I’m not usually the type to text a guy first.
Mostly because I’m a firm believer that if a man wants to talk to you, he will. There isn’t a good enough excuse in the world to justify a guy who cares about you not taking the time to reach out.
And there is especially no excuse for a man failing to text you back. Unless, of course, he never cared in the first place…
I lie down on my beach towel, a curse rolling off my tongue as I stare at the unanswered text on my screen.
HADLEY
What happened to you back there?
If I’m being honest, I don’t think Kane even opened it.
I sent that text five days ago, more specifically the morning after he dropped the ultimate romantic speech on me and then claimed my mouth like there was no tomorrow.
We’ve barely seen each other since that night. Even when I was working full-time, I’d run into him around the house, but he’s been busy lately.
He spends most of his days—and evenings—locked away in the upstairs office with Drea, taking business calls I’m sure have to do with his eventual comeback to the music industry.
I’d be willing to bet he’s been having legal meetings as well, discussing the upcoming trial—word online is they finally set a date for the end of the summer.
“What are you looking at?” Jamie plops down right next to me, wiping the sand off her yellow towel with the back of her hand.
I’m quick to shove my phone into my beach bag and sit up, crossing my legs. “Nothing. Just scrolling.”
She nods, but I can’t tell if she believes me, her large sunglasses too dark for me to discern the look in her eyes.
“Got you one, too.” She hands me one of the ice-cold water bottles she just went into the house to grab.
I thank her with a smile before lying back down on my towel and using my beach bag as a pillow.
When Jamie suggested that we have a beach day, I was ecstatic. For once, we had our day off on the same date, and we’ve barely hung out since I got hired at Sandy’s.
We needed to catch up stat, and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than the private beach across from the house. I found an old beach umbrella in the garage and anchored it into the ground to shade us from the sun.
I nudge the sunglasses resting on top of my head in front of my eyes, remembering the text Jamie sent me a few days ago. “Girl, I almost forgot. You wanted to tell me something?”
After she texted me she had something to tell me, I begged her for some details.
Of course, she hit me with the most painful response a girl who’s hungry for some hot goss can receive: I’d rather tell you in person.
“Oh, right,” she says, rubbing sunscreen up and down her arm. “It’s, um… Remember that time we all hung out at the docks not too long ago?”
I immediately know what she’s talking about. I’m the only one who didn’t show up that night. I’d been working late a lot, and I just wanted to go to bed.
“Of course. Did something happen?”
She clears her throat. “So… Cal and Vince were completely gone by the end of the night, and my car broke down when I tried to drive everyone home.”
I’m not surprised to hear that her car finally broke down. The clunker deserves a medal for toughing it out this long.
My brain dissects her sentence from start to finish. She said Vince and Cal were drunk, but she said nothing about Kane.
He was drinking the night he kissed me, but before that, he hadn’t had a sip of alcohol in a while. He was doing so good. I wonder what made him want to start again.
I roll onto my side, propping my head onto my bent elbow. “Shit, what did you do?”
“I tried to get a cab, then a tow truck, but the Hillford cab company closes so early it’s a joke, and the only tow truck available at 3:00 a.m. would’ve cost me my firstborn, plus a couple organs.” Her comment makes me snicker. “I didn’t know what to do, so I called Shay to come pick us up.”
I’ve only seen Shay once since I moved out here. She’s one of Jamie’s friends, a cute brunette with tanned skin and a shy personality.
I met her the day Jamie invited her, Brooke, Drea, and me over to her place for dinner. Then there was the whole matter of the girls signing an NDA so that they could hang out with us and not tell everyone about Kane, an idea he turned down faster than a speeding bullet.
“Did she?” I ask, curiosity gnawing at me.
“She did. She was so nice about it, too. I pulled her out of bed at 3:00 a.m., and I felt so bad, but she kept telling me she was happy to help.”
“But wait… wasn’t Kane with you?” I’m guessing Jamie calling Shay would’ve been a problem for him since he’s so adamant on keeping his circle small. Only people he trusts are allowed to know he’s in town.
“No, he, Drea, and Scar had gone home like an hour prior. Kane was sober and bored out of his mind. He wanted to leave the whole night.”
I hope that means him drinking in the gazebo was a onetime thing.
I nod. “So, it was just you, Cal, and Vince, then?”
“Yeah. Shay dropped off Vince first and then drove us home, but Cal was passed out in the back seat. And we ended up staying in the car for a bit. We were talking and laughing and…”
She doesn’t need to tell me the rest for a squeal to slip past my lips.
I sit up. “You totally made out, didn’t you?”
Her cheeks turn scarlet, a giddy smile spreading across her face.
“You totally did! How was it? Good? Bad? How did it happen? Also, I didn’t know Shay was gay.”
“She was going out with some douche canoe named Mason when I met her, and so I assumed she was straight and never even let myself look at her. Trust me, I would have if I’d known she was interested, but then after the kiss, I asked her about it, and she told me she’s pan. Mason’s the first guy she’d dated in a while.”
The next few hours basically consist of me demanding that Jamie shares every tiny detail about their hot make-out session.
She then tells me all about Shay’s confusing signals. They’ve been texting here and there since, but Jamie hasn’t wanted to bring up their kiss since she’s not sure if Shay regrets it.
These two have been toeing the line between being friends and possibly becoming more for way too long.
“I have no idea where we stand. I haven’t wanted to ask her to hang out just the two of us because I don’t know if she feels that way about me or if she just got caught up in the moment.” She lets out a groan, nestling her face between her hands. “First kisses are such a pain.”
I scoff, Kane’s devastating kiss playing on a loop in my head. “Don’t I know it.”
Her features twist with confusion, and she points a finger at me, squinting as she says, “Excuse me, ma’am, what does that mean?”
Shit.
Did I just expose myself?
“Nothing, I was just agreeing with you,” I lie.
She frowns. “Do you smell that?”
I stop and breathe in through my nose. “No.”
“Smells like a load of horseshit,” she accuses.
This girl knows me too well.
I chuckle. “Fine, maybe something did happen, but it didn’t mean anything.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh my God, who was it? Was it Cal?”
I cringe. “Not exactly.”
Jamie’s mouth drops open. “Holy shit… it was Kane, wasn’t it?”
Should I lie?
You’d think I said that out loud when she adds, “Don’t even think of lying to me!”
It doesn’t take her long to get me to spill my guts. I tell her all about Kane’s possessive texts during my date with Cal, and while I’m worried about her reaction to me turning down her brother, she doesn’t seem to give a shit.
I ask her if she’s mad at me halfway through the story, and she doesn’t waste a second telling me, “Are you kidding? I shipped you and my brother for, like, a total of five seconds. Meanwhile, I’ve been shipping you and Kane since we were kids.”
She gasps when I get to the good part, letting her in on what happened in the gazebo, and she throws herself backward, kicking her feet in the air for young Hadley, who would be over the moon if she were here.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but losing touch with Jamie Torres was definitely one of the biggest.
I never would’ve believed it if you’d told me when I first got to the beach house that I’d end up being thankful for my mom’s condo getting flooded.
It got me to reconnect with my childhood friends after a tragedy tore us apart. I can only hope that my bond with Jamie doesn’t end once summer does.
We’ve just finished all our snacks when Jamie’s phone goes off on her towel. She picks it up, checking the screen. “It’s my grandma. She’s getting a bit senile, and she won’t stop calling to wish me a happy birthday, even though it’s on Friday.”
Jamie accepts the call, pushing to her feet and distancing herself for some privacy.
I may not have been present in Jamie’s life after Gray left us, but I still remember how important her birthday is to her.
She spent every single one of her birthdays with her father growing up.
This will be her first birthday without him.
I glance at Jamie to make sure she’s out of range and pull my phone out of my pocket, selecting the group chat I created a few days ago.
The guys and I argued back and forth about what to name the group but eventually settled on “Jamie’s surprise partay!”
Thank God for Brooke and Shay having my back when the guys suggested “Jamie’s fetus eviction day!”
I type a quick message to the group and press Enter.
HADLEY
Everything set for Friday?
