Sweet Alibi (12 page)

“They seem happy,” Tristan mumbled.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Gavin's different with her,” he said.

“Yeah?” I looked at him in surprise. He nodded without looking at me.

“Drew is too. They seem…perfectly matched.”

“I think he loves her,” Tristan said.

“Really?” My eyes sliced to him. He continued to watch the couple in the water. “Has he been in a lot of relationships before Drew?”

“A few, but I’ve never seen him like this.”

I watched them. “I hope it works for them. I’ve never seen her smile and giggle so much.”

“That's ‘cause she's getting laid,” Silas mumbled as he flipped pages.

“Is not.” I poked him with my toe. “She only smiles when she's getting laid, she doesn't giggle,” I grinned.

“I hope it works for them, too.” Tristan commented. “Everyone deserves someone who makes them feel like that…” He looked down the beach and then ran a hand through his wet hair. “I’m going for a swim.” He shot up and was jogging for the water before I could even respond.

Silas moved to the newly vacated spot next to me. “He can be intense.” We watched Tristan wade to his waist and then start swimming in decisive strokes up the shore.

“Yeah. More to him than a sexy grin and perfect hair, I think.” I watched Tristan’s body cutting through the water.

“Something happen between you two?” Silas asked casually.

“He kissed me a few mornings ago,” I confessed.

“Oh? Was it good?”

“Silas.” I smacked him on the arm. “It was amazing,” I sighed.

Silas laughed. “So you liked it?”

“What's not to like?” I shrugged. “He also got intense at the club last night.”

“I did see a glimpse of that,” Silas said. “You seemed…interested.”

“I was drunk. I missed Kyle. I
miss
Kyle.” I frowned. “But I called him when we got home. I feel better now. I think Tristan will be dangerous for me this summer. I have to keep it in check.”

“Maybe Kyle should fight for what's his,” Silas muttered.

“What?” I narrowed my eyes at Silas. “He doesn't have to fight for me. We’ve been together forever. We’re good. He's busy.” 

“Maybe you don't think he has to fight for you, but a little healthy competition never hurt anyone. Let him know you’re basking on the beach with a sex god while he is hunched over his books
―
might make him take notice is all I’m saying.”

“He doesn't need to take notice. Kyle and I are good.” I was growing irritated by this conversation.

“Is that why you looked so into the aforementioned sex god running his tongue up your neck last night?”

I opened my mouth to shoot Silas an angry retort but nothing came out. We continued to sit silently on the beach towels while I rolled Silas’ words over in my head. He picked up his magazine and went back to flipping pages as I continued to watch the happy couple necking in the water and pondered the sexy enigma that was spending the summer in my beach house while my boyfriend sat three hundred miles away in a tiny office. Maybe the decision I'd made when I bought the beach house meant more than I’d realized.

Fourteen

Tristan

I’d never met anyone like her.

I’d met a lot of women, prided myself on my equal opportunity friendships, but none were like Georgia Hope Montgomery.
 

Seeing her rock her hips to the music at the club, watching her pretty eyes downcast had set a pot to boiling in my stomach. I didn’t know what else to do, I knew only that I couldn’t have her.
 

And damn if she wasn’t determined. I knew we’d connected, I knew those mornings over coffee meant something, the afternoons on the beach with a book, not just to me but to her too. With this girl I wanted to open up, I wanted to share my feelings, I wanted to share everything with her. It was an odd sensation, one that was foreign and thrilling in the same shallow breath.
 

When I’d caught sight of the blonde at the club, she was everything that I normally went for. Long tall legs in a short skirt, flowing golden hair that wrapped around her shoulders, and curves that made my knees weak. But at the club, after having my lips on Georgia’s, after having her steadfastly tell me that she was
not mine
and would never be, all I fought was the sense of revenge.
 

I wanted to make her jealous. I had so stupidly thought that seeing me with another girl would give that same feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach like it did me when I thought of her with her boyfriend
 

Kyle.
 

The name made my insides twist with pain. I wanted to pummel his face, and I didn’t even know him.

I knew instantly he was too good for Georgia, hell I knew I was too good for Georgia, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to be better for her. I liked a challenge, that was true, but Georgia was so much more than that.
 

I wanted to prove to her this summer that I could be better, be what she deserved, because I knew damn well if she was mine I would never let her spend the summer three hundred mils away from me. I would take care of her, shower in attention, please her until neither one of us could think straight. I wanted to be hers and hers alone.

I wanted everything with Georgia, and that made me determined.
 

The instant she’d bumped into me at the club I’d seen the look of pain radiating through her dark irises and I knew I’d fucked up. I hadn’t even wanted my hands on that girl, I’d been thinking about dark brown waves and pouty rose lips that drove me insane and occupied every waking thought I had.
 

As soon as Georgia had bolted from the table later, stubborn fire burning in her eyes, I’d excused myself from the blonde that’d been trailing on my arm and found her.
 

Like a homing beacon I’d gone to Georgia, my hands around her waist, my lips dusting across the heated skin at her neck. She was intoxicating, and while I’d half expected her to punch me in the balls when she’d turned around, relief had flooded me like a tidal wave when she hadn’t. Despite all my cocky airs and sarcastic remarks, I was desperate for her arms around me. If she only knew that she held all the control, I was a puppet. Every decision I made, even the bad ones, were in reaction to her. Her pain, her rebuttal, her refusal.
Her.

Nothing hurt more than rejection from the very person you wanted the most.
 

I’d learned that lesson the hard way, which is why the instant Silas had left with my girl, I’d hit the fucking road, taking a cab straight to the marina and stopping at the store for a six-pack before camping out on my boat.
 

Alone.
 

I’d seen the unspoken question burning in her eyes earlier, the word on her lips.
 

But I didn't want to tell her, didn’t have it in me to tell her she’d crushed me when she’d pushed me away, said it would never happen. Said
we
would never happen.
 

So why the fuck was she consuming me then?

I shoved a hand through my sopping wet hair, having just powered through a few laps down the shore while the girls sat on beach towels up the beach. Watching Drew and Gavin this summer was like a wrecking ball to my heart, when the only girl I could ever imagine having that with walked around that big empty house, taken by someone else.
 

My arms ached and the salt breeze on my skin felt invigorating as I walked up the shoreline, headed back to Georgia. Headed back to the light in my life, the darkness I carried in my heart, the one girl I couldn’t stop thinking about.
 

This summer would either be hell on earth, or some other beautiful side of paradise that I had yet to discover. The jury was still out on what would be the outcome of Tristan and Georgia.
 

Fifteen

Georgia

EVERY MORNING THE following week, Tristan and I had coffee together on the porch. Rain or shine, windy or warm, we were both there. It wasn’t that we made a point of being there, we just were. While the rest of the house was silent, Tristan and I sat and talked. The first few mornings had been a little awkward after our intense encounter at the club, but we’d soon settled into a comfortable rhythm.

I made more of an effort to call Kyle on most nights to catch up. Sometimes he had time to talk, other times it was only a quick few words. The days I couldn't call, I texted. I felt comfortable in the place Kyle and I had found despite the fact that we were separated by three hundred miles. I told him about the work Drew and I were doing on the house and he listened as I described the different pieces I’d bought and my vision for each room. We were finding a way to stay close and bridge the gap that had stretched between us.

“Hey.” I stepped out into the gray morning with two coffee mugs in hand, one for me and one for Tristan.

“Hey.” He smiled, reaching for a cup. “Thanks.” He brought the hot liquid to his lips while I sat and curled my legs up underneath me.

“Sleep well?”It was a question he asked most mornings.

“Yeah. I talked to Kyle before bed last night.”

“Yeah?”

“He's going to try to come down this weekend.”

“Hmm.” He took a sip of his coffee. “He hasn't been here yet, right?”

“No. I was telling him about the work Drew and I have been doing. He's excited to see it.”

“I’m sure he'll love it.”

“Yeah.” I sensed an uneasiness between us. The first in a while. “Everything all right?” 

“Just a lot on my mind.” He replied as he watched the white-capped waves.

“Work?”

“Among other things.”

“You can tell me anything,” I offered.

“Can I?” He turned and his deep green gaze honed in on me.

“Of course.” I averted my eyes and brought my coffee mug to my lips. “We’re friends.”

“Are we?”

A knot formed in my stomach as I sensed his gaze still on me. “Sure,” I mumbled.

A few silent moments slipped between us before Tristan turned back to the water. “I hope Kyle likes this place. It's great here.” 

“He will. I love it here. He’ll love anything I love.”

He only nodded as silence descended again. I continued to sip my coffee and watch the waves roll  up on the shore and then recede again.

“I’m going to head into town. I want to pick up groceries and grab paint chips for the master bedroom.”

“Okay, Georgia.” His eyes lifted to mine and a hint of a smile pulled at his lips. It stopped me in my tracks for an extra beat before I grinned back at him.

* * *

FRIDAY MORNING I was gearing up for Kyle’s arrival. I hadn’t seen him since I’d left D.C. in May. More than a month and I was missing him like crazy. I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around his neck and sleep curled against his body at night.

I wanted to make his favorite dinner
―
a classic pot roast with carrots, potatoes, and parsnips. It was his mom's recipe, and when we moved in together, she gave it to me. It was a simple dish that didn't take much time, other than putting everything in the slow cooker, but it reminded him of home so I loved making it for him. He said he'd need to work while he was here, but I was so excited to have him at the beach house with me that he could be doing anything and I’d still be happy.

“Working?” I said as Drew set her laptop up at the kitchen island.

“Yeah, going over the quarterlies. Tristan said Kyle's coming tonight?”

“Yep, should be here around six.” Just a few hours and I could wrap my arms around him and inhale his spicy cologne
―
the scent of home and comfort. 

“Excited?” Drew asked as she split her attention between our conversation and her laptop.

“Very. I also picked up paint samples for the master bedroom.” I moved on to chopping carrots.

“You’re going to wait ’til after the weekend to paint right?” Silas plopped on a barstool next to Drew.

“Yeah, I’m just getting ideas. Maybe Monday I’ll start.”

“What color are you thinking?” Drew asked.

“I picked up some grays; I thought some navy or teal accents would be pretty with it.”

“Grey, again? You're so…depressing.” Silas popped a pretzel into his mouth. 

“Hey!” I pouted.  

Silas shrugged as he chewed. “White Russians on the menu?”

“Kyle's favorite,” I said just as my phone vibrated in my back pocket. “Speaking of,” I said as his name flashed across the screen.

“Hi,” I answered. “Pot roast and White Russians for you this weekend.”

“I can't come, Georgia.” Kyle's dejected voice echoed in my ears.

“What?” A frown crossed my face.

“Sorry, honey, work. My boss threw a case at me this morning. I have to be in the office all weekend.”

“Kyle...” I felt tears prick my eyes.

“I’m sorry, Georgia. I tried to get out of it. I know you were excited.”

“You haven't even been here yet,” I muttered as I turned my back from Drew and Silas and walked across the living room.

“I know, honey. Really, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go. I promise I’ll come soon.”