Belize: Bad Boys on the Beach Book Two (12 page)

I walk towards the steps and he closes the door behind me.
You’re making the right decision.
But why does it feel so wrong?

Chapter Eight

Cynthia

Day Three

“I can’t believe that she’s following us,” Tanya says, looking back at Stephanie and Aaron. They’re in a taxi following our minibus.

Megan pops up over the seat in front of us and looks at me with her lips pursed together. “Cynthia, you’re supposed to be on that.”

“I tried,” I answer. “This chick is as crafty as Martha Stewart.”

“Still,” Megan says, “if I was in charge of containing her she’d be on a flight back home already.”

I wave my hand. “Well go right ahead then.”

“I can’t,” she says, placing her hand on her upper chest and raising her chin. “I’m too busy with my maid of honor duties.”

I roll my eyes at her. “Right.”

Julia pops up over the seat beside Megan. “We should push her over the waterfall.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “We don’t want to pollute the lagoon with that trash.”

Today is the day where our group is going on a rainforest hike. We’re hiking up a hill to get to a secluded lagoon with a beautiful waterfall on top. At least it looked beautiful on the pictures that we googled.

A force is tugging at me from behind and I glance back to where Chase is sitting next to Matt.

Chase stares back and smiles as Matt blabs on about something. He puts an imaginary gun to his head and pulls the imaginary trigger with his index finger, making me giggle.

“Poor Chase,” Julia says, glancing over at them. “Matt is probably blabbing on about his ninja turtle action figure collection. He has the fourteenth biggest collection in the state. And he won’t shut up about it.”

The four of us snicker at poor Matt. What an idiot.

“Where did you find this guy again?” Megan asks.

Julia hits her head on the padded seat. “He was a bartender. I was drunk.”

“Never a good combination,” I say as she bangs her head on the seat again.

“Why do I always end up with these guys?” she asks.

“Because you always make really bad decisions,” Megan says bluntly.

“Thanks, Megan,” Julia says, rubbing her temple. “I can always count on you for unwanted advice.”

“My pleasure,” Megan says, grinning. “But any more advice and I’m going to have to start charging you.”

“Maybe we should set him up with Ophelia,” I say with a chuckle. That way he could stay in my room and I could stay with Julia.

Tanya grits her teeth together. “I’m afraid to ask, but any more incidents last night?”

“No, thank God,” I say, remembering how scared I was when I slowly opened the door. “When I came home she was sleeping.”

Ophelia was still sleeping this morning when I left. Hiking is not her thing and she didn’t want to come.

“Oh good,” Tanya says, relieved.

“Don’t get too excited,” I say. “There was porn on the TV again.” It was muted at least.

Megan grins. “Sounds like you came in pretty late if she was already sleeping.”

I shrug, trying to look casual. “Not too late,” I say, looking away.

Megan just watches me and grins. “Spill it.”

“What?”

“What?” Megan says, imitating me with her hands in the air. “You weren’t at the bar. You weren’t in your room. Where were you?”

I gulp as all three of my girls are staring at me waiting for the dirt. “Fine,” I say, giving up. “I was at Chase’s.”

“Yes!” Megan says, pumping her fist.

“Nothing happened,” I quickly add.

“So what were you doing?” Megan asks with narrow eyes. She’s not buying the story.

“What is this an FBI interrogation?” I ask, suddenly feeling very hot.

Megan glares at me. “What were you doing between nine pm and three am last night?” she asks in a cold voice. I get the chills. She would have been a good FBI agent.

“I don’t know,” I say, shifting in my seat. “Just hanging out.”

Megan leans in. “Like hanging out, making a fort out of the couch cushions or hanging out with a cock down your throat?”

We break out into giggles and my cheeks go red.

“Like hanging out talking, okay?” I finally say. “Is that enough Mrs. Interrogator or do you want to waterboard me next?”

“I want you to get your freak on,” Megan says, wrinkling her brow.

“Leave her alone Megan,” Tanya says, jumping to my rescue a little too late. “She doesn’t want a one night stand and that’s fine. Chase is going back to Iraq next week.”

Is he, though?
I can’t stop thinking about his injured knee and how he might not be able to go back on active duty. He’s not telling me the whole story.

And it’s driving me crazy.

“Bullshit she doesn’t want a one night stand,” Megan says, shaking her head. “I’m not buying it. Look at him. I’d throw Lucas off a cliff just to touch Chase’s abs.”

Lucas turns over at the mention of his name. “What’s that honey?” he asks from the row of seats in front of us and to the side.

She flashes him a sweet innocent smile. “I was just saying how much I love you my little lamb chop.”

“Ah, you’re so sweet,” he says, turning red in the cheeks. “I love you too.”

We laugh quietly when he turns back in his seat.

Julia is looking at Megan as she giggles. “How do you live with yourself?”

“What are you talking about?” Megan asks, looking confused. “I’m awesome. And we’re not talking about me.”

Yeah, unfortunately.

The spotlight is turned back to yours truly. “So you’re telling me that nothing happened?” Megan says, not letting it drop.

I look to Julia or Tanya for some help but they’re just watching me, waiting for an answer. It appears that I’m on my own.

“Nothing happened,” I say with a finality that makes the three of them drop their heads simultaneously.

“What a waste,” Megan says with a look of disgust on her face. “He’s so hot.”

“There’s no harm in having a little fun on vacation,” Julia says.

That’s what my libido keeps trying to tell me but my brain and heart say otherwise.

“Leave her alone guys,” Tanya says, finally coming to my rescue, a little late I might add. “She doesn’t want to.”

We sit in silence for a while watching as we start driving through some thick green vegetation. The road turns from pavement to dirt and the sun is really starting to jack up the heat.

“God it’s so hot in here,” Julia says, fanning herself. “When are we going to get there?”

Megan looks at Tanya and grins.
“I’m going to hike five hundred miles and I’m going to hike five hundred more.”

“No stop,” Julia says, covering her eyes with her hand as Megan sings at the top of her lungs.

Tanya jumps in for the next line and sings:
“Just to be the girl who hiked a thousand miles, to jump in your waterfall.”

This is usually how it goes with these two. They make up songs and then sing to each other, alternating lines and embarrassing Julia and I in the process. I have no idea how they come up with rhyming words so fast but they’ve had a lot of practice. They’ve been doing it since grade one.

The whole bus jumps in with the
da lat da, da lat da, da lat da, da lat da
and soon everyone is clapping and singing and having a good time. Even Mr. and Mrs. Prentis are bobbing their heads. Everyone is into it except Julia who is staring at Megan with dead eyes.

“Julia you sing the next verse,” Megan whispers.

Julia just glares at her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I glance back over my shoulder at Chase. He’s tapping his finger on his muscular leg as the bus sings. He winks when he sees me and I turn back around feeling a warm tingling radiating through my body.

The song dies down as we arrive at the rainforest. The vegetation is so lush and thick. I walk up to a plant on the side of the dirt road and touch a dark green leaf that’s the size of a small table. The trees are high and full with tiny colorful birds darting from branch to branch. There’s a little path that snakes through the dense rainforest from the road. There’s nothing around here, not even a Starbucks. That’s how secluded it is.

Chase steps up beside me and glances down at the beautiful blue flower that I’m looking at. It’s bigger than my hand with large petals and little antennae things in the middle. It’s not like the flowers back home. This thing looks alive.

“I’d pick it for you but I’m afraid it’s going to eat my hand,” Chase says with a laugh.

The gravel crunches as the taxi pulls up behind our bus. “We have trouble,” I say, looking at the blond in the back seat.

I breathe in uneasily. “I’ll go talk to her.”

Chase follows me and I feel a bit braver with him by my side.

“Hi!” Stephanie says, stepping out of the cab. Aaron follows her out, staring down at the dirt road.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Hiking,” she says, motioning down to her brand new hiking shoes. “What does it look like?”

Aaron hasn’t taken his beaten and dead zombie eyes off the ground.

“It looks like you’re stalking my friend’s wedding party,” I say, roughly. “That’s what it looks like.”

“Go home, Steph,” Chase says. “Nobody wants you here.”

She raises her chin letting her blond hair fall onto her shoulders. “You don’t own the rainforest. I’m hiking.” She grabs her fiancees’ arm and yanks him forward. “Come on, Aaron.”

The crowd parts and glares at the unwanted couple as she walks through them towards the path. Megan’s hands are clenched into fists as they walk by her.

They disappear down the path and everyone just kind of shrugs and follows them.

“You know I’ve been thinking about what you said last night,” Chase says as we follow the group down the path.

My breath catches in my throat. “About what?”

He smiles. “Having a relationship. Exclusivity, monogamy. All of that stuff.”

I take a tight breath. “Really?” I ask, trying to sound nonchalant but really I’m insanely curious to hear the next few words about to come out of his mouth.

He takes a deep breath. “You know I think-”

“Hello Mr. Chase,” Mr. Prentis says interrupting at the most horrible time possible. He offers his hand. “We haven’t met yet. I’m Tanya’s father.”

Go away!
I scream in my head even though I’m smiling sweetly on the outside. I really want to hear what Chase was going to say.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Chase says, shaking his hand.

“Tanya tells me that you’re a Navy SEAL,” Mr. Prentis says, nodding and looking impressed.

Chase swallows hard. “That I am, sir.”

Mr. Prentis’ stern face breaks out into a goofy smile. I’ve never seen him look so starstruck before. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him look anything but stern before. His eyes are bright and shining like a little kid meeting his favorite pro athlete.

“Let me just say that it’s a wonderful sacrifice that you’re making for our country,” Mr. Prentis says, still shaking his hand. “I would like to thank you for your service and for your strength in protecting this God loving country and all that we hold dear.”

“It’s not much of a sacrifice, sir,” Chase answers. “It sure is fun to shoot and blow up things.”

“No,” Mr. Prentis says shaking his head. “It’s amazing what you guys do. The skill and courage that it must take is phenomenal. You’re a true American hero.”

“It’s just a job, sir,” Chase says. I’m surprised at his reaction. Normally he’s so cocky and full of himself but now that he’s getting some actual, legitimate praise he’s playing it down.

“No, it’s not,” Mr. Prentis says, finally releasing Chase’s hand. “You’re risking your life to make real change in the world. That’s God’s work you’re doing.”

They start chatting about weapons that I’ve never heard of and places that sound like they’re out of the Lord of the Rings books and I quickly tune out.

“Herb loves Navy SEALs,” Mrs. Prentis says, walking beside me.

He’s not the only one.

“He reads every book he can find on them and is quite the follower,” she says in a quiet voice.

I stifle a laugh when I picture Mr. Prentis in his garage with a Navy SEAL calendar hanging on the wall, full of hot, shirtless Navy SEALs.

“Just know that your difficult work is truly appreciated,” Mr. Prentis says, firmly. “You’re an inspiration to us all.”

“Well thank you, sir,” Chase says, but he’s looking at me with a grin.

“I want to shake your hand again,” Mr. Prentis says, reaching out and grabbing Chase’s hand. Chase shoots me a look as Mr. Prentis finally releases him.

Mr. Prentis looks at his palm and smiles. “Can I get a picture?”

Mrs. Prentis has the camera ready. We all stop and Mr. Prentis puts his arm around Chase and pulls him in close. He smiles from ear to ear, looking prouder than ever. I have to fight back the giggles threatening to burst out of me. I’ve never seen Mr. Prentis like this with anybody.

“Say Navy SEALs,” Mrs. Prentis says, holding up the camera.

Chase raises his round shoulders back and places his hands as if he’s holding an M16. Mr. Prentis sees him and copies him, but somehow doesn’t look as tough standing there in his sandals with the black socks pulled all the way up his skinny calves, his large dorky sun hat, and the thick suntan lotion on his big nose.

Mrs. Prentis takes the picture and he rushes over to see. “This is going over the fireplace,” he says, brimming with excitement. He runs over to show Tanya and Mrs. Prentis follows.

“Hear that?” Chase says, walking tall with his chin in the air and with his shoulders back. “I’m an inspiration.”

“Wow, GI Joe,” I say sarcastically. “You really are an American Hero. And here I thought you were just a sleazy perv.”

Now back to what we were talking about before.

“Oh I’m a perv too,” he says with a grin. “All good heroes have a tragic flaw.”

I step over a herd of renegade roots crossing the path like thick ropes. “So what were you going to say before?” I ask, trying to act casual but feeling every nerve in my body on full alert.