Rough Tumble (19 page)

“You?” If there wasn’t a fake shocked expression on her face right now, he’d be surprised. “Giving her space. I don’t know what to say. That bright sun has cooked your brain already. And for the better.”

“Thanks. I was actually about to call Lane. I guess he’s there.”

“Oh. Um.”

“You have his phone.”

“Yeah. Jacob took mine just now when I heard you ran off down there. I stole Lane’s. Call him in like two minutes.”

That was a good sign. Because if his brother cared enough to swipe Flora’s phone to keep her from nagging him, then maybe he and Jacob were back on speaking terms. Which, considering how long it’s been, it was about time. That’s how it worked. They’d blow up. Time would pass and everything would be fine.

Maybe that was the problem here with Tonya. She hadn’t had enough time for it pass.

He grabbed the beach gate and a slender hand snuck past him and grabbed the door, holding it in place. “Where do you think you’re going?”

He glanced back to Tonya. “To the beach.”

“I told you I wasn’t going to put up with this.”

“You said you were going to the beach or pool or whatever. I won’t sit by you or bother you. You can’t expect me to sit in my room for the next few days.”

Her thumb tapped on the gate door then she pulled her hand back. “Fine.”

“Fine.” When she released the door, he pulled it open for her. “Nice weather today.”

“Lovely.” She walked out ahead of him and hurried down the short stairs to the beach.

He lagged behind so not to crowd her space, because she seemed pretty serious about heading home if he pushed too far. And on second thought, he turned back inside the hotel patio area and stretched out on a padded chair by the pool. She just needed more time. Tomorrow he’d ask her to dinner and see if she was in a more agreeable mood.

He pulled out his phone and called Lane. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Slowly. How’s Tonya?”

“Moody.”

“So I’m guessing that you haven’t apologized.”

“I don’t need to. She just needs more time.”

“Time.”

“Yep.”

“The more time you give her, the harder it’s going to be to win her back.”

He was feeling better about this already. “Nah. After a little bit, her temper will cool off and we’ll pick back up.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No.” Really? Lane knew how the system worked too. Everyone knew how the system worked. Except for Tonya apparently, who needed extra time.

“I’m not sure that’s going to work.”

“That’s how it always works.”

“When has that ever worked? I’d like to know.”

“With Jacob this week. We had a fight, now we’re fine.”

There was a long sigh. “Haven’t you ever heard of
you can’t pick your family
?”

He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of this. “Yeah.”

“Right. It’s like that. We just know how you are. You’re still our brother. It’s easier to just let it go than deal with you.”

Definitely not liking the sound of this.

“Tonya isn’t related to you. You’re not married. There is nothing there that forces her to just get over your attitude.”

“My attitude.” Shit. This was cycling back to the same thing he talked about with Tonya. “I don’t have an attitude and don’t you pull that entitled shit with me.”

“All right look, just because Jacob is back talking to you, doesn’t mean he’s forgiven you. We’ll always be brothers and always love you no matter your good parts and your…faults.”

“I don’t have faults.”

“Everyone has faults, and you refuse to see yours. That’s your problem.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Then why did you drive eight hours to chase her down when she’d be back in a few days?”

He didn’t have an answer for that and hung up the phone. He didn’t have an answer for the brother part either. Yeah, they were brothers, none of them were going anywhere, but they were fine. That’s how they did things. It was how he always did things and it was fine.

Wasn’t it?

He flipped open his phone and hesitated over the numbers and then dialed Jacob’s number. It didn’t take but a couple rings and he answered.

“How’s Florida?”

“Enlightening, I think.”

“Enlightening? That would be a new one on the brochure.”

Trent rubbed the back of his neck. And also hot, but he wasn’t sure if that was the sun or just his own body heat growing warmer and flushing. “If we weren’t brothers, would we be friends?”

“What?”

“If we weren’t brothers, would you still put up with me and would we still be friends?”

“I…Trent.” There was a heavy sigh and a moment’s pause.

Holy shit. His head spun and he lowered on the nearest pool chair. “I think your silence answers the question. Am I that bad?”

“You’re just…strong. In your opinions, in your thoughts. In the things you want, in the things you don’t want to listen to. I mean, I’ve been trying to figure out this thing with Flora and you would barely give me two seconds. It’s not that you’re selfish. You’re not. But if it’s not something you want, you can be hard pressed to get involved…or to even be pleasant around.”

He swallowed, his tongue thick. Throat tight. “Wow, I’m surprised we talk at all.”

“You’re a pain in the ass most of the time, but you’re still my big brother.”

“Thanks.” He started to disconnect, but held the phone tight. “And hey, I’m sorry. About the other day.”

He cut the phone off and sat forward in his chair. He stared toward the beach line and started to walk down there, but didn’t. Instead he returned to his room and hid under the shade of his balcony that was way up on the fourteenth floor. So high up that no one could see him and realize what an asshole he was.

Chapter Nineteen

Tonya jerked the key card out of the door and walked in with her beach bag, dropping it on the floor as soon as she got in. The heavy hotel door snapped closed with a banging thud and she headed for the shower.

She didn’t know what was worse. Remembering Trent that night he walked out on her or remembering that he was here. Somewhere in this hotel and he still hadn’t apologized. Instead he’d taken her to her word and she hadn’t seen him at all. Not in passing. Not walking down the beach. Not at breakfast. Not at all.

She scrubbed sand and salty air out of her air, washed off layers of sunblock and tanning oil and stepped out of the shower. It would be time to go tomorrow morning. She just couldn’t believe he hadn’t come around at all by now.

Surely he knew when she left. She couldn’t remember if she told him or not. Either way, when she left didn’t matter too much because he’d been here days and hadn’t apologized about that night. Hadn’t been around to even discuss again why a relationship had some boundaries or how he didn’t respect her at all.

Ugh. She walked through the room of the hotel and jerked open the curtains of the windows to let the light in. Wasn’t even around her and he was still managing to ruin her vacation. Just with her thoughts.

She turned back to dress, but saw the light blinking on her hotel phone saying she had a message. Instead of clicking it, she checked her phone, heart in her throat. Oh my God, something happened to the diner and she missed a call. She unsnapped the side pocket, pulled her phone out and saw it was fine.

So this was probably a wrong number. She smashed the blinking button and flopped back on the bed.

Hey Tonya, it’s me. Um, I wondered if you wanted to have dinner tonight? In my room because I want to talk. About me. That’s all. I’m 1432. Please. Any time after seven.

Her heart broke just a little bit at hearing that. Hearing the hesitation in his voice. The softness of his tone. That was not her normal Trent.

She pushed off the bed, went to her suitcase and flipped through what few items she had and pulled out a dirty sundress she’d worn to lunch a couple days ago. She smelled it and something rolled around in her stomach. Right. When she’d gone to lunch and had crab legs and apparently got splattered while eating them. Ick.

She pulled out her shopping bags, dumped them on the bed and sorted through cotton shorts, tourist tees and sunglasses. She winced and checked the clock. Four hours until seven. Plenty of time.

She threw on some clothes, grabbed her purse and ran out the hotel, across the street and into a tourist shop that had rack after rack of sundresses. She thumbed through. Hating the pattern. Or hating the cut. She turned and something purple caught her eyes. It wasn’t exactly decent for a restaurant. It
V’d
low between her breasts, tying behind her neck. The back was completely open with only a thin strip across the center. The skirt was longer, to her knees. Better than any other options though. And this was Florida. Vacation. She’d certainly seen worse on people. She hurried to the checkout, put the dress on the counter and dug through her wallet, finding a wadded up napkin stuffed in a corner.

She pulled it out and rubbed over the ribbed napkin. This was her past. A good part of her past that she wanted in her future too. She just had to make a step in that direction. A leap of faith.

The cashier called out her total and she met his gaze. “Is there a good tattoo parlor anywhere nearby? Walking distance?”

It took two hours total by the time she left her hotel room looking for clothes to being back with a bandage over her sore wrist. She bit at her lip and sat on the edge of her bed, lightly caressing the bandage and checking the clock. The artist said two hours top for the bandage and then pull it off so it could breathe. That meant she had just enough time until meeting him. And until then?

She got up and got busy. She didn’t know how tonight would go. If it went good…a smile pulled at her lips, then she wouldn’t have time in the morning to pack up.

If it went bad? She shook her head and didn’t want to think about that. She turned on the radio and packed. Left out a change of clothes and her toothbrush. Packed to the point of zipping up her suitcase and standing it on end.

She combed out her hair, put on a little makeup, slid the dress on, and paced the room as she pulled off the bandage. The black tattoo was a perfect match to the artsy floral design Trent had sketched so long ago. Better because it was smooth. The edges crisp. After living in her wallet for a year, the napkin about had it. She glanced to the clock and saw it was seven.

Surprisingly, her nerves were calm. Then she ran out her room with her keycard in her hand. And calm was no longer an option. The elevator beeped agonizing slow. Moved up the eight floors in no hurry.

She shouldn’t be this excited. He’d surprised her more than once now by saying really stupid things. This could be another one of those things.

Except the sound of his voice played over and over in her mind. She bit her lip as the elevator took her up the last four floors and stopped, but she wasn’t sure her belly did. She read the signs and turned down the hall, watching the door numbers and stopped before his.

She stood in front of his door, looked at the tattoo and knocked. Now or never.

The door clicked and widened and there he was. In jeans. Nothing else. Other than the surprised look of raised eyebrows and parted lips. “You came.”

She only nodded and stepped in his room as he moved back. He’d gotten a suite. It was at least twice as large as her room with a bigger table area, bigger TV, bigger balcony. Bigger everything.

“Thirsty?”

Her hands were damp and she pushed them down against her sides. Sweaty palms, really? She nodded. “Water would be great.”

He leaned in the mini-refrigerator and pulled out a bottle, twisting it open and then passing it over. “Did you leave the beach early?”

“Just a little. I was getting hot. I leave tomorrow, so I wanted to pack up this afternoon and have tomorrow outside before I left.” Rambling. Awesome.

“I leave tomorrow too.” He shrugged. “Uh, Carla had told me how long you were staying. So I checked in for the same.”

She turned around in the room and sat on one of the chairs before her knees buckled and turned to jam and she busted her ass. “Cool.”

He handed her the room service menu. “Do you know what you want?”

Could she even stomach food right now? “I’m not that hungry. Still a little early.”

“Okay.” He sat down on the bedside and faced her. But he didn’t talk beyond that. Just bent over, rested his elbows on his knees and tapped his hands together. “Telling you I was going to walk out was wrong. I’m sorry for that.”

Her mouth dropped, but she didn’t have words to come out, so she just sat there, with her mouth open.

“I should have respected your privacy, even though I didn’t like it.” He sat back and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m never going to like secrets and not knowing things, but sometimes they’re necessary. It wouldn’t have been right for me to have known before Lane, you’re right. And I was wrong to have even pressed you for more considering the time and that you had to be at work soon. I could have told you that for half the night I paced your living room worried sick about you and what had happened. But when you got there, I should have realized you were with your two best friends and my worrying over where you were could have waited until the next day.”