52. Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-One
Kian
Riley looks up with a frown on his miserable face as I get to where he’s laying down on the beach. He pushes up on one elbow and lifts his other arm to take a drink of his beer. Then he pushes his sunglasses down to look me in the eye.
“What do you think you’re doing over here? I moved to get away from your moany face.”
“Very funny,” I mutter as I sit down in front of the closed cooler, cutting him off from his supply.
“It’s not a joke. If you’re not going back to the complaint corner, you can move to my other side. You’re blocking my sun.” He waves his hand at me.
Seriously? I sigh as I get back to my feet.
I move around to his other side. “Better?”
“Hmph,” he mutters. “No moaning if you’re staying over here.”
I lean forward, but I can’t see Trick or Sapphire from where I’m sitting.
That relaxes me a bit. I don’t want to see them getting along like a house on fire while I spent all of five seconds alone with her and somehow managed to make her cry.
“I don’t get it.”
Riley groans. “Go back to the complaint corner. I’m not in the mood to hear it.”
“Why does she hate me?”
I didn’t say anything weird, or act like a jerk.
Yet the second we were alone together, she cried.
Riley sits up, belches loudly, punches his chest and sighs.
“She doesn’t hate you.”
“Really?” I ask, not convinced.
“I heard everything when you were moaning to Trick about it,” he admits, as he lifts up his sunglasses and rubs briefly at one eye before putting them back down.
“She probably got upset because our shit-for-brains lead Alpha got us stranded here, or else she realized that baby shark could have easily mistaken her ankle for its breakfast, or it’s a fucking Tuesday, or whatever. ”
“It’s Saturday, actually,” I correct him.
“You know what I mean. Women are emotional. They cry when an animal is too cute.”
“That’s a bit misogynistic, but I’ll take it since you’re on my side, I guess.”
“Take it or leave it. See how little I care.”
He lays back down, and I push my sneakers into the sand.
“You could have picked a hotter woman to fight over, but it’s none of my business.”
“Don’t talk about her like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like she’s … Never mind.”
He doesn’t get it yet. She’s nothing more than a reporter to him.
It probably doesn’t help that he’s been avoiding her completely.
He was asleep while we were flying out here and he’s been concentrating on drinking his weight in beer ever since we brought the coolers out.
“You take everything too seriously,” he tells me, pointing his almost empty bottle at me.
“Maybe.” I shrug.
It’s probably true, but giving Riley an enthusiastic yes isn’t my style.
He has way too many problematic views to ever deserve an ego-inflation.
“It’s surprising that Trick likes her, too, I admit. I never thought I’d see the day he was into a woman, but there you go. He must have a really specific type. I’ll be honest, Ki. I think you should let him have this one.”
I forgot how annoying Riley is when he’s properly drunk.
Biting my tongue is hard, but I can’t tell him.
He’ll never let himself go near her if he knows.
“Get lost,” I protest. “Just because Trick isn’t usually into anyone doesn’t mean she should pick him, and not me.”
“Well, you did also make her cry,” he reminds me.
Even hearing that is like taking a dagger through the heart.
I don’t understand what I did wrong.
I couldn’t even handle being around her after she came back.
I want to know what upset her, but I don’t want to make her cry again.
“Shut up,” I mutter, leaning over to steal one of Riley’s beers from the cooler.
“Hey! You don’t even like those!” He slaps at my arms but misses.
“Not true,” I tell him. “I just prefer the fruity ones. Usually.”
I crack it and drink. It makes me feel a little better, but only because I’m making Riley mad.
“Some vacation this is,” Riley complains. “Trick stole my towel and my T-shirt, and now you’re stealing my beer. What’s next? If I pass out, am I gonna wake up without my kidneys?”
“Take it to the complaint corner. This isn’t the place.”
I point over to the bit of beach I came from.
The trees they were sitting against are curved inward so we can’t even see them.
I would have to go closer to even catch a glimpse of her.
She’d see me do that, so I don’t, but I want to.
Maybe after the beer.
A little liquid courage couldn’t hurt.