Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
Jada
I’m blissed out.
My body is relaxed, my mind beautifully washed from any stress or lingering effects of the past few weeks.
I don’t feel the tightness in my shoulders that I’ve been experiencing, and the low-grade headache is gone.
I expected it to be worse this morning after all the wine last night, but I was surprised to wake up feeling good. Great, even.
The sun’s rays are hot against my skin. There’s a gentle breeze flirting by that dances across the water of the pool, carrying the smell of chlorine and pop music from the speakers. I lie on the chaise, eyes closed, enjoying the peace.
Cane’s hand rests on my stomach, the heat and weight of his skin startling me. I look to my side, to him lying on the chair next to me.
He’s in a pair of white swim trunks, his skin a chiseled and tanned piece of perfection. He gives me his shy smile, and it does to me what the sun cannot. I melt. For him.
“You okay?” he asks, stroking my skin with his fingertips. They leave a trail of goose bumps despite the heat.
“I’m great.”
“You’re perfect.”
“Stop,” Kari cuts in, her voice thick with sarcasm. “You’re gonna give her an ego to match yours.”
My sister winks at me. She stands at the end of my lounge with her hand in Max’s.
A couple walks behind them, the girl’s eyes on Max.
It makes sense … he does look like a cover model in his dark green trunks.
His abs are rock solid, his golden skin showing each ripple of his muscular body.
But sadly, for the girl, Max doesn’t notice.
His attention focuses solely on my sister in her dark-blue bikini.
“Oh, please,” Cane says, pulling his sunglasses down and looking at Kari over the top. “You’re the one with the ego the size of the Grand fucking Canyon.”
“Don’t. Don’t even start your shit with me, Cane Alexander.” Kari laughs.
He laughs and sits up. “What do you wanna do today, Max?”
They exchange a look that I can’t quite read, but I feel like I’m missing something. When Kari starts grinning, I’m sure of it.
“I’m about ready to head inside and grab a sandwich. Y’all hungry?” Max asks.
“We just ate,” I say, thinking back to the huge buffet Cane and I had for breakfast. “Or it feels that way, anyway.”
“I could eat again,” Cane says.
Kari looks at me, her eyes shining, and I know I’m in trouble. “I’m not hungry either, so let’s go shopping.”
“Yeah. Let’s do my least favorite thing ever on vacation.” The annoyance is apparent in my tone, and I flop back in my chair.
“Well, it’s my vacation, too, and I wanna go shopping. Just come with me. Please. Otherwise, I’ll have to make Max go, and he’s less fun than you, if you can believe that.”
“It’s the only thing you don’t enjoy with me.” He winks.
“True.” Kari sighs dreamily. “I’d love to partake in the more fun things with you ... After shopping.”
Kari looks at me intently. I roll my eyes. I don’t want to go with her now or later.
“Jada,” Max begs, “do me a favor and go with her. I love her, but shopping with her makes me want to kill her.”
“See? It’ll make everyone happy.”
“Everyone but me!”
“It won’t kill you,” Kari says, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s sister bonding. Just come. Please.”
“All right. But not all day, Kari. Just for a little while.”
Cane leans across the space dividing us and kisses me. “Buy yourself something, okay?”
I groan.
“I mean it. Make sure she buys herself some stuff, Kari.”
“You mean, make sure she spends your money? Got it.”
“I knew you were good for something.” Cane grins.
Max pulls Kari to his side and kisses her forehead. “She’s good for a lot of things.”
“Keep it up, Quinn,” Kari purrs. She runs her hands over the tattoos dotting Max’s body. “Or you’ll not be having a sandwich for lunch.”
“Sandwiches taste better after sex anyway.”
“Let’s go on up to the room,” Kari croons. “I’ll make sure that sandwich tastes fantastic ... a couple of hours from now.”
“No,” Cane says, standing. “You two can fuck like rabbits later. We’re going to lunch.”
“I’ve lost my appetite,” Max says, nipping at Kari’s bottom lip.
“Too bad. I’m starving.”
“I’m sure you fuckin’ are,” Max groans.
“I am,” Cane says, glaring at him. “And you’re fuckin’ hungry too. Remember, asshole?”
Max shakes his head and pulls his black Saints cap over his head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s go eat.”
“That’s what I thought,” Cane says.
“This is gonna be the longest damn weekend of my life,” Max mutters.
I stand and put on my cover-up. I’m not looking forward to shopping, but I can tell Cane and Max have plans, and I don’t want to get in the way. “Let’s get this over with,” I say to my sister.
Kari kisses Max before grabbing my bag off the ground. “Way to start this with enthusiasm, Jada. Love it.”
“I try.”
“Have fun,” Cane calls as I follow Kari out of the pool area.
“See you soon.”
Jada
“I don’t need more swimsuits,” I exclaim as Kari thrusts an orange bikini and a yellow one-piece with the sides cut out into my arms. I try to balance them on top of the sundresses she’s burdened me with. “Seriously, Kari. I’m not buying these.”
“Oh, you are. Try them on first, though.”
“Why? I don’t need any of this.”
“Because,” she says, adding a white sundress to the stack. “Cane instructed me to make sure you spent his money. He knows how I like to shop, so I’m taking it as he wants you to make a dent in his credit card. And I,” she says, tossing on a dark purple tank top, “am not one to disappoint.”
“Since when?”
“Since now.” She shoves me into the dressing room. “Pick a door. Any door.” She stretches her hands out to the side, and I do as instructed.
I try on everything. Kari, of course, loves it all. Before I know what’s happening, I’m watching her deposit the entire load onto the counter beside the cash register.
“This is ridiculous,” I say, forking over Cane’s credit card. The lady hands it back to me after swiping it, and Kari picks up my bags.
“No, it’s sweet.” She flounces out of the store, and I follow, still not sure how I got talked into this.
“You didn’t even get anything.”
“Yeah. That purple tank top is mine. If it fits you, it’ll fit me.”
We enter the parking lot, find our rental car, and climb inside.
“Why does shopping exhaust me so much?” I ask, reclining back in the passenger seat. “I seriously feel like I’ve just ran a marathon.”
Kari laughs and starts the car. “Because you’re lame?”
“Funny.” I watch the city fly by as we make our way back to the hotel. “Want to tell me why we really just spent a few thousand of Cane’s hard-earned dollars on things I don’t need?’
“Because you need them?”
“Seriously, Kari. I’m not stupid.”
“Because he wants to make you happy?”
I roll my eyes. “He knows this stuff doesn’t make me happy. Try again.”
“Because he doesn’t work very hard for his money?”
“Not true.”
“Because you look amazing in that stuff and that’ll make him happy?”
She bites her lip, and I can tell by the way she keeps gripping the wheel that something’s bothering her.
“I’ll take the last one just so we can switch topics.”
“To what?”
“To … what’s wrong with you?”
She releases a quick breath and glances at me out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t expect me to catch on, but I know her better than anyone. Something is definitely on her mind.
“Nothing,” she grumbles.
“You lie. You have that same look on your face you’d get when Dad would ask if you ate all of your broccoli. You’d say yes but we both knew you’d fed it to Snoopy under the table.”
A grin touches her lips. “It’s just ... I don’t know what to do about Max.”
I turn to the side and watch her fidget in her seat. I’ve never been able to figure out their relationship. They seem completely together at one moment and then like they tiptoe around each other the next. It’s confusing to me, so I’m sure it has to be confusing to her.
“Because …”
“I just ...” She sighs and smiles sadly at me. “I really like him.”
“I know you do. What’s wrong with that?”
“Everything.”
“Um ... Care to develop that sentence a bit more?”
She laughs half-heartedly. “He wants everything. He wants what you and Cane have.”
“Yeah, don’t you?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. If I did, it would be with him, no doubt. He’s pretty perfect, you know.”
“I do.” I laugh. “I get Max. But I still don’t get you.”
“I don’t get me either.”
We pull into the parking garage of the hotel, and she finds a spot.
We grab the bags and head to the elevator.
We’re silent as we enter the elevator to our rooms. I know she’s thinking about our conversation.
I want to press the issue, but I don’t. I know you have to figure out some things yourself, and relationships are one of them.
As much as I want her with Max, if she doesn’t want to be, then she shouldn’t be. That’s for her to decide.
The elevator dings, and we step out.
“What are your plans for this evening?” I ask, sticking my room card in and pushing the door part way open. I look at her doing the same thing to the room next door.
“I’ll call you. I believe besides spending his money, Cane also told Max and me to fuck like rabbits later. I told you I’m not one to disappoint.”
I shake my head and set my bags on the floor inside. “Have fun.”
“Always,” she says with a sparkle in her eye. “If there’s one thing I have figured out in life, it’s how to have fun.” She winks before disappearing inside.