Chapter 26
Liam
“Woah, do you see this?”
I down a shot of mezcal before I answer Aidan.
“See what?” I look up from the beach bar we’re standing at. Aidan points to the tiki bar on the opposite end of the small beach we’re on.
There’s Kendall standing on the bar top, dancing to the music blasting on the outdoor sound system. My eyes go wide.
Jordan and Micah stand in front of her, drinks in hand, cheering her on.
“Kendall’s getting wild.” Aidan says as he turns back to our bar and takes a sip of his beer.
I can’t pull my gaze from her. She looks incredible.
She’s wearing these tiny cut-off shorts and a crop-top that show off her incredible ass and tits. Her long hair is loose and wild around her shoulders.
I make myself look away. I don’t get to think about her like that. Not after I hurt her feelings. Not when she wants nothing to do with me.
The bartender refills my gin and tonic, and I tell him thanks.
“She doesn’t normally let loose like this,” Aidan says. “It’s nice to see. She’s always working so hard and taking care of her aunt too.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty amazing.”
I don’t notice Aidan staring at me until a few seconds later. He smiles as he slides his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
I frown at him. “What?”
“You like Kendall, don’t you?”
I slump against the bar top and exhale. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
I expect my brother to give me more shit, but he’s quiet.
“I noticed you two haven’t interacted much since we’ve been here in Cabo,” Aidan says.
He’s right. This is our last night before heading home tomorrow, and Kendall and I haven’t exchanged more than a couple of “hellos” when we’ve all hung out as a group the entire trip. We’re all hanging out at the beach bar tonight to unwind before heading to bed.
“Yeah. Well. She’s not my biggest fan at the moment.”
“When has she ever been your biggest fan?”
“Lately we’ve been getting along. Kinda.”
Aidan studies my face. “Yeah?”
I nod. “After I apologized for dropping the ball on the engagement party, we started to get along. It was nice. We even started a book club together.”
Aidan coughs on a sip of his drink. I thump his back.
“Seriously? You’re in a book club?”
I nod.
“I didn’t think you were into reading,” he says.
“I’ve gotten into audiobooks lately,” I say. “And it’s been fun talking about books with Kendall.”
“That’s awesome, man. Does this mean we can expand what we talk about to more than just hockey and how obnoxious you are?”
I chuckle. “Yeah, I guess.”
“So what happened? Why are you two on the outs if you were getting along so well?”
“It’s a kind of a long story.”
“Well, I definitely want to hear it now.”
I exhale sharply and tell him about kissing Kendall the other night. It looks like his eyes are about to pop out of his head.
“No way…” he murmurs. “You and Kendall kissed?”
My skin heats as I nod. “But then I fucked it up.”
I tell him how we were interrupted by that paparazzi fucker and what I said to make him go away.
Aidan’s expression falls. “Dude. How could you say that?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “You know what those guys are like. They’re parasites. They’ll latch onto anyone I hang out with. I didn’t want him hounding Kendall too. So I thought if I downplayed things, he’d go away. And he did. But then I hurt Kendall’s feelings at the same time.”
“Did you explain yourself?”
“I tried, but she was so upset, she didn’t want to hear it and walked off. We haven’t spoken since.”
“Damn,” Aidan mutters. He runs a hand through his wavy light brown hair, the look in his eyes dazed. “Sorry, man. That sucks,” he says.
“Yeah. It does.” I’m quiet for a long moment. “I just don’t know how to make it right. I want to explain everything to her and apologize, but she doesn’t want anything to do with me. How do I fix this when she doesn’t even want to be around me?”
Aidan rests a hand on my shoulder. “Look, I’m not a relationship expert.”
I frown at him. “You’re engaged to be married. You’re lightyears ahead of me.”
The corner of his mouth pulls up in a small smile. “Do what she says. And then after some time maybe you can approach her and try to explain yourself. And apologize. That’s really all you can do.”
“I was hoping for a magical answer that would instantly make everything better.”
He chuckles. “If that existed, everyone would be happily married.”
Jason walks up to us and orders a drink. He pulls Aidan into a conversation about work, so I walk up the pathway to the nearby bathrooms to take a piss.
When I come back, Aidan and Jason are gone. I dig my phone out of my pocket and see a text from Aidan.
Micah and Jordan sent us to get food, be back in a sec
A chorus of male cheers echoes from across the beach bar. I look up and see a group of guys standing around Kendall as she dances on top of the other bar.
Protectiveness flares up inside of me. I make a beeline to her.
“Damn, baby! Shake that ass!” one of the guys yells.
I notice her movements have gotten a little wobbly now. She’s been drinking a lot tonight. It must finally be hitting her.
Another guy holds his phone up at her. That asshole is filming her. That protectiveness turns to rage.
When I make it over to them, I see Micah frowning at the guy.
“Hey. Don’t film my friend,” she says.
“Don’t be such a buzzkill. Look, she loves it.”
I clap a hand on the guy’s shoulder and pull him back. He loses his balance and drops his phone.
“What the fuck’s your problem, dude?” The guy barks at me. He crouches down to pick up his phone.
I move in front of him, blocking his view of Kendall. “You heard what she said. Don’t film her.”
The guy glares at me, but then steps back.
That rage inside of me sharpens. Typical piece of shit guy. He ignores Micah setting a boundary because she’s a woman and he doesn’t see her as threatening. But when I give him that same boundary, he accepts it. Because I’m a man.
The guy tells me to fuck off as he walks off with one of his friends.
Micah turns to me. “Thanks for getting rid of that guy.”
“Baby, how about a body shot?” a different guy says to Kendall.
I spin around and see him grinning up at her like a creep.
Jordan glares at him. “Get lost.”
Kendall smiles and claps her hands. “I love body shots!”
Now that I’m closer to her, I can see just how unsteady her movements are. Her eyes are cloudy and unfocused. She’s not shitfaced, but she’s drunk enough not to realize everything that’s going on around her.
The guy ignores Jordan and steps up closer to the bar.
He touches Kendall’s leg. “How ‘bout I lick some tequila off that hot little body, baby?”
I instantly see red. It’s barely a second before I close the space between the body shot creep and me.
“Fuck off,” I mutter.
He glowers at me. “Who the hell invited you, cock block. I saw her first. She’s mine.”
I don’t move. “The fuck she is.”
He moves like he’s going to hit me, but years of hockey fighting have trained me well. I block his hand with my arm, then shove him. He stumbles and falls into the sand.
“Motherfucker,” he mutters as he tries to get up. I brace myself for a fight, but one of the resort workers rushes over to us.
“No fighting!” he barks before he looks up at Kendall. “And no more dancing on the bar.”
Jordan and Micah walk up to Kendall and try to coax her down, but she’s so out of it, she just laughs.
“I’ll handle it.” I grab Kendall and throw her over my shoulder. She squeals.
“I’m gonna take her back to her room.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Micah says. “Thanks, Liam.”
“I didn’t think she drank that much,” Jordan says.
“She’s small. Alcohol hits her harder. And faster,” I say.
“Shuddup, I’m not small,” Kendall mutters.
Aidan and Jason return with a container of churros. They take in the scene: a random guy groaning in pain on the sand and Kendall hauled over my shoulder.
“Woah…” Aidan murmurs.
Jason’s eyes are wide. “Uh…what’d we miss?”
“We’ll explain,” Micah says.
I tell everyone goodnight and carry Kendall in the direction of her room.
“Put me down, Liam.”
“Nope.”
“I mean it. You can’t carry me around like a bag of oranges.”
“Bag of oranges?”
She groans. “I’m drunk. That’s the best example I could come up with.”
We pass a few resort workers, who give us curious glances.
“She’s drunk,” I say to them.
“I can still walk.”
“Trust me, firecracker. It’s easier this way. You were about to fall off that bar.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
I almost laugh at the petulance in her tone. “You were. Straight into the arms of that creep who wanted to slurp tequila off your body.”
She scoffs. “What if I wanted him to?”
Possessiveness fires through me. “That wasn’t fucking happening. Not while I was there. Not while you’re in this state.”
I make my way up a staircase to Kendall’s hotel room on the second floor of the resort.
“God, you’re a caveman. I don’t need you to protect me, Liam. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can, firecracker. But why go through the trouble when you can just sic your caveman friend on any nearby creeps?”
Kendall makes an annoyed sound. I reach the door of her hotel room and set her down. The second I do, she shoves me. But because she’s smaller than me, I barely move.
“You don’t get to do this, Liam.” She pushes her hair out of her face and pokes a finger at my chest.
I lean down closer to her. “Do what, firecracker?”
“You don’t get to swoop in like you’re some hero. Especially when I don’t mean anything to you.”
She’s glaring at me now. That drunken daze has faded. Her eyes are clear, and I can spot the pain in her gaze. It’s crystal clear, and it’s ripping me apart.
“I didn’t mean it that way, Kendall.”
Her lethal frown doesn’t budge.
My heart races with the urge to explain everything to her, to say “I’m sorry” a million times. Whatever it takes to get her to stop hurting.
I start to explain, but she rolls her eyes and turns away, grabs the key card from her pocket, and opens the door to her room.
“I told you, I don’t want to hear whatever made-up excuse you have,” she mutters as she opens the door and walks inside.
Frustration rockets through me. I step forward and hold open the door, holding her gaze as she looks at me.
“That’s fine if you don’t want to listen to me, Kendall.
It’s fine if you hate me. It’s fine if you never want to speak to me again.
But no matter how you feel about me, I’ll never just stand there and watch a bunch of scumbags try to creep on you.
I’ll always look out for you. I’ll always protect you. ”
Before she can say anything, I let go of the door and walk off, my heart hammering in my chest.