She grinned. “I’m glad you liked it.”
And it would have been pretty awesome to just lay like that for a few more minutes, just wrapped around each other. But we heard the door of the garage smash open and voices bounced off of the aluminum walls and down into our little private place.
Brenna scrambled into her clothes, and, as preoccupied as I was with getting dressed myself, I still took a minute to just enjoy her, how she looked and how much I loved just being around her.
“Who’s in here?” she whispered.
I shrugged. “It’s been a little while. Everyone who went to the beach is probably trashed by now. They won’t even notice us.”
She bit at her lips nervously.
“Don’t be nervous, Bren. You have nothing to worry about, okay?” I put a hand up to her face and ran my thumb over her cheek.
“Jake!” a girl’s voice called. “Jake Maclean! Come out, come out wherever you are!”
It was slurred but identifiable. Caroline.
“That’s Caroline again?” Brenna’s brows knit.
“She’s been pretty obnoxious since the whole drowning thing,” I grated out.
Brenna had pointed out when girls hit on me dozens of times when we went out, but I’d never paid it any attention. I knew girls thought I was good looking, but I’d had my fill of mindless one-night stands. I knew damn well how amazing Brenna was, and I wasn’t about to let it get out of hand with this girl.
“I’ll take care of it.” I climbed up on the deck. “What do you want?” I asked, not keeping any of the aggravation out of my voice.
“Hey there.” She staggered just a little. Bryce was right there to catch her, but she shook his hand off of her arm. “Come to the beach with us. Now.” She smiled, a clearly drunk smile.
“No thanks.” I worked hard to keep my voice even and controlled.
She laughed. “Oh, you and Brennaare going to be hanging out?” she said snidely. “It’s a little sad, isn’t it, Jake? You should have seen her, all over Saxon. You know what? They make sense together, Jake. Because you’re…stop it Bryce!” she yelled, slapping at Bryce and making hard, flailing contact with his face and shoulders. “Because you’re just some fun. You’re just some good-looking fun. She’ll never really bewith you. So why not just enjoy a little? Shut up Bryce!” Bryce had her arm and was tugging at her, but she wasn’t about to give up.
I had planned to just take care of the whole Caroline thing, but what she said was pretty much what I lived in fear of all of the time.
That Brenna would wake up and realize that she and I weren’t the same.
That she could do better.
Not that I thought Saxon was better, but there was better. Than me. And this girl was a drunk bitch, but that didn’t make what she was saying less true.
She laughed, a mean, high sound. “And your ‘relationship’? I mean, if you want to make out and skinny dip with random people, just be single, right?”
It never failed to amaze me how a moment of complete perfection could get so royally fucked in the matter of a few minutes.
But it wasn’t me who wound up taking care of it at all. It was Brenna.
“Get out, now.” She stood, all of a sudden, at my side. “I know this is hard for you to hear, Caroline, but no one wants you around. No one. At all.”
Caroline sneered at her and stumbled.
“You know I’m right,” she slurred, but Brenna was intimidating when she wanted to be. She was sober, beautiful, and looked pretty damn fierce.
“You might be right. But I’m also right. About the fact that you’re a nasty, mean, asshole. No one wants you around but Bryce. If I were you, I would take what I could get. Bryce, take her out now.” Brenna switched her gaze to Bryce and it was so focused and in-control, he couldn’t say no.
He nodded.
“You’re the asshole!” Caroline screeched. “You think you’re so uppity? You and your mother! You’re just little sluts who clawed their way up where you don’t belong.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brenna move so fast. She looked kind of shaky, but she was off the boat and down to Caroline, who was being pulled out by Bryce so fast he was dragging her. Brenna made it to her, pulled her arm back, and full-on smacked Caroline across the face.
It was a hell of a slap. Caroline’s head snapped over and there was the red print of Brenna’s hand across her whole face.
“Say what you want about me,” Brenna said, looking straight into Caroline’s face. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother.”
I was right behind Brenna now, and I boxed myself around her, because Caroline’s beery mind was putting it all together and she finally, suddenly snapped and went at Brenna all sharp fingernails and flailing arms. Luckily, I moved Brenna back the same time Bryce pulled Caroline away.
We listened to her scream and cry all the way back to the beach.
I looked at Brenna. “Wow.” I shook my head. “I didn’t see that coming, Bren. You’re scary.” I pressed her hair back from her sweaty face and smiled at her.
Brenna burst into tears. She sobbed and shook, and I could only wrap my arms around her and shush her. “Please don’t cry,” I begged. “Please relax, baby. Don’t cry.”
“I hate it here! I hate them!” she sobbed into my shirt.
“I know.” I ran a hand down her hair. “I hate them, too.”
Hated them.
And was them.
Much as I hated that.
Chapter Seven
Brenna
“Evan?” I stalked over to the window of my ridiculous sea-shell-themed guest room and waited, lip bit between my teeth, for the voice that was like sweet syrup to the snow-cone of my loneliness.
“Brenna!” It was just her voice and my name, but it made the whole world shine brighter for a minute. “I have missed the hell outta you, girl.”
I twisted the blue and ivory embroidered seashell curtains between my fingers and let them go. “I think your accent got stronger.”
“Well, that makes sense. It’s the height of summer in the south of Georgia. You could cook a pot of gumbo by leaving it on the porch with the lid on, as my gramma would say. But we have central air, sweetheart. The best in the world. Come see me, and I’ll put the temperature all the way down to sixty-six, just for you.” I could hear the funny bend of her words that came from talking while her mouth was stretched too wide.
“I want to. I will. I promise. Are you going out?” I heard her press and smack her lips, and I tried to imagine what color her lipstick was.
“I am, but don’t rush. I’m really in no mood to drive around with Rabin trying to find parking on River Street and worrying that his precious Vette is going to get scratched. Ugh, I hate that damn car. It’s such a balding-man-midlife-crisis car.” She sighed. “Plus that, I’ve been in withdrawal, and I need you! I love you! I can’t live without you!” I could picture her with the back of her hand on her forehead, and it made me giggle.
“I miss you, too, lovey. So, dinner with Rabin?” I didn’t say another word about it, but my tone communicated every kick-to-the-groin snag of anger I felt when I thought about him and the brutish, arrogant way he bossed Evan around.
“Don’t judge,” she pleaded. “There’s too much going on right now, and all of it is just the baby snowball that hardly started rolling down the mountain of crazy shit my daddy built. No one outside the family knows, but everything is about to crash down around our ears and Rabin…he’s complicated, but he’s something I know. And I need to just keep things the way they are right now. I can’t deal with another change.”
“Oh, Evan.” We had talked a few times about her family’s money problems, and the verdict seemed to be that they had only just begun. Evan had no idea how far it would spiral and if any piece of her life would still be intact after it was all over. “Is your mom still home?”