by Lexy Timms
“What is your problem?” Kallie asked.
She charged down to him and Ash stopped in his tracks. He cocked an eyebrow in the air and it only served to make Kallie more infuriated. Did he think she was crazy? Because she sure as hell wasn’t crazy.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ash said.
“That little show of manliness there, with the volleyball. What was that about?” she asked.
“Would you have rather me kicked it?” he asked.
“Cut the crap, Ash. We had a good time last night. At least, I thought we did. I did. A very good time. But you hurried out with some bullshit excuse about working and you didn’t work. You weren’t at the Cabana cleaning up like you said you had to. You hurried out of my villa like your ass was on fire, and now you’re ignoring me.”
Ash stared at her hotly and it made Kallie even angrier.
“At least have the decency to acknowledge me, even if you didn’t have a good time,” she said.
Ash’s face was a thundercloud. His eyes darkened and Kallie’s heart leaped to her throat. He dropped his board to the sand and took a step toward her, and she instinctively stepped back.
“I enjoyed every second of the time we spent together. Every part of it. I worked through every barrier you threw at me to get more time with you, and then I figure out you’re married.”
“What?” she asked.
“I saw the bouquet of flowers sitting by your bed last night. That fun little note. I don’t make it a habit of sleeping with married women. Despite what most people in this world think about the aging ritual, I happen to find it a very binding commitment between two people. And I don’t appreciate being misled.”
“You think I would be the type to cheat,” Kallie said. “Are you serious?”
“You’re married, Kallie. The jig is up.”
“There is no jig, and it isn’t up. I’m offended you would even—”
Kallie’s breath caught in her throat as tears rose to her eyes. She shook her head and looked away, trying to keep her strength. This was the confrontation she wanted. She wanted answers as to what happened. But her emotions were flying out of control and her stomach was rolling with sickness.
“I could never be like James,” she said breathlessly.
“Who the fuck is James?” Ash asked.
“My ex-fiancé!” Kallie roared. “I caught him fucking his best man’s wife—who happened to be one of my bridesmaids—and this was supposed to be our damn honeymoon!”
She hated that the booze was taking over. That Ash was looking at her with a pathetic look on his face. She didn’t want his sympathy. She didn’t want his pity. All she wanted was to have a good time. To feel beautiful and no longer feel vulnerable. She stumbled back from Ash and he went to reach out for her, but she ripped herself away.
“I could never be like him,” she said with a whisper.
She ran for her stuff and sprinted back to her villa. Stumbling along the sand and losing her balance multiple times. She felt horrible. Childish. Disgusting. Drunk. She felt like an idiot, and she was ready to go home.
Kallie barged into her villa and dropped her things to the floor. She slammed the door behind her as the room began to tilt. She rushed to the bathroom and fell to her knees, jamming her head into the toilet. All of the liquor she’d been using to give her strength and give her courage was finally coming up. All the self-medicating was finally getting to her, and she began to vomit. Over and over, her stomach heaving as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Then, a knock came at her door.
She ignored it, favoring the cool seat of the toilet against her cheek. But the knock came again. She closed her eyes and pulled herself from the bathroom floor, then grabbed her toothbrush and put some paste on it. She held it to her teeth as the knocking on the door started up again, but this time it was louder. Faster. Harder. Until the person was banging with their fists hard enough to make her skull vibrate.
She slammed her toothbrush down onto the counter and held her head in her hands.
She walked over to the door and answered it, only to be faced with Ash. The man she’d just run away from. There was nothing but concerned etched in his features and she saw a covered bowl in his hands. She scoffed and shook her head, unable to deal with whatever reason he had for standing at her villa.
Without a word she walked away, leaving Ash to make his own decision.
She walked back to the bathroom and started brushing her teeth. Relieving her mouth of the taste of curdled alcohol. She heard the door to the villa shut before feet started walking across the floor and she rolled her eyes. Ash must have decided to come in with whatever the hell he had in his hands. She wasn’t ready to deal with him. She was hurt, and sad, and embarrassed, and a host of other things she didn’t want to admit to.
Kallie finished brushing her teeth, then rinsed out her mouth with mouthwash.
Maybe if she stayed in the bathroom long enough, he would go away. Leave whatever it was he’d brought with him and head back to the beach. But the longer she stood in the bathroom, the more she heard him moving around. Plastic wrap. Opening and closing cabinets. Turning on the faucet.
She groaned before sliding out of the bathroom and heading for the kitchen.
Whatever it was he wanted, she would have to address it before he went away.
Then, she could book herself the next flight home.
Chapter 15
Ash
Kallie looked terrible, and Ash felt worse. He watched her turn and walk away, seemingly exasperated with the fact that he was there. But she left the door open and he took any entrance he could get into her villa on the beach. He shut the door behind him and listened as she brushed her teeth. He made his way into the kitchen and set the bowl down on the marble kitchen island, then uncovered the bowl of soup he’d gotten for her.
He rummaged through her cabinets until he found a glass. Then he went over to the sink and filled it with the cold, filtered water he knew the villas were set up for. He picked up the bowl and set it at the kitchen table, then went to get a spoon for her to eat with.
The broth would help her stomach to feel better.
He stood there by the kitchen table and waited for her. Waited for the woman he had accused of being a cheater. She had confronted him with an earnest that sparked a fire in his gut, and then he watched that earnest slowly evaporate when his judgment of her came crashing down on her. He could see her face. The way it had contorted. The way the sadness had settled in on her features. The tears in her eyes had snuffed out any anger he felt, and he was left feeling like nothing but a jerk. He’d watched her stumble away, falling over herself to get back to her villa, and everything inside of him wanted to rush to her and help her back.
But he knew she needed something more than help.
She needed a cure for the sickness she was experiencing.
Kallie was taking in vino veritas to the extreme, and now he understood why. She’d clearly had too much to drink and was fielding emotions she’d kept close to her chest. He leaned against the kitchen wall and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his board shorts.
One of the few times he was glad he hadn’t been surfing in his wet suit.
The small footfalls of her feet fell upon his ears and he whipped his head up. But when Kallie opened her mouth to speak, he held up his hand. Her eyes sparked with anger as she furrowed her brow, but then Ash motioned to the soup and the water waiting for her.
“It’s miso soup. Eat it. It’ll make you feel better,” he said.
Kallie rolled her eyes but did as she was told. He sat down at the table across from her, careful to not spook her. He was fearful that if he made any sudden or strong movements, she’d kick him out. And he didn’t want that. He wanted to be around her. He wanted to bask in her beauty. He wanted to be alone with her and help her.
But he needed to earn her trust back again.
He watched as she thirstily attacked the water. C
hugging it down as a small droplet released from the side of her mouth. His eyes followed its path down her cheek. Her neck. Her chest. It rounded the crest of her bosom as she heaved for air and found its death along the edge of her bikini. Fuck. She was beautiful. Even gulping down water she was immaculate. She set the empty glass down and picked up the spoon, humming to herself over the miso soup.
The sound shot jolts of electricity to his groin as he watched her eat.
He could see her eyes starting to clear. But he could also see the red rim around them. The telltale sign of a woman crying, even when she tried to cover it up.
“I’m sorry, Kallie.”
Her eyes slowly panned up to meet his and his heart skipped a beat.
“What I thought about you wasn’t fair,” Ash said. “You’re not that kind of person, clearly. And I’m sorry for what happened to you. No one should ever have to go through that.”
“What’s done is done,” Kallie said weakly.
“Your ex is a fucking idiot to think he could ever do better than you.”
He watched as a weak smile tugged across Kallie’s cheeks. There she was. His Pretty Kallie. Even in her weakened and emotional state, it still lit up her beautiful green eyes. He sat there as she ate the rest of her soup, her body trembling as the air conditioner kicked on in the villa. He got up and went looking for a blanket to wrap around her shoulders, then came back and covered her up. She seemed thankful, even going so far as to give him another small smile.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Ash asked.
Kallie’s eyes dimmed and he wanted to take his fist and plow it right through her ex’s face.
“It is what it is,” Kallie said. “My maid of honor went to go find him to see if he was ready for the ceremony, and she found him in a broom closet.”
She shrugged, but I knew there was more to it than that.
“You know he tried to apologize?” she asked.
“Really? For fucking your bridesmaid in a broom closet?” Ash asked.
“Yeah. That was after my father threatened to castrate him, the priest begged everyone to keep their voices down, and his mother called me a gold-digging whore.”
My eyebrows rose all the way to my hairline.
“You. A gold digger.”
“Apparently so,” Kallie said with a sigh. “And to tell you the truth? It’s not the first time I’ve been called that. His friends accused me of it when we were first dating. Because I don’t come from money and he came from very old money.”
Ash nodded, but in the back of his mind he wondered if he knew the family. Old money always knew old money, and his family was old money as well.
“This was supposed to be our honeymoon,” she said. “But it wasn’t refundable. Already bought and paid for by him, with all the bells and whistles. My maid of honor figured ‘why not?’ and the next day I was on a plane alone hurtling in the sky toward what should’ve been my honeymoon. That’s why you saw the bouquet of flowers like you did.”
“I’m sorry,” Ash said.
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine, but it will be fine. I’ve been on the island for only a few days and I’ve experienced so much I never did with him. Beauty and pleasures and experiences and foods.”
Ash watched as Kallie blushed, her gaze fluttering to his before falling back to her bowl. He grinned inside. His chest puffed with pride. Already he was better than her ex. Better than some douchebag that had made this beautiful creature in front of him feel worthless.
“Good. That’s how you deserve to feel,” he said.
“Though I’m debating on going back early.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I’m just ... embarrassed. I’m okay until I spot another happy couple, and it throws me back to reality. It hurts. Not because I still love him, but because...”
Ash watched her gaze grow far off and he knew what she was thinking.
“You saw a future that’s no longer possible,” he said.
“Yeah. We weren’t perfect, but no couple is. He had his faults and I have plenty. But we compromised and made it work. I saw kids, and grandkids, and a house we would all live in and love one another in. I saw my career flourishing and us growing old together. I saw it with him. And I’m mourning that because it’ll never happened. It’s a life I dreamed of. A life I banked on. And it was ripped away from me within the span of minutes.”
“What do you do for work?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“You mentioned your career. What do you do for work?”
“Oh. Um ... I’m sort of a professional organizer.”
“Don’t tell me you buy into that feng shui stuff. I’m going to have to take my soup back if you do.”
Kallie giggled, and it was the sweetest sound to ever grace his ears.
“No. I help frazzled people organize their lives. I help them with bills. Budgets. Their calendars and schedules. Sometimes they’ll invite me into their home and I’ll redecorate and make better use of their space, but not the feng shui-type of stuff. I help people who aren’t good at managing their lives, well, manage their lives.”
“How did you fall into that passion?” Ash asked.
“I’ve always been good at it. I did it in college for friends. Helped them schedule their classes around outside commitments and helped them budget their money from part-time jobs so they could afford what they wanted on their own schedule. Eris—my maid of honor—suggested I try to make a career out of it. So, I started small.”
“What do you mean, small?”
“I charged a one-time fee of ten bucks to help people for a couple of hours. I advertised just to friends and family, and they started talking to people about what I did. Sent people to me to help with bills mostly. It sort of spiraled out of control after that.”
“So you own your own business.”
“I guess.”
“There’s no guessing about it. You took a passion and something you love, and you built your own career off it,” Ash said.
“Yeah?”
“You don’t seem convinced.”
“I don’t make millions of dollars a year or anything.”
“Does that make you any less of a business owner?” he asked.
“I don’t think so?”
“Kallie, you’re a business owner. You have a product you sell to the market, and you advertise your services. They pay you for your service, you provide said service. And you don’t answer to a boss. You are a business owner.”
“Then ... yeah. I’m a business owner,” she said.
This woman was remarkable. She was a business owner and wouldn’t even admit it. Didn’t even know it! Ash grinned at her and watched as a soft, breathless giggle fell from her lips.
“Remarkable,” he said.
Kallie let out a massive yawn and Ash grinned. He knew the perfect place that would cure the rest of her hangover. He stood to his feet and held out his hand, their eyes connecting as Kallie looked at him warily.
“It’s just a nap. I think you could use one, and I know where you can take a fabulous one,” he said.
And after a few beats of silence, she slipped her delicate hand into his.
He pulled her outside and lead her to a secluded grove a few villas down from where Kallie stayed. It was on the edge of the beach and it was covered with trees, and the small cove was strewn with hammocks for the guests to use. Kallie gasped, and he saw a light return to her eyes. He smiled as he led her to one that sat over in the corner near the lapping of the waves.
“Come on. That one’s open,” Ash said.
He led her over and watched as wonder poured over her features. Such a small thing brought her such joy, and it tugged at a part of him that had laid dormant for a long time. He slid into the hammock and then helped her in, parting his legs so she could slip between them. Her head settled onto his chest and her arms curled up around him, and he was blanketed in her warmth as the warm breeze swayed the hammock gently.
“It’s a well-kept secret. Not advertised, but if you know the island you know it’s here,” he said.
That was all they said. Ash lay there, cradling Kallie against him, as they swayed gently in the hammock. The waves crashing against the shoreline was the only sound that could be heard. The seagulls were squawking in the distance and, every once in a while, they could hear someone splash in the waves down the shoreline.
It was relaxing, and he could feel Kallie sinking into him.
He ran his fingers through the soft tendrils of her hair as her breathing evened out. He relaxed deeper into the hammock, taking in how her body molded to his finely tuned musculature. The blanket covered them both from the harsher rays of the sun and the breeze whipping around them somehow kept the cool. Even as Kallie slept against him. Ash felt more connected to her than he’d ever felt to anyone in a long time. Longer than he was willing to admit to. He wasn’t exactly close with his family. If anything, he’d done his best to separate himself from them and their stuck-up ways.
Ever since he was young, he knew he didn’t fit in with them.
Ash had friends, but no one that was close. He had people he visited in the places he frequented most. The island. Australia. Hawaii. People that looked out for him when he ventured back to surf. But he wouldn't call any of them “close.”
But having Kallie on top of him? Blanketing him and breathing softly into his chest?
It felt good.
He felt his guard dropping, no matter how dangerous he told himself it was.
It felt good to let someone in. To allow himself to be close with someone like her. He closed his eyes and focused on the rhythmic pulsing of her breath. To the beating of her heart against his stomach. To the way her hair smoothed between his fingertips. She nuzzled instinctively into his body and he grinned, enjoying the way it felt to hear her sigh with content against him.
Maybe he didn’t need to earn her trust again.
Maybe all she wanted was an apology. An acknowledgment of what happened to her. Maybe all she needed was someone she didn’t know very well to tell her how fucked up it was that her ex had betrayed her in that fashion.