Chasing Forever Down (Drenaline Surf Series) (12 page)

She probably does. I’m sure Alston informed her of everything A.J. has ever done on a
jet ski and assured her that I wasn’t coming back alive.

The sliding back door of Strickland’s Boating is cracked open. Reed is behind the counter, alone, when we walk in.

“What in the hell happened to you?” he asks.

I push past him, ignoring the water, sand, and seaweed I’ve tracked in with me. I pull my T-shirt back over my head and watch the water seep through the fabric. Linzi crams everything she owns into the beach bag, and while I’m sure she doesn’t want to leave Alston just yet, she doesn’t argue.

“She went jet skiing with A.J.,” Linzi tells Reed.

And speak of the devil. A.J. and Alston follow through the back door. Alston drops the lifejackets behind the counter and slides the glass door shut behind him and Dexter. Reed grabs A.J.’s arm and pulls him behind the counter.

“Are you trying to kill her?” Reed yells. “What the hell were you thinking? I told you to scare her, not drown her!”

“
Strick, man, listen – it was an accident. We flipped,” A.J. says.

I wrap my untamed hair into a clip and dig into my bag for my keys.
“It was an accident,” I repeat. “It’s okay, Reed. Don’t worry about it.”

All I want is to get out of here before I see my own reflection and realize that swamp creatures cannot be sexy, despite what A.J. thinks.

Reed ignores my attempt to smooth things over. “You went too far,” he says to A.J.

“
She didn’t have to get on there,” A.J. says. “And it’s not like I tried to flip it. I was trying to outrun Dominic. She was just there.”

Reed continues verbally slaughter
ing A.J. as we head for the door – around the counter, past the paper stars, a step over Dexter, and three feet to the sliding glass door. Linzi heads down the sidewalk, a few steps ahead of me, and I hear the last words A.J. may ever say.

“
You’re the one who set up this stupid play date to begin with!”

I almost want to stop right here on the sand-covered sidewalk and listen for Reed’s reply, but I keep walking with my head down so the group of people up ahead won’t see my makeup-stained face. The sound of flip flops comes up on me, like a shark on a sea lion, but I don’t look back. I’d rather not face the person who is determined to run me over.

“Haley! Wait!”

Reed runs around me and halts my journey toward the car. I motion for Linzi to go on. She hesitates for a moment
but continues toward the parking lot.

“
This is my fault,” Reed says. “I’m the one who lied and sent you out with A.J. today. It’s just…you’ve gotta understand. No one has ever ridden with A.J. Most girls don’t come back around after they meet him, and if I’d thought for a second that you’d really get on there with him, I wouldn’t have sent you out there.”

“
I’m not most girls,” I say. I push him out of my path with my shoulder, but he spins around and stops me again.

“
I know that. Most girls don’t care about paper stars. I know there’s more to it with you, but I can’t do anything about it,” he says.

This time I don’t try to leave. I don’t know what he knows about
North Carolina or paper stars or Colby Taylor’s trip back home to interrupt my boring little world, but he knows I’m here to find surfer boy.

“
You’re just doing your job, right? Keeping the naïve teenage tourists away from your guy? Well, you can tell Colby Taylor he needs to think about that before he drags a random girl off to watch cover bands and talk about chasing forever and then leaves paper stars behind because he’s too damn scared to show up the next day like he said he would,” I say.

The summer sun blazes through my veins again. Warmth burns my cheeks, and I bet I look like Medusa on fire with my snaky hair sprouting from its clip and my black swamp creature eyes pouring down my face. I’d turn and run toward the parking lot if I w
eren’t afraid of tripping over my own feet and making a bigger fool of myself.

“
Haley, I’m done,” Reed says. His eyes go sad, like how I’d imagined Dexter’s if someone stole that hot pink Frisbee. “You don’t have to fight me anymore. If you can get through Alston and A.J. and – Get through the other guys then Taylor’s yours. I’m not standing in your way.”

If Reed is surrendering, I’m
another guy down. Alston is so preoccupied with Linzi that I doubt he even cares about fighting me off. He’s totally in this “just for the chicks.” I think I’ve proven I can handle A.J. more than anyone thought I could.

“
Who is the fourth guy?” That’s the real question.

Reed inhales and looks past me.
“You can meet him tonight. I owe you anyway. There’s this really awesome diner on the edge of town. I’m paying. Meet us here at seven?”

“
It’s a date.”

Fighting the waves in my hair is like fighting the waves in the ocean – a losing battle. I decide to take the Colby Taylor route and ride with it. Linzi spends too much time checking her makeup in the mirror, and once she’s somewhat pleased, I head for the car before she can change her mind about what she’s wearing. Alston, Reed, and A.J. are hanging around Reed’s dark blue Jeep when we pull into the parking lot behind Strickland’s Boating. Alston meets Linzi at the passenger side door. Reed comes to my window, tells me to follow him to the diner, and heads back over to his Jeep.

“
Heeeeeey,” Linzi says in that ‘best friend needs a favor’ voice. “Is it cool if I ride with Alston?”

I know better than to complain. She’ll just turn the tables on me saying how I made her leave earlier today during my swamp creature crisis and how she didn’t put up a fight even though she wanted to lay around on the beach all day and make out with Alston. So I tell her it’s fine, and she bounces over to the
Jeep and into the backseat with her lover boy without ever giving me a second glance.

“
Well, that was one hell of a fucked up thing to do,” A.J. says as he slides into my passenger seat. “I’m riding with you. Alston can have the little bitch.”

The words I want to say wrap around my tonsils and never escape my throat. A.J. changes the subject and the radio station and tells me about how he ran into Topher outside of Drenaline Surf this afternoon. Topher had already heard about our massive flip from Dominic, but A.J. assures me that he ‘set the record straight’ that we kicked ass and totally flipped it on purpose to show Dominic up. I doubt Topher bought it, but A.J. does make it sound more awesome than it really was.

We pull up next to Reed at a diner called Shipwrecked. The sign is a ship torn in half, wrapped up in the legs of an octopus. Reed asks for a booth for six, and Linzi and Alston slide in on one side. Reed sits next to Alston, and A.J. takes the wall seat on our side, leaving room for the mechanic a.k.a. bodyguard number four on the other side of me.

I leave my menu flat on the table because I’m afraid if I hold it up to read it, everyone will see my excitement and anxiety spilling from my pores and shaking hands. A.J. plays with a lime green and teal paper octopus that serves as table décor and offers to steal it for me when I say it’s cute and I wish I had one for a souvenir. He bends its crinkled legs inward then outward, and I focus all of my attention on him while Reed orders so no one will see how desperate I am for the beer-drinking blonde to arrive.

Reed is between “extra ketchup” and “no pickles” when the world stops spinning. I look up from the paper octopus the instant I feel the weight of another body sitting on the red leather next to me. It’s like all eight legs of the octopus have wrapped around me and forewarned me that they are about to squeeze the life from my body. This is how the crew of the Titanic must’ve felt the moment they saw that deadly iceberg.

“
This is the man of the hour!” Reed announces.

But there’s no need for introductions.

“Vin Number,” I say.

His blue eyes still give me chills.
“Sunshine,” he says. “We meet again.”

CHAPTER
10

“
I see you two have met?” Reed asks from across the table. He traces the rim of his menu with his index finger.

“
We’re acquainted,” Vin says. He shoots another cold glance my way, and I turn my focus to A.J. and his paper octopus to avoid the chill.

Silence engulfs our table like a monster wave swallowing the shoreline and the tiny children playing in its sand. Seconds feel like hours until we’re saved by the waiter who brings us our food in three separate trips. He lingers for a moment before turning his attention to the con artist next to me.

“How’s business?” he asks. He folds his arms and stares at Vin with this stupid prideful smile. I nearly lose my appetite on the spot. How can anyone ask a con artist how business is?

Vin devours a few fries.
“Pretty damn good,” he mumbles. “With the season and all, you know.”

The season? It’s summertime – tourist season. God, the nerve of these people. To just sit here and talk about it like it’s okay that he rips off tourists and pretends to be a mechanic on the side!

“Just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s obviously working,” the waiter tells Vin. He places another bottle of ketchup on the center of the table and disappears.

The red bottle serves as battle lines – Linzi on Team Not-So-Dangerous and me on Team I-Have-A-Death-Wish. Her flirty eyes with Alston are a day and night contrast with the soul-crushing stares Vin continues tossing my way. Someone should’ve told me to pick up some armor during our road trip; I’ll need it to survive this fight.

“Don’t you love when you order onion rings and you find a random French fry in there?” Reed asks, waving his lone fry and breaking my thoughts of battle plans and survival techniques
.

“
Man, Strick,” A.J. says as he stashes the paper sea creature under the table. “It’s kind of like when you go to buy weed and you open the bag and there’s–”

“
Hey!” Vin shouts in my ear. “Hush.”

A.J. obeys the order and gnaws into his hamburger before he can argue with Vin. It’s probably something he learned in bodyguard boot camp – to keep your mouth shut – and General Con Artist has trained him impeccably.

I catch Reed’s stare over my plate, the way his eyes gravitate between mine and Vin’s, like he’s searching for answers or trying to see through us. But we’re not transparent. And there’s nothing I can do to ease the fears that Reed has built up in his mind since the moment Vin sat down and called me Sunshine.

Spirals of smoke swarm together in a white-gray fog above us. A.J. turns his head to the stars and blows into the night. His cigarette smoke lingers just briefly before riding away across the ocean air with the rest of the fog.

He races across the parking lot, jumps on the hood of a car, and uses it as a stepping stone to stand atop the lid of the giant green dumpster.

“I am the dragon lord!” he screams out, raising his arms to the sky. “Fear my fire!” He flicks the lighter in his hand and exhales another cloud of smoke.

“
Idiot,” Alston mumbles.

Reed shakes his head.
“Get down!” he shouts across the lot to A.J.

A.J. leaps forward and blends into the shadows below the dumpster. Metal trash can lids clang together.
“I’m okay!” he calls out.

“
I think it’s time to call it a night,” Reed says. He glances at Vin then back at me, and it’s more than obvious he has questions that no one wants to answer.

“
Spit it out, Strick,” Vin snaps. “What is it?”

My chest tightens, and I pray Linzi doesn’t begin explaining the hair dye incident. She’ll more than likely just piss Vin off even more than we already have. Like it or not, I’m going to have to deal with him to
ace Chasing Forever 101.

Reed hesitates for a second.
“How do you guys know each other?”

“
He called me a psycho bitch about fifteen minutes before I met you,” I tell him.

“
No,” Vin says, circling around Reed and closer to me. “I said you didn’t have to go all psycho bitch, not that you
were
a psycho bitch. There’s a difference.”

He pushes past me and revs up his motorcycle. He’s gone before anyone else speaks. A.J. breaks the silence once he reaches us.

“What’s his deal?” he asks. “Never mind. It’s Vin.”

I’m starting to think maybe A.J. isn’t nearly as terrible as Reed and Alston hoped I’d think he was. He’s the only one of the bunch who seems open and honest. He may be reckless, but at least I know where I stand with him and what to expect.

“We need to get back anyway,” I say. I glance over at Linzi and dread having to detach her from Alston. “I have to reserve our room for a few more days.”

“
Don’t,” Reed says. “You guys can stay at our guest house. Two bedrooms, one bath, free of charge.”

The thrill of being in their world every second of the day excites me even more than knowing who all four bodyguards are – not that I really consider Vin to be exciting
, though. Being in their household means being involved in every moment and aspect of the lives of Colby Taylor’s bodyguards. If they contact him at any point, Linzi or I will be there. We can keep tabs on them like I bet no one ever has.