Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
"What the fuck?"
Cora heard her brother's voice, and she froze.
Her brain went haywire.
She stepped to the side to see him and that's when her towel fell to the floor.
"Oh my-" "Cora?"
Cameron clapped a hand over his eyes and turned around. "Nobody look!"
That's when she realized that it wasn't just her brother who was home. The other three members of his team who shared the house were all there.
Two heads dropped down and a third turned around to face the street.
"Cam! What are you doing home?"
"What am I- It's my house!"
She crouched down with one arm wrapped across her chest and snatched up the towel in her hand.
"I've got you covered."
It killed her to hear Vince's reassuring words.
Goodness Gracious! How was she going to get over this humiliation?
"You've got some nerve!"
She struggled to wrap the towel around herself and secure it in some way. "Cam-"
"You waited until you were alone in the house to paw at my sister?"
"Paw?" Cora's voice squeaked out of her throat. "Cam-"
"Shut up, Cora!"
She tried to walk around Vince, but he reached back, wrapped an arm around her waist and herded her back behind him. "Don't talk to her that way!"
"You don't get to tell me how I talk to my sister! You're the one who was trying to fu-"
"I said, don't talk to her that way!"
"I'll talk to her any damn way I-"
"Axl! Man, back it down."
Cora couldn't move around the arm holding her back, but she was able to lean to the side and see around Vince's other arm.
Buck and Riptide both had an arm, and they were walking Cam back through the front door.
"Get your fucking hands off of me!"
"Not until you calm down."
Buck's tone wasn't loud, but he wasn't allowing any room for an argument.
Cora lifted a hand to wipe at tears that were pooling against her lashes. "Let me go, Vince."
She expected a bit of push back, but instead, Vince lowered his arm to his side and turned his head toward her and spoke softly. "You sure?"
"Yeah. I'm not worried about Cam hurting me. You, on the other hand, probably wouldn't be so lucky."
"Okay." Vince stepped to the side, but his arm brushed against hers. "But I'm not leaving your side."
"Cam? Cam, talk to me."
"I'm going to beat him senseless, Cora. Move away from the asshole!"
"Ass- Cam? He's not like that."
Cameron struggled to get free from his friends. "He had his hands-"
"He had his hands where I wanted them, Cam. I'm not a kid who needs or wants you to kick my boyfriend's ass!"
She winced and hoped that no one saw it.
She'd called Vince her boyfriend which was probably news to Vince.
It certainly was news to her, too.
She hadn't intended to call him that, but she was apparently shooting from the hip on this.
"Boyfriend? Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Well, you don't!" She lifted her chin and gave her brother a glare that she hoped he would see as confidence. "I'm in my twenties, Cam!"
"You're still my little sister! And he was seconds away from-"
"Stop!"
Cora hated having to shout at her brother, but even more so in front of his friends. This wasn't a confrontation she ever wanted to have.
"Cam, we need to talk."
"We can talk," he was half-growling, half-bellowing at her, "when he's out of this house!"
"Hold on, now." Buck pushed Cam back until he was standing in the sunlight outside of the door. "Let's go for a walk."
Cameron shoved Buck off of him, but Buck put himself directly in Cameron's path and Cora knew she owed the other man so much. Cameron didn't try to push past Buck. He took another couple of steps back and lifted his hand to point at Vince. "You're gone, man. I want you gone when I get back."
Vince took a step away and Cora felt her heart clench inside of her chest.
Cameron poked his finger into the air at Vince's chest. "Gone. You hear me?"
Her brother turned on his heel and walked out of sight. Riptide and Arctic followed after him, but Buck stayed behind.
Cora lifted up her hand to dash more tears from her cheeks. "I'm sorry."
Buck closed the door and took a few steps closer to her. "Cora, you have nothing to apologize for. I think Cameron will see that when he calms down."
"Well, he made it clear that he doesn't want me here. I can go somewhere else, Cora."
"No, wait." She turned and reached for his arm and then changed her mind. She didn't want to force him to stay after the horrible scene her brother had just made. Shaking her head, she looked up at Vince. "I'm sorry. If you want to go, I'll help you find a place to go."
She looked down at herself and the towel that she'd wrapped around her body.
"I need to get dressed and then we'll figure something out, okay?"
Afraid of what Vince would say, she turned away and headed back toward their bedroom, hoping that she got there before she broke down into tears.
It was hard to walk, holding her towel up around her body and her legs were stiff-kneed and her muscles tight as she moved as fast as she could without running.
When she closed the door behind her, she gasped in a breath and bit into her lip until she was sure she would bleed.
Why?
Why had Cam come home early?
No, she couldn't blame it on him. It was his house after all.
No, it was her fault.
Even Vince had tried to pull away, but she didn't want him to.
She'd kept him close and put her hands all over him.
Cora put her hands over her face and tried not to cry out loud.
What had she done? What was she going to do?
How was she going to fix all of this?
She'd find some way to make things better for Vince. A hotel room? Whatever he wanted.
She didn't want this to be the last time she saw him, but after the mess that she'd just made of his visit to Hawaii, she had a feeling she'd never see him again.
And that, was entirely her fault.
Vince was struggling to figure out his next steps. Cora had asked him to wait, then she seemed to change her mind.
"What the hell just happened?"
His chin dropped down toward his chest.
"How the hell am I going to fix this?"
"This isn't as bad as how it looks."
Vince looked up at the other man. Buck was the name that Cameron and his team called him, but when they'd been introduced, he'd given his name as Heath. Heath Derringer. He was as steady as they come. Real Salt of the Earth as far as Vince could tell.
If they'd met under different circumstances, Vince was sure they could be good friends, but at the moment, he wasn't sure that he'd ever see the man again.
Worse, he was sure he'd messed up any chance at seeing Cora again.
"I didn't press her for anything." He met the other man's concerned gaze. "I need you to know that. We were," he paused and lifted his arm into the sunlight and ignored the pinch of his sunburned skin, "we were putting lotion on to ease the burn. I was helping her. She was helping me..." He closed his eyes and knew how hollow that must sound. They didn't have to 'help' each other at all. "And then we... Well, things-"
"You don't have to say anything." Buck shook his head and held up his hands in surrender. "It's not about what I think, or even what Axl thinks."
Vince shook his head. "That's not how he feels, and I think you know that it's not going to change. The last thing I want to do is drive a wedge between Cora and her brother."
Buck nodded. He looked at Vince and they shared a long look before Buck spoke again. "I think you're a good man, Vince. Am I right?"
"After today, I'm not sure." He let out a pent-up breath. "I know what her brother saw when he came home, but I wasn't trying to disrespect him or his home and certainly not his sister." Vince shook his head, trying to clear it and his thoughts. "Cora has me spinning in all the best ways," he felt a smile touch his lips. "We haven't known each other very long, but I feel like this is just the beginning of... of something really... special. You know?"
Buck held his gaze and a moment later, he nodded. "I think I know how that feels."
Vince nodded, but he didn't feel any better. "Look, the last thing I want to do is make this trip difficult for Cora. I know how much she was looking forward to seeing him. I think it was probably momentary insanity agreeing to come with her, but when someone like Cora offers you a saving grace and a ticket to paradise, it's hard, no, it's damn near impossible to say no."
Buck nodded again and Vince got the feeling that he really understood.
Vince looked over at the door to the bedroom and as much as it killed him to say the words, he knew he had to. "So, I need to ask you a favor. Not that you owe me a damn thing."
Vince watched as Buck took a step closer to him and set his hand on his shoulder.
"Whatever I can do to help, I will."
Vince felt a muscle tick in his jaw and tried to release the pressure in his muscles. "Do you know where I can find a place to stay until I figure out how to get home to Chicago?"
Buck's eyes widened in surprise. "I don't think Cora's going to like that."
"I don't like it myself, but I need to listen to her brother. I can understand and maybe even admire what he's doing. As much as it's going to hurt, I can't stay here and know that it's going to make things difficult between Cora and her brother."
Buck folded his arms across his chest and gave Vince a long, hard look. "Don't you want to find out what Cora has to say about this?"
"God, yes, but I'm only so strong. If she asks me to stay, I don't think I'd be able to tell her no. When she looks at me with those eyes..." Vince felt the air leave his lungs. "I don't want to mess things up with her and I feel like I've already done that."
"I don't think so." Buck shook his head. "I'm pretty sure that things are going to blow over with her brother, but I can see your point."
Vince felt like a complete jerk. "Look, I don't want to put you in a tough spot. I can find a place to stay on my own."
"Give me a minute, okay?"
Vince nodded. "Anything."
Buck took his phone out of his pocket and took a few steps away.
As Vince stood there, he took his phone out of the pocket from the back of his board shorts. He opened the texting app and started to compose a message to Cora, but all of the words felt flat.
He deleted them all and put his phone back in his pocket.
"Okay."
Vince looked up at Buck and was a little surprised at the man's smile. "What's up?"
Buck gestured at his phone. "Lucky you're a squid."
"Okay?"
"The Navy Lodge in Pearl Harbor had a no show. They've got a place for you to stay for a few days."
He felt his heart fall into the pit of his stomach. It was one thing to be willing to do the right thing, but actually hearing that he had a place to go to? That hurt on so many levels. He just didn't want to admit it.
"The Navy Lodge, huh?"
Buck nodded.
"How did you manage that?"
The other man looked like he was going to shrug and brush it off but changed his mind. "The reason I think I know how you feel? Well, she works at the Navy Lodge. When I told her I needed to find a place so that Axl wouldn't beat up his sister's boyfriend, she was only too happy to say that she had a room available. So, if you want to stay there, she can comp you the room as a courtesy to a Navy man in need."
"Yeah... I guess so." He shook his head. "No, I know I should do it. I just don't want to."
Buck nodded. "I got it. Why don't you let me talk to Cora if you're worried about talking to her."
Vince balked at that. "It's not that I don't want to, I'm just-"
Buck gave his shoulder a pat. "I know, man. I know." He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a set of keys. "Here."
Buck put the keys in his hand. "The white Jeep Wagoneer outside. Go ahead and get in. I'll be out there in a minute or two."
Vince looked at the keys in his hand and then shifted his gaze to the bedroom door.
He wanted to talk to her, but yeah, he didn't trust himself to walk away if he did, and that, he knew, was going to cause a lot of problems between brother and sister.
"Thanks, Buck."
"No problem, man. Consider this my good deed for the day."
"For the day?" Vince shook his head. "Much more than that."
Buck came out a few minutes later with his duffel in one hand and something else in his other. He opened the door behind the driver's seat and set the duffel inside it. When he got in the driver's seat he reached out and put something in Vince's hands.
Looking down, Vince saw the bottle of aftersun lotion and shook his head. "She needs this."
"Well," Buck smiled at him, "she wants you to know that she understands, and she said she'd already ordered another bottle." He nodded his head in understanding. "I think things will work out for the two of you. She's mad, but not at you. So, I wouldn't turn off your phone for a bit."
Vince looked down at the bottle in his hands and smiled.
"Yeah, I wasn't planning to turn off my phone anytime soon. I'm hoping to talk to Cora later tonight, if she wants to."
Buck pulled out of his parking spot with a knowing smile. "Yeah, she wants to."