Veer (Clayton Falls) (7 page)

“Maybe. I’m sure you can find a way to really thank him,” Kelly said suggestively.

“Stop it
,
Kelly. You will not subject my innocent friend to your dirty, dirty mind.”
From
the look on Kelly’s face, I
was
pretty sure Molly kicked her under the table.

Kelly recovered
, and h
er smile returned.
“Innocent friend? Are you really that innocent, Becca?”

I shrugged.
“It depends how you define innocent.”

“
Wait, are you a twenty-four year old virgin?
”
Kelly’s mouth practically fell open.

“Does it really matter?”

“Stop it, Kel,” Molly warned.

“It’s okay.” I reassured her. “I just haven’t met the right guy.” That was my story
,
and I was sticking to it.

“Okay, cool.
I get that.
Well, you might want to be careful with Ronny then. He’s
,
uh
,
certainly not innocent.”

I smiled lightly. “I
assumed
that much. I doubt I’ll be seeing him again after this one coffee date. I just figured it couldn’t hurt.”

“You know wh
o is kind of innocent though?”
Kelly
asked.

I was afraid to
hear the answer
.
“Who?”

“Gavin. I mean
,
he’s obviously
not a virgin, but he’s not a player either
. He’s not into the casual thing.”

That information
surprised me a little
.
Clearly being a jerk didn’t mean you slept with every girl
who
walked, but in my experience
,
they often went hand in hand.
“Oh, that’s cool of him, I guess.”

“That’s why I know he really needs a girlfriend. Tom’s worried it’s bad for a guy to go that long.”

Molly rolled her eyes.
“How is it bad for him? It’s not going to hurt him.”

“Maybe not physically
,
but—”

“Okay, new subject,” Molly interrupted. “How about Jake giving you a ride home last night? It’s funny
.
Y
ou bring out this weird side of Gavin but the decent side in Jake. He told Ben you might be the first girl he’ll actually be friends with.”

I laughed. “Yeah, he’s really nice. And it’s definitely just a
friends
thing
,
which makes it really comfortable.”

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to spend time with Jake, but it’s good
,
I guess.”
Molly wiped her face with her napkin before placing it back on her lap.

“You’re the only one who fights with him, Mol. It’s kind of
like
Becca
with
Gavin
. Y
ou just bring out that side in him
.
”
Kelly
finished off the last of her juice.

“All right, is everyone ready for the beach?” I was itching to get outside.

“Sure.” They both agreed
,
and once we
settled
the check
,
we headed down to the beach.

Molly was right
.
I needed
the sun. After a semester when
the only time I spent outside was travel
ing to and from school, the beach was perfect
.
I stripped off my sundress as soon as we got there and put down my towel.

I rolled over onto my stomach, enjoying the way the sun felt beating down on me.
Wanting to avoid tan lines,
I slipped down the halter strap of my
red
bikini top. I watched as Kelly and Molly did the same thing
to their triangle tops
.

“Are any of you ladies interested in playing some volleyball?” I pushed up on my elbows and struggled to
place the vaguely familiar voice
addressing
us
.
It was Ronny.

“
You don’t want me playing, trust me
,
” Molly said immediately. I replaced my bathing suit strap before flipping over.

“What about you, Becca?” Ronny asked.
I couldn’t ignore his blatant evaluation of me. He actually licked his lips. I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to go out with him.

Molly sat up, tying her top
.
“You definitely want her to play on your team. She’s awesome.”

I smiled. I’d played volleyball in high school and
intramurals in college
. “Sure, why not
?
Kelly, will you play?”

“Yeah, I’ll keep you company.”

“You sure you don’t want to join in
,
Molly?” I stood up.

“Very funny.” Molly was in
good
shape, but she had virtually no coordination. “But I’ll come watch in a bit.”

Kelly and I jogged over a little ways to where a bunch of guys were setting up a net. I recognized a few faces from Gill’s the
night before
.

“Hey, you must be Becca.”
A guy
with dark
brown hair approached me with an outstretched hand and a grin.

“Yeah…” I accepted the hand
and
waited
for his name.

“Oh, I’m Matt. Matt
Morgan
.
”

I froze. This was one of the guys I was working for. I had just met my new boss wearing a bikini on the beach.

I made myself snap out of the mortification and smiled. “It’s great to meet you. Thanks for the job
,
by the way
.
”

For some reason
,
ev
eryone thought that
was funny.

“So
,
are we going to play or what?” I
put
a hand on my hip.

“Yes, ma
’a
m.” Ronny tossed me the ball. “You’re up.”

I served the ball
with an easy ace
, enjoying the look of surprise
from
the guys when they realized I could actually play.

Chapter Seven

Gavin

I gave up on sleeping around noon. I was never very good at switching back and forth between day and night shifts. I sat up and looked out at the water. As disappointing as other areas of my life were, I lov
ed my oceanfront loft. I moved my gaze over the beach and noticed a group playing volleyball. It didn’t take much guessing to figure out who the girl in the red bikini was. It seemed I was never going to escape her.

I debated whether to head out, finally rationalizing
that I could use a swim before going
in to work. Of course
,
the water was only in the sixties so early in the season.

A few
minutes later,
after taking my boxer Max out to do his business,
I jogg
ed
down the beach
. We’d already run five miles that morning.

I held back for a moment, just watching the game.
Becca had some serve. I’d been able to tell she was athletic, but it was nice to watch her in action. It was nice to watch her period. That little red bikini left little to the imagination, and
while half of me wanted
her, the other half wanted to cover her up so the rest of those guys would stop drooling. At first
,
I
’d
thought they all liked her because she was new, but it was definitely more than that. Tom wasn’t too far off about the super model
’
s body. I sure couldn’t find any flaws.

“Hey, man, you want in?” Matt called.

B
ecca looked up at me. I smiled
at her, having decided during my nonexistent nap that I was going to play nice. She looked away
quickly
. I
t looked like she was done smiling at me.

“I’m g
oing to quit and get some water,
”
s
he said to no one in particular.

“Okay, cool. See you at work tomorrow.” Matt grinned like a
love sick puppy
. It was
pathetic
. His wife would have slapped him for it.

I couldn’t just let her leave. “What
,
you too chicken to play against me?”

That did the trick. “Are you joking?”

She was so predictable. She was as bad as
me
when it came to arguing.
S
he was going to make one hell of a lawyer. “Let’s see what you’ve got when you actually play someone with talent.”

“Nice
,
man, real nice,” Matt said, but I ignored him. I ignored everyone but
Becca
.

I grabbed the ball from Ronny. “My serve.”

It could have just been the two of us as far as I was concerned. I think the guys were rather entertained by the display. The girl could play—that was for sure. I wasn’t exactly a big fan of volleyball, but there weren’t many sports I didn’t play for fun.

She nearly hit me wi
th one of her serves, but
I spiked
it back
twice
as hard. She missed it,
and the ball hit the sand before roll
ing
down the beach
.

“Nice meeting everyone.” She was seriously going to quit just like that? She hadn’t struck me as a sore loser.

“Had enough?”

She ignored me. “
Are you ready
,
Kelly?”

“Yup.” I didn’t miss the
glare
Kelly shot me. Great, Kelly was pissed
,
which meant I’d be hearing it from Tom at work.

I tried not to stare
too long
at
Becca’s
retreating figure as she jogged down the beach with her friends.

Ronny gave me a funny look.
“Taking this a little seriously
,
aren’t you?”

“Not really.” I brushed it off
. S
he just really brought out my competitive side.

“How is a girl like that
single?” Matt
took
a swig from a water bottle. Evidently, Becca and Kelly’s departure had broken up the game.

“It’s by choice,
” I said with certainty. There was no way she’d have trouble getting a man.

“She won’t be single for long,” Ronny said with a sheepish grin.

“Is that so?” Greg
pulled his t-shirt back on
.

“I’m taking her out this week.” His
self-satisfied
smile pissed me off.

“Good luck with that.” I turned and headed back home.

***

As expected
,
Tom had it in for me. That man was whipped. His wife got upset
,
and the whole world had to move out of the way to fix it.

“Don’t even say it
.
I know Kelly’s pissed at me for some reason.”
I moved past Tom to grab a file of some paper work I’d been sitting on. I brought it back to my desk.

“For some reason?
You went after her new friend. I think you scared the girl.”

“She didn’t look scared to me.”

“Seriously
,
man, what’s your deal? What was up with all that last night?”

“I don’t know.”
I focused on signing my name
on
a bunch of
forms
.

“You bitch about how depressing the choice of women is in this town, yet a
gorgeous
girl comes in with eyes for you
,
and you go
all
psycho.”

“With eyes for me?”
I glanced up. Tom had spun his chair around to look at me.

“That’s how Kelly put it.”

I wondered how Kelly would feel if she knew her husband
repeated everything she said
.
“What would give her that impression?”