The Avoiding Series Boxset

by K. A. Linde

  Something was off about her dream though. At this point in the dream, Lexi was sure Jack would have practically read her thoughts, and would now be bending down to kiss her. That’s how it normally happened. She blushed deeper hoping that her Dream Jack would kiss her already, then colored even further as the time progressed and he didn’t.

  No, she had been right the first time.

  He was not a dream.

  “Jaaaaaack,” Lexi heard someone yell impatiently from the direction of the house.

  Broken out of the spell, he quickly dropped his hand to his side and took a fraction of a step away from Lexi. Her heart thudded in her chest at the absence of his touch…his warmth. She suddenly felt very alone.

  “Jack! What are you doing? Who is that?” another whiny cry broke through the serene expanse.

  Jack glanced up to the house and did a slight almost dismissive wave, not even bothering to respond in turn. Lexi did not want to turn around. She knew that Jack had a new girlfriend, her stomach twisted uncomfortably at the prospect, but she had avoided her at all costs.

  “I guess I better get up there. Everyone’s starting to stare,” Jack said returning to her confused brown eyes.

  That broke her out of her dream-like state, and she twisted to find a beautiful blonde leaning over an enormous wooden deck. Slowly, taking in the entire sight, she picked out Clark openly glaring at the spectacle before him. She didn’t think her cheeks could redden any deeper than at that moment. After everything Clark knew about her and Jack, this had to appear to be a very compromising situation.

  She turned back to Jack, anger flaring up inside. “Why are you here?” she demanded. He sighed contentedly. He had always found her sexy when she got riled up. “Aren’t you supposed to be at your cousin’s graduation ceremony? Why aren’t you in Savannah?”

  “It was a cousin on my dad’s side. They are too crazy redneck for me. And anyway, I really did not want to deal with the boo-hoo-your-parents-are-divorced speeches for an entire week like they’ve been doing for the past couple years,” he stated calmly, fixing her with a pointed look. “And anyway, Seth and I grew up together. His parents moved here when his sister went to college last year, and they’re practically family. Actually,” he considered for a second, “they are more like family now.”

  Lexi knew the details of his parents’ divorce and cringed at the harsh words. He had spoken about his parents’ divorce before, but generally steered clear of the subject. He hated the fact that they were separated, and just got pissed off when it was brought it up.

  “So, why are you here?” he asked angrily.

  “What do you mean why am I here?”

  “You’re fucking Clark. Right. I forgot,” he said his voice ice cold.

  “Fuck you,” she spat angrily.

  He nodded his head. “Right. Sorry, I like threesomes with two chicks, but if you’re interested?” he asked raising his eyebrows evocatively.

  “Jaaaaaack,” the girl yelled again, “are you coming back up?”

  “Well, that’s me. You should consider my offer,” he added playfully. “Gotta go. It’s good to see you, Lex.” He purposefully brushed her hand as he passed by.

  She was seething with anger. Clark had said he wouldn’t be here. She couldn’t even think straight. Why did he have to go shatter the image she had of him in her head? Why did he have to bring is girlfriend? She just wanted to scream with the pain of unanswered questions.

  “Oh, hey, Lex,” Jack called when he was about ten feet away from her. She counted to five letting her breathing calm, and turned around to meet him. She huffed out her breath trying not to let her eyes veer from his face to his beautiful body. “Nice shirt.” He let his eyes travel to her chest, and then winked at her.

  She blushed again. What had she gotten herself into?

  As Jack plodded through the thick sand ahead of her, she felt eyes boring into her. She didn’t want to look up and see the disappointment certain to be evident in Clark’s face. No wonder she had demanded that Jack not be present if she planned on attending. She saw him for all of ten seconds, and completely lost control of herself. He sent a rollercoaster of emotions rocketing through her veins. One second she had been elated, ready to jump into his awaiting arms. The next they had been bickering like an old married couple.

  God, she hated so much that he got to her. She really would have just given herself over to him right there on the beach as if she was dreaming about him. She groaned feeling stupid for her thoughtless actions.

  She ran her hands through her brown curls, and let them fall haphazardly around her face. Nothing near perfection, but it would do in her frenzied state.

  When she finally worked up the courage, she tilted her chin up to the hardwood deck, and found Clark all alone still staring at her intently. He motioned for her to come inside, and then without a word, turned and walked inside.

  Time seemed to drag as she waited for an opportunity to speak to Clark about what had happened. Seth hadn’t been joking about the room arrangements. As soon as she had returned from the beach, she had been stuffed in a room with one of Seth’s bimbos. Lexi had completely tuned her out, and instead, let her mind flood with concerns as she dutifully unpacked.

  When Lexi was finally alone with Clark, she hissed, “What is he doing here?”

  “I don’t know,” Clark said staring icily back at her. “What does it even matter?”

  Lexi had no idea how to answer that question. How could she tell him that she couldn’t control herself around him? That she purposefully avoided him, because of the things he unconsciously did to her body. Those weren’t things you could tell your boyfriend. “It just…does. You said he wouldn’t be here.”

  “I said that Seth didn’t think he’d be here. I guess he just changed his mind. That’s typical Jack.” His green eyes seemed to see straight through her words. Clark had always been intuitive when it came to her. “Are you going to explain your actions on the beach?”

  Why did he have to ask such a difficult question? She had never been able to explain her actions to herself. How did he expect her to explain her compulsion to him?

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she finally mumbled.

  His eyes narrowed. He didn’t believe her. She could tell. “You’re not going to tell me why it looked like you two were about to kiss?”

  Lexi’s mouth popped open. “We were not! I can’t believe you would even think that,” she huffed, hating that he had hit so close to home. Why did he understand her so well? Nine months wasn’t that long.

  “I thought you said things were over between you two.”

  “They are,” she grumbled miserably.

  “Then why can’t you be around each other? Why did it look so much like you were…in love?” he asked struggling on the last words.

  She gulped heavily. “We just have history. You know that,” she said avoiding his last question completely.

  She could tell he was thinking over how to address his concerns. He could see she was lying. After all, he had been watching them together out there. Finally, he blew out his breath and pulled her into his arms. “Okay, baby, if you say so. Can we still have a good time, and just forget that he’s here?” She didn’t even need to say that that was easier said than done. “I trust you.”

  Talk about feeling guilty.

  “If you say you two are done, then you’re done. I’ve just known Jack for longer than you, and in a much different way than you’ve ever known him. We were pretty close at one point in time. I know how he treats women, and I know that it doesn’t matter to him whether he has a girlfriend or not. So, if there’s anything between y’all still, I’d just like the truth,” he said pulling back to look into her guilty face.

  “There…there’s nothing between us,” she said hesitantly.

  He let loose another heavy sigh, and then nodded. “Come on. Everyone’s getting ready to head out for dinner.”

  Lexi really wished they hadn’t had tha
t conversation. All she wanted was for Jack to leave. The week was going to be very long with him here. Lexi bit her lip as she followed her boyfriend into the living room to meet the rest of the group for dinner already lost in thought about the upcoming week.

  After assembling into their vehicles, the group drove to a local Mexican restaurant that Seth insisted had the best margaritas. Just as importantly, they didn’t check for identification. Since apparently all the girls Seth brought along were under twenty-one that was a pretty important factor for him.

  The dilapidated construction was recognizable solely by the faded green and red paint coating the walls and a rickety sign hanging half-off its hinges that read ‘Desperados.’ It didn’t look promising.

  Under different circumstances, Lexi never would have entered the place. The hole-in-the-wall establishment’s only perquisite thus far rested in the gorgeous waitress who greeted them at the entrance. She was tall and buxom with wavy brown hair to her waist and cherry red lipstick coating her full lips. A long skirt hung off her voluptuous hips and a white off the shoulder top revealed her other very full assets. Every guy in the place stopped to gawk at her as she greeted him with her thick foreign accent.

  Seth smirked and made a crude gesture to Hunter before charging forward and introducing himself. The waitress giggled at his obviously rude sexual remark and directed them into a large corner booth. Lexi watched the woman roll her eyes as she turned seated them and left. Lexi suppressed a giggle as she was shoved into the inside corner of the booth next to Jack’s girlfriend. She cursed herself for not paying more attention to the seating arrangements.

  “So you’re Lexi?” the girl asked, giving Lexi her full attention.

  “Uh...yeah,” Lexi said, leaning her elbow on the table and resting her head on her hand.

  “That’s a pretty name. I’m Kate. I don’t think we had a chance to meet,” she said cheerfully.

  Lexi heard a distinct chuckle emanating from the other side of Kate. She couldn’t help but openly glare at Jack sitting on the opposite side of Kate. Obviously, Kate wasn’t quite as perceptive as Clark otherwise she probably wouldn’t be acting as nice as she was right now.

  The waitress came back with menus and took drink orders, which mainly consisted of several pitchers of margaritas. Lexi didn’t intend to drink much though. Her tolerance was beyond low, and she needed to be fully aware now that Jack was sticking around. Great…what a fun trip…

  “Jack, thanks for giving me a heads up about your arrival,” Seth said acting perturbed.

  Jack shrugged effortlessly. Lexi tried not to stare at the light stubble on his chin and up his jaw line that made him look older and more handsome. “I couldn’t stay away. You know that,” he said cocking his head to the side and smiling suggestively at his friend.

  “Oh baby, baby, take me now,” Seth cried passionately. He cracked up laughing and smacked the table with his hand hard enough for the water glasses to shake. “Man, I’ve been meaning to tell you about this chick…” He wasn’t afforded the luxury of finishing his sentence as Luke forcefully smacked the back of his head. “Ugh…” he croaked. “What the fuck was that for?”

  “There are five women at the table, are you sure you want to finish that line of conversation?” Clark asked raising his eyebrows in warning.

  “Yeah man, I don’t care who hears.” He shifted his attention back to Jack. “So I was fucking this…” Another vicious slap came, but from his other side this time. “What. The. Fuck. Sandy!” he cried glaring at the leggy brunette seated next to him.

  “I can’t believe you were going to…” she trailed off as she realized everyone was staring at her.

  “I wasn’t going to tell them whether or not it was you.” A blush crept onto her cheeks, but she remained resolute. The other two girls at the table seemed to find this highly amusing. They were facing into each other and giggling, then began whispering something that they obviously didn’t care to share with the rest of the table. “Anyway,” he began again massaging the back of his head, “like I was saying, I was banging this girl from behind, and she did this amazing…”

  Lexi blanched at his next comment. She knew Seth was crude, but this was over the top even for him. She heard Kate whimper. When Lexi flashed her eyes toward the girl, she realized she was tugging on Jack’s sleeve, begging him to make Seth stop.

  “All right man,” he said grabbing Kate by the upper thigh and pulling her into him. She giggled a little. Lexi felt like gagging. “How about you tell me what she did when we’re not about to eat?”

  “Your loss man,” Seth said running his hand down Sandy’s back.

  The night proceeded smoothly after that point. Lexi managed to carry on an entire conversation with Jack’s girlfriend who, as much as Lexi hated to admit it, seemed like a genuinely nice person. Jack remained civil, but they both purposefully avoided all means of communication. Sometimes when Lexi would say something referencing something from their past, he would catch her eye and grin devilishly. At those moments, she tried to keep the desirous glint out of her own eyes, and reminded herself repeatedly that she was sitting at the table with her boyfriend. Her very lovable, amazingly intuitive boyfriend…who would notice if she kept up the flirting signals Jack was conspicuously sending her way.

  At the end of the night, Seth boasted about getting the waitress’s number, all the while having each arm slung around another girl. Lexi wasn’t all too sure how he did it. But she was pretty sure that the waitress, at least, had given him a wrong number.

  Since they had arrived so late in the afternoon, and the majority of them wanted to be awake as soon as possible to hit the beach, they all separated into their rooms to sleep. Lexi simply couldn’t get comfortable in her room. The queen-size bed she was sharing with Sandy, felt lumpy despite how expensive she knew it was. She turned onto her back and felt a sharp elbow dig into her side. Lexi shot up in bed wondering if this girl was feigning sleep with how cruel her jabs were. After experimentally pushing her body, she decided Sandy was actually asleep. Apparently, she was just a brutal sleeper. Not that Lexi could really sleep anyway. All she could think about was Jack.

  Besides his occasional chuckle and rather suggestive eye contact, he hadn’t really done much else to entice her...whether good or bad. The sane part of her told her that that was a good thing. She should definitely consider that to be a good thing. But being this close to him and having him nearly completely ignore her...well, it damn well irritated her.

  So what if he had an adorably, perky girlfriend? He had flirted with her when he had been with Danielle, and they had been together much longer than that. Hating herself for her thoughts, she kicked her feet over the bed and silently edged out of the room.

  The beach house was designed in such a way that when you entered from the front door a large set of stairs off to the right led to the enormous, lofted, master bedroom suite. It took up the entire top floor, and Seth had happily claimed his parents’ king-size bed as his own for the week. The front doorway opened to the living room with standard beach decorating, hardwood floors, and a host of stylish wood furniture. Down a hallway to the left, the guys were staying in two standard offices, one with a pullout couch and the other with a black futon. A set of stairs off of the living room led to the bottom floor where Seth’s sister’s bedroom, where Lexi was staying, and a separate guest bedroom were connected by an adjoining bathroom. A homey-looking den opened to the massive deck Lexi had looked up at earlier that day.

  Sneaking out of her bedroom trying not to disturb Sandy, Lexi exited the house through the den and out into the cool night air. The wind caught her hair and whipped it around her face. She breathed in the salt enjoying every second. After grabbing a pink and yellow striped towel, she flew down the flight of stairs that opened to the sandy beach below.

  Falling back against the towel, Lexi stared up at the giant luminescent moon overhead. This was much more pleasant than getting elbowed to death in her sleep. She just wis
hed that she could somehow get Jack out of her mind. It’s not like her and Clark were currently in a rough patch. Things were going as well as they ever had. He had been a little moody as of late, but she just chocked that up to graduation and the looming prospect of finding a job. Other than that, it was just Jack that was bothering her. Things tended to go very, very wrong when she was around him. She had kept her distance since that time she had allowed herself to slip up. She couldn’t take that back, but she could try to prevent a repeat performance.

  But he was so gorgeous in person! Those baby blue eyes had turned crystal clear with desire at her approach on the beach, and she hadn’t been able to stop herself.

  The cool environment coupled with the slow rolling of the ocean eventually lulled her to sleep, even as she was thinking these thoughts about Jack.

  A hand gently shook her awake and she jumped up from her slumber. She was terrified that she had slept through the entire night out here on the beach. But after opening her eyes, she noticed it was still pitch black outside, and breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to see who had caught her out on the beach alone.

  “Hey,” Jack said removing his hand from her shoulder. He smiled down on her brightly.

  Of course, it was him. If she ran back up to the house right now, would he be offended? Deciding against that course of action, she mumbled groggily, “Hi. What are you doing down here?” A long yawn followed.

  “I could ask you the same thing. Scoot over,” he directed her, bending down and plopping on the small beach towel. He leaned his elbows back into the sand and stretched his legs out facing the ocean.

  She tried to fix her gaze forward and avoid looking at him, but she couldn’t. Before he had woken her up, she had been having another…rather inappropriate dream about him. Apparently being within his presence had allowed him full access to her dreams once again. “Couldn’t sleep?” she asked to make conversation, even though the silence wasn’t that bad.