Chapter Twenty-Seven
chapter twenty-seven
MAY
I laugh as I skip down the empty streets of Ruby Cove hand in hand with my best friend. My fingers grazing the gigantic rock that is now sitting on her ring finger every now and then.
I can’t help but feel so utterly happy for Isla, some might say it’s quick for her and Caio to get engaged after only eight months of knowing each other. Hell, if it was any other guy I’d be performing some kind of intervention, but anyone with eyes can see that those two are meant to be together.
Marina gasps from where she’s walking ahead of us, turning around to face us with a glorious look on her face. “I know what we should do.”
Her eyes look so bright in the dark night, the dim light from the few streetlamps lighting our way as we walk along Main. The sound of the waves crashing against the rock wall beside us makes me want to dive straight into the water and swim until my lungs run out of air. Let the cool water absorb all the heat from my body.
The air is cold out tonight, the boys all have their jackets on, but mine is …somewhere ? Not on me. My alcohol blanket is wrapped around my shoulders instead, warming me from the inside out .
“Go home to bed?” Caio asks, dragging Isla back into his chest.
“No!” Marina yells, even though he’s not that far from her. She looks around, checking that the coast is clear, before scurrying over to us. “We should go to the ice-skating rink!” she whisper-shouts. Those tequila shots from earlier adding to the drama of her suggestion.
An ice-skating rink has been set up in the park since the start of December, but I haven't had a chance to go check it out yet.
“It’ll be closed,” Heath says, coming to stand beside me. As soon as he’s there my body involuntarily leans in his direction. He puts his hands out to steady me. “How many drinks did you have?” he chuckles.
I just shrug.
“Put this on.” he drapes my jacket over my shoulders. Oh, there it is.
“We’ll sneak in!” Marina whisper shouts again, this time in Heath’s direction.
Isla makes a noise of uncertainty. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
Marina skips up to her, stealing her from Caio’s grasp. “You just got engaged! We need to celebrate!”
“Isn’t that what we were just doing?”
“The night is young Mrs. Marchetti. Live a little before we literally never see you again!” Marina pleads.
Isla grabs her hands, swinging them between them. “Why would you never see me again?”
Marina swings one of Isla’s hands above her head, prompting her to spin around in the middle of the street. “Cause you’ll be holed up in Hotel Dolce fucking my cousin for a living!”
Isla spins around, pointing at Caio with a mischievous grin.
Heath just chuckles beside me, looking down at his feet. But his smile falters when he thinks no one is watching. Sometimes I wonder about him, all alone out there in that big house. I wonder if it ever gets too quiet for him, if he ever gets lonely .
“I’m in,” Leo announces, appearing from somewhere behind me. “Why the fuck not?”
Heath and I share a look. “Why the fuck not?” he asks.
I nod. “But you’re going to have to teach me.”
Isla giggles as Caio picks her up, lifting her over the mechanical entry gates. They're the ones that only allow one person through at a time, but our group of seven is currently jumping over the top of them.
I groan as I squish underneath the metal barrier, puffing when I jump up on the other side.
“How is that even possible?” Heath asks.
“I’m small. What can I say? I can get into funky positions.”
Heath just shakes his head while a cough explodes from behind us. I turn to see Rafael standing there, one hand on the gate like he needed something to hold him up, with the other held to his chest and he’s looking directly at me.
I snort out a laugh, my lack of sobriety not helping my lack of a filter.
He waves his hand in front of us as if to say, keep moving. So we do. I round the corner to see the shine of the ice in front of me. All of a sudden, I've been dragged into a winter wonderland and all it took was a few steps from our coastal paradise. A massive Christmas tree stands in the middle of the rink, decorated in shades of blue and gold. It’s beautiful. It makes a small part of me miss all the big drama of Christmas back in the states, the big Christmas trees and the jingles playing from the radios in bookstores. But as I hear the sound of my friends laughing from across the space, that small part of me goes quiet.
Leo stands behind the counter handing out skates. “What size for our king and queen?” he asks Isla and Caio. Isla giggles senselessly into Caio’s shoulder as he grabs the skates and steers her towards a bench where they can put them on. “I don’t even think you were this drunk on your birthday,” he mutters as they go.
Marina grabs hers next before I’m up to the plate. “What size for you, Whitley?”
“She’s a seven.” Rafael’s gruff voice comes from behind me.
Leo’s eyes flick between us, waiting for me to confirm, which I do with a nod before I send a look over my shoulder.
“I could have said that myself, you know.”
“Of course you could have.”
I just shake my head, drawing my gaze away from him and back on where Leo dumps a pair of skates for me on the bench. This dynamic between us is weird, uncomfortable. So I just grab the skates and walk towards the bench, ready to put my shoes on and hopefully not fall on my face.
“You’re fine,” Heath says with a laugh from where he stands on the ice while I’m standing at the edge, my feet safely on the soft, spongy ground that encircles it.
“I am so not fine!” I squeal as I lose my balance, my body suddenly tumbling sideways.
Hands grasp my waist, setting me upright. “Careful, March. Can’t have you hurting yourself before you even get on the ice.”
Rafael’s voice skates down my spine, leaving my body shivering, and not because we are currently standing in an ice rink.
I’ve been trying my best to avoid Rafael all night, just like I have been for the last few weeks. I refuse to talk about that phone call, about the night at the cabin, and I know that's exactly what he’s going to want to talk to me about. I catch him looking at me constantly, his dark eyes leaving me feeling like I’ve always got a shadow following me .
And this right now is the first time in weeks that shadow has been so close to me that his smell invades my senses, intoxicating me even more than I already am.
The part of my brain that is drowning in a concoction of spirits wants to lean back into his touch, but the knowledge that Heath is standing a few feet away from us makes me take a wobbly step forward instead. Leaving Rafael behind me.
I ease the blade of my skate onto the ice, feeling it slip away from me as soon as I try to move even an inch. I squeal in worry and Heath skates toward me with a chuckle, his breath puffing out clouds into the cold air with every exhale.
“Alright, come on, clumsy klutz. I’ve got you.” He reaches out his hands and I grip onto them like they’re my lifeline. Because they are.
As Heath skates backwards—how he is doing that I have no idea —he drags me forwards with him, and I take a moment to look around us.
The rink is closed, meaning the main lights are out, but twinkle lights are hung in rows above us, bringing a warm glow to the space. Leaving us in the only spot of light for miles. Little bugs swarm underneath the lights. If I was sober, I would probably be searching through the offices for a fly swatter, but right now, I just pretend that they’re little snowflakes floating around the air. It feels magical, like everything in Ruby Cove.
Isla’s laugh catches my attention, and my eyes dart to where she and Caio are skating, arms wrapped around each other as they circle the enormous Christmas tree that stands in the middle of the ice rink. Marina’s tired giggle has me looking back towards where she is sitting with Leo, trying to tie up her skates. “They’re too big.”
“No, they’re not,” he says. “I just need to tighten the laces; would you stop wriggling for one second?”
I snort as I watch the two of them struggle. Marina was right—this feels like the perfect way to end the night.
The rink is set up in the middle of the park, but right now, it feels like I'm in the middle of a Hallmark movie. Everything in Ruby Cove is enchanting, even if it's temporary.
“You good? Can I take my hands away?” Heath’s voice brings me back to the moment.
“Uh, no way.” I tighten my grip on his hands. “You're here for the night, bucko.”
He shakes his head, rolling his eyes. “Then tell me this—what’s up with you and Raf?”
My eyes shoot to where my feet are skidding along the ice. “I don’t know what you mean.”
I can feel his knowing look through the top of my head. “Oh really? So you have no idea why he’s sitting over there looking like he’s having the worst night of his life when his best friend just got engaged?”
I can’t help it. I look over my shoulder to see Rafael just as Heath described. He looks miserable, and he’s looking straight at me, those dark eyes searching mine.
I whip my head back in Heath's direction but all I get from him is raised eyebrows.
“We had a moment.” I say, not knowing how much I want to say. I haven't told anyone about the cabin, or the next night.
His brows raise even further. “Okay, multiple moments. I don’t know, living with him was…intense.”
“Intense, huh?” I just tip my head, not quite knowing how to elaborate on that. “Just be careful,” he says, squeezing my hand. “And don’t mess him around.”
Now it’s my turn to raise my eyebrows.
“Just because I care about you doesn’t mean I don't care about him too. He’s lost a lot of people.”
I just nod silently, looking back down at my feet, because that’s the exact reason I'm staying away. I’m not the kind of girl that can give someone everything they want, and as I've gotten to know him, I’ve realized Rafael isn't someone that I want to hurt with false hope.
“What about you?” I say, looking up to meet his gaze again. “ You’ve never told me if there’s a special lady in your life.” I wiggle my shoulders.
“That’s because there’s not.”
“Do you want there to be? I can’t imagine there's no interest there. You tick a lot of boxes, you know? Hot, Australian hunk with the biggest heart known to man.”
He just shakes his head. “There’s no one I’ve ever met that is anything like what I want.”
“Well, what do you want?”
Heath looks into my eyes, and for a second I think he might actually tell me, but then he says, “Incoming.”
A second later, I'm enveloped in a big shadow once again.
“Can I cut in?” Rafael’s hard voice asks from beside me. I don’t look. I’m too scared of what I'll see in his eyes.
“Sure,” Heath says before he drops my hands, but Rafael quickly grabs them so I don’t lose my balance.
“Thanks,” I mutter before I watch Heath skate off in the direction of Marina and Leo.
We skate in silence for a moment, neither of us knowing what to say. It seems that’s become our pattern, our dynamic. With things constantly changing between us, neither of us knows how to approach each other until we go back to our safe spot of bickering. But there's always this weirdness between us first.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he grits out.
“Have I ever told you how smart you are?” I say, trying with all my might to get back to some kind of normal.
“Stop playing games, Whitley.”
His voice is so gruff, it forces my head up to look him in his dark eyes. “I’m not.”
“I can tell when you're lying, remember?” he says.
“No, you can’t.”
“Try me.”
Those words are dangerous to my ears, giving me the opportunity to say so many things and see whether he thinks they're true or not. Like how much I hate being back at my cottage purely because he’s not there with me.
But instead I go with, “I hate cats.”
“Lie. You like any animal that so much as looks at you, even if it was a fish.”
My nostrils flare at how easily he can see me. See beneath the shield I try to hold up against him.
“I hate the smell of your cologne.”
“Lie.” This time the corner of his mouth tips up with the word.
“I regret the other night.” The air grows cold between us.
Both of us must hold our breath, because there are no clouds of air between us now. Me, because I'm waiting to hear what he says, and him…I guess he’s deciding if I really mean that, or if I'm lying through my teeth.
“Lie,” is all he says.
“I wish I could regret it.”
“Truth.”
A breath rushes out of me at the relief I feel flooding my veins. He doesn't know much, but at least he knows that.
“Hey!” A bright light shines straight into my eyes. “What are you kids doing in here?!”
“Shit!” I say, as Rafael mutters. “Kids?”
He tugs on my hand, dragging me to the edge of the rink. I hear Marina squeal as we all scurry off the ice like teenagers caught in trouble.
As soon as my skates hit the padded ground, I’m half hobbling, half running over to the bench to yank my skates off and stuff my feet back into my sneakers.
“Since when is there security around here?” Leo asks no one in particular.
“Since now,” Caio says, his voice unserious as he ties up the laces on Isla’s sneakers. “Come on, we can go out the back.”
I take a step to follow them, but instinctively look back to see Rafael behind me, in no visible hurry to get out of here. He looks more intent on searching my eyes for something, for the truth. All I give him is a subtle nod before Heath's broad hand finds my lower back. “You coming?”
I drag my gaze away from Rafael to look at him. “Yeah, let’s go.”