7. Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Aiden
Usually I can hold my liquor, but Lauren and I had tossed barbs and shots at lightning speed. When I finally made my way to the main room after a failed attempt to sober up with a cold shower, I had to focus to walk in a semi-straight line.
“How much did you two drink?” Cal asked with a laugh when he saw me.
Lauren sat at the kitchen table wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses and a frown. “Too much,” she said. She’d thrown on a pale blue coverup over her still-wet bikini, making the fabric cling to her every curve.
Rowan worried her bottom lip with her teeth, her gaze ping ponging from me to Lauren. “You sure y’all are up to snorkel?”
“Yes,” we said at the same time.
As if to prove her point, Lauren pushed back from the table and shuffled to the door. I followed, hoping to grab a moment to talk before everyone else joined us, but the couples were right behind me, loaded down with snorkel gear, beach towels, and a cooler. Clearly, everyone had been waiting on my ass.
Lauren climbed into the front passenger seat—the one place in the entire vehicle I had zero chance of sitting beside her since we both knew I wouldn’t be getting behind the wheel in my current state.
I was relieved when Poppy and Rowan crawled into the third row together, since a booze-filled gut and winding mountain roads did not make a winning combination. Theo climbed into the driver’s seat, and I sat behind him while Cal finished loading up the trunk. The good doc tossed me a bottle of water when he buckled into the seat beside me, and I dutifully drank.
Lauren stared straight ahead through the windshield the entire drive to the beach. Maybe she needed water too. I should have offered her some of mine before I chugged it down, but knowing Cal, he’d already pushed her to hydrate before I dragged myself from the shower.
“Good job not hurling in the car, Stud Man,” Poppy said as we headed toward the sand with all our gear.
“Please don’t talk about hurling,” I said as my stomach twisted.
She laughed. “Serves you right for starting the party without us.”
“Trust me,” Lauren said. “It wasn’t a party worth attending.”
I let the couples get a few feet ahead of us before I leaned toward her and said, “Based on the sounds you made when I was buried inside you, I’d say you found it worthwhile.”
She stopped abruptly, yanked off her sunglasses, and glared at me. “What are you talking about? Nothing happened.”
She sounded so convincing I started to question if she remembered. Shit, how drunk was she? We both passed out after, but I thought she was sober enough to know what was happening. Parts of what we’d done in her room were fuzzy, but I had a crystal-clear memory of asking for her consent and the kiss she laid on me.
“Lauren,” I started. “I’m sorry, we—”
“Won’t ever bring this up again,” she said. “Because nothing happened.” She must have caught a glimpse of the worry on my face because she cleared her throat and added, “That we need to talk about. Ever.”
With that she shoved her sunglasses on her face and double timed it to where Theo and Cal were setting up chairs in the sand. She chatted with Poppy and Rowan about their hike, ignoring any attempt I made to get her attention. Her obvious desire to forget I existed zapped most of my lingering buzz. By the time we’d sorted our snorkel gear, my hangover loomed, but I entered the crystal-clear water with the group. Thankfully, I’d been snorkeling in the Bahamas with my family since Logan died, so while familiar, being back in Trunk Bay with a tube in my mouth and flippers on my feet didn’t punch me with grief.
I let the others swim ahead toward the underwater snorkel trail. Watching them point out things to each other brought a smile to my face. A fish swam right up to Poppy, and she let out a yelp I could hear underwater before remembering she was badass. She kept completely still, and we all watched the fish swim circles around her until it dove deeper than we could go without flooding our breathing tubes. As if we’d planned it, we all surfaced after reading the trail’s first underwater marker.
“Oh, my word,” Rowan squealed as she treaded water. “It’s like swimming in an aquarium.”
“Incredible, wasn’t it,” I said staring at Lauren. Because damn, it was. Holding her in my arms, tasting her, brought back every moment of the night we shared before. Only this time was better, the passion between us having boiled beneath the surface like a volcano waiting to erupt. Sex that intense required both people to be into it. I’d heard her loud and clear when she said she didn’t want a relationship, but to pretend nothing had happened was bullshit. It also stung more than I cared to admit.
Poppy, Theo, and Cal talked over each other to agree with me, even though I wasn’t talking about the fish. Without a word, Lauren pulled her mask over her eyes, lowered her face into the water, and swam away.