She handed me the large bag that’d been slung over her shoulder. I opened the overhead bin and put my backpack in. Before lifting Sandy’s black-and-grey leopard-print carry-on up next to mine, however, I unzipped the top and removed her small purse. Once I’d gotten her bag settled, I plopped down in my seat next to her and slid her the handbag.
“Here you go. Trust me, you’re not going to want to be without this for the entire seven-hour flight. Not to mention the layover. I know how you need to have your makeup with you at all times like a talisman.”
She put her hand over her heart, her tone and manner dramatic to convey the joke. “Awww. You know me so well.”
“Yeah. I do,” I said, looking into her eyes, and there was nothing lighthearted at all about the tone of my voice.
Her cheeks colored as she glanced down. To cover the moment, she started digging around in her purse and pulled her cell phone out. “Well…um…I guess if I have any texting to do, I’d better do it now, before they make us turn our phones off.”
“Yep,” I said.
She wasn’t looking at me, which was a good thing, because I just couldn’t hide the self-satisfied grin on my face. Damn. If it was that easy for me to get the girl flustered, some kind of connection was definitely still there.
Her thumbs flew across the keypad of her phone, and emotions flowed across her face as the texts flew back and forth. My heart skipped in my chest. One of the things I always, always, loved most about Sandy was the way she wore her heart all over her face. She was completely without guile. Anything going on inside her was projected across her features like a movie playing on a screen.
Finally, she furiously tapped one last response out and hit send. Then her fingers flew over the screen to put her phone on airplane mode.
Her voice was triumphant. “Ha! Take that!”
I chuckled. “You do like to get the last word in.”
She shrugged. “Only when I’m right.”
“And remind me now. When was a time you weren’t right?”
She grinned back at me. “First time for everything. That’s what they say, anyway. I’ll let you know if it ever happens.”
I gestured at the phone. “I take it that was Brandy.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yep. Benedict, herself. She still won’t tell me why she bailed, and she doesn’t even seem that sorry anymore. Pshhh. Whatever. Here. See for yourself.”
She hit the icon to bring the conversation up and scrolled up to the beginning of the exchange before thrusting the phone at me. I took the phone and began to read.
Well, Bran, we’re about to take off.
OK.
Anything you want to say to me?
Have a good flight.
Anything else?
Safe travels.
Hmmmm…anything else?
Talk to you when you get there.
Nothing like…wish I was there with you? So sorry I blew you off?
Wish I was there with you. So sorry I blew you off.
Dammit, Bran!
*sad smile*
Just tell me what you’re doing! It’s driving me nuts!
We’ll talk when you get home.
Better hope I don’t die in the sky. If the plane crashes, you’re gonna feel like shit.
I tried to continue scrolling, but the conversation ended there. I looked at Sandy, who was still wearing a triumphant grin. “That was your big finish? If I die, you’ll be sorry?’”
She shrugged. “The truth hurts.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Yet another adorable Sandy quality: her shameless commitment to even the most indefensible positions when she felt she was in the right.
I handed the phone back. “You know, I understand that you’re pissed at her. And you have every right to be. She let you down and she won’t explain why. I get that. But have you thought about the fact that there’s an upside to her not coming on the trip?”
Sandy lifted her eyebrows.
I pointed at my face. “Um…hello? Me? If Brandy were here, you wouldn’t be spending spring break with yours truly. And I think we both know you’re secretly thrilled about that.”
She smirked. “Oh, yeah. That’s a real upside, Hunter. Side note: I see you still think just as much of yourself as you always did.”
“I don’t see why time should change that. I’m like a fine wine, baby. Better with age.”
The plane’s engines fired up, causing the floor of the plane to rumble powerfully beneath our feet. Sandy began to fidget. When the plane started to taxi onto the runway, she grasped my forearm with talon-like fingers and faced me in her seat. Her eyes were wide, and her face had drained of all color.
“Shit. We’re about to take off. Like…really take off. Into the sky.”
“Yeah, San. That’s kind of what flying is?”
“But…I mean…this plane must weigh like…a lot. I’m not a math expert. But a lot.”
“I don’t actually think knowing how much a plane weighs has anything to do with math. It’s more like a general knowledge thing.”
“Not the point, smart guy!”
“And the point is?”
“How can this plane, which weighs, as we have established, a lot… How can this plane go up into the sky and, like…stay there?”
“Okay. I don’t think you really want a lecture on Bernoulli’s Principle or Newton’s Laws of Motion right now…”
Her scowl let me know how right I was.
“So let me just say this: planes take off and fly thousands of times a day, every day. It doesn’t seem like it should be able to work, but it does. Okay?”
She took a deep breath and nodded. I could see in her face that she was trying to calm herself down, but her vise-like grip on my forearm didn’t loosen even a little.
“You’ve been planning this trip forever. How is this just occurring to you now?” I asked.
“Hunter, you know me. You know I’m not the most forward-thinking person. I live in the moment!”
I put my hand comfortingly over hers on my arm and looked into her eyes, trying to be a steadying and calming influence. “I do know you, Sandcastle. I know you better than anybody. But, just think about this. You know me, too. And if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’d never let anything happen to you. Trust me. You’ll be fine. Okay?”
She nodded without moving her gaze away from mine. Suddenly, it felt like we were talking about a lot more than just the plane ride. Her lip trembled. I didn’t know if that was from fear about the plane ride or emotion from what I’d said. Maybe a little of both.
The plane sped up, pushing us back against our seats, and Sandy gasped. Her grip on my arm tightened even further, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. Then we tilted back at an upward angle as the plane nosed up and lifted off into the air.
Sandy drew in her breath again and leaned towards me, burying her face in my neck. “Hold me!” she squealed.
Done.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and drew her into me, murmuring comforting words in her ear as I inhaled her hair that always smelled like fresh strawberries. Damn. I forgot how much I missed that smell.
Her body was shaking like a leaf. I hated that she was scared, but I loved the way it felt to hold her. While we were lifting off into the sky and I had Sandy in my arms, it seemed like the world held nothing but possibilities.
Chapter 5
Sandy
“Wait…what do you mean there are no other rooms?” I probably should’ve been trying to play it cool and keep the panic out of my voice, but I didn’t care at that point. I was a little panicked, so I figured, deal with it, world!
The worst part was that this was my own damn fault. As the front desk clerk at the Seaside Inn patiently explained, Brandy and I had only reserved one room. Which made total sense when I booked it.
But now? Now was a different story. Because now, I wasn’t going to be staying in the same room with my twin, who I als
o shared a room with at home, and at school. No. Now, I was staying in the same room with Hunter.
“You have to get us another room,” I blurted out, interrupting the clerk’s polite recitation.
Her smile was tight. The veneer of hospitality was wearing thin. I could practically hear her mentally cursing spring break and all it entailed. I hated to be the one adding to her stress level, but I couldn’t deal with the thought of sleeping in the same room with Hunter, night after night, for the entire trip. It was too much. There was too much complexity going on.
Were we back to being friends?
Was I still mad at him?
Why had he fallen off the face of the earth only to show up acting as if nothing had changed?
Did he have feelings?
Did I have feelings?
Fuck!
No. I couldn’t have feelings. That was off the table. A total impossibility. I could feel his breath against my neck as he stood beside me at the check-in counter. A mental image of Hunter, shirtless, lying on a bed sound asleep. Moonlight highlighting his chiseled chest as he breathed in and out. My mouth watered as I pictured it rising and falling in a hypnotic rhythm…
No! I mentally chastised myself, snapping me out of my lust fog.
We couldn’t share a room. I needed space to figure all of this shit out, and living together in a tiny hotel room was the exact opposite of space. It was anti-space.
“Ma’am, as I’ve explained, this is our busiest time of year. We’ve been booked up for months. Any other hotel is going to tell you the same. I apologize, but the room that you have reserved is the only one available to you.”
Well, crap. That sounded final. I shook my head, trying to think of something—anything—to say that would change the situation, but there was nothing. I looked at Hunter. Shit. He was no help. He actually looked amused.
“Fine,” I grumbled to the clerk and took the keycards.
“Thank you, ma’am.” Hunter was his usual polite self.
I couldn’t muster the energy.
“You two have a real nice day now.” The clerk waved as we exited the lobby.
I was sure she was glad to see me go. It wasn’t lost on me that I was being a total bitch—or, as Hunter called it, I was in Sandcrab Mode—but I felt powerless to stop myself.
Damn. This vacation was off to an awesome start.
As we walked down the hallway, searching for our room number—me with nothing in my hands and Hunter with all the suitcases, because, of course, he has to be infuriatingly wonderful at all times—I decided to lay down the law.
Narrowing my eyes, I folded my arms in an all business, no nonsense gesture. “Just so you know, there will be no getting frisky while we are in this room.”
“Got it.”
“No hanky-panky.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Are you seriously agreeing, or are you just humoring me?”
“I’m taking you seriously. I mean, you went to all the trouble of looking up phrases in the Grandma’s World War II Synonyms for Sex thesaurus. The least I can do is respect your wishes.”
“Ha ha, funny guy. I am serious. This week is going to be all about me in my bed, you in yours. No visitation. Can you deal with that?”
“Consider it dealt with.”
*
I was actually feeling a tiny bit better, until we found our room and walked inside. One cursory glance was all it took for my world to fall out from under me.
Hunter’s world, on the other hand, seemed entirely intact.
“This won’t be so bad,” Hunter said gamely as we set our suitcases on the bed.
Yep, that’s right. Bed. Singular. How many beds? Uno. One bed.
“Not so bad?” I repeated. “How is it not so bad? There was no visitation. Remember? How is that going to be enforced if we share a bed? And, I mean, come on, do you really think that’s a good idea?” I started to ramble, which I tended to do when I was stressed. “Because I don’t think that’s a good idea. This is why we needed two rooms. So what, front desk lady expects us to sleep in this freaking bed together?”
Hunter’s eyes grew darker when I said the words, “sleep in this bed together.” Which in turn made me intake a sharp breath. I couldn’t help it, not with Hunter going all Patrick Swayze “Hungry Eyes” on me.
Instead of addressing our silent exchange, Hunter just grinned and shrugged. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, Sandcastle. You can have the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor. All I need is a pillow and one of the blankets and I’ll be set.”
The floor wasn’t even carpeted. It was just oversized terrazzo tiles. Great for cleanliness. Shitty for sleeping on.
I shook my head and sighed. “No, that’s stupid. I can’t let you do that. We can both sleep in the bed. We’ll just be adults about it.”
Our grad night words echoed too late to stop their escape from my mouth. They hung in the air between us, and the room was suddenly heavy with tension. It might’ve been unspoken between us, but there was obviously one thing on both of our minds right now—our naughty, naked night at the swimming hole.
God, if I had the power to filter my thoughts—like, at all—before they popped out of my mouth, I wouldn’t have gotten myself into half the scrapes I’d been in. But, sadly, that was a skill I’d never possessed and likely never would. No filter. Zero.
Hunter did what Hunter did best, smoothly lightened the mood. “Hey, if it gets to be too much of an issue, we’ll just string up a blanket in the middle of the bed like in that old movie. You know the one I mean?”
I grimaced. “Yeah, I know the one you mean. Brandy is obsessed with old movies, remember? That’s probably where you saw that one in the first place. But it’s a bad example. You know what that movie’s called? It Happened One Night. I don’t have photographic recall of all of Brandy’s old movies, but I’m guessing, based on the title alone that…you know…it happened one night.”
He laughed, a genuine belly laugh. And just like that, the tension was broken. For the time being, anyway.
When I joined in, it felt like we were our old selves again. Hunter and Gatherer. Together again. It was the best feeling I could remember in a long time. Without having been consciously aware that I was going to say it ahead of time, I heard myself sigh, “Oh, man, have I missed you,” at the tail end of my laughing jag.
Oh. Shit.
See? No filter.
This time, however, my inability to do so was apparently working in my favor. Rather than making it awk-weird between us again, it had the opposite effect. Hunter shot me the bright grin I loved, the one he saved for only the happiest of occasions, and said, “You too, San.”
My cheeks flamed up. Damn. I’d let my guard down more than I’d meant to. So I snapped it back in place. “Yeah. Um…we should unpack.”
I laser-focused my eyes on my suitcase and started tossing my clothes on the bed. Hunter’s eyes were on me, and I realized that all of the garments I’d pulled out so far were bikinis. Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikinis of all colors and patterns. When I dared to glance up at him, his eyes were lingering on the sexy swimsuits. Tiny beads of sweat had popped out along his hairline, and an involuntary rush of arousal sped from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and back again at the sight of it.
I knew that, if we didn’t get out of this room quick, there was a good chance things between us were going to go somewhere I didn’t want them to. I needed to stage a distraction.
“Okay,” I said way too over-the-top brightly, “let’s get out of here. I mean, did we fly all the way across the country to stay in our room? I think not. Let’s go to the beach.”
“Sounds good,” he replied huskily, and the rasp in his voice made my knees go weak.
Crappity crap crap crap! This was exactly why we needed to get out into the sunshine and fresh air, and clear our heads.
I grabbed one of my bikinis and announced over my shoulder, “Let me just go change and we can get out of here.”
“I don’t know, Sandy,” he said with a lopsided, knowing grin. “When you put on a bikini, we tend to get ourselves into trouble.”
I ducked into the bathroom without responding, and when I turned to the mirror, I was chagrined—but not really surprised—to see that my cheeks were flushed and I was breathing hard as if I’d just run a race.
Chapter 6
Hunter
I reached my hand out to stop the hotel door from closing in the last moment before it shut with a loud thunk. I glanced over at Sandy, who was rummaging around in her oversized beach bag. “San, are you sure you have your keycard? If you need to come back to the room before me, I want to make sure you can get back in.”
She turned her face up to me, and my heart stopped when I saw her smile. Nothing new, of course. It did that every single time I saw her smile.
She patted her bag affectionately. “Don’t you worry, H. I’ve got my keycard. I’ve got suntan lotion, and cash, and sunglasses, and a beach towel, and lip gloss, and—”
“Okay, okay. You’re prepared. I get it!” I laughed.
“Also, I love how you assume you’re going to somehow outlast me. Time and time again, I have proven that I am a heartier partier than you are, my friend. Deal with it. You’re a lightweight.”
“Oh¸ no, I didn’t assume that you were going to be totally partied out before me. I just assumed you were going to have to do some kind of wardrobe change or makeup overhaul or something at some point.”
“Hey.” She grinned, gesturing up and down her body from head to toe. “You think all of this here happens without effort? You think I just roll out of bed like this in the morning?”
A crystal clear mental image of her in bed materialized in my head like a snapshot. A sheet artfully draped over her naked body. Sunlight shining in through her sleep-mussed golden hair. Her arms stretching over her head with feline grace as she yawned, causing the sheet to slip down over her red tip nipple… Ah, shit.
I cleared my throat, which had suddenly become very dry, but my voice still had a small catch when I shot back, “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow morning.”
Chasing Perfect (Someday#4) Page 5