46. Chapter 46
This wasn’t how she pictured the trip ending.
Naked on a bathroom floor, Graham leaving her for his ex-girlfriend, his brother naked on the other side of the wall. What would Jason Sr. think if he knew?
Well, he had promised her a finale. She supposed this counted as going out with a bang.
Lindsey had woken with Jase softly snoring beside her after an endless stream of sex, his leg draped across her ankle. Graham could’ve walked in on them at any time, but he hadn’t come back, which told her everything she needed to know.
After she heard the hotel room door open and close, she ducked her head out of the bathroom to make sure Jase was gone, getting her first good look at the destruction left behind by what was unequivocally the wildest night of her life.
“Oh my gosh.”
She clutched her stomach mid-dip, clipping out a laugh, and her inner thighs throbbed at the toe-curling activities that had stripped the bed.
The first orgasm was a revelation. Months of pent up tension buried deep inside of her that Jase reached and released.
The rest of the night was more like what she’d expected from a drunken fling.
Playful, reckless, improbable positions, shameless fun.
Her second orgasm was gentler than the first. The third was a surprise after she kicked the lamp trying to climb on top of him—another graceless moment to file beside tearing his collar.
He’d helped her settle on his length and let her control the pace until her body shook and she came again.
The fourth was coaxed out by his fingers as he took her from behind at nearly four in the morning.
She surveyed the rest of the room, over her clothes on the floor, past Graham’s suitcase, to a slip of paper on the dresser.
The note from Jase on hotel stationery read: Don’t leave.
Hm. She tapped the slanted black letters and shook her head. Even though it had been a great night, she doubted Jase got romantic about his one-night stands.
Even if her stomach dipped again at the idea of repeating it.
Did he want to say goodbye properly? It didn’t seem like something that would matter to Jase either, but what did she really know about him beyond Graham’s poor opinions and that he was absolutely stellar in bed?
Lindsey left the note on the dresser and took a shower. Dressed and packing her suitcase, the hotel door opened. She smiled without looking up.
“Did you forget something?” she asked.
“Lindsey.”
All the memories still tickling her vagina absolutely vanished at the sound of Graham’s voice. She dropped the jeans she’d been folding.
He cleared his throat, sounding a few steps closer.
She slowly faced him. She had fixed the crooked lamp already, but there was no hiding the disheveled bed, if he bothered to notice.
“Can we talk?” her ex-boyfriend asked.
“No,” she said.
“Lindsey, I’m sorr—”
“I said no,” she choked out. “I don’t want to hear it.”
He was carrying the shoulder bag she’d left in the back of the station wagon.
“Give me this,” she said, tearing it away from him.
He put up his hands in surrender. His eyes were red and swollen, as if he’d been up all night.
“Do you know—” Graham started. “Did Jase tell you?”
“Yes, Graham, I know you’ve been hooking up with your ex-girlfriend.” Lindsey rifled through her shoulder bag. The only thing missing was Lovers Who Wander, which was long gone anyway. “Thanks for thinking I’d believe some stupid lie.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said, staring at her with those red eyes.
“Sure,” she scoffed.
“I mean it,” he insisted. “This isn’t why I brought you here.”
She dropped the bag and asked, “Then why did you bring me?”
“I thought—” Graham shifted on his feet and sighed. “I don’t know what I thought. There hasn’t been time to work on us with…everything else.”
“Especially when you’ve been busy thinking about someone else,” Lindsey surmised. “What didn’t I do for you?”
“Nothing,” Graham said. “It was never about what you did or didn’t do. You meant the world to me.”
“Meant. I’m already past tense? Graham, we were together yesterday. We had sex yesterday morning.”
“I know. I know.” He moved to stop her from zipping her suitcase, and she recoiled at the whiff of fresh soap on his skin. He showered this morning. At her house. “None of this is coming out right.”
“How awful for you that you can’t find the words I don’t even need to hear at this point.”
“Just listen to me. Please.”
“Why? What can you possibly say, Graham?”
“We were missing something,” he said plainly.
She scoffed again. The truth didn’t give him an excuse for skipping out on her. She glanced around for something to pack or throw at him.
“You know we were,” he insisted. “Things weren’t—”
“Great,” Lindsey filled in. “Yeah, I know.”
“It was never your fault.”
She paused. “You love her.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Linds—”
“How long, Graham?”
He shrugged helplessly.
“Always.”
She nodded; it was nothing she didn’t already know.
“You could’ve saved us so much time and trouble,” she muttered.
She swiped Jase’s note off the dresser and slung her purse and bag over her shoulders.
“What will you do?” Graham asked.
“I’m going home.”
“How?”
“There’s a bus station not far from here.”
“Can I at least give you a ride?”
She wheeled her luggage around him toward the door and said, “The hotel has a shuttle.”
“Lindsey, I don’t want you to leave like this.”
“What does that even mean? How else would I leave?”
“I just—” He wiped a hand down his face, through his beard that looked newly combed or trimmed. “Fuck, I’m just sorry.”
She closed her eyes, and through teeth clenched hard enough to crack, Lindsey asked, “When did you know you were going to see her? Yesterday morning, in bed?”
“No. God, no.”
“You must’ve been thinking about it.”
“I didn’t know what to do. And that’s the truth. Getting here, it felt like I didn’t have a choice.”
She opened her eyes on the face she had hoped to leave without seeing. “You had a choice.”
Graham shoved his hands in the pockets of the cargo shorts he wore yesterday and stared at the patterned carpet. Lindsey adjusted the purse getting heavy on her arm. “So, what, now you move out here and pick up where you left off? Get a job selling insurance in Austin and live happily ever after?”
“We haven’t figured it out yet. She’ll finish the trip, and then—”
“She’s coming with you?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Wow,” Lindsey muttered. “I really didn’t mean anything to you, did I?”
“Come on.”
“Does Jase know?”
“No. I came to see you first.”
She wondered if there would be anything left of Graham after Jase got ahold of him. It was almost too bad she wouldn’t be around to find out.
“Good luck with him,” she said.
“You’ll be okay?” Graham asked.
“No. It’s been a long, long year. I’m tired, Graham.”
“I couldn’t have gotten through it without you. You know that, right?”
He looked sincere. The jerk.
Squeezing the handle of her suitcase so she didn’t wrap her claws around his neck, Lindsey opened the door and said, “Go fuck yourself,” and walked out.