Clallam Bay (A Fresh Start #2) (11 page)

Sonia and I huddled under the awning, out of harm’s way, until Jason broke free and clocked Luis right in his nose and then a second time in his jaw. Wiggling out of my arms, Sonia ran out in the rain to jump on Jason.

At first I thought she was attacking him because she was angry. But then she wrapped her legs around his waist and he grabbed her ass as both attacked each other’s mouths.

Coll and I stood on either side of them, staring at each other through the rain.

When he cracked a smile, so did I.

I was so busy thinking about kissing him like that, I didn’t see Sean or his fist coming until it connected with Coll’s face.

The whole thing played out in slow motion.

Sean’s fist hit Coll’s face with a sickening sound of flesh colliding with flesh. I watched in horror as Coll lost his footing, only to recover just before hitting the ground. Straightening, he took another hit to the mouth, and I covered mine with both hands as he rubbed his jaw then wiped blood from his bottom lip before spitting some out.

“Sean, stop it!” Tara screamed, barreling out the bar doors. She stepped between the two, spanning both arms in an attempt to keep them apart. Unsatisfied, Sean stepped forward for more.

Jason practically threw Sonia off him to go after her little brother. “What the hell’s your problem, man?” Jason asked, grabbing Sean by the front of his shirt.

“Him!” Sean pointed at Coll, who was letting Tara paw all over his chest and face, the sight of which lit a fire inside my belly.

How dare she touch him? And right in front of me! Where the hell did she even come from?

“He’s my problem. Can have anyone he wants but goes after my girl. Mine!”

“Hey, I didn’t go after anybody.” Coll held his hands up in a casual defense.

Tara wiped a bit of blood away from his lip and I vomited in my mouth a little. Was this really happening? Did stuff like this actually happen? Were they really fighting over this girl? This had to be a nightmare. One I would have really liked to wake up from right then.

“Fuck you, Coll! You went after Tara! You went after her and you know it!” Sean yelled, pushing against Jason.

“All right. All right, let’s just all calm down now,” Jason said, and Sean shook him off.

“He started it.” Sean pointed at Coll.

“Really, Sean?” Sonia butted in, planting her hands on her hips. “Tara is a grown whore.”

Tara looked over her shoulder to glare at Sonia who looked back at her like “well, bitch, you are.” I dug my nails into my palms to keep from saying or doing anything like charging over and scratching the grown whore’s eyes out.

“She did what she did because she wanted to, not because Coll forced her. Come on.” Grabbing my arm, Sonia pulled me out into the rain with the rest of them. “Hailey, drive us home, would ya? French models may be sexy, but they’re broke as a joke.” Sonia stuck her middle finger in Luis’ face as we walked by. “I had to pick the asshole up and buy the drinks. Can you believe that? All he did was talk about himself while I took sips. Now I’ve gone and drank too much and can’t drive. Shit …”

She dragged me past Coll and grabbed Sean who obediently stumbled along behind us. I glanced back to give Coll an apologetic look, but ended up giving both him and Tara what was probably a death glare instead.

Waving me off, Coll rubbed his jaw as he headed back inside with Jason, Tara following not far behind them.

I wanted to scream. Pull my hair. Pull Tara’s hair. All while stomping my feet so hard I’d break through the pier and drown in the bay below. But mostly I just wanted to get home, crawl into bed, and forget this disaster of a night ever happened.

*

“Damn that Sonia,” Alyssa said as I rehashed the happenings of the previous night. She plopped down at the kitchen table, and I turned back to the counter, grabbing another orange to peel and dice for a healthy fruit salad.

I briefly eyed the cupboard with the Doritos and frowned.

“It wasn’t her fault.”

“Not her fault, my ass. Her and that brother of hers …” Alyssa growled like a cute little lion cub. “Neither one of ‘em’s any good, the selfish little shits.”

“Come on, Alyssa. She was drunk. What the hell else was I supposed to do?”

“Not what you did.”

Twisting at the waist, I gave Alyssa a look before turning back to my healthy bowl of blah.

“Well, you’re a better friend than me. I would have told her to hit the road. Put that well-manicured thumb to good use.”

“No you wouldn’t have.”

“The hell I wouldn’t.”

“Well, what if it was me? I find it hard to believe you’d leave me stranded for some guy.”

“Uh, if that some guy looked anything like Collin Locke, then yeah. Yeah, I would. You can bet your pert, white ass.”

While Alyssa continued mumbling to herself, I grabbed the fat-free whipped cream and shot a dollop into my mouth before spraying it all over the mixed fruit.

I joined her at the table, and we poked at it like hesitant chimpanzees while I went over my lesson plans, making sure I had everything squared away before leaving for the fishing trip with Coll. That was, if we were still going. It was already almost noon and I still hadn’t heard a thing from him.

“I just can’t believe that bitch.”

“Which one?”

“Tara. Going after your man like that.” Alyssa shook her head.

“He’s not my man.”

“He’s just as good as. And is for all she knows. He took you to his mother’s house for dinner for Hell’s sake. You showed up at the bar with him.”

Yeah, and he took her home for all I knew.

“Look, I hear you. Believe me.” She was loud enough. “But the point is, we haven’t gone there.”

“Wait. You haven’t slept together yet?”

“No.”

“Really.”

“Haven’t even talked about it.”

Alyssa snorted. “Sleeping together isn’t something you talk about. Haven’t I already explained this to you?”

I shrugged, and Alyssa sighed.

“Okay.” Adjusting herself in her seat, she held up her palm like she did when she was getting ready to divulge something extremely important. “Sex isn’t something you talk about. It’s something you do. So just do it already and lock that shit down before Tara comes swooping back in on her broomstick.” Alyssa stabbed a melon and stuck it in her mouth, cringing as she chewed. “Nobody cleans the blood off your man’s face but you.” She pointed her fork at my face.

Chewing a piece of cantaloupe, I nodded.

“Jesus, this fruit.” Alyssa scowled at the bowl before sticking her fork back in to fish out another bite. “Eating healthy sucks.”

“Don’t I know it.”

Taking another bite, we chewed for a moment in silence before I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Okay. That’s it.” I threw down my fork and got up to dig through the cupboard. Turning back to the table, I held up the Doritos. “You want some?”

After Alyssa and I finished off the bag, she left, and I phoned Amber to once again recount the previous night’s excitement. She pretty much confirmed what Alyssa had been saying all along.

Get your man before somebody else does.

Again.

We quickly hung up when there was a knock at the door. I ran to grab my pack from the bedroom then thought better of it, not wanting to seem too eager. Just to be safe, I waited until he knocked again before answering.

I found Coll standing on the other side of the door with his head down and a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes, most likely hiding the extent of damage Sean had left underneath them. But there was no hiding that split lip.

“You ready?” he asked, surpassing any type of greeting.

“Oh … Okay, yeah. Sure. Uh, just let me grab my bag real quick.” Leaving the door open, I went to grab my things.

“I don’t mean to rush you,” he said from the other room. I smiled at him when I returned. “But if we don’t get a move on we’ll lose the light.”

I pulled on my boots then grabbed my coat. “Yeah. No, it’s no problem.”

I followed him out and locked the door behind me. He took my bag to throw it in the bed of his truck, and we both piled in the cab. Stretching his arm out behind me, he backed out then swung around. I took it a little too personal when he pulled his arm back in to help steer instead of letting it rest behind my shoulders like he had that one time before.

Was he mad at me? Because he had no reason to be. If anybody had a reason to be mad it was me. I wasn’t the one who let another woman hang all over me in front of him. I wasn’t the one to head back into the bar with her. If the tables were turned I would have left when my date did. That would have been the polite thing to do. Not show up at their house the next day all pushy and impatient.

“I woke up kinda late.”

“Oh, yeah? Late night?”

“You could say that.”

Oh, could I? Just what the hell did that mean?

“After I left the bar, I came home to find my bedroom window busted out by a tree limb.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded. “Had to clean that up. Then my electric went out so my alarm didn’t go off.”

Well, shit. Was that it?

“My God. You must have been freezing all night.”

“Nah, wasn’t that bad. Gets a lot worse out on the boats.”

“Still. Don’t you need to tell Sonia? Get it fixed? Should we even be going on this trip?”

“I always go no matter what. And always today. Besides, I’m not telling Sonia shit.”

“Why not?”

“Have you met her?”

Tilting my head, I offered him a look of understanding even though he couldn’t really see it. I had to give it to him. Sonia was crazy pretty much all the time. But still. It was an accident. One that wasn’t anyone’s fault. That was why they called it a natural disaster.

“Well, then how do you expect to get it fixed?”

“I’ll do it myself.”

I side-eyed him. “Really? You know how to fix windows?”

He shrugged. “Can’t be that hard.”

Uh huh.

“So when?”

“When what?”

“When are you going to fix the window?”

“I don’t know. Soon as I can save up enough, I guess.”

“Save up enough? Why should you have to pay for it? Shouldn’t a tree branch busting your window be covered by your insurance?”

“Probably. But you gotta have it first.”

I twisted in my seat to face him. “Wait. You’re telling me you don’t have any renter’s insurance? Is that what you’re saying?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

I scoffed. “Well, how the hell do you get away with that? Sonia makes me show her proof of payment every month.”

Not that I wouldn’t have it if she didn’t require me to. There were a boatload of things that could go wrong. Fires, floods, burglaries, branches busting through your bedroom window … How did he sleep at night?

Making a left he shrugged, casually stretching his arm over the back of the seat behind me like I wanted him to earlier, which made me so immensely happy I forgot what we had been talking about.

Time flew by with the passing of the trees. Before I knew it we were pulling onto some overgrown tracks in the middle of the forest. Dormant branches scraped against the sides of the truck. I held back a few choice words and animalistic noises that threatened to tumble out with each trench the tires rolled in then bounced out of.

I kept waiting for the trees to thin, but they never did. Only seemed to grow thicker and denser the farther he maneuvered through them. There were a few times I almost asked if we were getting close, but I stopped myself. The last thing I wanted was to come off as annoying or ruin his trip. So I kept my mouth shut, dug my nails into the cracks in the upholstery, and sucked it up. He must have noticed my discomfort.

“You hangin’ in there?” he asked, glancing over with a smile.

I nodded, grimacing when we hit another mud hole.

“Won’t be too far now. River’s just up ahead. Kind of sneaks up on ya if you’re not careful.”

As soon as he said it we broke free from the trees and he hit the brakes, slightly skidding on the gravel lining the bank. After throwing the truck into park, he jumped out and started grabbing supplies from the back as I plucked my fingers from the dashboard one by one, leaving behind indentations of the tips. After prying open the door, I slid out of the cab onto shaky legs, gumming my dry mouth. I could have really used a Diet Coke right then.

“I can get the rest of this if you wanna grab your bag,” he said, and I nodded, unable to answer because of the dry mouth. “If not I can always make two trips. We usually set up camp down the river just a ways. So …”

Shaking my head, I licked my lips. “No. Yeah, I’m good with carrying my own bag.”

“You sure? It’s no big deal to make two trips.”

Giving him a look, I huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can handle carrying a bag. If you want, I can even carry two.” I held up both palms. “Would you like me to take some of that off your hands?” I asked before shouldering my bag.

He shook his head. “Nah, I’m good.”

He took off and I followed, trying my best to keep up in my new clunky boots while simultaneously slipping on loose gravel and sinking into wet sand. The few times he stopped to check on me made me feel foolish more than anything. The kind of girls he was used to probably liked this sort of thing. And if not, they were most likely at least familiar with it. It being nature.

“So, you usually come out here with your brothers?”

“Yep. All except Russell.”