, what are you doing?”
“Where is he?” I asked Bailey, who was peering at me curiously from her room.
“I’m not sure.” She opened the door wider for me to enter and called loudly to Ryder, who was outside on the balcony with Nate. “Hey, Jones, do you know where Jack went?”
“No idea.” He shook his head and resumed his conversation with Nate.
Panic set in. “He’s not going to tell Nate that Jack is gay, is he?”
She laughed. “Of course not. He knows how fake relationships work. He’s the leading expert, remember?”
“Okay, good.” I couldn’t have anyone outing the truth now. It was too late. We were in this for the week, Jack and I. After I killed him, of course.
“What did he do?” Bailey knew immediately Jack was at fault, which wasn’t surprising since we’d all lived together for over a year.
“He repacked my bags,” I huffed.
“That’s all?” She looked like she was trying not to laugh at my reaction.
“I know it might not seem like a big deal, but he took out everything I owned and replaced it with…with girl clothes.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“Follow me. I’ll show you.”
Bailey sighed but agreed, only because she wanted to see my room.
“How come you’re all the way up here?” Bailey asked as we stepped off the elevator.
“Don’t know. Linc’s here too somewhere.”
“Really?” She raised her eyebrows in surprise, and her mouth twisted into a knowing smile.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just odd that you two have rooms farther away from the rest of us. That’s all.”
“Uh-huh.” She didn’t need to tell me it was odd. I knew it. It was also exciting that we had more privacy up here and some time to spend catching up without the watchful eyes of my friends. At least until Jasmine showed up.
“You know he’s single, right?”
“Wait, what?” I froze in my doorway. He was single? What happened to Jasmine? When did they break up? Why did they break up? Was it his idea or hers? Oh, I hoped she didn’t break his heart. I had so many thoughts running through my head, and so many questions.
“Nate and Ryder were talking about it before you came down screaming like a banshee. I don’t know the details,” she said quickly as I shoved open the door and let her inside.
“Whoa, this is a nice room. Look at the view!” Bailey rushed over to my balcony to look out at the beach and pool below, ending all conversation about Jasmine and Linc. “So much better than ours. We’re looking out onto the street in front. Wanna trade?”
“As if I’m giving up this room. You’re not going to see me until the wedding. I’m spending the entire time in my hot tub.” I threw open the bathroom door for her to see.
“Why do you get a hot tub?” She looked around my bathroom in awe.
“We are here for my parents’ wedding, aren’t we?”
“I guess. Okay, show me what Jack did.”
I pointed to the suitcase laying open on the bed. Bailey walked over and had barely glanced at the contents before she burst out laughing.
“He did it. I can’t believe he really did it.” She bit her fist to stop laughing.
“Re-packed my suitcase with clothes I’d never wear? Yes, he did, and I’m going to kill him.”
“They’re not that bad, In.” She pulled out a scrap of material and held it against her. I raised my eyebrow in disbelief. What was that? A handkerchief?
“This dress is cute. You could totally pull it off.” She threw the flimsy navy-blue fabric at my face.
“It covers nothing,” I insisted.
“It barely grazes your knee. Stop whining.” She dug further into the case and pulled out a pair of brown leather sandals and a matching leather belt. “Perfect.”
“What?” I frowned. I didn’t wear sandals. I didn’t wear dresses. And I certainly didn’t wear accessories.
“This is what you are wearing to dinner tonight.”
“No.” I threw the dress back at her and held my hands up defensively. “Absolutely not. There must be a nice pair of jeans and a top in there.”
“There’s not,” she assured me.
“How do you know?”
“Don’t kill me.” Bailey placed her hands behind her and rocked back and forth on her feet, feigning an innocent expression.
“What?” I growled.
“I may have sorta given him the idea to replace all your clothes.”
“Why?” I whined and stomped my foot. I was not a girly girl. I’d always been more of a tomboy, preferring pants and t-shirts over dresses and pretty things. Came with the territory, growing up with an older brother and his best mate. I’d hated dressing up ever since I started growing boobs and Linc made a joke about me being a real girl when I was twelve. For a while, I tried to flatten my breasts by wrapping cling wrap around my chest.
“Because this is your chance to wow Linc. To show him what’s been in front of him this whole time.” Her voice softened. “This is your chance to sweep him off his feet.”
“Shouldn’t he be doing the sweeping?” I smiled at her, the anger I felt at what she and Jack had done easing with the realisation they were only trying to help.
“You’ve waited fifteen years for him. Time to create your own fairy tale. Now, go take a shower and get dressed. We’re going to make Linc lose his mind.” She dug around in the suitcase again before turning to me, grinning mischievously and shoving the dress into my hands.
I’d been dismissed.
It might have been the best shower I’d ever had. Feeling refreshed and clean, I stepped out of the bathroom with a positive outlook and a bathrobe wrapped around me.
“Oh my God. Sorry,” Bailey almost shouted before the unmistakable sound of a door slamming echoed through the room.
“What was that?” I asked, coming around the corner to see Bailey bright red and leaning against a door I assumed was a cleaning closet or something.
“Why didn’t you tell me you and Linc had adjoining rooms?” She squeezed her eyes. “Oh my God, Ryder is going to kill me.”
“What are you talking about?” Adjoining rooms? What?
She pointed over her shoulder at the door she was leaning on. “I just opened the door because, well…I was snooping, and bam!” She clapped her hands loudly. “Linc, was standing there shirtless.”
“He…huh—What?”
“His room is right through that door.” She rushed over to me and dragged me to sit on the bed. “Didn’t you know?”
“I had no idea.” I bit my lip and stared at the door. “He was shirtless?”
“Yes…and wow! No wonder you sleep with his photo under your pillow.” She laughed, falling back onto the bed. “I did not just say that. Ryder is going to kill me.”
“Ryder, why?” I laughed.
“Because Linc is one fine piece of eye candy.” She giggled again, rolling over to bury her face in the mattress.
“Now you see my problem.” I sighed.
“I don’t see any problem.”
“He looks like that.” I waved at the door I really wanted to open and peek through. “And I’m just me. He dates women who look like they belong on the cover of the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. There’s no way he’d want me. I’m a tomboy and too much like his sister.”
“That’s rubbish, and you know it. You were a tomboy. But as of now, you’re going to prove to him you’re all wom
an. Show off those incredible curves I wish I had. He’s a guy. He needs things to be spelled out for him, and that is exactly what you’re going to do this week.”
“You really think it will work?”
“Absolutely. I’d bet you anything he was behind this. Sharing a joint room. I saw the way he looked when Jack announced he was your boyfriend. I thought he was going to blow a gasket. Even Ryder picked up on the tension radiating from him.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Chapter Four
Linc
Thirty seconds earlier and Bailey would have seen everything. I hadn’t even thought to check if the door connecting the two rooms was locked. I didn’t know who was more surprised or disappointed, to be honest. Bailey’s face turned a nice shade of red, and she looked like she was going to die from embarrassment when she caught me slipping on my shirt. And I couldn’t deny I was disappointed it wasn’t Indie who had mistakenly walked into my room. I also couldn’t deny I’d spent the next twenty minutes with my shirt on and off again, on the off-chance Indie decided to stroll through that door and demand to know why we were sharing and why I hadn’t told her. But she never came.
Instead, at seven o’clock, I paused at the door joining our rooms and thought about seeing if she wanted to head downstairs for dinner with me. I was sure she had no idea where to go, but I decided against it. She knew where I was, and if she wanted to walk with me, she would have knocked first. She didn’t. So I made my way to the elevators and downstairs alone.
Images of Indie with her arm linked through mine as we walked in together flashed through my mind. Of course, in those flashes, Nate and her parents were totally cool with us as a couple. In those images, Indie’s eyes lit up when she saw me. In reality, her eyes seemed to narrow and shoot daggers at me most of the time, and Nate would cut my balls off and feed them to Fang, his pet duck, if I so much as looked at Indie the wrong way.
Couldn’t blame him, though. We were both protective of her, just for entirely different reasons. He was her brother. But she was mine. My best friend. My soulmate. All mine. I’d been threatening all the losers she went to school with since I was nine years old. Every time any one of them showed a hint of being interested in her, I shut it down completely. Scared them all off.
No way was I letting little David Miller play kiss-chasey with her when she was six. Told him she had cooties, and he cried, refusing to play with her again. I wanted to be her first kiss.
I hung Stevie Blake’s school bag from the top of the flagpole the day he tried to give her a bunch of flowers he’d picked from some old lady’s garden on the way to school. I refused to get his bag down until he gave the flowers to another girl, effectively starting their relationship and making him forget all about Indie. I wanted to bring her flowers and see her face light up with a smile that was just for me.
Those were the easy ones. When she got to high school, things became harder. The day I heard Alex Knowles talking about how nice Indie’s ass looked in her jeans, Nate had to stop me from shoving the kid in his locker. But, damn, her ass did look good…in everything.
Then came Matt Marsden. Poor kid. Showed up at her house with chocolates and flowers on Valentine’s Day when she was about fifteen. Nate and I were playing basketball in the driveway when he arrived. Scared him off, too. Threatened to tape him to a tree if he so much as looked at Indie again. Kid dropped his gifts on the grass and ran away faster than a hundred-meter sprinter going for gold. I wanted to be her Valentine.
I wanted to be her everything.
But I couldn’t.
I couldn’t risk twenty-three years of friendship with Nate for a girl. Even if that girl was Indie. Nate was my best friend, and I’d never do that to him. Bros before…No. Not that. That wasn’t Indie at all. She was so much more. She was perfect, and she deserved someone who treated her like a queen. But hell if I wasn’t going to make life incredibly difficult for each and every guy who tried to be that for her. They were going to have to prove they deserved to be with Indie. So far, no one had been worthy. They all bailed at the first sign of trouble.
Except Jayden, a friend of Ryder’s who was supposed to take Indie to prom her final year of high school. He was a fighter. He didn’t back down, no matter how much I tried to intimidate him. For a moment, as I stared him down, and he glared back, refusing point blank to ditch Indie on her prom night, I feared I’d met my match, that he would be the one to swoop in and steal Indie from me. But then, suddenly, his face changed. Holding up his hands defensively, he mumbled something that sounded like, “You’re him,” and walked away.
Indie was devastated. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her look so heartbroken. She sat crying on the front steps in her pretty black dress and worn, scuffed, black chucks on her feet—in true Indie style—though it had been a long time since she’d worn something so feminine. I showed up in a suit with flowers for her, because it was always meant to be me who took her to prom. The thought of her dancing in the arms of someone else was like a knife to the chest, and the idea of what went on after prom was like a kick in the guts. Not. Happening.
She’d looked up at me and didn’t even try to wipe the tears from her face. That was one of my favourite things about her. She didn’t hide her emotions. If she felt it, the entire world knew, and in that moment, I knew I’d screwed up.
“What’s wrong with me, Linc?” She sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her hand.
“What are you talking about?” I sat beside her and tried to mask my expression with a neutral one, but it proved difficult. I knew what was coming next.
“No one wants me. Jayden bailed, like every single guy who’s ever been interested. Am I that repulsive?”
My heart ached. I did this to her because I was too selfish to admit my feelings for her, or at the very least back away and let her live her own life on her own terms. I destroyed her confidence because I couldn’t handle seeing her with anyone who wasn’t me.
“Hey, look at me.” I tilted her face up so I could look into those pretty blue eyes that were a raging storm of emotions and heartbreak. “You are perfect. There is nothing wrong with you, Indie. Trust me. All those guys, they were kids. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. You deserve only the best,” I’d told her truthfully before handing her the flowers and asking her to be my date.
Nate thought I was crazy for even “offering” to take her to prom, laughing his head off and mocking me for attending a high school event when I was twenty years old, but there was nowhere else I wanted to be. There was nowhere else I ever wanted to be but beside her. And the smile she gave me when I asked nearly stopped my heart. I wanted to see that smile forever.
The restaurant in the lobby of the hotel was relatively quiet, considering how busy it was. I scanned the faces of everyone enjoying their meals in search of the Kellerman table, and then I heard her laugh. Loud and obnoxious, completely unfiltered, just like Indie. I followed the sound of her voice and stopped short when I saw Jack sitting beside her with his arm wrapped around her waist, in conversation with Ryder and Nate while Indie chatted excitedly with her parents.
“Oh, Linc, honey, you made it.” Leanne Kellerman stood and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek, followed by Nate’s dad Steve, who rose and reached out to shake my hand. They were always formal and polite and reminded me so much of my parents. I guessed that was why they got along so well.
“Sorry I’m late.” I cleared my throat and glanced at my watch. Late by two minutes. Bailey flicked her eyes to me before quickly lowering her head in embarrassment. I smirked. Indie glared.
“Oh, nonsense, we’ve only just sat down,” Leanne said kindly, looking over my shoulder as the waiter approached with two bottles of wine. Bailey and Indie both reached for a bottle and laughed nervously. What had them so worked up? Chancing a glance at Ryder, he seemed as clueless as everyone why the girls were pouring copious amounts of wine into their glasses. He wasn’t giving me threatening looks, so I guessed
Bailey hadn’t told him she had walked into my room mistakenly, because no doubt he’d be furious with me right now.
“I think we’re going to need a couple more bottles,” Steve announced, looking at the girls with an amused expression.
Jack whispered something in Indie’s ear, and she laughed softly.
I reached for the waiter. “And a whiskey.” I was going to need something stronger than wine if I was to endure an entire dinner watching Jack-ass fawn all over my girl in a…dress.
She was wearing a dress. And he had better keep his hands to himself.
Chapter Five
Indie
I hadn’t realised how much I missed everyone until we were all seated at the table having dinner. Pretty sure both my parents teared up when they hugged me too tight, for too long, before gushing over my new boyfriend who they regrettably didn’t know about. It made my stomach drop. I was a horrible daughter for lying to them about Jack and for not visiting them for over a year, all because I was jealous that Linc was marrying someone who wasn’t me. I could never explain that to them, though, so I made excuses. I told them I had been busy with school and work and, stupidly carrying on the charade, I told them I had gone home to meet Jack’s family. It wasn’t a lie, but it did fuel the story of Jack being my boyfriend.
Linc kept shooting glances at Jack and me and smirking at Bailey every time she looked in his direction. Knowing how embarrassed she was about walking in on him shirtless, he was having the time of his life tormenting her. Subtly, of course. Otherwise, he’d face the wrath of Ryder. And even though Linc was two years older and—in my opinion—much more fit, defined, buff, and godly than Ryder, I wasn’t convinced Linc stood a chance against a pissed-off Ryder, particularly when it had to do with Bailey. I’d seen him fight enough over the years, and he was quick.
Every time Linc shot Bailey a teasing look or wink, she took a mouthful of wine to hide her embarrassment. Each time Jack touched me in a way a gay best friend shouldn’t, I gulped down the fruity alcohol to calm my nerves. Together, Bailey and I consumed enough wine to drown an elephant out of pure discomfort. Admittedly, though, I was a little jealous of the guy Jack would end up with, once he settled down and stopped trying to get into the pants of every guy on campus. He was a sweetheart, kind, caring, and attentive. The perfect boyfriend.