Chapter 11 LINCOLN
LINCOLN
“Can you check if I have something in my eye?” Kai pulls down his lower lid. “Because I could’ve sworn I saw Vera doing a walk of shame back to her cottage this morning and you weren’t mooning after her.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter, strolling into the final cottage. I have a routine: inspect the bathroom, check the mini-bar, walk around the room’s perimeter. I do it before any function, even though Sadie, our housekeeper, is the best and is as pedantic as me, if not more so.
“So let me get this straight. You have sex with her, then avoid her all day.” He tut-tuts. “I thought Walker was the master of being a shithead after a one-night stand.”
“I’m nothing like him,” I say through gritted teeth, wishing I could be.
At thirty, Walker Spade encapsulates the playboy cliché.
He eschewed university in favour of travel and has been doing odd jobs ever since.
His favourite, bartending, means he has a never-ending supply of hot women willing to sleep with him.
Kai and Walker got the Spade charm. West and I lucked out.
Though Vera hadn’t been immune last night…
The thought of her dismissing what we shared makes me want to punch something, and Kai must see the feral gleam in my eyes because he backs away, holding his hands up.
“I’m only messing with you, bro.”
“I know.”
My anger deflates, replaced by a surprising sadness. I know that anything I started with Vera had an expiration date, and a short one, yet the thought of not seeing her again when she flies out soon… I shouldn’t be this despondent.
I don’t pine for women. Then again, I don’t do romantic picnics either. And I sure as hell don’t make a fool of myself after I’ve already been rejected, but that’s exactly what I’m tempted to do, by talking to her before she boards West’s plane to take her back to the mainland.
“For what it’s worth, I saw her chatting to West while packing up the tools before heading back to her cottage about an hour ago. She looked pretty bummed.” Kai points to my face and smirks. “She looked almost as bad as you.”
I glance at my watch. “She’ll be at the airfield by now.”
“I don’t think so.”
I hate the irrational flare of hope that makes my heart thump. “What do you mean?”
“Because West took off ahead of schedule, about ten minutes after talking to Vera.”
Confused, I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
“That makes two of us.” Kai thumps me on the back. “So why don’t you go figure it out?”
I barely hear Kai’s words as I’m already jogging towards Vera’s cottage.