With that, she got up and stormed off to her cabin, leaving the guys to look at each other and shrug before finishing up their meal.
~*~
“Toph?” Sebastian said after they’d finished cleaning up from supper.
“Yup?”
“You want to smoke some weed?”
Topher looked at him. “Are you serious?”
Sebastian nodded. “Got it from some guy I know in Road Town. Was holding on to it for just such an occasion.”
“You mean when we’ve got a couple of chicks pissed at us?”
“Nah. I’m used to that. I was thinking sometime when there’s no chance we can find anyone to hook up with in the next two hours.”
“Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, man,” Topher said.
~*~
An hour later, the two men were sprawled out on the trampoline, staring up at the stars.
“That is so cool,” Sebastian said.
“What?”
“That cluster of stars,” he said, pointing off to the east.
“What’s so great about them?”
“Reminds me of what you must’ve looked like with your bottom half sticking out of the hatch.” He laughed out loud.
“A bunch of stars a billion light years away reminds you of my naked ass?”
“I don’t know, man. I’m wasted. It just sounded good.”
Topher lay there in practically the same spot he’d lain the night before, when Pippa had finally settled herself over his hard cock. It made him want a bag a chips. Or maybe it was the weed doing that.
“Shit, Sebastian,” he said. “This wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause it should have taken my mind off of everything, but now I’m lying here thinking about having sex with a bag of chips.”
“You’re an idiot, Toph.”
“But you love me, man.”
“But not for hookups. Just remember that.”
Which Topher didn’t even hear, because he’d passed out and within minutes was snoring away, momentarily at peace with the world.
Chapter Twenty-Two
THE two men woke early with the sound of a dinghy approaching. For a fleeting second, Topher hoped it was Pippa. Maybe he could make amends to her.
He realized immediately it was no such thing, but rather it was Clementine’s ride. She’d texted to shore to have a water taxi come for her first thing.
“It’s been real, guys,” she said. “But I’m outta here. One hookup too many for my liking.”
Sebastian, still not getting it, reached over to give Clem a kiss, which she deflected by turning her face away and instead feeding him the back of her head and a chunk of her blond hair.
“See ya, Toph,” Clem said, giving him a hug. Sure, she was annoyed with him for being a needless jerk to her good friend, but at least she understood it.
To Sebastian, she gave a slight nod and said, “You’ll understand if I don’t bother to shake your hand.”
With that, she boarded the dinghy and departed, leaving both men in the doghouse until further notice.
~*~
Topher decided he needed to get back to the focused Topher—the one finishing up his degree and working on the reef sustainability project—and to stop worrying about women and to definitely not partake of any more herbal substances with his friend. He was going to have his escapism in the undersea world that felt like home to him, where no one gave him grief, nothing caused any problems, and he could be happy and carefree.
~*~
Pippa, meanwhile, woke up in the worst of moods. Aside from the monster headache throbbing at the base of her skull, she was so damned mad at herself for ever having let herself have feelings for Topher.
“God, what was I even thinking, leaving your brother’s wedding with him that night?” she said to Zander as she dug into her French toast piled high with strawberries, blueberries, and heated maple syrup. “Honestly, nothing like overeating to satiate a hangover. Feed a hangover, starve a fever, isn’t that what they say?”
Zander looked at her, deadpan. “Pretty sure it’s a cold you feed.”
“But seriously, why would I have sex with my best friend’s brother? I mean is that not a recipe for disaster?”
Zander shrugged. “Maybe because the mood struck you?”
“Yeah, but I’m more disciplined than that,” she said. “You know that guy I started to talk about last night. What’s-his-name. I mean how long did he try to get into my pants? But I refused to let him. I thought I was simply being selective. But maybe I’m just a cold-hearted woman, unable to bond with men.”
“Yep,” he said. “I have long said that about you. Pippa, the one who would come running if someone skinned their knee. Pippa, the one who sat with Isabella all night when she broke up with her first love. Pippa who didn’t even want to own up to what she saw when she walked in on Topher that time because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. That, folks, is cold-hearted Pippa at her finest.”
“Fine, so sometimes I can be nice,” she said. “But then why doesn’t Topher like me?”
“You do know you sound like a whiny schoolgirl complaining because the boy she’s got a crush on didn’t pass a note to her during class.”
“And nobody ever passed me notes during class,” Pippa said as she started to cry for the umpteenth time in the past twenty-four hours. “I’m unlovable.”
~*~
By the time the private jet touched down in Monaforte, Zander was exhausted from being the dutiful bestie to Pippa. He’d arranged to hand her off to Clem at the airport.
“Tag, you’re it,” he said to Clementine practically the minute his feet hit the tarmac. “You’ve created this monster. Now you have to figure out how to care for her.”
I didn’t create anything,” she said. “I only encouraged what seemed natural.”
“Yeah, well, snakebites are natural too, but it doesn’t mean you want to lie down in a pit full of them.”
“Keep working on your metaphors,” she said.
Pippa was a minute behind Zander getting off the plane, lingering longer than she maybe should have.
“Pips, come on,” he said. “Clem’s going to take you home now.”
“I’m kind of savoring my last moments on the jet,” she said. “Not likely I’ll be on it again, since things didn’t work out with me and Topher.”
Zander rolled his eyes. “You’re still my friend. You’re still a close family friend. You’re not being barred from future flights. Hell, you’ve been on about a thousand vacations with us over the years. I’m pretty sure you’ll be on one again sometime in your lifetime.”
Pippa started to cry. Again. Thinking about a lifetime without anyone to love her.
Clem took one look at her friend’s swollen face and grabbed her hand.
“There, there, sweetie,” she said. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’ve stocked your fridge, there’s ice cream and chicken soup and wine. Lots and lots of wine. Everything you’ll need to get over a dumb boy.”
“Is there a puppy?”
Clementine knit her brow. “A puppy?”
Pippa nodded. “I think a puppy would help me get over a boy.”
Clem shrugged. “Very well. If you think a puppy’s gonna cure what ails you, then by all means, let’s do it.”
Clementine turned toward Zander. “You owe me one for this, you know.”
“Count on it,” he said. “Next time you want a flight to the BVI, consider it done,” he said, laughing, then gave Pippa a big hug right before he got into his car and waved good-bye.
Chapter Twenty-Three
TOPHER had been floating all day. His version of a spa treatment. If anything would clear his mind, it was the freedom of being suspended in warm, tropical waters. He’d been swimming and snorkeling in and around the Indian islands, an archipelago of islets, really only rock outcroppings, practically within shouting distance of Tortola. The reefs
at the Indians were teaming with fish, and his efforts had paid off. Nestled amidst the sea fans and other coral, he saw puffer fish, barracuda, two Anegada lobsters, schools of striped jacks, black-banded porkfish, and the distinctly striped sergeant majors galore. An eagle ray glided past, and he marveled at the grace and beauty of the creature. He kicked his flippers a little quicker to get away from a nearby moray eel; he knew a bite from that would be extremely painful and likely to fester, so he steered clear. Topher was wise to the relatively few dangers that existed in this tropical paradise.
A cheerful-looking green turtle meandered by, which made Topher smile. It was nice to smile after the week he’d had, mostly spent ruminating on what had happened between him and Pippa.
And something just kept nagging at him. Why did he feel the need to run? He knew he’d reacted as if he’d touched an electric fence, pulling back so immediately. He couldn’t quite justify it, either. After all, Pippa was pretty much perfect for him: she was gorgeous and smart and funny and no-nonsense. He loved a woman who brooked no bullshit from people. Plus his family had long loved her. Pippa was practically one of them.
And why too would he reject her so abruptly, knowing as he did that she’d felt that tang of rejection from her own parents while growing up? How mean was it of him to shun her right as she opened herself up to him?
No two ways about it, he was unable to justify it. It was what it was. Which was why he was gladly escaping his angst in the deep blue sea. Maybe here he’d find the answers he couldn’t quite come up with yet.
A school of cobalt-colored blueheads swam by, just as a trumpet fish swam perpendicular to the sea floor, seemingly suspended in midfloat. Some lone angelfish appeared here and there, flitting about between sea fans and colorful coral formations. He always thought they should be called Swedish fish, with their bright blue-and-yellow coloring like the Swedish flag.
He looked down to see a spotted eagle ray, its beautiful coloring a stark contrast to the sea floor. He soon saw a school of prehistoric-looking silvery bonefish, looking like they’d only recently emerged from the primordial ooze. And right when he was admiring a brilliant school of blue tang, he saw fish scatter in all directions and the place seemed suddenly deserted.
He looked out of the corner of his mask to see why: a juvenile lemon shark, zigging and zagging ominously through the reef. It got his heart racing having a shark nearby even though he knew lemon sharks were relatively harmless and thus he wasn’t on that fish’s menu. He felt pretty safe in these Caribbean waters. It felt to him like he was born there. He knew nothing in these waters would hurt him.
~*~
Pippa and Clementine were curled up on the sofa in her living room. The cold October chill outside seemed merely a harbinger of the cold, dark winter that was fast approaching, so Pippa gladly took advantage of the nip in the air to build a fire in the large fireplace. Since she’d returned from her trip, she was seeking out anything that would make her feel more at home and cozy. Which meant it was a perfect time to whip up a batch of rich, thick, European-style hot chocolate. They drank it while deep in conversation.
“Hate to even bring up the dreaded subject, but... any word from Toph?” Clementine said.
Pippa shook her head. “Nope. But then again, I hadn’t expected to hear from him. He made it abundantly clear I was off the list.”
Clementine half laughed. “Yeah, I guess that handshake sort of spoke volumes.”
“Handshake,” Pippa said with a huff. “I mean, seriously. Was that the weirdest thing or what? Who does that?”
They both got a laugh out of that, because, yeah, it was about the strangest way to blow off a woman, especially one you’d been intimate with only half a day earlier.
“But I’m doing okay with it,” Pippa said. “The more I’ve mulled this over, the more I realize it was just a stupid fling and could never be more than that. I mean what are the chances that the two of us hooking up would ever be anything more than a casual thing, right? Which would have only made it ultimately more awkward to be around Zander and the family. And really, they’re like a second family to me, so why would I jeopardize that for a go-nowhere relationship that would only eventually make me angry? And of course we’d then break up, and then how would I be part of the family events at the palace I’ve always joined them for?”
Clementine nodded. “You could always hang with my family, you know?”
“Of course I do, Clem,” she said. “And I really appreciate it a lot. I love you all to bits. And maybe this year I’ll celebrate Christmas with you, assuming Topher’s back by then. Who knows? He’s been absent for a lot of things over the past few years, so it’s possible he won’t be back. Plus things might be a little, well, tender for me, emotionally, to be there this year. So keep a seat warm for me on Christmas Eve, just in case, ’kay?”
“You got it. Though as much as I’d love for you to be there, it might be smarter for you to get back in the saddle. You know what I mean? The longer you wait, the harder it might be to reintegrate yourself there.”
“That’s true,” Pippa said. “But the other thing is everyone is pairing up in Zander’s family now. First Adrian and now Z and Andi. At some point, I’m going to start feeling like a fifth wheel anyhow.”
“So when that happens, how about you and I use that as a chance to take an exotic vacation together? Maybe we do a safari or something.”
Pippa smiled. “Sorry, Clem, but I’ve already done the safari thing. I’m in Africa so much for work that it’s my favorite diversion when there. Maybe we can do something like the Fiji Islands.”
“Or Australia,” Clem said. “I’ve never been. I hear it’s gorgeous.”
“Throw in a kangaroo or a koala bear, and I’m all over that,” she said. “Plus it would be their summer so we could be warm and get suntanned. Or maybe we can go to China and see the panda bears. I’ve always wanted to hold a baby panda.”
Clem put her hand on her friend’s knee. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see that you’re moving on and not dwelling on this.”
She reached around to set her mug down, and her elbow accidentally hit Pippa in the boob.
“Ow,” Pippa said. “That hurt!”
Clementine shrugged. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to do that.”
“Don’t worry about it. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered me at all, but for some reason my boobs have been killing me lately.”
“Huh. Weird.”
“Yeah, it’s probably because I’ve been super careful about taking my birth control every morning now, so the hormones are messing with me more.”
Clementine glanced at her out of the side of her eyes. “Huh. Yeah.”
“So I decided to get a puppy after all,” Pippa said. “Zander had a good point. It will be a good distraction for me. And I love puppies. And they love you unconditionally, which is a great change from certain humans. You wanna come with me to pick her up?”
“As long as you promise to let me babysit her when you have to leave town for work!”
“You’re tops on my babysitting list, always.”
Which Pippa was starting to fear would only ever be for the four-legged variety, what with her history of failed relationships.
Chapter Twenty-Four
TOPHER hung up the phone, still reeling from his fantastic news. He was so excited he even woke Sebastian, who was not exactly a morning person.
“Dude, get up,” Topher said. “We’re headed to Oz.”
“Huh? What?” Sebastian said, rubbing his eyes. “Stop. The. Light,” he said, pointing at the door, letting in too much bright daylight.
“I got it,” Topher said. “The research project near the Great Barrier Reef. They agreed to let me sign on to work, and I can use it for my final three independent study credits,” he said. “Then I’m done with school.”
Sebastian blinked his eyes repeatedly, squinting against the brightness.
“Way to go, my man,” he said. “You need some
one to sail with you who knows the area?”
“Well, no kidding,” Topher said. “I wouldn’t go without you. I kind of feel like we’ve become a team.”
“Let’s do it,” he said, rolling out of bed and rubbing his stomach before stretching his arms and yawning. “I can have a sailboat tricked out for us and lined up by the end of the day if you take care of booking our flights.”
“I’m on it,” Topher said. “And, uh, take care of that thing, would you?” he said, pointing at his friend’s morning wood.
“Wouldn’t have been a problem if you hadn’t stopped me from going back to that girl’s boat last night.”
“Yeah, and leaving me stranded at Foxy’s? Thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “Now go. We’ve got a lot to do to get out of here.”
~*~
Weeks later, Topher was anchored near shore half a world away, drinking a Foster’s and staring at the most amazing sunset he’d likely ever seen when his phone rang.
“Christ, you’re hard to get hold of,” Zander said. “Where the hell are you?”
Topher took a swig of his beer. “Paradise, brother. Paradise.”
“You already were in paradise,” he said. “How could it get any better?”
“Seriously,” he said. “This is kind of the British Virgin Islands on steroids when it comes to an incredible underwater world.”
“Do you ever plan to get home? Or are you just a wandering spirit now?”
“I might be able to get back there by Christmas, if you’re lucky.”
“Don’t do us any favors.”
“Trust me, I won’t. If it works out, I’ll be back, but if something better comes along...”
“And I thought I had commitment problems. But you take the cake.”
“I haven’t got commitment issues.”
“Uh, one word: Pippa,” Zander said.
“Ouch,” Topher said. “That was below the belt.”
“Only calling it as I see it,” he said. “And by the way, thanks a lot for leaving me to be the hazmat cleanup crew on that one.”
Love is in the Heir Page 11