Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
“Do you not know how to answer a cell phone?” her mother demanded the second she stepped inside the front door of the rental lodge. Her face flamed a hundred shades of red when her aunts turned to look at her with knowing eyes.
“I’m sorry, I was safe,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes to the floor. “I was… with Kasey.”
“Roxy let me know,” Serenity said gently, though her blue eyes were still narrowed. “Still, you could have let me know yourself so I wasn’t worried last night when you couldn’t be found after the reception ended. For all I knew you’d been kidnapped or murdered.”
Summer laughed out loud, shaking her head. “You’re being intentionally overdramatic.” Turning to Shaun, Summer murmured in a hushed tone, “She watched you hightail it out the door after Kasey, and when neither of you returned, we put two and two together. We knew where you were.”
Shaun grimaced, letting out a sigh. “Awesome.” Raising her eyes to her mother’s, she said with more bravado than she felt, “I actually just came to get my bag.”
“What? Why? Are you trying to go home early? Did he hurt you?” her mother asked, looking her up and down once, as if checking for injury.
“No! Ugh, no, Mom. I’m fine,” Shaun muttered on a whisper, her face flaming again. Oh my god this is worse than I thought. “I’m—I’m going to—”
“She’s going to go with Kasey is what she’s trying to say,” Sadie laughed as she walked up, leaning over the marble island in the kitchen, winking. “They’re not finished yet. Nice walk of shame outfit, by the way.”
“Ohmygod,” Shaun groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Can we not?!”
The three older women laughed, and Summer squeezed Shaun’s shoulder gently. “There is nothing wrong with having a healthy and active… life.”
“I’m going to die,” Shaun breathed from behind her hands, shaking her head. “Okay! You all get it—”
“Well, yes, we do, but we’re talking about you getting it right now—” Sadie chortled, making Shaun groan in agony at the embarrassment that had taken up residence in her body.
“Ahht!” she snapped, covering her ears with her hands. “I don’t want to know anything about anything!” When the women laughed again, she lowered her hands from her ears and straightened her back. “Can we be done? This is torture.”
“Are you being safe?”
“Oh, yes, good question. Do you need condoms? What size? I’m sure Micah has—”
“I mean, I guess, I’m not opposed to grandbabies right away, but—”
“Ohmygod you guys, stop!” Shaun laughed on a shout, looking from her mother to her two aunts. “You all need hobbies! I’m leaving!”
Taking the stairs two at a time, she raced for the room she’d been designated and flopped down onto the center of the bed, face down, groaning audibly into the pillow. Bunch of biddies.
Standing and moving into the bathroom, she showered quickly, washing the gallon of hairspray out of her curls from the day before and scrubbing the red lip stain off her lips finally. She shaved her legs, then climbed out, towel drying as fast as she could.
She dressed in a pair of skintight black jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt that clung to her curves.
Pulling on a cream-colored vest that was lined in fleece, she zipped it to just below her breasts, then combed through her curls, adding a liberal amount of cream to tame them before letting her hair fall around her shoulders and down her back to air dry.
She put on minimal makeup, just blush and mascara, then packed her toiletries and stuffed a couple changes of clothes into the travel backpack that doubled as a purse, including Kasey’s clothes she’d worn that morning.
Hanging her dress and placing it in the garment bag, she placed the black high heels in their box and left them on the bed for later.
She was just exiting the room when Roxy walked out of the room across the hall with her suitcase behind her and her garment bag over her arm. When she spotted Shaun, the redhead winked at her.
“Are you leaving?” Shaun asked as they made their way down the hallway.
“Yeah, I’m headed out. I don’t like the cold,” she grumbled, but smiled. “You?”
“I’m uhh—going to the main lodge,” she stammered, blushing again. What the fuck was wrong with her?
Roxy elbowed her in the side and waggled her dark red eyebrows at her, making Shaun laugh. “Get it, sis. Just do me a favor?”
“Uhh, sure?”
“Don’t break his heart, please.”
Shaun scoffed, shaking her head. “That’s not what this is. Hearts aren’t involved. This is just… getting it out of our systems.”
“Okay.”
“Why does it sound like you’re skeptical?” Shaun asked, eyeing the redhead warily.
Roxy shrugged, pulling on their jackets as they made it to the front door. “I just see more there than ‘just getting it out of your system’ is all.”
“I can’t stand Kasey,” Shaun muttered, pulling on her boots. “And he can’t stand me. The only time we’re not arguing is when we’re—well, you know. Nothing else has changed.”
“Mmhmm,” Roxy hummed in agreement, but again, Shaun sensed a note of skepticism in the other woman’s tone.
“This is just a nice vacation with the added bonus of really great sex with no strings attached,” Shaun continued, zipping her coat. “Scratching an itch. That’s all.”
Roxy nodded, then winked. “Okay.”
“I’m serious!” Shaun exclaimed, her heart starting to race with anxiety as they made their way outside, where a taxi was waiting for Roxy to take her to the airport, just as another shuttle arrived for Shaun to take her back to the main lodge.
“Whatever you say,” Roxy drawled in that heavy Texas twang. Closing the door after loading her suitcase and garment bag into the backseat, she walked around the back of the car and opened the rear driver’s side door. “Have fun scratchin’ that itch, doll.”
Roxy climbed into the backseat and closed the door and the taxi rolled away. The shuttle door opened, and still she stood in the middle of the snowy driveway as panic began to claw at her chest.
This wasn’t scratching an itch. This wasn’t no-strings-attached, vacation sex.
Waving the shuttle off, she watched the door slide shut, and then heard the hiss of the brakes being released as it rolled away.
Clutching at the neckline of her shirt, she sucked in lungful after lungful of air, then let her head fall back until she stared up into the bluest of skies above.
It was a stunning beginning to the new year.
The temperature was still bitingly cold, but the sun was shining, the sky was impossibly blue, and the clouds in the sky were big and fluffy and brilliantly white.
Darting back inside, she hurried up the stairs and into the room she’d just left minutes before.
Slamming her suitcase on the bed, she threw her things inside, not even taking the time to fold or caring that everything would be wrinkled before she got home.
Pulling out her phone, she pulled up the number for a taxi company.
Moments later she hung up. She had ten minutes.
She stuffed the garment bag with her dress inside and barely got the zipper closed around it and the high heels she shoved in unceremoniously before leaving the room again, dragging her suitcase behind her.
“What on earth, where are you going? I thought you were heading to the main lodge,” her mother said with alarm when Shaun dragged her suitcase down the stairs.
“Zoey called,” she lied, swallowing hard. Her mother’s blue eyes lit up with joy and she clapped her hands. Guilt for lying to her mother assailed her, but she needed to go, and she needed to go now.
“Baby time?” Seren asked excitedly, and it was all Shaun could do to nod her head yes. “Oh, this is just so exciting! Go, go! We’ll be home in a week! Be careful and let me know when you land!”
Nodding, she hugged her mom hard, squeezing tight for an extended moment. “I’ll see you guys when you get home. Have fun.”
A horn honked outside, and she pulled away from her mother and headed toward the door.
She spotted her father out of the corner of her eye and turned to wave, blowing him a kiss as she exited.
Nearly tripping down the wide stone steps, she rushed toward the cab, hauling the suitcase into the trunk before climbing into the backseat.
Resting her head against the headrest behind her, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about the man that would be waiting for her, or his reaction when he realized she wasn’t returning.