Chapter 19 #2
His tone shifts when he sees I’m upset and he turns on the charm.
“It can wait. Have yourself a bit of ‘me time’ if that’s what you need.
” He winks at me and throws me the smile that used to make my knees a bit weak, but it doesn’t anymore.
“You deserve it for how hard you work.” When I tense up, he massages my shoulders and kisses the back of my head.
And that’s how he got me to stay as long as I did.
He covers his barbed-wire words with cotton candy and I give him the benefit of the doubt. Better the devil I know than the devil I don’t, I guess.
“I’ve got some work calls to make anyway. Are we good?” He gestures his hands back and forth between us and I nod to make the moment end. “Cool. You’re the best.” Then he smacks me on the butt like I just played a good game and struts off.
I, on the other hand, can’t get outside to my hammock fast enough. I scurry out the back door, set my mug on the tree stump that Thane and Bash fashioned into a tiny table for me one year, and settle in to read.
The hammock gently sways in the South Carolina breeze, and my heart slows as my eyes scan the pages.
I sip happiness in a cup and eavesdrop on two characters falling in love.
It’s literally the most calm I’ve felt in days.
I take a deep breath through my nose and the surrounding pines give me the perfect scent for this memory.
This is the perfect moment and nothing can spoil—
“What do you mean the shipment will be late? I ordered it in plenty of time!” Bradley yells from the side yard of the lake house.
“I don’t care what happened with the truck it was on.
I have people depending on it to be here by mid-July.
I don’t care what you have to do to make it work, just do it.
” Then he does the cell phone equivalent of slamming a phone receiver down and shoves his phone into the pocket of his gym shorts.
I cringe and glance around to see who may have heard. That’s when I look up at the second-story balcony and see Thane towel-drying his hair.
He shakes his head in disgust and disappears back through the doorway. That is the last time I see him until dinnertime.
The rest of the day is spent holding my breath around Bradley.
I want to make him vanish from my life for good—then completely block him on all platforms—but for the time being, he’s stuck here without a car.
If I say or do the wrong thing, he could get angry and embarrass me in front of my whole family and the Donnellys.
So instead of being honest and telling him our relationship really is over, I fake a smile all day that makes my face hurt.
That evening, our families head outside to the fire pit to visit while the kids soak up the last few minutes of sunlight on the beach.
Thane follows behind me and Bradley on the path, and I feel his gaze burning a hole in my back the whole way down.
Our dads head to the dock to fish, while our moms set out the stuff to make s’mores.
I’m dying for something to focus on so I can ignore the tension.
Thane settles across the fire from me, and he holds my gaze as Bradley sits next to me. I throw Thane an S.O.S. stare, he nods subtly like he understands the assignment, and starts small talk.
“So, Brad, what do you do for work?”
The emphasis on the nickname Bradley hates isn’t lost on me, and I bite back a smile.
“First off, it’s Bradley,” he says, emphasizing the last syllable condescendingly.
“And second, isn’t it obvious?” Bradley scoffs, pointing at his water bottle with workout- and supplement-brand stickers all over it.
“I sell supplements and protein powder, and I’m a trainer at my best friend’s gym. That’s how Serafina and I met.”
Thane leans forward in his camp chair, resting his elbows on his thighs. That smile full of mischief crosses his face, and I know things are about to get to a new level of uncomfortable. “I’ll bet that’s a fun story. Tell me how you two met, Fina.”
I stab him twenty times with my eyeballs and take a deep breath in. But when I open my mouth to speak, Bradley takes the reins instead.
“She was new to the gym—I could totally tell by her horrible form. So, being the upstanding guy I am—and also that she was super hot—I offered to help her. For free, even.”
He smiles, all proud of himself for being my gallant knight in shining Under Armour, and turns his attention to something on his phone.
“Would you have helped her if she wasn’t hot? Because I have some fantastic photos of her with acne and braces,” Thane chimes in.
Bradley snickers. “As long as she wasn’t fat… We can’t have our future children having ‘fat potential’ now, can we?” He reaches over and pokes at my side.
Now, I’m in no means a size zero—even after all of my sessions with Bradley and crazy fad diets—but being openly fat-shamed by anyone else hasn’t happened since grade school.
I’m what some would consider “curvy,” but my waist has never been my problem area.
My Puerto Rican butt, however, is a distant cousin to the one that J-Lo sports; I’ve always felt like it was one of my best assets—pun intended.
I guess I’m the only one who believes that.
The heat from the fire doesn’t even come close to the temperature that my cheeks flush to.
I let the marshmallow I was roasting for a s’more burn to a crisp, and fall into the campfire.
I can’t bear to look at anyone, so for a few agonizing moments, I turn my focus to poking at the logs.
Thane clears his throat to get my attention.
His eyes may as well have the Superman lasers beaming out of them, because he is obviously pissed.
That muscle in his jaw flexes, and he grips his drink so tightly the veins start popping in his forearms. He glances from Bradley to me, and I haven’t seen him this angry since he took that punch to the mouth for me in high school.
I worry that he’s going to take Bradley back behind the woodshed and beat him up before tossing him out like the rest of the trash.
I shake my head in a barely-there attempt to call him back from the edge.
He ignores my signal and turns to Bradley.
“Sera is perfect, just the way she is. She always has been,” he snaps in a low, thunderous voice.
He stares Bradley down, daring him to speak, and the chatter around the campfire stalls.
I swear, even the crickets stop chirping.
I shift in my seat and clear my throat to say something—anything—to end the misery.
My mother shoots me with a do something about this right now glare, and my mouth turns to cotton.
Thane leans back in his chair, perfectly comfortable to sit in the moment that has my insides squirming.
Bradley stares back, doubling down on the discord, and I’m ready to snap under the pressure.
The fire cracks, sending a startling jolt to my last ounce of peace.
I jump so hard my chair tips backward, then folds up on me. Nobody laughs.
Smooth, Sera, real smooth.
I get up off the ground and dust myself off, trying to make a joke about what a klutz I am.
Thane and Bradley don’t break eye contact, and my mother looks at me pitifully.
I feel three inches high, standing under a blinding spotlight, and I’m frozen with fear.
No one is coming to save me. I want to throw gunpowder into the flames and disappear like a terrible magician when fate throws me a life preserver.
I’ve never been so grateful for a moment to be interrupted by Bradley’s stupid phone ringing than I am right now.
His eyes go from his current stare-down with Thane to the device in his hand.
When he stands and pulls out his earbuds, I let out a sigh of relief.
Okay, boys, back to your corners for a reset.
I take this opportunity to hiss, “What are you doing?” at Thane.
“Are you kidding with this guy?” he hisses back.
“What am I supposed to do? He just showed up!”
“Send him packing!” he blurts out.
When our mothers’ gazes fall on our not-so-quiet whisper-yelling, Thane moves his chair next to mine.
“I don’t want to cause a scene, Thane. And I don’t want to make him angry. I just need to figure out how to let him down easy.”
“Did he let you down easy, Fina?”
I pause. “Well, no. But…”
“…But nothing,” Thane interrupts. “Stop giving him a courtesy he never extended to you. He invites himself on your vacation after he cheats on you, and he has done nothing but be dismissive of your feelings since he showed up. Impeccable standards indeed. You lied to me about him. The question is, why?”
At that, I avoid eye contact and look toward Bradley coming back toward us. Thane can read me like a book, and this is not the time or place for it.
“Sorry about that,” Bradley interrupts our standoff, completely oblivious to what is going on between Thane and me.
He immediately rattles off about something for work, trying to sound important, and turns his attention to Thane.
“I could totally get you on some supplements to bulk up a bit, Shane.”
“It’s Thane,” Thane replies through gritted teeth, “and no thanks. I’m good.”
Bradley looks him up and down and says under his breath, “Suit yourself, Slim.”
I place a hand on Thane’s leg to halt him from standing, and before he can erupt, I change the subject.
“So, Bradley, how long are you planning to stay in Amethyst Lake?”
I’m hoping his answer to that question is, “something actually came up and I have to leave now,” but I know him better than that. One of his best and worst qualities is his inability to accept the word “no.” I brace myself for his reply, but nothing can prepare me for what comes out of his mouth.