by Bailey B
I bite my tongue from lashing out my opinions on Sarah Archer. She’s obsessed with my brother, almost to the point of stalker status. She even broke into our house senior year and waited in his room for him. On his bed. Naked.
It was the night after prom, while Cooper was in the hospital with Mom and Piper. I went in to grab him a change of clothes and there Sarah was, naked as a jaybird. I don’t want to know what she did while I was away at college. Cooper stayed home, opting to do the community college thing which was smart, considering he dropped out of school to enlist in the military.
Before I got kicked out of school, I made it a point to come home as little as possible and whenever I did, Sarah was there. Lurking in the shadows. Not really, but it felt like it because damn near every time I turned around, that girl was within ten feet of Cooper. I asked if they were an item on more than one occasion, but he always said no.
“It’s barely nine o’clock. With as much as Sarah had to drink last night, I’m sure she’s still sleeping.”
After a few steps of uncomfortable silence, Danika says. “This is me.”
We stop in front of room five-twenty-two. I feel a smile forming, but fight it back. Last night, Danika laid in my bed. Slept in my shirt. Tonight, I’m not sleeping on the hard floor with a pillow.
Tonight, I’m sleeping in the bed in this room.
With her.
5
Danika
The Horizon Hotel is the same as I remembered, minus the tacky Homecoming decor. Although, they did keep the string lights spanning from the ballroom out onto part of the pool deck. Even though I arrived last night, I was too nervous to take in my surroundings. When I finally calmed down, I was too drunk to appreciate it. Looking around now, it’s surreal being here again.
Listening to the waves kiss the shore as I walk to the poolside cabana bar, I can’t help but smile. Logan and I had a lot of beginnings. Each stage of our life a new chapter unfolding. If I had to pick a specific moment that defined the beginning of us, it would be Homecoming. Here.
I run my tongue over my bottom lip, biting down. Taking a deep breath, I exhale anxious breaths and try to settle my nerves. I can do this.
I slide onto the only open wicker topped stool at the end of the bar and silently curse as the skirt of my dress snags. Of course the stool would be wicker. What better completes the beachside, bohemian feel than woven twigs adding to the ugliness of this bridesmaid’s dress? Just one more thing to add to the list of what sucks about today.
I glance over to the pool. Logan sips a beer and talks to Piper’s husband, Rex. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but from what I can tell from Piper’s social media, Rex seems like a great guy. I’m happy for her. She deserves to be with someone nice after everything she’s been through.
I exhale a defeated breath, ready to admit—only to myself— that Logan looks good. Better than good in his tailored dress pants and white button down shirt, sleeves rolled up. I smile, thinking back to our Homecoming dance again. Logan is one of those guys who is drool worthy in jeans in a T-shirt. Put him in business casual and panties will melt.
My bartender, a dark-haired cool drink of water with a smile that reaches his eyes, sets a small napkin square in front of me. “What can I get you?”
A new family? A ticket back home? Or how about a time machine so I can go back and erase everything between Logan and I? A groan that morphs into a laugh escapes me. I wouldn’t erase the past, even if I could. “Well, the man who shattered my heart is about to become my step-brother. So, something good.”
My bartender grimaces. “Ouch. That’s rough.”
I chuckle, grabbing the hotel’s bar menu and scan my options. My stomach is too twisted to eat, but having the plastic trifold in my hands makes me look less nervous than I feel. “Tell me about it.”
“Which one is he?”
I twist in my seat and scan the pool deck. My gaze finds Logan almost instantly, now flirting with one of the waitresses. I can’t see her face, but she’s thin and blonde and top heavy—everything he liked back in the day. My stomach lurches when she reaches out and squeezes his shoulder. The jealousy I’m feeling is annoying because Logan and I are worlds away from being together. Also, I’m not stupid. He’s a gorgeous man, even more so than when we were in high school. Just because I haven’t been with anyone since we split doesn’t mean he’s been celibate.
Logan looks past the waitress to me. I hate that I want to smack her hand off his arm. Stupid emotions.
Our gazes lock and I allow myself to get sucked into his dark brown eyes for all of two seconds before looking away. “Dark hair. White button down. Talking to the walking Barbie over there.”
Mr. Bartender picks up on my jealousy and chuckles. “Melody has a way of bringing the worst out in women.”
I groan. Of course her name is Melody. What better icing to this shit-filled wedding cake then a nod to the biggest bitch I’ve ever met? “I knew a Melody in high school. She was a world class bitch.”
“Could be the same woman.” Mr. Bartender leans on the counter, his broad muscles flexing. I try not to stare, but the man is handsome. The corner of his lip lifts when he catches me checking him out. “Not like that’s a common name these days.”
I flip to the desert section of the menu then change my mind again and look at the mixed drinks. “That would be my luck.”
Mr.Tall-dark-and-handsome inches closer, tempting me to stare into his eyes. Blue like the Georgia sky on a warm summer’s day. “Do you want something sweet or strong?”
I shrug, forcing my gaze to stay on the plastic menu. If I look up I might be tempted to do something stupid, like pull the bartender’s lips to mine to see if I can get a rise out of Logan. Not that I’m thinking about him. “It’s been so long since I’ve drank anything other than five-dollar wine from the grocery store, I don’t even know what I like.”
Tall-dark-and-handsome smirks, seemingly understanding my plight. Although, with a nice gig like this, full of rich wives ogling his pretty face, I’m sure the dude makes out like a bandit. I reckon he gets a good number of girls like me here, too. He probably hears their sob stories and sympathies while realizing we’re a dime a dozen. Still, he smiles and pours me a drink, making me feel for a few moments that life’s not so bad. He slides a short glass filled to the brim with red liquid to me. “Try this one.”
I take a sip from the black straw, one hundred percent aware that he’s watching my lips and smile against it. “This is better than sex.”
He leans against the back counter and runs a hand through the back of his hair. “Sounds like you haven’t had a real man then.”
Heat climbs my neck to my cheeks. It’s been years since I flirted with anyone. I tried dating once but it was a disaster of epic proportions. The dude spent our whole dinner complaining about his ex-girlfriend. If he hadn’t paid for everything, I would have called it quits right then but I understood. My heart was still hung up on Logan, I was keeping my pain to myself.
I even overlooked the sketchy side door to the basement apartment of his mom’s house. But the deal breaker was when he put on Boys 2 Men I'll Make Love To You and tried to serenade me.The guy started crying mid verse. He was not ready to move on and I realized I wasn’t either.
But Mr. Tall-dark-and-handsome doesn’t seem like the break down in tears while serenading me with song type. He reminds me of one of the guys from the dirty romance books I read, in the best of ways, and it’s kind of turning me on. “Know where I can find one?”
“I’ll take a Jack and Coke,” Logan says from beside me. Fucking cock block.
I take breath, exhaling through my nose and force a smile. “You looked like you were having fun with big-boobs over there.”
Logan chuckles. Tall-dark-and-handsome slides him a short glass, but hovers close. Logan brings the rim of it to his lips and smirks. “Jealousy looks good on you, Danika.”
“I’m not jealous.” I sip my drink, hoping
the alcohol hits hard and fast because I do not want to spend the night thinking about Logan and that big tittied waitress. Especially if she is, in fact, Melody Fox from high school.
6
Logan
“You and Melody looked cozy.”
I lift my glass, finishing the amber liquid with one swallow. Ice clanks, melting in the summer heat, as I set my cup back on the bar-top. I raise a finger and signal the dickbag who had the nerve to flirt with Danika that I want another. He acknowledges me with a curt nod then busies himself behind the bar. “I’m surprised you remember her. She doesn’t remember you.”
Danika pulls the cherry off the end of the tiny blue umbrella in her drink and slips the round, red fruit between her lips. She eyes the bartender, smiling seductively as she pops the stem off. Danika snort-laughs, a sound so uniquely hers it sends a shiver through me. I missed that sound more than I’ll ever admit. “That bitch remembers me.”
I grit my teeth. I forgot what it was like to watch her want someone else. I slam my hand on the bar, startling her and the older woman beside me. “Dude! Where the fuck is my drink?”
Dickbag sets a full glass on a fresh napkin square then drifts to the other side of the bar. Smart man.
Danika shifts in her seat to face me, her lips pressed together into a tight line. “Why are you here, Logan?”
Truthfully, I don’t fucking know. I’m more confused than a goat on astroturf. I hate Danika. I hate her with every call in my body because she is everywhere I look. Time has done nothing to dull the pain and the alcohol I soothe my soul with only makes things worse, bringing back memories I sometimes wish I could forget.
I hate how every woman I’ve been with has left me unsatisfied, wanting more than they could offer because they weren’t her. I want Danika to hate me as much as I hate her and then I want to bury my dick so deep inside her she won’t be able to walk straight for a week. But no matter how hard I try to hold onto that feeling, my hatred never lasts. I fall back into longing and the cycle starts over again.
“Our parents are getting married in fifteen minutes.” I pull her drink closer to me. “Maybe someone should cut you off.”
Danika laughs, playfully pushing my shoulder in the process. “I forgot how much of an ass you were.”
I lean in, invading her space. She stills. Her heart’s racing a mile a minute. Her mind scrambling to decode what I’m going to do next. How do I know? Because mine’s doing the same. “If I remember correctly, this used to be our foreplay back in the day.”
“Seriously, you two, get a room,” Cooper drawls from behind us.
Danika squeals and leaps off her stool. She throws her arms around Cooper’s neck, giving him the embrace I desperately crave. I toss Danika’s drink back, grimacing as I swallow and flip him the bird. Just to be a dick, Cooper lifts Danika off her feet, spinning her around and earning another squeal from her pretty pink lips.
On her feet again, Danika squeezes Cooper’s arms, openly admiring his new-to-her physique. I hate the way she’s touching him. Looking at him. “Holy crap, Cooper. Your guns are as big as my head!”
He laughs and runs a hand through his military-short hair, exposing the edge of the ink hidden beneath his sleeve. “There’s not much to do besides work out when you’re deployed.”
“And you’ve got a tattoo!” she gasps, running her fingers across the black lines. “I thought you said Logan was an idiot for permanently marking his body.”
Cooper shrugs, a shadow falling across his face. “People change.”
Danika nods in an unspoken understanding that makes me wonder if she enlisted after she left. It would explain her lack of communication with her dad these last few years. “What branch did you join?”
“Navy. You?”
Danika shakes her head, smiling sweetly. “Oh, I’m not brave enough. My girlfriend’s husband did a tour in the Army. He was honorably discharged a few months ago and is having a hard time re-adjusting to civilian life again.” She shrugs. “You know, changed.”
Cooper nods in understanding, silence falling between them. I hate that they’re having this moment. They’re bonding. Rekindling their friendship while I’m stuck on the sidelines.
I hold my glass up at the bartender for another round, but he ignores me, busying himself with another pretty girl. It’s for the best. Drinking has a way of bringing up things I’d kill to forget. If I’m going to make my plan work, I need to forget the past and focus on the now. “Girlfriend, huh? Did you change teams after you left?”
Danika groans and walks back to the counter. She leans her breasts against the edge and signals for her bill. “You wish.”
Dickbag hands Danika a black billfold and she grins. I sit up straighter to look at her receipt. I’d offer to pay for her drink, but I already know the answer would be no. She’s always been an independent woman. Besides, the bartender’s taken care of it with a no-charge note on the receipt with a request for her number.
Danika scribbles the ten digits I’ve been denied by Walter and Mom too many times to count. My stomach churns. I feel like I’m stuck in high school again, sitting on the sidelines while she chases the wrong man.
Danika squeezes Cooper’s arm, completely ignoring me. “See you out there.”
7
Danika
I lean my elbows on the banister separating the hotel from the beach and look down at the shoreline. Guests begin to fill the folding seats the hotel set up in the sand. I don’t recognize hardly anyone in attendance, but I do see Sheriff Tomlinson. It’s possible he was at the rehearsal dinner last night, but I arrived too late and was too nervous to notice anyone besides Logan.
“Are you ready?”
I jump and look over my shoulder, a wave of nervous jitters washing over me.
What happened to the walls I built up?
What happened to the hate I felt for years because Logan was too much of a coward to take responsibility when I got pregnant?
What happened to the frustration because he never asked what I did with our baby? Not once in any of the million messages he left me, nor during the day I gave him to talk after I left. He never cared and never will.
A little bit of fury comes back and I hold onto it. I stand up straighter and roll my shoulders back. I feel like shit. My head still hurts, the whole hair of the dog, drinking to feel better thing is bullshit. My calves ache and the butterflies in my stomach are fighting a wave of nausea. All of which Logan doesn’t need to know. “After today, you’re my brother. Is that weird?”
The corner of his lip lifts into that classic crooked smile. “No offense, Dani, but you will never be my sister.”
I look down at my hands and laugh. I missed his face. Somehow, in all the time we were a couple, I never took a picture of Logan and I together. I guess when we were happy, it didn’t occur to me that we would break up. I certainly never planned to walk away from him.
“Well you two look...awkward.” Piper hobbles towards us, her big belly making it difficult to walk.
“And you look like a blimp,” Logan teases, leaning in to give his sister a hug. I’m glad their relationship mended over the years. Things used to be tense between them, but you’d never know it now.
“I feel like one.” Piper pulls back and holds her hand out to me. “Mind if I steal Danika for a sec?”
“I want her back.” Logan winks, stepping back towards the pool.
I’m not his to claim anymore, but the argument isn’t worth the wasted breath. I wait until Logan’s far enough up the deck that he can’t hear us before I ask, “How many more weeks do you have?”
“Two,” Piper huffs, resting her hands on her belly. She looks down at her bump adoringly, probably imagining what life will be like when the baby finally makes its appearance. “And it can’t come soon enough. Were you this uncomfortable?”
I smile because I remember that feeling. The too huge to function, want this baby out, but love it so much it needs to stay cooking for as
long as possible feeling. “I never made it past thirty-four weeks, but the answer is yes.”
Piper is the only one in the Harris household besides Logan to know I was pregnant. She was also the only person to bug me after I left about the baby. Eventually, I confessed I was keeping her, but made Piper promise not to say anything. She kept my secret and we’ve made it a point to check on each other every couple of months since.
“I wish you would have brought her.”
I roll my eyes. “Because no one would ask questions if I showed up with a four-year-old.”
“Three!” Piper points her finger at me. “Molly still has a few more weeks. I’m not ready for her to be four yet.”
“You and me both.” I laugh and Piper does too. Moments like this make me miss home, but I can never come back without everyone asking a million questions. Even if I did, Piper travels with Rex. I wouldn’t have her in my corner. “Did you pick a name? You guys were stuck between a couple last time we talked.”
Piper nods and rubs her belly. “Liam James.”
“I love it.”
“Are you doing okay? I was hoping to catch you at the rehearsal last night but you never came.”
I turn and rest my elbows on the banister behind me. My gaze finds Logan almost instantly. He’s with my dad, laughing like they’re old friends. Would they have gotten along so well if we never broke up? Or would Dad pretend to hate Logan because I’m his baby and dads are supposed to hate the boyfriend?
“I’m confused. I thought I could handle seeing Logan again, but I have all these feelings I don’t know what to do with and I’m freaking out.” It feels good to let out what I’m going through. I thought having a room next to Sarah would give me an escape and someone to talk to, but from the looks of her room, she hasn’t been in it since check in.