Where Sea Meets Sky (10 page)

He studies me carefully. “Didn’t you just go on vacation?”

I tilt my head back and forth. “Yeah, but I never get the chance to see my own country. With Amber here, it just seemed like a good opportunity to get away.”

“And don’t you have a job?”

I shake my head, feeling the tiniest bit ashamed. “No. I mean, I will in February but until then I’m kind of on-call, freelancing, that sort of thing. I’m supposed to be a personal trainer for the gym and their kickboxing instructor but it’s just not happening right now.”

An appreciative look passes over his eyes. “So we’re both kind of in limbo for the next while, aren’t we?”

I can feel my face light up. “I guess so.”

He grins at me. My god, it’s as panty-melting as I remembered. “Well, all right then. I would love to come with you. But first, you have to tell me your last name.”

“It’s Henare,” I tell him, smiling. “Sort of the Maori version of Henry.”

“You’re Maori?” he asks, sounding intrigued, which is good. I’m never really sure which people are going to have problems with race, though I never would have pegged that on Josh.

“Yeah,” I tell him. “I mean, my grandfather is practically full-blooded, but for all intents and purposes, yes.”

“I thought you looked a bit exotic,” he says, appraising my face. “Your sexy eyes and those cheekbones.”

I gulp loudly at his mention of
sexy eyes
. “You know, some people say that the word exotic isn’t quite PC anymore.”

“Well, I’m not a very PC kind of guy,” he says, leaning in closer to me. “But I can use the term
erotic
, if that helps.” His voice lowers over the word and it takes all my willpower to keep from biting my lip like a coquettish virgin.

I’ve already invited him on a trip with me and my cousin, to be squashed together for weeks in a ‘70s campervan. I have to get out of here before things go too far.

So I stand up abruptly. “Okay, good. I’m so excited you’re coming.” I stare down at him, smiling like a crazy person. I
am
a crazy person. What the hell am I doing? I can’t just invite some guy I barely know, a one-night stand, on a trip like this when I’m actually seeing someone else, someone who
isn’t
coming.

He looks up at me, perhaps puzzled by my burst of energy. He slowly gets up, his tall frame towering over me. “Well, I’m glad you invited me. This should be fun.”

We gaze at each other for a moment and I’m wondering just what kind of fun he has in mind. I have a guess. It’s probably the kind of fun we already had together, something that, unfortunately, can’t happen again. Talk about bad fucking timing.

With that settled, we walk back to the gym and I tell him a bit about our proposed route on the road trip. Just like Amber, he seems happy to just come along. It’s funny how at ease I feel with him, like we’ve known each other for a long time.

I keep my distance as we walk, though, just in case he’s getting the wrong idea. Although, who am I kidding, I’m the one misleading him. I’m giddy and nervous and scared about all of this, and with each step I take I know I’m painting the wrong picture.

We get to the front door and I’m about to tell him about Nick, or at least figure out the best way to say it without ruining everything, when the devil himself shows up, his rental convertible roaring into his reserved parking space.

Ah shit. It’s all going down.

“Hey babe,” Nick says as he gets out of the car, sliding his sunnies up on his forehead. “Didn’t think I’d see you here today.”

He eyes Josh briefly, failing to hide the mild disdain on his face, and then comes over to me, putting his arm around my waist and pulling me in so he can kiss the top of my head. Nick’s not normally physical in front of people, and I try not to cringe for Josh’s sake.

But Josh seems to take it all in stride. There’s a flash of revelation in his eyes and then his face is curiously blank.

“Who is this then?” Nick asks, nodding at Josh. He’s smiling, trying to be open, but I can pick up the thread of derision in his voice. I know what he’s thinking. Josh doesn’t belong here.

“I’m Josh,” he says, not missing a beat. He holds out his hand and Nick gradually returns the shake.

“Nick.” He looks him up and down. “You Yank thinking about joining the gym?”

Josh smiles but his eyes look menacing. “I’m a Canadian, actually.”

Nick just shrugs. “Same difference. So are you a backpacker looking to get into shape or have you moved here?”

That pisses me off. Josh is in shape, he’s just taller than Nick and his muscles aren’t so bulky. In fact, compared to Nick, I’m much more attracted to Josh’s body type— strong, toned, and lean. It feels wrong to think, but it’s true.

“I’m just a backpacker,” Josh says, his eyes briefly flitting to me. “I met Gemma in Vancouver and she told me to look her up when I came to the country. So I did.”

Nick nods slowly. “Good on ya, mate, New Zealand is a nice country,” he says rather begrudgingly. He looks at me. “You never mentioned meeting anyone over there.”

I blink. “I met heaps of people.”

He holds my gaze before turning back to Josh. “Well, Gemma must have made quite the impression on you if you remembered her.” Josh frowns but Nick goes on, “So, I guess you’re not interested in the gym at all.”

“Not really my scene,” Josh says. The look in his eyes is darkening, and I hate the way things are turning out. “I should be going.”

“No wait, Josh,” I call out. “I need your phone number.” Josh pauses, unsure.

“Phone number?” Nick repeats dumbly.

“He’s coming with me and Amber on the road trip,” I tell him. His eyes narrow, and it makes my heart race but I stand my ground. “It will help with petrol cost.”

“What?” Nick is flabbergasted. Still, I take out my phone from the hidden pocket in my pants, ready to get Josh’s number. “You barely know this guy.”

“I barely know my cousin, too,” I tell him. “Besides, I know him enough. I can take care of myself.” I look at Josh and manage a smile. He looks awkward as all hell. “Okay, so what’s your number?”

“Um,” he says, thinking for a moment before telling me a long distance one with too many digits. “But I don’t really have a plan here so I guess only text, and maybe do it all in one go.”

So I can’t text you during all hours of the night?
I think to myself. If Nick wasn’t here, I would be flirting my ass off. I’m a little disgusted with myself. But only a little.

“Wait, wait,” Nick says, raising his palms, “
when
is this road trip?”

I glare at him. “I
told
you. We leave on Wednesday.” Doesn’t he ever listen?

“And where are you going?”

I try to contain my annoyance, taking in a deep breath. “To the South Island. Then we’re coming back to my mom’s in time for Christmas, maybe even go up to the bach for New Year.”

“What’s a bach?” Josh asks.

I forgot that when I was in North America, half the people couldn’t understand what I was saying. “It’s what we call a beach house or a cottage,” I explain, trying to not let my aggravation show to him.

“Sounds choice,” Nick says. “Count me in.”

I raise my brows, feeling a surge of panic. “You said you couldn’t come. I invited you and you said you had to go home early for Christmas.” I’m practically complaining.

He folds his arms across his chest. “Yeah, now I’m changing my mind. I can at least go for a couple of weeks. I’ve never seen the South Island aside from Christchurch, and that was before the earthquakes anyway.”

An hour ago this would have been music to my ears. Now it just felt like this bag of crap was ready to fall on my head. It’s not that I had been planning anything . . .
illicit
with Josh. Lord, I hadn’t even gotten that far. And it’s not that I suddenly didn’t want to be with Nick at all. But being in an old VW bus for weeks with the hot-as-fuck guy I had a one-night stand with and the antagonistic, ex-rugby-playing entrepreneur I’m seeing is bound to be the most awkward thing I’ve ever done. Mr. Orange is already uncomfortable to be in; I can’t imagine how it’s going to be now.

Nick looks at Josh. “That alright with you, mate? Having another dick in the bus to break up the pussy?” Judging from his unfriendly tone, it’s more of a dare than anything else, and I’m so certain that Josh is going to back out.

But Josh only shrugs, a carefree look about him. “Not a problem with me,” he says and it sounds genuine. “The more the merrier.”

They both look at me expectantly and I paste a smile on my face. “Well, Amber is going to be happy. I think she was worried there would be too much estrogen.”

“Hey,” Nick says, coming over to me and putting his arm over my shoulders. He gives me a squeeze and then jerks his thumb over at Josh. “Maybe this bloke and your cousin can get their bonk on. She’s American, she’ll like the whole rock star, drug addict look, won’t she?” He smiles at Josh, all teeth. “But we’ll establish some rules—’When this van is a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’,’ and all that.”

Though it shouldn’t, the idea of pretty little Amber and Josh together makes me feel a bit sick.

“That won’t be a problem,” Josh says with ease and rocks back on his heels. “Well, I better go back to my
mates
at the beach.” He throws in the Kiwi speak and I give him the thumbs up. “So, I guess, text me before Wednesday where to meet you and I’ll be ready.”

“Sweet-as,” I say, and Nick squeezes my shoulders just a bit harder.

Josh waves at us and then saunters down the street, disappearing around the corner.

As soon as he’s gone, Nick takes his arm off me. “Really, Gemma,” he says with disapproval all over him.

“What?”

“Where did you find that guy, in a druggie’s den?”

Anger flares inside me. “No, of course not. Just because he’s got tattoos and piercings doesn’t mean he’s a fucking drug addict.”

Nick waves me away with his hand. “You don’t know this guy. I’m surprised you even talked to him to begin with.”

“Why?” I ask, totally annoyed now. “Why wouldn’t I?”

He grins. “Because you’re one hot chick and he looks like he should be on skid row, that’s why. Look, I know it’s none of my business what you did when you were traveling, but the Gemma I know wouldn’t have befriended someone like him.”

I’m surprised he thinks we only
befriended
each other, but I leave it at that.

“Well, maybe you don’t bloody know Gemma at all.”

He rolls his eyes and grabs my hand, pulling me back to him. “You’re so dramatic. You know what I mean.”

And maybe I do know what he means, but just because I surround myself with certain types of people doesn’t mean everyone else is off limits.

“Anyway,” he says, “you’ll need me with you. Who else will make sure he stays in line? Last thing you need is for him to rob you of everything you have and leave you stranded in Milford Sound while he goes off looking for his next fix.”

I can’t believe his narrow-minded view of people and the world. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m so tempted to tell him the only drug users I know are him and his friends, since I know they’re all hopped up on steroids half the time. But that will open a can of worms that I don’t want to deal with. Though Nick is nearly thirty and has a successful business, he deals with personal problems like a five-year-old child.

“Nick, seriously,” I tell him, taking my hand away. “If you’re going to come, you can’t be a dickhead the entire time. Josh is a nice guy, he’s not a drug addict, and he’s not going to rob anyone. This trip is for Amber anyway, so you have to learn to be nice and get along for her sake, if not for mine.”

“I am nice,” he protests. “But if anything goes wrong, it’s all on you.”

“Fine,” I tell him. And though things aren’t going to go wrong in the way that he thinks, I know there’s no way that things are going to go right either.

Chapter Six

JOSH

“Josh, do you know what the Kiwi term
munter
means?” Tibald asks me casually in his near-perfect English.

I don’t lift my head up from the pub table. “What?” I mumble into the wood.

“It means
you
, Josh. You, right now, are a
munter
.”

Tibald, Schnell, and Michael all laugh. They are “taking the piss,” another Kiwi term I’ve learned since seeing Gemma.

Whatever a
munter
is, I’m sure there will be a picture of my face next to it in the New Zealand slang dictionary.

I lift up my head and rest it in my hands. “To be fair,” I say between my fingers, “when she invited me on the trip, she had just said only she and her cousin were going. This boyfriend, Nick the Dick, or whoever he is, he pretty much invited himself along once he learned
I
was going.”

“And that’s probably when you should have said, you know what, on second thought,
no
,” Tibald says before he signals to the waitress for another round of beer.

“It will be like that American sitcom,
Three’s Company
,” Schnell says without a trace of a smile. I think it’s like the second thing he’s ever said to me.

“Except her cousin will be there,” I say. “So, Four’s Company.”

“Never heard of it,” Schnell says.

I ignore him and look at Tibald. “So, what, you think I should have bowed out?”

Tibald shrugs. “Sure.”

“Would you have?”

“No way,” he says adamantly. “I don’t back down.”

At that, Michael drums on the table and starts singing the Tom Petty song,
I Won’t Back Down
, in German.

“Yeah, well, neither do I.” Everything until that moment when Nick showed up was absolutely perfect. Naturally, I had been nervous as fuck. Seeing her in the flesh made everything much more real. She was as gorgeous as I remembered—that body, that smirk—and within seconds I felt like talking to her was the easiest thing in the world. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the easiest, I was trying my hardest to not come across as a stalker or some obsessive guy, and I was trying even harder to hide the growing bulge in my jeans.