“And that’s all?” Claude narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.
“Yeah. That’s all,” I snarked back at him.
The answer seemed to satisfy my overbearing bodyguard, and he left us alone to unwind from the drive. But, of course, we took the opportunity to get all dressed up and sneak out the back window of my bedroom that led down to the beach.
“This better be a goddamn good party,” Floundy grumbled as we landed on the sand with a soft thump.
I grinned at him. “Trust me,” I assured him. “It will be.”
I had the address on my phone, and we hurried down the beach until we arrived outside Elliott’s beach house. My heart leaped when I heard music streaming through the open windows. He was only a few feet away. We were going to be together again.
“You ready?” Floundy asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
We raced up the front steps to the house and knocked on the door. It opened, and I was face-to-face with the man of my dreams.
“Hey,” I breathed as Elliott’s gorgeous eyes met mine.
“Oh, hey!” he said, managing a smile. “I didn’t realize you’d be here so soon.”
My heart started to pump all the way up to my throat. “It’s so good to see you.” I couldn’t hold back my smile as I stared at his gorgeous face. “I’ve been thinking about you every day.”
“Yeah, good to see you, too,” he said, but it seemed more like a platitude than anything else. He was looking over my shoulder, scanning the room full of people like he’d lost someone. “Can you give me a minute? I just need to…”
Without finishing his sentence, he hustled off and left us alone. I looked around the beach house. It reminded me of the one we’d just come from, all beautiful minimalist, modern elegance with gorgeous views of the ocean sunset beyond the windows.
I wondered if he’d spent summers here as a kid, the same way I had in my family’s house. Had we been just a few hundred feet from each other all this time and not even known it? The thought was both kind of sweet and totally frustrating, a feeling that carried over into the rest of the night.
I barely saw anything of Elliott the entire night. No, it wasn’t quite true. I saw a lot of him as he raced around, making sure everyone had fresh drinks and checking in on the little huddles of people stationed around the house. But he didn’t seem to have any time to actually stop over and have a conversation with me. It made me wonder if he wanted me here at all. Maybe he’d extended the invitation out of politeness? Maybe our day in LA together hadn’t been as special for him as it had been for me?
The few times I did see him, it was nice enough. We even stole a brief kiss in the kitchen when I followed him in to get another drink. But it wasn’t what I expected. I’d envisioned us vanishing into the crowd together, reveling in the anonymity of being far from home and surrounded by people we’d never see again.
I didn’t bank on Elliott spending all his time ignoring me. I didn’t plan on having only Floundy for company the entire night. I drank a couple of drinks, but the booze didn’t take the edge off how crappy I felt, and soon enough, I got seriously bored.
Floundy drifted off from the group he’d been chatting with. “How’s it going?” he said, giving me a nudge.
I snapped my head up, suddenly pulled from the sad little self-pity party I had going on in my mind.
“Not great,” I murmured softly, not wanting to get in the way of anyone else’s fun. “How about you?”
“It’s okay,” he said with a disinterested shrug. “I feel like we could be having just as good a time hanging out at the beach house, if you want my opinion. Just the two of us.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right.” I sighed and glanced at the door. “Should we just go?”
“Yeah, we should.”
I looked around, wondering if I should find Elliott and tell him we were leaving, but eventually, I gave up searching for him. If he wanted to see me, he would’ve come to find me already. He probably wouldn’t even notice I’d left.
As we made our way up the beach, Floundy tried to engage me in light conversation to keep my mind off the disastrous night, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t stop thinking back to the day I’d spent with Elliott. Had that only been a week? It felt like a lifetime ago, considering the way he treated me tonight. I felt like crap, like a fool for thinking I had a chance with someone like him. He would go find someone better suited to his lifestyle, and I should do the same.
As we approached the beach house, my phone buzzed. I grabbed for it, hoping it would be Elliott asking why I left and asking me to come back. Instead, I was looking at my father’s number.
“Hey.” I lifted the phone to my ear, too beaten-down to consider ignoring the call. There was no point, anyway. He would reach me, one way or the other, and it was better to face up to whatever was going on now.
“Where the hell are you?” he demanded.
I looked over at Floundy and rolled my eyes.
“I’m at a club. I can’t hear you.” I raised my voice, hoping I was convincing.
“You snuck out again,” he snapped. “Claude just called me.”
“We told him where we were going,” I said. “We went out to the club.”
“Well, he says he’s where you said you’d be, and he can’t see you or Mr. Lomax anywhere,” my father said. “Are you with that Marshall kid again?”
“Did he give you the name of the club?” I asked, hoping I could bluff my way out of this one.
Dad paused. “The Marlin? That’s the one he said.”
I shook my head, getting into character. “No, he must’ve misheard us,” I said. “We’re at this place called, uh…”
I trailed off and looked at Floundy for some support. He raised his eyebrows and mouthed “Crabiranha” at me.
“The Crabiranha?” I offered in return.
Dad paused. “Crabiranha? He’ll find you there?”
“That’s right,” I promised. “Well, we’re headed back to the beach house soon, so he might as well just meet us back there. We’ll probably get home before he does.”
“Let me call him back,” Dad grumbled and hung up the phone, letting me off the hook.
“Come on.” I darted off quickly across the sand. “We need to get back before Claude does.”
“So, we managed to evade him for another night?” Floundy teased, running to catch up with me.
“This time.” I glanced back over my shoulder and managed to muster up a smile. It might not have been the night I thought it was going to be, but at least Floundy was here for me.
When we got back to the beach house, I closed my eyes and let the cool ocean breeze blow across me, enjoying the feel of it, letting it wipe clean the slate of the night so far. Well, not quite.
Elliott was still fresh in my mind.
Chapter Eleven
Elliott
I threw the stupid party for Tucker. If it’d been up to me, I would’ve just invited Aria and her friend over. All of us could’ve just hung out for a while. But no, Tucker was chasing some girl, and he apparently needed my help getting in her pants.