All In (7 page)

“O.M.G. Ashley! How are you? I’ve
missed you so much!” Hailey throws her arms around my
neck.

“I’m great, Hales, how are you? How’s
New York?”

“Same as ever.” She waves the question
off, then without missing a beat, launches into her favorite
subject: Gregory Chase. “Have you seen him?” Hailey animatedly fans
her face with her hand. “So gorge.” A few girls standing around us
giggle in agreement.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times,” I
say, unwittingly gaining the attention of the Gregory Chase fan
club. Oops.

“That’s what I heard. My mom said she
saw you two having lunch at the club yesterday and said you looked
‘quite cozy’ at the party last night. Her words, not mine. So? Are
you and he back together?” Hailey tries to act casual, but I can
tell she’s dying for the answer.

I choke on the fruity cocktail I’m
sipping and have to cough to clear my throat. “No. Not at all. We
just had lunch…as friends.” A look of relief, and hope, washes over
Hailey’s face.

“Really?” Hailey glances at the other
girls and then back to me.

“Promise. And you know, Hales, if you
wanted to go out with him I wouldn’t be upset, I swear.” Who am I
to stop them? Just because he wasn’t right for me, doesn’t mean he
won’t be right for her. This elicits another hug from Hailey before
she and a girl I recognize from the club, but don’t know very well,
begin to jump up and down squealing with excitement. I can’t help
but laugh.

All of a sudden, like Gregory can
sense a gaggle of girls fawning all over him, he saunters over,
drink in hand and a cocky smile on his face. It’s obvious he’s
already had a couple of drinks and is on the prowl.

“How are all of you lovely ladies
doing this fine evening?” He drapes his arms around Hailey, and her
friend’s shoulders causing both girls to giggle, but his eyes are
locked on me.

Ugh.

I glance around looking for an escape
when I spot Lane walking up the beach. Perfect.

“I’ll be back.” With a smile and a
wave I head in Lane’s direction.

His head is down as he crosses the
private section of the beach, staying close to the water’s edge but
avoiding the moving tide.

“Lane,” I call out over the noise of
the party and the waves, but he doesn’t seem to hear me, so I call
his name again, this time louder. “Hey, Lane.” He glances up and
scans the party, squinting before finally seeing me. A smile
flashes across his face. I smile back as I approach him, my flip
flops kicking up sand behind me.

“Hi,” I say. My drink, mostly
untouched, sloshes and spills over the lip of the cup when I stop
in front of him.

“Looks like you’re having fun.” He
nods at my drink and then up at the party.

“I actually just got here too. I’m
glad you came.” I feel my cheeks heat up, and I’m relieved it’s
dark enough that he can’t see. “I think Andrew’s around here
somewhere.” I look over my shoulder trying to locate him to point
Lane in the right direction.

“Ah, no thanks. I think
I’ll steer clear of
your
kind of parties,” he says, shoving his hands in
the pockets of his cargo shorts.

“What do you mean
my
kind of
parties?”

“Nothing, never mind.” He kicks at the
sand and looks uncomfortable.

“Oh no.” I cover my mouth with my
hand, remembering Gregory had implied Lane may have been caught by
the police at the bluffs last night. “Did you get in trouble last
night when the cops showed up?”

“Yeah, thanks to your boyfriend,” he
says with a sneer that makes me take a step back.

My boyfriend?

“I’m not sure what his deal is, but
he’s a serious dick.” Lane’s jaw is tight, and there’s not a hint
of joking in his tone.

“Gregory?” I ask wide eyed. Why would
he think Gregory is my boyfriend? I have a flash of Greg and I at
lunch together looking very much like a couple and then again at
the bluffs when he gave me his coat, something a boyfriend would
do. Oh.

“He is definitely
not
my boyfriend,” I say
seriously. “He’s my ex, if you can even call it that. We dated for
like a second, but it was never very serious.” Why am I telling him
all this? Stop rambling, Ashley. I dig my toes into the sand. “But
you’re right about one thing. He is a dick.” I give Lane a playful
grin and watch the light from the bonfire bounce off his features
as his jaw loosens and a tentative smile spreads across his
face.

From a distance, I hear Gregory’s
voice, and when I glance over my shoulder, he’s stumbling our
direction, obviously drunk and completely uninvited.

“Speak of the devil.” I roll my eyes
and that makes Lane smile bigger.

“The rest of the staff is over there,”
Gregory slurs, pointing to the tent where the cater waiters are
busy putting out more hors d'oeuvres. Lane ignores his snide
remark, never taking his eyes off of me.

“It was nice seeing you again, but I
gotta go,” Lane says and I’m immediately disappointed that he’s
leaving.

“Are you sure?” I look down at my feet
and try to garner enough nerve to ask him not to go. “Stay,” I say
so softly it comes out as more of a whisper when I look back up at
him.

He peers over his shoulder across the
small peninsula to the lighthouse then back at me. “I’m sorry I
can’t… I…I have to work.” He looks genuinely disappointed, and I
wonder if he knows I am too. “But hopefully I’ll see you around,
okay?” He gives me a smile that makes my knees go weak before
taking off down the beach. In the faint light coming off of the
fire, I see him glance back at me before he cuts across the sandy
peninsula and disappears into the shadows of tall sea
grass.

Wait. Didn’t he say he had to work?
Why is he going to the lighthouse? I can’t focus long on where Lane
went when I feel Gregory’s arms wrap around my waist from behind.
He nuzzles his face in my hair at the base of my neck, and his
breath smells like hard liquor and pot.

“Now that he’s gone, I have you all to
myself.”

I whip my body around and pull out of
his arms. “Gregory. Stop.” I scan the crowd for Andrew when Gregory
steps in front of me preventing my escape.

“You know we were good together,” he
slurs, his breath stinging my eyes. He leans forward and takes my
face in his hands, ready to kiss me, but I shove him away before he
can. How obvious do I need to be for him to stop his
advances?

“Gregory, I’m sorry, but I don’t like
you like that anymore.” I try to keep my voice low so no one can
hear. I want to be frank, not cruel. “I really need you to stop
flirting with me and acting like we’re still together. It’s
starting to make me uncomfortable. Can we please just agree to be
friends and leave it at that?” I ask as nice as possible, not
wanting to cause a scene. Gregory takes a small step backwards, his
smirk falling flat and I’m afraid I may have been too blunt. “I’m
sorry, Greg,” I start to say when he takes an unexpected step
forward, his shoulders thrown back and his eyes narrowed at me. I
take a step back cautiously.

“Who do you think you are?” He speaks
so slow and deliberate that I’m no longer afraid I’ve hurt his
feelings, now I’m just afraid. “I’m. Gregory. Chase.” He takes
another step forward. “Little Miss Perfect thinks she’s too good
for me? But you’ll slum it with some local loser. You’re such a
tease. Always have been, always will be,” he says, spitting the
insult at me.

I gasp at his biting words. I feel a
rush of adrenaline flood my body. If he intended to tear me down,
he failed. The only thing he’s accomplished is pissing me
off.

That’s it.

I’ll show him ‘little miss
perfect’.

I step forward, fury tightening every
muscle in my body, and this time he’s the one who takes a cautious
step backwards but not far enough as I pull my hand back and let it
fly, slapping Gregory Chase right across the face. Hard.

Fuming, I turn on my heels to leave,
but I’m abruptly stopped when he grabs me by my arm and swings me
around to face him. The look on his face replaces my bright red
anger with pitch black fear.

“You. Bitch.”

Lane

He’s not her boyfriend.

I shake my head to clear my mind
before I steal one last glance over my shoulder at her as I walk
away, but it’s on a loop, and it’s all I can think. He’s not her
boyfriend.

I shake my head again, this time to
snap myself out of it. There’s no way a girl like that would go for
a guy like me anyway. Would she? I shut my eyes and replay the way
she looked at me through her long dark lashes, softly asking me to
stay, causing my stomach to knot.

“He’s not her boyfriend,” I say out
loud at the door of the lighthouse. I pull my keys from my pocket
as the sounds of the party float through the otherwise quiet night,
and I feel a stupid grin spread across my face despite the rude
remarks I just got from that ass-hat Gregory. Seriously, when will
the ‘help’ jokes get old?

“Let go. You’re hurting me,” a girl
yelps from down the beach. I spin around and from the light coming
off the bonfire I can see Gregory’s hand is wrapped around Ashley’s
arm, and she’s wincing in pain.

Without a thought, I drop my keys to
the ground and take off running, reaching them in seconds. “Let her
go,” I yell. My fists ball tight, ready to make him if I have
to.

“Mind your own business, loser,”
Gregory snarls back as he jerks Ashley by the arm eliciting another
cry.

“Lane,” Ashley says, struggling
against his grip, fear on her face.

I lunge forward and grab Gregory’s
arm, yanking him away from her with a force that surprises even me.
“I said Let. Her. Go.”

Ashley falls to the ground when
Gregory releases his hold. I kneel down and brush the hair from her
face as she rubs her arm in pain.

“Are you okay?” I search for signs of
injury as adrenaline pounds in my veins.

“I’m fine. I promise,” she says, our
eyes locked with one another. “Thank you.”

“Come to save the damsel in distress,”
Gregory says in a patronizing tone, looking down his nose at me.
Convinced Ashley’s alright; I jump up and face him. He’s poised and
ready for a fight, and that makes two of us. “You do know the
peasant doesn’t get the girl, right? The prince does.”

I can’t stop the laugh that comes out
of me. “Are you serious right now?” Who does this guy think he is?
“Dude, when a girl is screaming to be let go, it’s a pretty good
indicator that she doesn’t want you, prince or not.”

I hear a light snickering from behind
me before I see that a small crowd has gathered around and is
watching us intently. I’m surprised they haven’t all started
chanting ‘fight’ by the way they look on like we’re simply the
entertainment for the evening.

I turn back to Gregory and out of the
corner of my eye I see Ashley talking to her brother, and he looks
pissed. Join the club.

“You know what? She can slum it all
she wants with you. She’s nothing but an uptight frigid tease
anyway. Good luck getting into her pants.” Gregory wears an
arrogant smirk, his arms crossed leisurely across his chest like
he’s just landed a fatal blow.

My vision goes red. He’s about to find
out exactly how a real blow feels. To the face.

I lunge at him, and we both go flying
to the ground. He gets a quick hit to my gut that I barely feel
before I pull back and punch him square in the nose so hard that
the onlookers gasp at the cracking sound it makes. With so much
adrenaline pumping through my veins, I’m not sure if it was his
face or my hand that made the sickening sound, but I don’t
care.

He spits saliva and blood at me after
getting to his feet. I move in for another blow, but he lands a
punch to my face, busting open my lip. The metallic taste of blood
fills my mouth, and it spurs me on.

“Is that all you got?” I prod, swiping
my thumb across my bloody lip. He can’t resist the taunt and comes
at me again. Wedged in-between his fingers, like a set of claws or
makeshift brass knuckles, I see the jagged teeth of car keys
sticking out and I easily evade his swing, sparing my face from
being shredded. Damn this guy fights dirty. I get two more swift
shots in, one to his ribs and the other to his jaw before he and I
are abruptly pulled away from one another.

Andrew holds me back for a second then
lets me go when I don’t resist. I dust the sand off then wipe my
lip on my sleeve, never taking my eyes off Gregory who’s being held
back as well.

A trickle of blood pours from his
crooked nose. It definitely looks broken from my vantage point, and
a large bruise is already forming on his jaw.

“Apologize to her. Now,” I
demand.

He jerks himself free from his
friend’s grip. “You just made the biggest mistake of your life,” he
says, laughing and spitting blood into the sand. “Big, big
mistake,” he threatens, before stalking off.