I grinned down at her. “I call bullshit.”
Sandy’s right brow raised and her face grew even more flushed than it was a moment ago. “Excuse me?”
“You’re excused. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re not fine. In fact, you are so very loudly not fine that I could hear you yelling all the way down the street.”
Her cheeks reddened further and I had to fight the urge to smile, she was just so damn adorable. I had to use all of my powers of concentration to keep myself physically in check.
“From what I, and the rest of the neighborhood, could hear, there’s some kind of trip coming up that Brandy can’t go on?” I continued.
“It’s fine. We’re just…in the process of working it out.”
Brandy shook her head. “No, Sandy. I’m sorry, but there’s no working it out. I can’t go.”
Sandy narrowed her eyes at Brandy and I could tell from the way that her eyes sparked and her shoulders thrust back, ready for battle, that she was about to launch into a full-scale attack. I saw my opportunity, so I jumped in before that could happen. Here went nothing.
“I’ll go.”
Sandy and Brandy both snapped their heads towards me at the same time and then said in unison, “What are you talking about?”
Twins. Sometimes they could be spooky.
I nodded, looking straight into Sandy’s baby blues. “If you want me to, I’ll go.”
Sandy opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. Finally, she adopted an air of studied indifference, breaking eye contact as she dropped her gaze down at her hands. Shrugging, she spoke with an air of indifference that I seriously doubted was sincere. “Whatever. Do what you want.”
Brandy jumped in. “Great. Settled, then. I’ll just go log into the airline’s website and change the name on the ticket.” She scooted out of the room fast, probably trying to get away before Sandy could protest.
I grinned widely. This was going better than I could’ve ever hoped. “When does our flight leave?”
Sandy, her gaze still fixed downward where she was making a show of studying her nail polish, said, “We have to leave the house at nine a.m. tomorrow morning to make it on time.”
Figuring I should take my cue from Brandy and stop selling after I’ve gotten the yes, I turned to leave, glancing over my shoulder as I did. “I’ll be here at eight forty-five. Have fun shopping.”
I seriously doubted the grin would be leaving my face before then.
Chapter 3
Sandy
My stomach churned as I walked across the plaza in downtown Arcata towards Cat and Evelyn, my college roommates. Fuck. I didn’t even know how to explain to myself what was going on, let alone to them. Two major, earth-shattering developments had gone down within the last fifteen minutes, and I was supposed to shop it out like nothing was wrong?
Don’t get me wrong. I pretty much believed that shopping was the answer to any and all the curveballs life could throw out. But this was an extreme situation to apply that philosophy to, even for me. My brain had been swallowed up by a thick fog I couldn’t seem to shake, and a low buzzing in my ears was also proving tough to get rid of.
I wondered if I was having an aneurism or something.
As I stepped up to Cat and Ev, they turned to me with bright, expectant smiles—as if the world hadn’t just flipped upside down.
Which, for them, of course, it hadn’t.
“Hey, girlie girl. Where’s Brandy?” Cat asked.
It was the happy, friendly, entirely Cat-like sweetness in her voice that undid me. I burst into tears right there on the sidewalk, like a crazy person. The last time I’d cried this hard was the day after graduation night…when he was gone.
This was all Hunter’s fault.
To say that Ev and Cat were unnerved would be an understatement.
“Holy shit! What’s wrong? Is she sick? Is she hurt? Was there a car accident? A fire? What happened?” This was from Evelyn, the drama major—in both college and life, truth be told. Of course her brain had sped straight to the most melodramatic catastrophes she could think of.
“She’s not going on the trip!” I hiccupped through my tears.
“What? Why? Is she sick? Hurt? Accident? Fire? What?” Evelyn again, of course.
“No…or…I mean, I don’t know, actually. She didn’t tell me why.”
“Did you ask?” Cat asked gently, nonjudgmentally, in her oh-so-sweet Cat way.
So, of course, I repaid her with my patented snark. “Oh my God. That is genius. Just ask her? Why didn’t I think of that?” I felt crappy about my attitude before I even finished speaking and rushed to apologize as soon as my sarcastic lash-out was finished. “Shit, I’m sorry, Cat. You’re just being nice. You didn’t deserve that. I’m just mad and taking it out on you.”
“No worries,” Cat assured me, rubbing my back. “That’s understandable. So she really didn’t say anything about why?”
I shook my head. “She just said she had things she had to take care of and she needed time to get it all worked out.”
“But…what things? Get what worked out?” Evelyn persisted, sounding as puzzled as I felt.
“Yeah, exactly. That’s what I couldn’t pin her down on.”
Cat wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, Sandy. I’d totally offer to take Brandy’s place if Jace hadn’t already paid for our tickets to Hawaii. And I can’t let Gavin down. It’s our first family trip together, and he’s beyond excited.”
The previous fall, Cat had fallen head over heels for a super-hot ex-soldier who now tended bar at the Plaza Pub not even fifty feet from where we were standing. Because Brandy’s and my lifelong friend, Elijah, owned the bar, we could get in without being carded. The very first night I took Cat there, it’d been lightning-bolt-time since the minute she laid eyes on Jace. He had more than returned the sentiment, and although there’d been some significant bumps along the way, the two of them were now living as a happy family, along with Gavin, Jace’s son. Even if Brandy’s space hadn’t already been filled, that would’ve been too much to ask.
“Yeah, no…of course not. I wouldn’t expect you to. I wouldn’t even let you if you offered.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you averting your eyes right now? You’re acting extremely shady all of a sudden.”
I tried to adopt an innocent expression. The last thing I wanted was to try to explain the whole Hunter thing while it was still so raw. I mean, hell, I’d never even mentioned Hunter to these girls before. Since they didn’t grow up in Arcata, they had no idea about him. And I never said one word to fill them in. That’s how much missing him hurt me—and that was before he’d suddenly walked in my door and discombobulated the fuck out of me. I certainly didn’t need to be getting into it right here, right now.
However, my attempt at passing off an “innocent as the driven snow” manner did precisely nothing to fool Evelyn. She was an actress and, therefore, was always studying people, wanting to pick up on small emotional cues and expressions. She considered herself a student of facial expressions and body language. Her philosophy was that, if it was your job to emulate emotional changes, you had to be able to recognize them in all of their manifestations.
Which, ya know…made it extremely difficult to bullshit her, much to my chagrin.
She narrowed her eyes at me for a few seconds, examining my face intently. I felt like a butterfly pinned to a corkboard. She shook her head, having clearly come to her conclusion.
“Nope, Slim Shady. I’m not buying it. There’s more to this story. If this was just about Brandy bailing, you wouldn’t be here. Cat and I would’ve gotten texts. ‘Brandy being major PITA. Have to stay and deal with this. But the shop must go on. Continue without me.’ Something like that. If it was just about her flaking out, you would’ve sunk your teeth into her like a terrier and not stopped shaking until the answer came tumbling out, whether she liked it or not.”
Cat nodded in agreement.
/> Evelyn continued. “That plus the fact that you went all slidey-eyes the second Cat brought up going on the trip with you instead of Brandy? Yeah. There’s more to this story than you’re letting on.”
“Oh for the love of Louis Vuitton. Fine, Sherlock Holmes. Yes. You got me. There is another part. And his name is Hunter.”
Two more tears slipped down my cheeks at the mention of his name—that proved my theory; the waterworks were one hundred percent Hunter’s fault.
“Come on.” Cat put her arm around me as she soothed, “Let’s go get coffee and sit down at a table. This seems less like a standing-around-on-the-sidewalk story and more like a settle-in-with-a-warm-beverage story.”
I smiled weakly. “Replace the coffee with a cocktail and the table with a barstool and I’d say you’ve got it just about right.”
We crossed the bright green lawn and stepped into the Plaza Pub. Jace was behind the bar, and he raised his hand in greeting. I glanced around. It was early enough that only a few other patrons were there, and they weren’t sitting near the bar. Good. We’d have relative privacy.
Jace, being the good bartender he was—and also a good fiancé to Cat—had all of our preferred flavors of wine coolers sitting out in front of the middle four barstools before we’d even made it across the room.
“What’s up? I thought you guys were gonna be shopping for vacation clothes right now?”
Cat leaned across the bar to give him a quick kiss. “Hey, babe. Yeah, we were. But we got derailed. We’re here to drink and talk instead.”
“Well, gorgeous, I can’t pretend I’m not happy to see you. I hope nothing’s wrong, though. Everything okay?”
Evelyn and Cat looked at me expectantly. I sighed, not eager to launch into the story again from the beginning, but I was probably going to have to.
“Well, Brandy decided to bail on our trip, one day before our plane takes off.”
“Really? Why?”
Evelyn jumped in. “Okay, I hate to fast-forward, but let’s just leave it at ‘she won’t say’ and move on. There’s another part of the story—one apparently named Hunter—that Cat and I are dying to know about. That’s why we came in here, bar boy, and that’s what we’re going to talk about!”
Jace laughed, backing up and raising his hands in mock surrender. “Got it! No questions. Except, who’s Hunter?”
I took a deep breath and dived in. “Hunter was my best friend since first grade. We legit spent every single day together until graduation. Not even an exaggeration. Every. Day.”
Cat looked puzzled. “You’ve never mentioned him. Really. I would swear that today was the first time I’ve ever heard the name Hunter come out of your mouth.”
I nodded miserably. “I know. That’s been very intentional. We had a falling-out the night of graduation and haven’t spoken since. It’s been too raw and painful to talk about. But now, all of a sudden, out of the blue, he’s back, and I—”
“Hold up. Rewind. Now, I know you didn’t think you were just going to gloss over the whole ‘falling-out’ with one paltry sentence. Right?” Evelyn always wanted details.
“Well, no. I didn’t think that. More like hoped.”
“Well, girl, I hate to burst your hope bubble, but…pop.” Evelyn made a gesture of popping a balloon with a pin. “Now, spill.”
I stared at my wine cooler for a moment, trying to figure out how to put something so complicated and so deeply personal and painful into words.
Cat, in a soothing, sweet voice, said, “Evelyn, maybe she’s just not ready to talk about it yet.”
“Cat, seriously, stop. I got this. Sandy, details. Now.” Evelyn was a strong proponent of “tough love” when she felt it was necessary.
“Well, see… The thing is…we kind of hooked up after graduation.”
“Whoa.” Evelyn’s eyes widened.
“He’d always had a thing for me. We never talked about it, but I knew it. So, I kept him at arm’s length. Until, I…didn’t. Then after, it was so…” I had no clue how to sum up what it’d been. “I don’t know. It was just too much. After the hookup, he was looking at me all adoringly. I was totally freaked out. So I said the first thing that popped in my head, thinking it would put the boundary back up. Set things right.”
“What did you say?” Cat asked, her eyes now as wide as Evelyn’s.
“I said, in a completely casual way that one would speak to a newfound friend-with-benefits…that it’s not like it meant anything.”
“Aw, damn. That’s some cold shit right there!” Evelyn exclaimed as she swiveled towards Cat. “See? If it was up to you, we would’ve skipped right over that part!”
Cat smiled a little and raised her hands in mock surrender. “Fine. I defer to your expertise.”
“Good. And don’t think I won’t be reminding you that you said it in future situations. Now, Sandy, what happened next?”
I let my head drop onto my crossed arms on the bar. “Nothing happened. He left. That same night. I went to his house in the morning to apologize, and he was gonezo. His mom said he just threw all his shit in the car and took off across the country in the middle of the night.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s terrible! Did he say why he did that?” Cat asked.
“Well, no. In fact, he hasn’t said anything. He cut me off like a gangrenous limb.”
“Wow. That’s…wow. Some real vivid imagery right there. Did you try to talk to him about it?” Evelyn asked.
“Yep. I left messages in every possible outlet available to me. Voicemail. Text. Email. Facebook. No dice.”
Cat patted my back. “I’m sorry. Wow. That must’ve hurt.”
“It did. I think the worst part is that, because we were so intertwined with each other’s lives for so long, we had all these little inside jokes and routines and…like a secret language, almost. And then, suddenly, with no warning, the one person who understood all of that, was gone. Poof! Just gone.
“And I missed the stupidest things. Not just talking to him, but just how in sync we were. Okay, for example, he had all these names for me. Some of them were based on my name. Sandcastle. Or Sandcrab if I was grumpy. But my favorite was Gatherer.”
“Gatherer?” Evelyn asked. “That makes you sound like the heroine of some dystopian YA fiction series. Like you’re the grim reaper with a better wardrobe.”
“Real funny, Ev. No, it’s nothing like that. It’s a double-meaning nickname. One, because he’s Hunter. So…Hunter and Gatherer. And two, because I kind of like to shop.”
“Kind of?” they all said in unison. Even Jace joined in.
“Whatever, smartasses. Moving on. The point is: he just showed up. In my room. As Brandy and I were arguing about her bailing. And he volunteered to take Brandy’s place on the trip.”
“Holy crap! How did you not lead with that?” Evelyn asked in disbelief. “What did you say?”
“Not much of anything, I was in shock. But Brandy was on the idea like white on rice. It was a done deal before my head had even stopped spinning.”
“Has it stopped spinning?” Cat asked.
“Good point. No.”
Evelyn grinned wickedly. “Wow. As fun and super-dramatic as this conversation has been, imagine what the one we will inevitably have, right after you get back from this trip-of-drama, is going to be like.”
Chapter 4
Hunter
“Flight 324 to Myrtle Beach now boarding rows twelve through twenty.”
That was our cue. I touched Sandy lightly on the arm to indicate that the announcement that sounded over the PA system was for our section of the plane. She’d already glanced up at me questioningly before I even had a chance to turn towards her.
A flash of warmth flowed through me. I liked taking care of her. I liked being the one she looked to, to keep things on track. To keep everything running smoothly. To keep her safe, basically. There was nothing in this world I wanted more than to keep her safe.
“That’s us.” I grabbed her
carry-on before she was able reach for it. Hell, if she was already comfortably falling back into the pattern of letting me take care of her, then I wanted to do everything in my damn power to encourage that.
As we shuffled with the crowd down the long walkway towards the plane, I placed my hand on Sandy’s lower back to guide her ahead of me. It wasn’t calculated. I did it without thinking. It just felt natural. But, because touching her hadn’t been a well thought-out plan but rather an automatic response, I wasn’t prepared for the lightning shock that shot up my arm and straight to my heart—and my dick, if I’m being honest—when my hand made contact.
I wondered if she felt it too. Her muscles contracted under my touch when my hand made contact. I had no way of knowing if she’d stiffened in a good way or a bad one, but, hell, it was a reaction. And that was more than I dared to hope for when I’d decided to try to repair things with Sandy.
Also? She didn’t move away. My mama didn’t raise no fool. That was a good sign no matter how you sliced it.
I located our seats and pointed them out to her. “We’re here. Do you want the window seat?”
She turned her face towards me, and her expression was totally unguarded, no angst there at all. Just pure excitement and joy. Pure Sandy.
She clapped her hands in front of her like an excited kid. “Really?”
I nodded and gestured for her to move into the row before I did. “Yeah. This is your first time on a plane. You’ve gotta get the full experience. You’ve gotta watch the houses get tiny as we take off. You’ve gotta see the clouds from the top. You’ve gotta look at the landscape as we land, and trip out at the fact that we just sat in a chair in the sky for a few hours, and now, we’re on the other side of the damn country. You really need to see all of that.”
Her eyes sparkled even brighter than her smile, and she clapped again as she hurried to the window seat and buckled herself in.
Chasing Perfect (Someday#4) Page 4