Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
August is back in Driftwood Bay; she’s been here for the last week. I’m not sure what her end goal is, but I make sure I keep my distance. My body knows she’s here, reacting to her vicinity, knowing she’s so damn close.
My text messages are so full that I’m finally forced to read them now that I have a minute to myself.
Molly is out of town for a girls' weekend, and when she told me she was leaving for a few days, I felt like I could actually breathe. She’s been hovering around me since she heard about August. Watching my every move.
Even though they have the upper hand on me, knowing I won’t risk my family for anything… even August.
Reading and clearing out my texts, I open one from a number I don’t recognize, which is about wanting more information on the storefront on Main Street.
I bought it the first year August left, seeing potential for it when she returned, thinking of the future I still wanted with her.
I’ve had so many opportunities to sell it, but it’s never felt right.
So, I just keep a for-sale sign on it and tell people it’s just hard to sell… which it isn’t.
I returned with Molly, my new girlfriend, after spending time in a bigger city to get my feet wet in real estate.
Applying at Mrs. William's business changed the trajectory of everything. Molly remembered me, but I didn’t remember her.
And that lit a fire under her ass, and she saw a challenge.
Getting involved with the boss's daughter wasn’t my brightest move, but in the end, here I am, engaged to her with a burden on my shoulder and the reason I’ll say I do.
My father’s stroke forced me to come back, which I didn’t want to do, but I knew I had to, for them. And that’s when everything got heavy and things blurred.
I sit there, rereading the text message, finally deciding to reply. Thinking about the money, I could pay off some of the debt owed, getting my parents one more step closer to freedom from the web I essentially put them in.
Sorry for the late reply. The storefront is still available. Unfortunately, I don’t have a website, but I’ll be available tomorrow around ten if that works for you. The asking price is two hundred and fifty thousand. I’m not interested in renting it. Also, only looking to entertain serious buyers.
My finger hovers over the blue arrow to send, debating, but not letting myself think again; I send it. I can’t hold on to a dream that was meant to never be.
Here, taste this. August runs over to me, spatula out, with chocolate batter covering it.
Holding my tongue out, I swipe it across the metal, scooping the chocolate. My eyes closed, the rich flavor bursts in my mouth. “Mmm.” I moan out.
Opening them, she’s staring down at me, looking so excited. “It’s good?” August bounces on her toes, waiting for me to say yes. She’s been trying to perfect her great-grandmother’s chocolate cake recipe for weeks now, but there was always something off.
Pulling her to me by the hips, I sit her down on my lap. “You did it!” I excitedly tell her.
Her face beams with my approval. Before she licks the spatula for herself.
The chocolate coats her pink tongue, the only invitation I need.
“I think I need another taste to be sure.” Grabbing her chin, pulling her lips to me, she slips her chocolate-covered tongue into my mouth, and we eat the best-tasting chocolate we’ve ever had.
Fixing herself, she straddles my lap, spatula still in hand, when she starts to grind on me, waking my dick.
“Baby, your parents are out on the deck.” She smiles at me wickedly, chocolate on her bottom lip.
That doesn’t stop her; her grinding becomes faster, her pussy perfectly cocooning my swim short-covered dick, before she uses her free hand, pushing her bikini bottoms to the side, riding me.
“Come, Bohdi.” Her lip poking out, as the friction of her bare pussy sliding up and down my thinly covered dick does it for me.
“You first,” I tell her, pulling her bottom lip into my mouth, sucking on it and cleaning it of the chocolate. She moans and becomes feral, moving her hips faster, until she’s whispering my name, coming on me.
That’s my undoing, as I come in my swim shorts. Hot liquid spreading all around the head of my dick and up my shaft as her movements slow down.
Swallowing hard, I tilt my head back toward the sliding glass doors and can see the shadows of her parents, and I laugh like a maniac. Knowing Craig, her father would drown me in the ocean if he had walked in on that.
August hoisted herself from me, leaving my light blue swim shorts wet not only from my cum but from hers. Pulling in my lip, I watch her fix her bottoms, covering her pussy back up, while looking absolutely eternal with her sun-kissed face and dark hair flowing down her back.
I shake myself out of my memory, my dick hard and straining against my jeans just from thinking about her. Cupping my hand over my dick, I squeeze it hard, adjusting it and standing up. “Not happening,” I tell it, like it has a mind of its own.
My phone vibrates. Picking it up, the message confirming tomorrow to look at the store. I feel like I just lost my stomach, and I don’t know why. I can’t keep holding on to the past.
The past is what got me into the situation I’m in now. The past came back with a vengeance like the night it all changed.
Forcing myself to go to the main house to get files from Todd’s office for upcoming listings she wants me to update on the website. My whole walk over there, I’m silently hoping no one is there.
My hopes are answered when I walk in and no one is around. Making my way to the office, I spot the folders on the table in the middle of the office. Picking them up, there are only three.
Turning around to head out, I stop before I’m out of the door.
My eyes scan the empty hall. Once I’m truly satisfied that no one is coming, I run to the filing cabinet in the corner, opening it and using my finger to glide over the tabs, looking for the one I’m interested in.
I stop when it lands on Driftwood Marina.
Yanking it out, I hurriedly flip through the pages, stopping when I get to an aerial view of the marina, including my parents' house and the thirty-three acres they have. Flipping to the next page, it’s the contract my parents signed, all because of me.
I thought I was helping them, but I’ve only hindered them.
They needed money to pay for my father’s medical bills, living expenses, and everything else, since he couldn’t work and my mom was trying but failing to run the marina on her own.
It took my father a year and a half to get to somewhat his normal self, but he’s still not there.
And I don’t think he’ll ever be. He’ll always be a little slow in his steps, confused with daily tasks and not capable of fully running the marina on his own, again.
So, they got a loan against the Marina and twelve acres, equating to what they were needing, which was four hundred thousand dollars.
I set everything up for my parents, and the day before signing, Molly talked me into going out of town with her, promising everything was good to go.
It was, but for the Williams. I trusted them, and they did the worst thing they could do to people who were struggling.
They changed the contract and the price they said they would give my parents.
My parents owed the Williams one point five million dollars by the time they signed the papers.
I learned this by accident after we got back, and I wanted to get a copy of their contract; they fought me tooth and nail, finally relenting and giving me the file.
Their smug expressions stared at me as I panned from them to the folder.
I lose it completely. This marina has been in my family for years.
My father is sick. This is their last hope of truly living somewhat normal lives, not drowning in debt.
And in turn, they changed the contract price and gave my parents what they originally asked for; they did not know they’d never own that piece again.
Because there is no way they’ll be able to pay back the extra they added.
My hands shake as I read those papers; everything turns red, and I rush Todd, pinning him against the wall, as Molly and her mother scream behind me. My hand finds his neck, and I squeeze, seething and spitting words at him.
Grunting out, he says, “You can make it all work for them.” His eyes sparkle with his plans and deceit.
Squeezing a bit tighter, I spew at him, “How’s that, Todd?”
He taps my hand, and I unwillingly remove my hand from his neck.
Molly and her mother are next to him in seconds, wiping tears from their eyes.
I look at Molly. “You knew about this!” I scream at her, watching her wince back.
“No, no, baby, I didn’t know,” she promises me.
Todd straightens up. “She didn’t know.”
“I want these papers changed; I want everything voided. You can’t do this to people, to good people.”
“Here’s the deal: once you marry my daughter, the loan rolls over to your name, your parents' land is free and clear, they get it all back. Only if you sign the prenup and the marriage stays intact. I’ll make sure there is a clause in there.” Pride of pulling one over on someone brightens his face.
I look at Todd, dumbfounded, and I can’t find the right words. Forehead raised and sweat slicked, “why?” is all I can get out because I’m absolutely confused.
“Because we can. You’re going to marry my daughter, give us a grandchild, and work for us. We’ll provide what you need. What you make working will go to the loan, paying it down. But none of this,” he reaches his hand out and Molly hands him the papers, “will be turned over until you say I Do.”
I turn to Molly, and she quickly wipes the smile off her face; she knows. This is her plan. She doesn’t have to say it; I know it.
Six years ago I used Molly to get under August's skin, and here we are all these years later, and now she’s using me. I wounded her that night, and she tried for months to win me, but I ignored her.
And this was her long game, letting her dad use me any way he pleases as long as she gets her way.
Shaking my head, I try to get the memories to clear. August invading them and the Williams’ deceit coming in like a reckoning.
Do I believe that this will ever get paid off?
No, it won’t. This is how they’ll make me stay with Molly.
A whole family of horrible humans who blackmail to get where they are now.
That’s what I’m giving my life to, for my parents.
Kai knows nothing about this. He only knows what my parents know.
A forced marriage isn’t on their radar. And so I’ve stayed away.
Not because of them, but because of the anger I hold for myself, for what I put in their laps.
And this is why I can’t say anything about August Cove; there's more at stake than me.
Or let myself get drawn back into the tidal wave of August herself.