I nod and take another sip. “Wanna go swimming now?”
“Yep, let’s change and I’ll give you a piggy back ride out to the pool just like old times,” he says as he takes my hand and pulls me with him.
“A piggy back ride, I’m too big for that,” I say with a laugh.
He looks at me and says, “No you’re not.”
I smile as I follow him and think how much better I’ll feel soon, now I have him to help me get over Max.
Max
A month has passed and still she has not called. I suppose she’s alive and not missing as the news hasn’t said anything about a missing woman or finding a dead body.
She doesn’t want me, it’s obvious. If she can walk away again after what we shared, her feelings for me are not as strong as mine are for her. I should move on, but I can’t seem to. No one interests me. I want no one else but her. I told her it would kill me if she left and she left anyway.
My only companion now is the bottle of Jack Daniels I keep constantly by my side. If I let it wear off, the pain may cut me deeper than it already has. No one wants me, not my mother, not Lexi, not anyone. Sure those gold digging bitches will take me. Put up with me, allow me to spend my money on them, but no one wants me, the injured boy who turned into a man.
I need some air, and where better a place to find that than in my helicopter. “Come on, Jack, let’s you and I take a ride.”
* * *
My shades I grab and cover my eyes as I make my way outside. “Oops, it’s dark already. How did that happen? Oh well, come on, Jack, we can still go. Riding at night along the coastline will be fun. Just what the doctor ordered to get over a girl with insecurities and a habit of running away after mind-blowing kisses and life-altering love-making.”
Loud noise fills the air as I turn on the chopper, and quite frankly it helps to drown out the constant thoughts I have of Lexi, and her long legs, and tight little ass, and perky, plump breasts, and pink luscious lips which have only ever been touched by mine.
The lights of Galveston loom ahead and I’ll be over the water in no time. I look over at my only friend, Jack, and pick him up and take a long tug from his dark bottle. That’s much better, I was beginning to see her in my mind again and that makes me want to cry.
* * *
“Whoa, I must have missed something there, the water is underneath me now and the moon shines over it, making a perfect path for me to follow. Hi Jack, glad to see you’re still with me. Oh, that’s right you have no legs otherwise you’d probably run too.”
* * *
Two moons? How are there two of them? When did this happen?
* * *
My friend, Jack, looks at me and I pick him up. “Damn it, Jack, you’re empty. I didn’t bring another one. I’ll have to turn back now.”
With a quick motion, I turn my chopper around and…
* * *
Shit! I’m too close to the water! Oh, I’m fucked.
Alexis
The aroma of basil fills the house as I simmer a sauce for the spaghetti I’m making for us tonight. Logan gave me the job of his housekeeper and cook. So I’ve been staying in and finding recipes while I keep this big house clean. He’s really saved the day for me, and I only think about Max on days that end in, ‘y’ so that’s better.
* * *
Who am I kidding? It’s been a month and still he fills my thoughts all day every day.
* * *
I’m such a sad case, I even sleep in his T-shirt almost every night. I’m a pathetic looser. The sound of the door opening brings me out of my funk and I find Logan with one hand full of flowers, a bottle of wine in the other and a huge grin on his face. “Guess who got a raise?”
I jump up and down as I clap. “Me?”
He rolls his hazel eyes at me. “No, me!”
“You bought flowers for yourself?” I ask as he hands them to me and I turn to grab a vase for them.
His hand grabs my arm as he pulls me back around and into his arms. “They’re for you, Alex.”
His lips are close to mine and I can barely breathe.
* * *
I belong to Max.
* * *
“What are you doing, Logan?”
His tongue flows over his bottom lip. “I’m tired of pretending I don’t want you, Alex.”
As I try in vain to wiggle out of his arms, I say, “Oh, Logan, you don’t really mean that.”
His arms hold me tightly to him. “Today I walked into my boss’s office and told him if he wanted to keep me he had to give me a raise. And I told him I didn’t want some tiny raise I wanted a big one because I need to buy a certain woman a ring sometime in the very near future and she deserves a big one.”
“Logan, I had no idea. You haven’t made any moves on me at all…”
He interrupts me. “You, my sweet little innocent, do not know when someone is making a move on you. I have been, but you’re oblivious to them.”
* * *
Maybe that’s because I belong to someone else!
* * *
“Logan, I can’t. Um, how can I, oh, gee whiz, Logan.”
“Alex, don’t get all flustered now. I know it’s only been a month, but we’ve known each other for a damn long time.”
“But, Max, Logan. What about him and me and how I made promises to him?”
My chin he pulls at to make me look at him. “If you were going back to him, I think you would’ve went already.”
“Even if I never go back, which I’m not, I made promises about never letting another man touch me in places, and I plan on keeping them.”
“My God, you’re precious,” he says as he holds me tighter and moves his hand from my chin to my head, pushing it against his broad chest. “Are you to never love again? Do you think he would even want that?”
* * *
I know dang good and well he’d want that! But am I being a fool?
* * *
I pull my head back to look at Logan, to really look at him. His eyes are kind and his face is chiseled in some areas while soft in others. He’s nice to look at, though nowhere near as gorgeous as Max. Never has anyone other than Max been as nice as he is to me. “Would it be so bad to never love again? When I saw that picture, it tore me apart inside. I’m naïve I admit, but not a fool. If I allow myself to fall again, that kind of pain will happen at some time.”
Logan finally releases me, but keeps my hand in his. “Let’s open this wine and talk about life and love and all that goes with that. You know now I want you. I don’t just want to have sex with you, I want the whole package. Since I’m such a good friend to your brother and your whole family really, I don’t want to actually have sex with you until we’re married.”
* * *
Okay, what is up with sexy men wanting to marry me or knock me up?
* * *
“So you want to marry me?” I ask as he pours us some wine.
I pull my hand from his so I can go stir the sauce. He’s at my back with his arms around me again, leaning his face on my shoulder. “It’s not how I wanted to ask you, but yeah, I want you to be my wife, Alex.”
“How long have you thought about this?”
“The last two weeks I’ve thought of nothing else. You’re a great homemaker and cook and your laugh makes my heart beat so much harder than I ever knew it could.”
My mind flows like a river with what to do. I still love Max. I know I can never truly have him though. But why do I know that? He wanted me too. He probably would’ve asked me to marry him. But he’s too good for me. So what am I supposed to do, be alone forever? Is it wrong to keep a promise if it hurts you to do it? Is it really hurting me to keep the promise. It’s hard to tell, because so much hurts right now anyway.
I turn in Logan’s arms to face him. “I need more time, Logan.”
“I’ll take that. It’s not a no anyway.”
“It’s also not a yes, so keep that in mind. Keep in mind a lot of things have h
appened very fast for me. After so many years of being ignored this is all a little crazy. Truth be told, because I want you to know the truth, I love Max.”
“Then why don’t you go back to him?”
“I don’t know why. I just feel like he can do better and he deserves better.” I stop and realize I’m telling a lie. “No, those things aren’t why. The real reason why is because I feel so much for him it petrifies me. He has the ability to break my soul apart with one picture. No one should have that much power over anybody.”
* * *
Logan loosens his arms and moves back. “That’s exactly what love is, Alex. Maybe you should go back to him.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t live like that, waiting for my world to fall apart if something ever happened to him.”
Tears fall down my cheeks as I turn back to stir the sauce. The epiphany that I’m afraid to live a life full of love only because it can be taken from me has me numb inside.
As I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand, Logan kisses the top of my head. “Call the guy, sweetie.” He places his cell phone on the counter next to me and leaves me alone.
I stare at the phone. I have his number burned into my brain, so I can’t use I don’t remember it as an excuse. After I grab a paper towel and blow my nose, I push the buttons that will bring Max back into my life.
Max
Black water is all I see around me. My chopper is gone, luckily I managed to get out before it sank with me in it. The moon’s light is all I have to look at and that’s moving through the sky way too fast for me. I know there will be at least two hours with no light at all.
Somehow I’m sober as a judge after a month of being inebriated. I thought I wanted to let it all go. Several times I thought if death came for me I’d go willingly, for what is left for me?
I tread water as I have no idea of which way I will find land. I just have to wait and hope the current doesn’t take me too far away from where my chopper went down. The Coast Guard can find that with their tracking devices. Surely once Hilda sees the chopper gone, she’ll try to call me and see I’ve left my phone in that bedroom.
* * *
Shit! She didn’t know I was in there!
* * *
I’ve been hiding from the staff so they wouldn’t realize I turned into a drunk. She may not even look in there. What in the hell have I done to my life?
I was given a chance out of Hell once before and I managed to go right back there on my very own. How did I allow that to happen?
* * *
Lexi is beautiful and funny. We connect like no one else, but I can’t let her crazy ways stop me from being who I am, who I’m supposed to be. Hell, if she had come back and found me like that, she’d have run off again.
* * *
If I get out of this, I’m going to be happy on my own. If she comes back into my life, we’ll have a great marriage and some good-looking kids to share our lives with. If she doesn’t, that’s okay too. I’m going to stop looking for a wife. If there is someone other than Lexi out there for me, then she can find my ass.
I wish I would have made a will and left everything to her. Now I don’t know who will get all my money and things if I … Damn it! I have to stop thinking like that.
* * *
Okay, when I make it back, I’m going to make a will and put Lexi down as my heir. No matter what. I want her to have things. She’s so easy to please, I could leave her a box of handkerchiefs and she’d be happy. Such a sweet, innocent, young woman. Such a good mother she’ll make. I bet she’ll still look sexy as hell when she’s pregnant or holding a baby on her hip. Man, I’d sure like to see that. It would be even better if it was my babies.
* * *
Something just moved between my legs and it was not at all appreciated.
* * *
Shit! Something is coming right at me! Shit! Shit!
Alexis
The phone rang until it went to voicemail and I left a message asking him to call me back on that number, but he never did. I left a text, but he ignored that too. I know that man always has his phone on him.
* * *
He’s done with me.
* * *
He told me it would kill him if I left him and I guess it killed what he felt for me. After waiting the entire night and all day today, I think it has sunk in that he is not going to give me anymore chances to break his heart. I went too far for too long this time and he can’t take anymore, that’s obvious.
Logan is being so nice to me. He should be home any minute now and I’m going to give him what he wants. It was stupid to think I can live a life with no love or companionship. Logan’s a good man, and already like a part of our family. Why wouldn’t I give him a shot since Max doesn’t want me anymore?
His car pulls into the driveway. I can see it from the window as I sit on the sofa and try to wrap my head around the reality Max no longer wants me. The wine isn’t helping, maybe Logan can.
* * *
“Hey sweet thing,” he says as he comes in the door. “How was your day?”
I rise and take him the glass of wine I’d poured for him in anticipation of his arrival and how I plan on letting him know I’m ready to move on. “My day was thankfully uneventful. How was yours?”
I slip the glass in his hand as I take the keys from him and toss them into the little basket I put on a small table by the door just for that purpose. “Mine was good.” He takes my hand and leads me to sit with him on the sofa. “Come and tell me how the talk went.”
“He didn’t answer me. I know I broke his heart, and he’s done with me.”
“I’m sorry, pumpkin.”
“Don’t be,” I say as I lean into him. “I’m done with that. It’s the past and you’re right here. A good looking, charming, well off man who seems to like me. Do you know I had a crush on you when I was ten and you were nineteen?”
A smile creeps across his lips, which are a very light red and pleasingly plump. “We’re even then, because I have a crush on you now.”
* * *
“I don’t want to marry you just yet, Logan, but I don’t want that to stop us from seeing if we have what it takes to get along for the long haul.” I move my body up his and stay close enough he can kiss me if he wants to.
His hand tightens around mine. “So your past is out of the way and you’re ready to move forward with me?”
“I am.”
He bites at his bottom lip as he looks at mine. I wait for my heart to start pounding, but it doesn’t. The electric current never starts, but his lips touch mine, and it’s not so bad. They’re soft on mine as he pulls me closer to him, pulling me onto his lap where he cradles my body as his tongue pushes through my lips and into my mouth. He tastes like chocolate, but there’s no fireworks.
* * *
Will it ever be like that again?
Max
The sun is finally coming up. Some monster fish, most likely a shark tormented me for quite some time last night. I managed to punch it a couple of times and it went away.
No land can I see and the idea of being able to continue to tread water until someone finds me is falling apart. So with the rising sun, I know where the East is, and that means I must swim away from the rising sun. Hopefully I will find something. I’d settle for a floating trash island at this point. Anything to get me out of this damn salty-ass water.
* * *
I’ve come up with my motivation for making it out of this mess alive and intact. I’m going to go to all the big networks and all the social media to get help to find Lexi. I mean what’s the use of having mountains of money if you can’t use it to buy some help.
* * *
No more thinking she doesn’t love me because I damn well know she does. She’s just a little crazy and time will fix that. I should think I might have to keep her locked away in a bedroom with me. I’ll make love to her until she can no longer walk so she can’t run away again, but it’ll be worth it, in more ways
than one.
Something is floating on top of the water a little ways in front of me. I have to swim pretty fast as it keeps moving away. Finally I have it, a small piece of some kids broken knee board. I hope this means I’m closer to shore than it looks like I am. Finally I can just hang on to this and let my legs and arms rest.
* * *
Thank you God!
* * *
It isn’t even noon, and the sun is beating down on me. I’m naturally tan but I can feel my back burning. Maybe I should just give up, maybe the next life will be better. I have to get out of this funk so I yell, “Lexi, I’m coming for you!”
There, now my head is right again and I can keep on swimming. There we go, now that’s stuck in my brain I’ll get somewhere. And it seems like God is smiling on me because a cloud covered the sun and I am relieved of that if only for a moment. Have to be happy with the little things.
A drop of cool water hits my hot shoulder and I find myself thankful even more until I look up.
* * *
That’s one of the biggest thunderheads I’ve ever seen!
Billionaire Games Page 115