The Scale (Martha's Way) (34 page)

She took in the crowded beach; everyone seemed so engaged in
their own world. And everyone came in different shapes and sizes; however,
Minka only noticed the very thin, the athletically built with very small
breasts.

“What are you doing?”

Startled by Lily’s voice, she looked over at her friend. She
had been so lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice when Lily left Adam’s
side to join her.

“Why don’t you go swimming with Jason?”

Her eyes followed Lily’s. Two other women had joined him in
the water, jumping in and out of the waves.

“He seems to be having fun.”

Lily let out a soft chuckle. “You’re so afraid of everything
around you, my friend.”

Minka turned her attention to her friend and noticed the
thin silver necklace with the engagement ring was no longer present. “What
happened to the ring?”

Lily’s fingers went to the empty space around her neck and
smiled. “I threw it in the ocean last night. Adam helped me.”

Minka blinked. What had she missed?

Her friend let out a soft laugh and touched her hand. “Long
story,” Lily said in her good-natured voice. “He was rather nice.” Her eyes
lingered on Adam, who was still sunbathing. “It was refreshing.”

“Um…” Minka started but not quite clear what she wanted to
say she stopped.

“Don’t worry, my friend. I still think he’s a playboy. A
sexy one, but still is.”

Minka knew her friend long enough to recognize the things
that weren’t said. She glanced back at Adam, then back to her friend. “You
slept with him.”

Lily grinned. “I don’t know about sleeping, but if that’s
what you want to call it.”

“Lily.”

Lily waved a dismissive hand and shrugged. “It was fun.
A one-time thing.”
She paused and looked in Adam’s
direction. “He didn’t initiate it. I did,” she confessed. “He tried to walk
away, but…I was persistent. I needed him at the time.”

Minka nodded, understanding her friend’s admission. She knew
the breakup had shaken Lily more than she had let it show. “Are you okay?”

Lily nodded.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you.”

“I’m fine.”

They both watched as Adam came to his feet and walked into
the ocean to where Jason was standing. Jason introduced the women to Adam. A
loud shriek came from where the women along with Jason and Adam were standing.

“I guess they recognized the international playboy,” Lily said.

One woman threw her arms around Adam and placed a kiss on
his lips. Minka watched Adam disentangle himself from the woman but flashed her
that charming smile of his.

“What a fucking pig,” Lily muttered under her breath. “He
really has a small wiener anyway.”

Minka pressed back the laughter. She understood the jealousy.
“Jason and I had sex without a condom.” She had planned to tell Lily, but they
had not been alone. The moment was perfect now.

The news seemed to catch her friend’s attention. Lily
removed her dramatic black glasses. She reached toward Minka’s face and removed
the shades.

“Say that again.”

“Jason and I had…”

“Oh, I heard you. What the fuck, Minka?”

“It just kind of happened.”

“Only once?”

She shrugged. “Well…no.”

A slew of Spanish words
came
flying
out of her mouth. Minka sat back and allowed her friend to have her moment.
When she finally stopped, she turned and stared back at her.

“You could be preggers.”

“I doubt it, but yes, we are aware of that.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “And based on your level of calmness, I
take it both of you are okay with that.”

“Somewhat.”

Lily ran a hand through her pixie cut. “Somewhat is vague,
my friend.”

“It means whatever comes out of it, comes out of it. We will
deal with it together.”

After a few seconds of staring at Minka as if she were an
alien, Lily smiled. “You have a new strength in you.” Her eyes moved to where
Jason stood in the ocean. “He’s so in love with you.”

“I think you’re being overly romantic.”

“Nope.
He’s a goner. Look at him.”

Minka followed her friend’s gaze to where Jason was taking
laps in the water. He looked so free and relaxed.

“He keeps looking at you. These skinny bimbos are throwing
themselves at him, but he keeps looking in your direction. Go join him.”

“Only if you go claim Adam.”

Lily flashed her
a
who
the fuck cares
about him?
look
. “We had one great night of sex,
my friend, nothing more. I promise you I won’t think about him twice once I get
back to Jersey.”

“And tonight.
You’re not going to
sleep with him again?” she asked, remembering how she had started with Jason.
It was supposed to be one night.

Lily shrugged and shook her head.
“Just
one time.
I screwed his brains out and he screwed mine. We are on even
ground. No need to show off for each other. I’m good for a year, I think.”

Lily wrinkled her nose as she said the words, causing Minka
to chuckle. They were laughing when Jason came to join them. Lily came to her
feet to make room for him.

“Am I the butt of the joke?” he asked in good humor.

Lily cleared her throat.
“Never.”

His eyes followed where Adam was still standing in a deep
conversation with one of the girls as Lily stood up from the space he occupied
earlier.

“Don’t leave on my account.”

She smiled at him. “I’m going for a swim.”

Minka reached for her shades. In silence, she watched as
Lily made her way to the ocean and jumped into a wave. Her friend was beautiful
and always caught the attention of men. Sure enough, one guy approached her and
started talking to her. Adam noticed and immediately walked away from the woman
to where Lily was standing.

Jason let out a chuckle. From the corner of her eye, Minka
watched him reach for a bottle of sunscreen and apply it evenly over his legs
and arms.

“Can you help with my back?”

She heard Jason’s deep voice. Without responding, Minka
extended her hand to take the sunscreen from him. Images of Jason in the water
with those women were still fresh in her mind. She knew she shouldn’t be
jealous, but knowing and feeling were two different things.

In silence, she applied the lotion to his back.
“All done.”
She placed the lotion next to him and settled
back on the beach towel. She was reaching for her headset to shut him and the
rest of the world out when he spoke.

“Not quite.”

Minka watched him smile and knew the silent daggers she was
burying inside were apparent in her eyes.

“You need to apply it on my chest as well.”

“Your chest?”

He nodded with a grin. He picked up the sunscreen and handed
her the small bottle.

“Why don’t you ask one of those women to do it?”

He chuckled and settled back on his beach towel. “I want you
to do it. I want Minka Greene. Just you and all that you are.”

What exactly could she say to that? Well, many things
crossed her mind. She could tell him how jealous and insecure he made her feel.
But had it not been her choice to sit back instead of being in the water with
him? Still, she thought, he could have told those women he was with the curvy
girl sulking over there.

She poured the lotion in her hand and turned to Jason. The
smirk was still on his face. The man was having too much fun with the
situation.

“Take off your shades,” he requested.

“What for?”

She watched him reach for the aviator glasses and removed
them from his face. His look held hers. “No more walls. I see all that you are,
and I want it all. Let go and look at me. Perhaps you should start seeing me
for all that I am because I am filled with flaws.”

She didn’t see them. Yes, she knew he could be rude,
indifferent and selfish. She thought back to his relationship with Rita. He had
not been kind to her. He was headstrong, if she dared to admit it, thinking of
his broken relationship with his father. The little time she spent with his
father he didn’t seem so bad. In fact, the older man looked as if he was
starving for his son to come back to him. But Jason had remained aloof.

Yes, definitely headstrong. But she didn’t blame him. His
father’s actions had hurt and damaged their relationship. Yet she had wondered
about his mother’s mental state, how fragile she had to be to get to such a
dark place. She remembered the pictures he’d shown her. Surely, it had not been
easy on his father.

Definitely stubborn.
Oh, and let’s
not forget spoiled. Not one of those overindulged brats. He was born privileged
and still believed in hard work. Martha’s Way, the house he renovated by
himself, was confirmation of that.

Okay, so he had flaws. She knew that, of course. She had
always known those things about him, but fell in love with him in spite of
them. In fact, those traits played a role in her falling in love with him.

Reaching for the shades, she stripped them away from her
face. Jason reached out and took them. He smiled a satisfied smile.

“Much better,” he said softly.

Minka leaned toward him to apply the lotion to
his skin. The moment she touched him everything around them faded. Her mind
struggled to hold on to her insecurities, to her surroundings, even to Blake,
but even the presence of her sister’s fiancé was not enough to keep her from
drifting into the depth of Jason’s blue eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“The secret of a good
life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of
values.”

Norman Thomas

Minka collapsed on the lounge chair, exhausted from hours in
the water with Jason swimming and learning how to balance
herself
on the paddleboard. She had fallen a couple of times, but nothing that was life
threatening. And at times, out of frustration, she had begged him to walk away
from the whole thing, but Jason was a stubborn person and insisted she keep
trying until she was able to find her balance on the water for a few minutes.

They both had been elated with her accomplishment. Without
thinking, Minka had jumped into his arms, catching Jason off-guard, and their
bodies tumbled in the water.

Now she sat back, catching her breath. Wrapping her body
with a towel, she followed Jason’s movement on the basketball court where he
was engaged in a one-on-one battle with Blake. While Minka would have been more
than happy to call it quits for the rest of the day, Jason was moving as if his
day was just getting started.

Minka was reaching for her book when Keely and Lily came to
sit next to her. With a smile, she put her book away, welcoming the opportunity
to catch up with them. Bizarre, the last few days her time with her sister had
been limited and Minka was surprised to discover she missed her.

Perhaps she would never share the closeness with her she
experienced with Lily, but Minka had to admit it wasn’t for Keely’s lack of
trying. She had always been the factor for the barrier that existed between
them. Since their night in Oak Bluffs, the tension had dwindled.

“So, what’s happening between you two? Things are looking
very intense. Jason looks happy.” Keely sat closest to Minka. “And so do you.”

She didn’t need to answer. She sat back and enjoyed the view
of the bare-chested men on the court.

As her sister and Lily’s voices rose with enthusiasm, Minka
drifted to the memories of seven years ago when she’d first met Blake at the
library. She had been so engrossed in a book she’d failed to notice the tall,
broad figure that slipped across from her. It wasn’t until he cleared his
throat and asked her to borrow a highlighter did she look up. Minka believed
she had fallen in love with him then. She would never forget the way he had
touched her hand when he saw the tears in her eyes. Quietly, he stood from his
chair and pulled her away into the corridor where they could talk.

Minka had instantly opened up and told him about what had
taken place with one of the football players on campus. The one night where she
had lowered her guard, allowed
herself
to drink too
much and ended up in bed with a football star. Someone she thought was a friend
prior to their night together.

However, that all changed. At first, Minka thought nothing
of the calls that were not returned or the fact that he no longer sat next to
her in their class together. He had been a popular person on campus.
The Star.
The college girls clung to him so she didn’t blame
him for putting some space between them. She was always being asked how he was
as a person since most knew they were friends. But since the party, Minka
noticed she had been receiving more stares than usual.

Then one afternoon after class, she walked into the Student Center
and heard the laughter. Phillip, the star quarterback, was telling a story and
the laughter around him was boisterous. A few students froze when they noticed
her,

“I was a
drunk
man. You can’t blame a
drunk
guy for fucking a fat girl,” he said between laughter. “But, man, she thinks we
have a relationship now. Shit, I’ve been using her for school help, but now I’m
like, fuck that, I’d rather fail.”

She stood there frozen
and cried, tears of shame washed down her face. Everyone turned to look at her,
but no one dared to approach her.
Only one.
Lily
entered the Student Center, and, without a word, walked over to Phillip and
kicked him in his groin area.