Beach Side Beds and Sandy Paths (8 page)

Nine hours into our drive I crick my neck to the side and squeeze Lex’s hand. Our palms are so sweaty they go
flurrppth
as air pockets flit out our fingers. Lex laughs and brings my knuckles to her lips.

“Sexy.”

I chuckle as we drop hold of each other to wipe off on our jeans. Lex’s shorts keep riding up every time she adjusts in her seat, making it real hard to pay attention to the long freeway drive. But I’ve managed to stay behind Nate the whole way, even with the beat up 4.6 under the hood.

“Oh, I think our exit’s coming up,” Lex says, sitting up in her seat. The small of her back looks damp, and I can’t help but reach over and touch the patch of skin between her top and her shorts. Her eyes flick over to me and they narrow as she smacks my hand. “Not while you’re driving.”

I shake my hand out, but my gaze goes back to the road. Nate just put on his blinker to the off ramp. It’s about damn time. My ass feels like it’s been hit by a load of bricks.

“Should I wake him up?” Lex turns toward Brett strewn across the backseat.

“No.” I’ve been praising the heavens ever since he dozed off.

“But our hotel’s just a few blocks
away.”

“He can sleep in the car. Saves us the trouble asking for a pullout.”

“Ryan…”

“I was kidding,” I say, and I feel my ears warm. Lex ignores the obvious lie that just tumbled from my mouth and bends down to put her shoes back on.

  It’s getting late, and by the time we pull into the Holiday Inn, the sun’s just barely over the horizon. Nate hops out of his Escort, taking off his hat and stretching his arms. Lex leans over the console and pecks my cheek.

“I’ll go check in.”

“’Kay.”

I watch her as she slides from the passenger seat, and I playfully pinch her ass on her way out. She does this adorable as hell squeal
, and before I get my hand smacked again, Kaylee tugs her into the lobby after Nate.

“Guess we’re watching the cars.” Brett clears his throat
, and I hear him shift to a sitting position. I don’t acknowledge him, even when he pokes his face between the two front seats. “Damn, my ass is killing me.”

I want to tell him to get it out of the car then, leave me the hell alone, but I keep ignoring him, pulling my phone out and pretending it’s the most interesting thing in the world.

“It’s gonna be nice sleeping on a bed,” he says, attempting to stretch out in the backseat. My eyebrows pinch together as I pointlessly scroll through my text messages.

“What makes you think you
’re getting a bed?”

“Damn, are we all in one room?” he falls back into the leather and
bumps my seat.

“Unfortunately,” I growl. This trip is costing me enough in gas
. Nate too. And when we booked the place we had a party of four, not five. Lex said she might have to sleep with Kaylee though so we weren’t subjected to midnight groping, but I told her no way in hell. I’ve been dying to get her back into a bed with me ever since our senior trip. Nate isn’t exactly my number one choice in a cuddle buddy.

But now we got the two queens and a pullout in the room, and if Brett tries to claim a bed he’ll get an ass whooping.

“Well, I’m used to sleeping on a couch.”

Something washes down the back of my neck, cooling some of the sweat there as I flick my eyes to the rearview. He’s lying back down across the seats, tugging his baseball cap over his face. I want to ask why he’s used to a couch. Don’t know why the hell I care, or why I’m feeling this bizarre ping in my gut like something’s up and I should try to actually talk about shit with him
, and before I open my mouth, he opens his.

“
Kara had the best couch. It was damn close to an actual bed. And my feet didn’t hang off the edge.”

He says “
Kara” like I know who he’s talking about, but I have no clue. I wonder if he’s doing it to make me ask questions, but I force them back and huff, tilting my head to look out the passenger window. How long does it take to check in?

“I get a bed at the beach house, right? Or am I sleeping in the sand?”

I let out an unexpected laugh that I quickly turn into a cough.

“Uh, yeah. You get your own shitter, too.”

He shifts and ends up bumping against the back of my seat. “Good. Junk food isn’t my friend.” His foot taps against the bag full of chips and candy.

“I did not need to know that,” I say, and there’s this weird grin on my face when Lex gets back in the car. Good thing because I was saying more than two words without even thinking about it.

“Okay,” Lex says, smacking the keycard in my palm. “We’re around back. Second floor.”

I interlock our fingers and cling to them as I pull around. It’s one night in the same room, one more day of driving, and then it can just be me and her.

The room is like a normal eighty-buck-a-night hotel. Two queens, bathroom right by the door, air conditioner under the window. Lex throws her bag on the nearest bed, leaving Nate and Kaylee with the one next to the couch pullout. I wonder if she did that on purpose so there’s as much distance as possible between Brett and me.

Nate and Kaylee are in the shower first, throwing out the excuse that they’re saving water by showering together. Lex and I share a look as they lock the bathroom door because we know a lot more is happening in there. Only Brett has balls enough to say it out loud when he goes, “Dude, they better clean it all up after, ’cause I’m next.”

Lex laughs and they share a look that punches me in the gut.

Nate and Kaylee are out in a surprisingly short amount of time, Brett hops in while Kaylee and Lex paint their nails and Nate and I watch Prank Wars on his laptop. For ten minutes it’s exactly what I wanted out of this vacation, but then Brett’s out of the shower and Lex goes in.

“You not joining her?” he asks as he rubs a towel over his head. Kaylee snorts from her spot on the floor and fans at her toenails.

“Yeah, Ryan. Why aren’t you joining her?” She laughs
, and I chuck a pillow at her freshly painted toes. She yells a “Hey!” at me and tosses it back. That’s the end of the shower discussion, and I’m glad no one pushes it. I haven’t seen Lex naked, and I’m sorry, the first time will not be in a hotel room we’re sharing with our best friends and my stupidass half-brother.

Nate pulls an earbud from his ear, and moves his eyes from his laptop. “Hey Brett? Where’d you live before here?”

We’re all quiet, Brett pausing in the middle of yanking the cushions off the pullout. He looks at Nate like he’s not sure how to respond, and I look at Nate like
What the hell, man?
We’ve all pretty much ignored him, except Lex—stubborn girl—so it’s a minute before Brett clears his throat and says, “Uh, well, I’ve lived a lot of places. But the last place was Vegas.” He drops a cushion to the floor. “Why?”

“Vegas, really?” Nate slides to the edge of the bed. “No shit. Did you ever see any illusionists?”

Brett raises an eyebrow, a light smile playing on his lips. I push a pillow over my face.

“Tons, actually. Some of the best ones are actually outside of the theaters. Magicians on the street and all that.” He laughs and I hear Nate adjust on his bed again. “There was a rumor that one of the masked street guys was actually Criss Angel.”

“Damn,” Nate whispers in awe. I whip the pillow off my face and glare at him. Nate puts his laptop back on his lap as if that’ll save him from a punch. “I’ve only lived in Colorado, and I’ve only driven through Vegas. My brother’s been a few times when he road trips to and from school. Man, I’d love to actually stay there.”

“It’s not all that great,” Brett
says, his tone dark. “But it wasn’t the worst place I’ve lived.”

Kaylee shifts on the floor, pulling her knees under her chin. “
Does it suck to move all the time?”

They look at Brett, and he looks at me. I cross my arms and
stare at the ceiling, exempting myself from the conversation.

Brett grabs the handle for the pullout and yanks.
Kaylee moves a couple cushions out of the way for him. The shower goes off, and I wish I could jump up right now and get my ass in there.

“It’s not that bad. I move a lot though, so I guess I’m used to it.” He sort of laughs to himself as he
flops the mattress down and stuffs a few pillows at the head. “I thought Vegas would stick, since we’d been there four years and my dad hadn’t been called out for a while, but, well, shit hit the fan. He got shipped overseas and according to the courts I had to go to the only family I have left. Since my mom”—his eyes shift to me—“
our
mom isn’t exactly around, I had to move here.”

Kaylee’
s eyes get real big. “You don’t have any other family?” Her gaze cuts to me, and I scratch the back of my head and shrug.

Brett nods at me. “Just him.”

I feel all six eyeballs as if they’re drilling into my face. Heat flashes up the back of my neck when I lock gazes with Brett, who gives me that stupid smirk that tells me he’s playing this “poor me” act to get my friends’ sympathy and make me come off as the douchebag. But they weren’t around when he got here. They didn’t hear him say all the stuff he did about my dad. And every time he opens his mouth, no matter what the hell he’s saying, I hear that.

Grabbing my extra clothes on the foot of the bed, I get up and march to the bathroom, mumbling, “I’m gonna see if Lex is done.” I wish the room was bigger, because I can still feel all eyes on me as I tap on the door and Lex says to come in.

She’s got a tiny tank top on, and silk pajama bottoms that stick to her backside because she didn’t dry off all the way. I click the door shut and wrap an arm around her waist as she smiles at me in the mirror.

Dammit, right
here
. It’s so much better than anything else. How does she do it? She hasn’t said a word, just shows me her two dimples and brings her arm up to scratch the back of my head as I lean in and kiss her bare shoulder, and it wipes everything clean from my brain. I feel like a damn woman with the mood swings, but right now, I’m so high off her scent and her skin that I don’t even care.

“You left me hot water, right?”

I feel her mouth pull up against my cheek. “A little. But I didn’t have much to start out with.”

Her laugh vibrates her throat, hitting my lips and sending shivers down my spine. I run my nose over her
collarbone, feel her sharp gasp as I breathe in.

“You smell good.”

“Peppermint candy body wash.”

I slide her
dark, wet hair from her neck and lick her shoulder. “Yum.”

She giggles and twists in my arms
. My fingers hit the edge of her shirt and I’m tempted to lift it up and shove her back in the shower, but she pecks my lips and says, “Are you playing nice out there?”

It’s an ice bucket over my head when the words come out of her mouth. I let go of her shirt and place my hands firmly over the fabric.

“We’re not fighting, Lex.”

Her light brown eyes study mine, but I’m not in the mood to get lectured. I pull her arms off my neck and reach around her for a towel. It’s my silent way of telling her I need a minute alone.

She twists the ring on her pinky. “Can I brush my hair real quick? Then the shower’s all yours.”

“Yeah.”

Her hand slips on the brush as she brings it to her wet hair, and she absent-mindedly starts ripping into the strands. I think I flinch more than her as I listen to her brush out all the knots. She keeps flicking her gaze to me in the mirror, pursing her lips. As soon as the brush runs smooth in her hair, I stop her hand.

“What’s going on up here?” I ask, tapping the brush lightly against her temp
le before running it through the wet strands myself.

“I think I made you mad.”

I sigh and step close enough to her that her back is pressed against my front. I drag the brush through her hair again. “I… I’m mad a lot lately, Lex. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“
Why are you mad?” She turns in my arms again and takes the brush from my hands. Her eyebrows scrunch in the middle of her forehead in such a damn cute way, a small smile hits my lips and I run a thumb over her brow to smooth it out.

“It’s just a hard adjustment,” I say. “He came out of nowhere and…he said some shit about my dad when he first got here. I just… I’m sorry. I know you want me to get along with him, but right now, all I can do is
tolerate him.”

Lex’s eyes widen. “You didn’t tell me that. W
hat did he say?”

I run a hand over my face and then pinch my nose. I don’t want to think about it. My dad was my hero. Every memory I have of him is a good one, and not a single person said
a bad thing about the man. Pop-pop and Grams tell me I’m a lot like him, and that makes me damn proud. Even though he’s gone, I still feel like he’s right there with me changing oil, replacing brake pads and rotors, or welding a muffler. He’s just there when I’m working on the Lincoln. Then some kid comes in and tells me my dad was a stupid ass, that Mom picked the wrong family… I just, I want to punch something. I want to throw things, scream, run, anything.