Chapter 40
Bailey
“I can’t believe I missed the whole shakedown,” Hollis says, leaving her suitcase by the front door.
“Trust me, you should be glad you weren’t here,” I tell her, dragging her second suitcase up the cabin steps behind her. This one is even heavier than the last. I’m guessing she packed so quickly that she brought most of what she had in London with her.
Axel comes out to grab the bag from me when I reach the porch.
“I’ve got this,” my brother says, taking it right out of my hands. “You relax, sis. You’ve been through enough. You don’t need Hollis’ suitcase attacking your shoulder blades next.”
“Thanks.” I give Hollis a look that tells her he’s being ridiculous. Overprotective until the end.
Axel has been treating me as if I might break since he got here an hour ago. After everything that happened yesterday, both of them insisted on flying in, not taking no for an answer even after Rhett and I pointed out that we were fine.
“Party’s over,” Rhett told them on a three-way call after we’d come down off the adrenaline, passed out, and woken up to a myriad of phone calls and texts from both of them later that morning.
The stalker, who we now know is named Ian Steadman, had taken photos of Rhett and I walking down the dock to drive the boat to the grotto yesterday.
Then, apparently, in a fit of rage without a boat to follow us, he’d emailed the photos to my author account before breaking into the cabin and waiting for us to return.
Those photos had sat in my author inbox until Hollis woke up to them the next morning.
When she hadn’t been able to get us on the phone — since we’d already turned our ringers off in favor of sex and sleep, thinking we’d tell everyone he’d been caught after we woke up — she’d called the Cedar Shores police.
They told her we were safe and that the stalker was apprehended the night before.
But by the time we woke up and turned our phones back on, both Hollis and Axel had already booked their flights to fly in today from opposite directions.
“The guy’s been apprehended. We’re fine,” I’d insisted to them both.
“You also got attacked. Both of you did,” Axel said. “It’s a miracle you’re still standing, and we’re coming. Period. I already told my supervisor it’s nonnegotiable.”
Hollis had added, firmly, “Titus can suck it. I need a break anyway or I might attack him, too. And besides, you love birds have been having all the fun.”
“Love birds?” Rhett had repeated, eyeing me as the phone sat between us on the bed — like a grenade.
“Yeah, Hollis already sent me the photos Ian took of you guys making out before getting on the boat,” Axel deadpanned. “I don’t even want to discuss it. Just pretend you’re just friends or something when we get there. Deal?”
I’d groaned and melted beneath the blanket.
“I’ll be there by noon tomorrow,” Hollis had said. “Thirty minutes before bonehead flies in.”
Axel growled in response, and I could almost hear his eyes roll through the line.
And that was that. Not only were they both headed here, insisting they come for moral support, but they both already knew that Rhett and I had started, in Axel’s words, making out.
At least the Band-Aid was already ripped off.
Unfortunately for Hollis’ ego, her plane was delayed, and she ended up arriving twenty-six minutes after Axel had already pulled in. Poor girl. The disappointment of being beaten by a bonehead ran strong.
“Hey, Ax,” she says, fighting down a grin that’s forming on her face when she sees him swing her bag out of my hands like a rag doll.
“Hey, Holl, good to see you arrive after me,” he tells her. She scoffs, and he groans like he’s bothered by the weight of her bag, which he’s insisted on taking, when we all know that he’s not. “What the hell did you put in here? Didn’t realize you were moving in.”
He slides the suitcase past her, smirking at me as he does.
She plants her hands on her hips, watching Axel’s shoulder dip dramatically, before grinning at me with a brow raised.
“Didn’t realize you’d hired help, Bay. Couldn’t have found anyone better?
Maybe someone less mouthy?” She smirks at my brother, but now it’s Axel’s turn to scoff.
“You can just put that upstairs in my room, sir,” she tells him, pointing up toward the bedrooms. “I’ll leave a tip on the nightstand later. ”
He glances at her over his shoulder, then pointedly drops it from a foot up beside the other one near the front door. It lands with a thud.
“Oh, you mean right here?” If Axel had the ability to look innocent, he might be attempting it right now.
I love my brother dearly, but he has one of those faces that is permanently a bit dangerous looking.
Like God forgot to give him any boyish angles, even as a kid, and decided to go all-man with him once he hit about fifteen.
His hair is as dark as Rhett’s, but his eyes are even darker, with a thick fan of lashes around them.
I’ve coveted those lashes my whole life.
I would have never needed to discover mascara if those genetics hadn’t skipped me at birth.
“Be nice,” I warn them.
“Typical,” Hollis sighs, shrugging at him. “Never mind, I’ll take my bags up later. Light as a feather, anyway. You must have stopped working out.”
Axel wraps an arm around my shoulder, before sending a mock glare toward my friend.
“Let’s get this one a beer before she gets too riled up,” he says to me, winking at the one he’s talking about as if Hollis can’t hear him from two feet away.
He walks into the kitchen to join Rhett, leaving Hollis and I to catch up for a second near the front door.
“Ignore him,” I tell her.
“I always do,” she chirps, pulling me in for the fourth hug she’s given me since pulling up the driveway.
“However, for once, he’s not wrong.” She squeezes tighter.
“I am riled up. I can’t get over it. I’ll never get over it.
It’s so fucking scary what happened. If Rhett hadn’t been here with you .
. .” She trails off, and I swear it’s the first and only time I’ve seen tears in her eyes since Rhett got hurt.
Her red curls smell like raspberry and vanilla when she hugs me for the fifth time.
It’s Hollis’ signature scent. Has been since we were teenagers.
“I’m so sorry that any of this happened. ”
“Nothing about what happened was your fault,” I tell her. “You manage my publicity, not the crazed fans. There’s nothing anyone could have done, except maybe the police, but they had to follow the law.”
“I wish stalker laws were written better so that targets have a chance not to become victims,” she says. “Mother fucking law-writing assholes.”
“Even still, this guy was smart. There was no catching him without him giving up his identity first. Like Rhett said, we had to wait him out until he made a mistake.”
The red rim of her eyes matches her hair, frazzled and more messy than usual after flying internationally.
“Well, now what?” she asks, already antsy. “You guys handled all the scary shit last night. How do we help you recover? Hot yoga? A sauna session in town? A little cycle class to pound steam?”
I laugh.
“Maybe we just sit for a minute? You know? Are you sitting for more than thirty seconds these days? Maybe we aim for forty-five to start.”
She links my arm in hers and laughs as we walk into the kitchen, where Axel and Rhett are cracking open a couple of beers. They’ve already taken the cap off one for Hollis and me to have with them. Rhett hands me mine.
The bottle is icy cold when I slide in beside him, wrapping an arm around his waist, leaning into his side. He smiles when I grin up at him, then kisses me on the crown of my head.
“Just like that then, eh?” Axel asks loudly, distracting himself with a sip of his beer.
“Ripping the Band-Aid off in under point-four seconds, are we?” Hollis adds, after Rhett moves in for a real peck on the lips. She pretends to check a non-existent watch on her wrist. Then she glances at Axel with a mini huff. “Maybe point-three seconds? God, you two.”
“We’re all adults,” I remind them, grinning. “Besides, the photos that guy got of us kissing on the dock before we went to the grotto were probably not as bad as—”
“Whoa, okay, okay,” Axel interrupts, holding up his hands. “Baby steps, Bay. We don’t need to revisit those photos right now. Or where you were going. Maybe ever, alright?”
He glances at Hollis for some support in the matter, who, unfortunately for him, looks more interested in the opportunity to rub him the wrong way.
“You mean the photos of you two with your tongues down each other’s throats?” she announces loudly, looking at us before swiveling back to watch for Axel’s reaction.
He groans.
She smiles.
“Or should we talk about where you were going?” she goes on. “And why? I seem to remember a scene from your book, Bay, that had something to do with that grotto . . .”
“You mean, the book that wasn’t written about Rhett?” I finish for her, laughing.
“Oh, we could talk about what the characters from your book did at the grotto?” Hollis adds, glancing at my brother. “Did it have anything to do with why you went?”
“Christ, Holl,” Axel growls. Then he calmly sets the bottle down and, without warning, lunges across the floor. He grabs her from behind, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to spin her around in one swift move. “This one doesn’t know when to stop.”
She laughs and shrieks until Axel covers her mouth with his hand, which she promptly bites. But he keeps it there without so much as a wince.
I watch them, grinning.
Typical. So typical. In hindsight, I’m not at all surprised that they had some fling here when they were younger.
“What’s that, Holl?” Axel leans in, pretending to decipher her muffled shrieks. “You want a dip in that lake?” he asks, as if he’s just heard her ask. Then he nods toward Rhett. A dangerous glint fills his eye.
A glint I know very well.
Too well.
I look up at Rhett, already panicking.
But it’s too late. Rhett’s got that look in his eye, too.
“No!” I scream as he immediately hoists me up over his shoulder. “No! Rhett! Let me change first!”
He takes off running out the back door while Axel follows with Hollis thrown over his shoulder, too.
They make it down the dock while we both struggle to get free, but it’s no use. Hollis and I know exactly what’s coming for old time’s sake.
Axel jumps in first when we get to the end with Hollis wrapped up in his arms like a cat trying to escape the bathtub. I watch the whole thing unfold from upside down on Rhett’s back before—
“No!” I scream, one last time, as he tips me forward.
“Plug your nose!” he yells.
Splash!
All four of us come back up to the surface.
Hollis and I sputter, while the boys swim over to each other and serve up that obnoxious high-five they always finished the job with when we were all young. Like not a day has passed.
Hollis makes her way over to Axel while his back is turned to her, grinning brazenly back at me, then sneak-attacks him from behind by hoisting her weight up onto his shoulders, successfully dunking his head under.
She cheers and turns to swim as fast as she can back to the dock.
But when he comes up, he grabs on to one of her ankles, holding her in place. She laughs and screams while attempting to fight him off.
I grab on to the edge of the dock and smile at Rhett, who’s busy watching their old, familiar shenanigans play out while treading water a few feet away. They’re busy splashing and creating a whole scene when he turns to me.
He grins wildly, then holds my eye for a few seconds before turning serious. I start to wonder what he’s thinking until it’s there. I can read it in his eyes.
I love you, too, I mouth at him across the churning surface of the lake.
I push off the dock and slowly make my way over to him, ignoring the giggly splash fest that’s happening a few yards away.
He’s found a spot that’s shallow enough for him to stand, but it’s still too deep for me, so I wrap my legs around his waist and pull myself in for a kiss.
His lips and body are warm in the cold water, and I snuggle in, not wanting it to end.
When he leans back, he asks, “How did you know that’s exactly what I was thinking?”
I grin, and he pulls me in for a second kiss, narrowly missing my teeth, but we’re interrupted by the groaning audience we’ve managed to forget about.
“Awww! You guys!” Hollis cheers. “I’m starting to like this for you.” She beams.
Axel’s found a shallow spot to stand in, too, and Hollis is now holding herself up on his shoulders from behind, like she’s attempted and failed to dunk him in again, but has given up. At least for the next two seconds.
She dips toward Axel’s ear from behind and whispers loud enough for us all to hear, “You know, I always wanted a sister . . .”
He groans and flips her over. She yelps, laughing, before he easily dunks her back under.
She pops up right away, grinning with her eyes closed, red strands streaked across her face, then he lets her hang on to his shoulders for a minute to catch her breath before pulling her over to the side of the dock and making her hang on there.
Axel might not admit it, but I can tell he’s having fun.
I can also tell how badly we’ve all needed this. Not getting thrown in the lake, although that part is negotiable, but the fact that we’re all here, doing this together. It’s long overdue.
“I told you they could be pretty cute,” I say to Rhett, quiet enough so they can’t hear me.
“Yeah, if they weren’t so ready to kill each other at all times. But you, on the other hand . . .” He pulls me in for another long kiss, and this time I don’t care who’s watching.