Girl Gear 3: Bound to Happen (10 page)
He still wondered who it was he and
Sydney
had heard beneath the balcony last night. Hell, for all he knew, it could've been Anton and Lauren making up for several months' worth of lost time. But still, the sounds had stayed with him and kept him awake. Kept him thinking of
Sydney
and their one incredible night together.
At that time and at that age, he'd never talked to another woman the way he had to
Sydney
, never made love to another woman as many times in one night, never held another woman while she'd cried over the breakup of her family. Never felt as helpless, either. He hadn't known what to say or what to ask.
Ray admitted he hadn't done much better last night. He had years of experience pulling people from burning buildings, digging survivors from beneath tons of rubble, cutting through twisted metal to reach victims of accidents.
But none of those challenges matched the delicate job of probing
Sydney
's mind and heart.
Back in the States, in full CEO mode, she had shut him out and shut him down every time. And now she'd taken things so far in the other direction that he was at a loss. Maybe her seven-year itch was back. The boy he'd been had always had a big head at being the chosen one, even while wondering why him and why now? The man he'd become was equally curious. But this time he'd get some answers.
Ray hit the grinder's switch. The aroma of rich
Maybe, Ray thought, he needed to take another tack. Maybe he'd take the pressure off
Sydney
and he'd be the one to find time for them to be alone together. Then he'd make sure he was tuned into her frequency.
The grinder's blades finished the job with a sudden high-pitched whir. Ray shut off the motor and measured the freshly ground beans into the filter basket. While he filled the reservoir with water, Poe came into the kitchen and found five mugs. She lined them up on the countertop.
"For coffee, I'll forgive the intrusion into my dreams. Ray, you are definitely a man after my own heart." Wearing the fire-engine-red terry cover-up she'd zipped over her bikini last night, Poe hopped up onto the counter and waited for the coffee to brew.
"Hey, dude," Jess called from where he still sat sprawled on the sectional, his jaw dark, the circles under his eyes even darker. "You still planning to hit the Jet Skis with us this morning?"
Ray had no idea when
Sydney
would make it downstairs. But it didn't really matter. Privacy wasn't going to happen anytime soon. He might as well pretend he was here on Coconut Caye for a vacation.
"You
betcha
," he said, and wrapped his hand around the nearest mug and waited for the coffee to brew.
ANKLES CROSSED
,
Sydney
sank onto the beach towel she'd spread out on the pier that jutted away from the front of the villa and into the sea. Lauren sat beside her, squinting at the rest of the group tearing up the waves on Jet Skis.
Sydney
handed Lauren the sunglasses she'd left on the kitchen counter.
"Thanks." Sliding the
Oakleys
into place, Lauren adjusted the left strap of her Brazilian-cut bikini, turquoise with big fuchsia circles. "That's better. This morning I'd probably have forgotten my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders."
"That bad a night, huh?"
Sydney
was dying to ask more, especially to find out exactly where Lauren had spent the hours between
and two, but figured it was best to let her friend spill her guts at her own pace.
"Actually, I slept like a log." Lauren stretched her arms overhead and yawned.
Uh-huh,
Sydney
thought, wondering why, if Lauren had slept so soundly, she was yawning as if she hadn't slept a wink. "You weren't out on the downstairs veranda around
, by any chance, were you?"
"No. Why?"
"I thought it might've been you I heard moving around down there."
"Wasn't me. Anton and I talked for a while, then, believe it or not, we went to bed and to sleep. No funny business or footing around or anything." Lauren shook her head in disbelief. "I can count on my fingers the number of times we've gone to bed at the same time and done nothing but sleep."
"Really? Wow. Let's think about that. You were together about four hundred days, give or take."
Sydney
could hardly keep a straight face. "That's an awful lot of condoms, girlfriend."
"Ha-ha-ha." Lauren screwed up her face. "You know what I mean. We didn't always go to bed at the same time. But if we did—"
"Then you got lucky,"
Sydney
finished, listening to the motors of the watercraft rev and catching the unmistakable whiff of burning fuel.
"Actually," Lauren amended, tilting her head to one side as she considered her reply, "I like to think of it as Anton getting lucky. That way it's easier to convince myself that he's miserable without me."
"Instead of you being miserable without him?"
Sydney
asked, knowing the question was totally redundant.
"It shows, doesn't it?" When
Sydney
nodded, Lauren buried her face in her hands, then shuddered away her self-pity and looked up. "It's not a case of simply being lonely. I know that. I haven't exactly been sitting at home feeling sorry for myself all this time."
"So I've noticed."
Sydney
had so wanted to talk to Lauren about whatever was going on between her and Nolan and could've kissed her friend for the opening.
Lauren grimaced. "I love your father to death,
Sydney
. But as wonderful a man as he is, he's never been more than a friend."
Relief washed over
Sydney
like a breath of fresh air she hadn't realized she desperately needed to breathe. "That's good to know. Because as much as I adore you, and I do adore you, you know that…" She refused to go on until Lauren nodded. "Good. Because, as much as I adore you, you are not the woman my father needs in his life."
Sydney
waited, thinking Lauren might object or complain that she'd been insulted. Instead, Lauren seemed to need time to think. She sat with her mouth pressed in a tight line, returning Poe's wave from where the other woman had slowed her Jet Ski in front of Anton and Ray.
"Want to know something?" Lauren finally asked, glancing at
Sydney
. "Your father needs someone like Poe."
"Poe?"
Annabel Lee and her father?
Sydney
was totally taken aback. "You've got to be kidding."
"Nope." Lauren shook her head. "You see your father as a father, Sydney. Trust me. I don't see him as a father at all, if you want to get down and dirty about it. And I really could see him and Poe hitting it off. She's older, well, older than we are, anyway, by, what? Five years, I guess? Anyway, she has a really unique sophistication that I think would fit with your father's way of life."
Sydney
couldn't disagree with Lauren's assessment of Poe's attitude and outlook, especially with all she'd recently learned while considering Poe's promotion. But she wasn't going to admit that Poe, as a woman, would make a good partner for Nolan Ford.
"I don't know. I can't see her chasing my father on a Jet Ski. Or challenging him to a game of truth or dare."
"Maybe that's because you don't want to see it," Lauren observed wisely.
"Now, that is a very real possibility." Time to change the subject. "The only possibility even more real is the one where I want to see you and Anton back together."
Lauren sighed, shrugged, sighed again, as if whatever was going to happen was beyond her control. "We have a lot more talking to do. Last night he was angry … at himself, I think, more than at me. Neither one of us said everything that needs to be said, but he held me. And that said a lot."
Sydney
couldn't think of anything more to add. She stared out at the water and especially at the two men now straddling their surfboards. The surf had long since died.
Much as she sat talking with Lauren, Anton sat talking with Ray, legs dangling in the water, hands gripping the edges of the boards. Both men wore sunglasses secured with a rubber lanyard and knee-length board shorts. Their shoulders and their backs both gleamed with a healthy tan, perspiration and sunscreen.
The air, in fact, carried the distinct aroma of coconut oil, in addition to the wonderfully salty scent of the sea.
Sydney
took a deep breath, braced her hands on the pier behind her and leaned back, enjoying the breathtaking view of the waves and the spectacular scenery Ray Coffey offered.
He'd already left the kitchen by the time she'd finally made it downstairs this morning. In fact, Lauren and Auralie had been the only two still around. After a quick cup of coffee, Sydney and Lauren had let Auralie shoo them out of the kitchen. The efficient, sturdily built woman had refused to let them help prepare the rest of the day's meals.
Sydney
had headed back to the bedroom she shared with Poe, showered and decided on a copper-colored maillot. The suit plunged low in the front, even lower in the back and was certain to snag Ray's attention. After last night, she refused to be caught looking any way but her best.
She also refused to let Ray draw her into a deep exploration of their shared past. They both knew it existed. They both knew they remained connected because of that one long-ago night. But
Sydney
did
not
want to revisit the rhyme or the reason for the things they'd done.
She wanted to revisit the passion, if it existed anywhere but her memory, and burn it out of her system once and for all, so she could let the entire episode go. She had to let it go. She had to maintain her professional focus, had to separate business from pleasure. If not, she'd fail in the first and ultimately lose out on the second.
And even worse, she'd have learned absolutely nothing from the mistakes of her mother and father.
"So what's going on with you and Ray?" Lauren asked, breaking into
Sydney
's thoughts.
She cast a glance over the rims of her sunglasses at her friend. "What about Ray?"
"Not Ray.
You
and Ray." Lauren returned
Sydney
's over-the-rims-of-her-sunglasses glare. "He totally avoided looking at you during your truth-or-dare answer. Like, as soon as Jess asked the question, Ray couldn't study his plate hard enough."
Pushing her sunglasses back into place,
Sydney
gave a shrug. "Who knows? Maybe the idea of female orgasms makes him nervous."
Lauren laughed. "Ray Coffey? The man who rushes into collapsed tunnels and burning buildings for a living? Nervous about
anything?
Try again."
"Sure, he's a big tough guy. That doesn't mean he's comfortable talking about sex."
Sydney
really did not want to go here, and had a feeling she wasn't pulling the wool over Lauren's eyes, anyway.
"Uh-huh, right. He barely flinched when Jess kissed Poe, but the minute the conversation turned to your sexual experience, he was squirming like he was the one in the hot seat." Lauren swiveled around on her towel so that she was facing
Sydney
. The sun glinted off the dark surface of her glasses. "Why would Ray feel like he was the one in the hot seat,
Sydney
?"
