Finding Peace (Finding Series Book 1) (33 page)

“I can’t believe you did that. You jerk, I will pay you back for that.”

Blake has quit laughing and is just staring at me. This is until he hears a boat in the distance.

“Umm, Kayla.” He rubs the top of his head with his hand, then points at me. “Your…”

“What? Spit it out!”

“Your top.” He says lowering his eyes toward my chest.

Screaming, I wrap an arm around me, while still trying to tread water.

“Help me find my top. Don’t just keep staring at me.”

He shrugs, raising his eyebrows.
I’m going to kill him.

“In case you haven’t noticed, that’s the Brooks’ speed boat headed this way. I’m really not that comfortable with any of them seeing me topless and I’m pretty sure Tessa will flip because, Asher is with them.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

He begins scanning the water for my top. It’s nowhere in sight. Swimming toward the dock, he reaches up and pulls himself out of the water.

“Where are you going? Blake!”

He runs to the wet T-shirt he left lying on the dock. I roll my eyes at myself.
Is he kidding?
He turns back to me.

“Swim over here, Kayla.”

Doing as I’m told, swimming toward him, keeping everything except my head under the water. He leans down in front of me, holding the neck of the shirt open.

“Here put this on.”

Laughing I say, “What are we having a wet t-shirt contest? Seriously Blake?”

“It’s the best I can do right now. Just put it on before they get here. The thought of someone else seeing you… well lets just say, I don’t like it.”

He slips the wet shirt over my head, then assists me with each arm. The whole time averting his eyes. My southern gentleman. He lifts me out of the water and starts choking as he looks at me.

“I told you that wouldn’t work.”

“Oh, it works, trust me.”

And just like that, my cocky man is back. Seriously, you could get whiplash around him. Slapping him, I hear the boat getting closer.

“Grab my towel, it’s on the grass up there.” I say, pointing to where I dropped my stuff earlier.

Wrapping my arms around my chest to cover myself, I watch as he runs to get my towel. His calf muscles are beautiful, everything about him is beautiful.

Putting the towel around me just in time, I laugh at his relieved expression.

“That was close.” He whispers in my ear, causing me to shiver.

“We came back to check on you and to see if you wanted to come with us.” Troy states.

Wanting to say no, but not knowing what Blake wants to do, I look at him. 

“I’ll do whatever you want to do.” He says, giving me that look that makes me stupid.

Leaning into him I whisper. “It’s going to be hard to explain where my top went.”

He laughs and hugs me to him. Burying my head into his chest, hearing his heart is music to my ears.

“I think we’ll hang out here for a while. Maybe later.”

“Okay then. We’ll be back in a while. Asher grab that inner tube since you and Tessa want to ride.”

Picking my head up to see if that’s something Blake would like to do, he looks down at me, winks, and then kisses my forehead.

“Did you lose something, Kayla?” Asher says, holding up my bikini top up for everyone to see.

Everyone is staring at us, Blake rubs the back of his neck as we both begin to try to explain.

“You see I …”

“We were…”

“And then I Jumped…”

“And when we came up…”

“No top…”

Troy holds his hand up. “Stop, I got it. We will be back in a while. I trust you’ll be wearing more than Blake’s wet T-shirt?”

“Yes, Sir.” I reply.

Asher throws my bikini top at us. Blake catches it without a problem. Asher and Tessa are trying really hard not to laugh at us. We stand there in each others arms, watching them as they pull away again.

Blake

“I can’t believe that just happened. How embarrassing.” Kayla says, shivering.

“Let’s get you inside and into some dry clothes.”

Never thought I would be encouraging a girl to put clothes on. With this girl though I’ve learned my lesson. I will not be pushing her into doing anything. The last thing I want is for her to run again.

Telling her that I love her was not something I had planned on doing, but in that moment, I felt like I was going to lose her, so I had nothing to lose by telling her.

The words felt foreign to me. Having never told a girl that before and truly meaning it like I do with her is scary. The thought of plunging into this with both feet terrifies me. Being raised to believe it is a man’s place to provide for his family puts a lot of pressure on a man. It is fine by me if she wants to work outside the home. But if she wants to stay at home, I believe it should be an option. With Kayla, I want her and the whole nine yards, the house, the children, and even a dog, all of it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t freak out at the thought of it. That’s a lot of responsibility. The only thing that terrifies me more is not having her in my life.

We make our way back to the house. I’m in awe of the structural detail on the outside, then once we walk in through the door, I’m blown away. The clean lines, the crown molding, it’s all beautiful. They even have a state of the art, central vacuum system, with inlet set up throughout the house. That makes life so much easier for the homeowner.

“Wow, this place is really luxurious.”

My eyes land on the pool table in the center of the room. Meeting her eyes, I cock  my head to the side, smirking, “Do you play?”

“No, not really.” She laughs. “I’m going up to get some dry clothes on. Make yourself at home.”

She starts up a set of stairs when I ask, “Does that mean you’re letting me stay tonight?”

She stops and turns to look back at me. “I wouldn’t let you leave even if you tried.”

“Well, I’m not going unless forced to. I’m going to go get my bag out of the truck. Where do you want me to put my stuff? I’m guessing your room is out of the question?” I give her my best innocent smile.

“Definitely out of the question, Mr. Sexy.”

The smile on my face couldn’t be stopped. Pointing my finger at her, I exclaim “Aha! I knew that was what you almost called me that night. So, you do appreciate my fine physique.”

“Oh, brother. I think I’ve done the impossible.”

“Which is?”

“Made your ego even bigger.”

We both laugh. Then there’s a moment that passes between us as we look into each others eyes. It’s an unspoken language that we seem to be developing. That, along with that current of longing and need that always seems to be pulling us together, it’s all too much for either of us to deny it exists. 

She finally shakes her head and points to a door behind me.

“That’s where you’ll be staying. It’s one of the guest rooms. You can put your stuff in there.”

She then points to a door at the bottom of the stairs.

“The bathroom is through that door. I’ll be right back.

“Okay. Thank you.” I say, smiling at her.

She smiles, then heads up the stairs again. Watching her ascend the stairs in my wet T-shirt is a sight to behold. I take in a breath and let it out as she disappears from view.

Going out to my truck, I notice a black sedan driving by slowly. Not thinking anything of it at first. Maybe they are just lost. Then the car circles back around before I even make it back into the house. They must have decided they were on the wrong street.

Walking back inside, I go straight to the bathroom. Deciding that a quick shower would be nice.

Fully dressed now, feeling much better, I exit the bathroom. Taking my bag into the guest room, I set it down by one of the beds. Hearing someone, I assume is Kayla I walk back out into the main room and run into a young guy, with sandy blonde hair, who’s about my size. I recognize him as the guy who threw me Kayla’s bikini top. He extends his hand to me.

“Hi, I’m Asher. Tessa’s boyfriend. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Shaking his hand, I notice that we are the only ones here.

“Sorry, I can’t say the same about you. Where’s Kayla?”

He looks a little uncomfortable now. That may have come off a little rude, but I didn’t mean it to be.

“Tessa and Kayla are upstairs helping Lisa cook. I think Troy was worried about leaving you guys here alone. So, he made us come back early.”

“Oh. I see,” I say, laughing.

“You want to play a game of pool while we wait?”

“Sure, rack em up. I’ll just go grab my stick out of my truck.”

“Great! If you have your own stick I’m probably in trouble.”

“Nah, I’ll take it easy on you.”

“Sure you will.” He laughs as I walk out the door.

Running to my truck, I notice that black car again. That’s weird, maybe they are visiting someone, but it’s not parked in front of a house. The car just doesn’t look like it belongs in the neighborhood. Grabbing my pool stick, I walk back in the house.

Laying my case on the couch, I pull the stick out and put it together, then walk over to the table.

“I’m really glad you made it this weekend after the week Kayla has had, she really needed you here.”

Looking at him, I furrow my brow. “What do you mean? She hasn’t said anything to me about having a bad week.”

He looks shocked that I don’t know what he is talking about.

“Look, I’m sorry man. I just figured she would have told you.”

“Obviously you think it’s something I need to know, so, just tell me.”

He starts to shift uncomfortably, looking back and forth between me and the stairs.

“I don’t know, man. If she didn’t tell you, I don’t think it’s my place.”

Somebody is going to tell me. It’s obvious that Asher thinks I should know.

“Let me ask you this, if it was Tessa would you want to know about it?”

He doesn’t even hesitate before answering, “Yes. I’d be mad as hell is someone didn’t tell me.”

“So, tell me. I’ll try to keep my cool.”

As Asher tells me everything that has been happening, I can feel my blood pressure rising. I’ve never felt this kind of rage.

From showing up at her school, to the attack, who I’m sure was him. Then the confrontation in the parking lot, at least she hit him that time. To him almost running them off of the road. If I ever get my hands on him... Through my rage a thought registers.

“Wait! What kind of car is it?”

Asher looks confused by my question.

“The car, what color? What kind of car was he driving?”

“He’s changed a few times, but it’s mainly been a black sedan with tinted windows.”

“That’s him!” I shout as I run out the door with Asher right behind me.

“What's going on?” Asher asks.

“I saw the punk. He’s been riding by here all day.”

“No way, the police have been doing extra patrols. You couldn’t have seen him.”

“I’m telling you a black sedan with tinted windows has been riding up and down this street. It was parked at that lot that’s for sale when I came out a few minutes ago.”

“Maybe Troy needs to call the police department again.”

Trying very hard to control my anger, I walk to the end of the driveway and scan the street. I wish he would drive by now. What kind of man would treat a girl this way? That's just it though, he’s not a man.

“I don’t see anything. Let’s go in and tell Troy so he can make that call.”

That’s not what I want to do, I want him to drive back by because when I get done with him he won’t be bothering her anymore.

“I don’t want Kayla to know you told me. I want to give her a chance to come clean with me. I haven’t been here long she hasn’t had much of a chance to talk to me yet. We’ll keep an eye out and if we see him again. We’ll call the police.”

“Okay. Your call man, but I think we should tell Troy.”

Walking back inside we run into the girls as they are coming out. Kayla comes over and wraps her arms around me.

“Hey, baby. Did you miss me?”

“Always, sweetie.” I say kissing the top of her head.

As we walk in she says, “You smell so good.”

Laughing I say, “Thank you. So do you.”

“Speaking of which, I’ve washed your jersey and it no longer smells like you. Do you think you can do something about that before you leave?”

I hug her to me. “I will definitely take care of that. As a matter of fact, there’s a few things I plan to take care of before I leave here tomorrow.”

Looking back over my shoulder, I scan the street one more time before we go in.

Kayla