“Whatever you say, bro.”
I’m not sure why I’m following her. There was something about the way she white-knuckled the steering wheel, practically banging her forehead on it, as if she were trying to beat some unwanted thought out of her mind. Or maybe it was the flash of terror and then annoyance in her animated eyes. More likely, it was the fact that she couldn’t be bothered by me, even though I could tell the last thing she wanted to do was drive away.
So here I am, following a random stranger home, for no good fucking reason.
She parks at the last house on the lane, and I wait for her to get out.
“All right, she’s good,” Clay tells me, and I hold a hand up to silence him.
I’m not gonna lie. I want a look at the girl. All of her. We wait for what feels like an eternity, but she doesn’t exit the car.
“Be right back,” I mutter.
Clay’s grumbling protest is lost when I get out of the car and shut the door, effectively silencing him.
Raindrops pelt my skin all along the way to her sports car. Without thinking, I yank on the handle of the passenger’s door, thrilled when it opens. Making a mental note to scold her about leaving her door unlocked to strangers, I slip into the car. Her sudden shriek makes me realize that I’m said stranger and this probably isn’t the best introduction to a pretty girl I wouldn’t mind getting to know over the summer.
The first pretty girl who’s stirred interest in me in a long damn time.
Our ensuing exchange confirms that thought. This girl is one tough cookie. Still, I can tell that her outer shell won’t be that hard to crack, if given enough time. After her initial shock, the girl banters back and forth with me. She alternates between glaring at me and drawing her bottom lip in between her teeth.
Nerves or attraction, I don’t care. It’s more than nothing.
Yet she won’t tell me her name. For some reason, I gotta know. It’s driving me crazy that she won’t give me that one simple word. She thinks it’s going to scare me away?
Nah. It just makes me want to pursue even more. Kinda like those cute little glares she keeps casting at me. I think she means for them to be unappealing, like she’s an ice queen or something. Too bad for her, I read right through her act. Each narrowing of her eyes, puckering of her lips, and hard swallow entices my cock to strain against my shorts.
Maybe a summer in Crystal Cove isn’t going to be that bad after all.
Even though I want to pursue her, I leave her be, curiosity etched on her expression as I exit the car.
Clay’s watching me with rapt interest when I get back into the driver’s seat. “That took a while.”
I grunt in response. The exchange with that girl—Sally, though that name totally doesn’t suit her—has me on edge. Not sure why. Since my breakup, I’ve done nothing but focus on school and work. Women haven’t been on my horizon, not for lack of them trying. But her? Something about those lustrous doe eyes and pouty little lips had me wanting to kiss her right then and there, whether I knew her name or not.
I really need to get laid.
Clay’s answering laughter echoes with a passing roll of thunder. “Holy shit, Knox. Did you just meet the first woman not to give in to the Wellington smile? It only took you coming to the middle of nowhere to do it. God, we’re gonna have to find her again. I have to meet this warrior queen.”
He’s not wrong, even though I’d never give what some have called my grin killer a moniker of its own. Not that it matters. Women are the last thing on my mind this summer. Hell, for the foreseeable future.
Okay, so that’s not exactly true, but one brushoff when I haven’t even made it into town isn’t going to put me off.
As this is my last summer break of college, this is my final chance to get away and do whatever the hell I want. When I graduate next May, there will be no summer of fun, no taking time off to “get to know myself.” Not a chance. The Monday after graduation, I’ll be walking into Wellington Incorporated, ready to take my office next to Dad and elevate the company. I couldn’t be happier about it.
After all, I’m a Wellington born and bred. I’ve been in and out of Dad’s office since I was just a kid, already learning the ropes at the same time I was learning my times tables. Clay’s the same way, and we have grand visions for the company. In fact, we’ve both been on Dad’s ass for a couple of years to expand his acquisitions firm beyond the Eastern Seaboard, but the stubborn old man tells us that’s our bit of legacy to create.
The moment he uttered the words, Clay and I both saw the challenge for what it was. The subsequent result, one I’m sure Dad intended, was that we both dove headfirst into our schooling, started in the mailroom, and worked our way out of internships at the company. Now we’re ready to take the next step as soon as we have degrees to hang on the shelf.
I’ve never been more ready for anything.
Which is part of why I’m so annoyed I’m wasting my summer away at the lake when I could be back at the office, getting more experience under my belt.
Though storms don’t particularly bother me, I’m grateful when we reach the lake house and park the car under the carport. Clay and I go our separate ways, showering off the road trip and tossing our luggage into our rooms before meeting back up to drink away the evening.
We’re sitting on the covered patio, enjoying a couple of brews and everything Mother Nature has to entertain us with, when I finally ask what’s been weighing on my mind.
“Clay, why the hell are you here?”
His head whips over to me to so quickly that I have to laugh. He tries to recover by merely shrugging with feigned nonchalance. “I know we’ve had this healthy rivalry thing going all our lives, Knox, but it’s your last summer of fun and you’re my only brother. I figured we’d do some male bonding or whatever.”
He’s full of it. “You know, there’s a reason you’re always losing money to me when we play poker.”
“Yeah, ’cause you’re a cheat.”
“Or because you have a terrible poker face and can’t lie or bluff to save your ass.”
He sighs, running a hand through his dark hair. “It’s not that I don’t want to be here. I do.”
“Even if it means a week without Maria?”
Clay’s lips curve up into a sheepish grin. “I’ve got a couple of photos and she sent me along with a letter for every night I’m here.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “You do know there’s this new technology called a telephone, right? You can even call her all the way back in Nashville.”
We’re only a couple of hours away, but to Clay, we might as well be on the other side of the world.
“Look,” he says, “Mom wanted me to come up with you. Get you settled in. Make sure you’re…you’re good.”
Of course. I should’ve guessed. Kate Wellington, our mother, is a force to be reckoned with, and when she wants something? She usually isn’t told no. If she is? She ignores it anyway.
To put it simply, she’s the only reason I’m in Crystal Cove for the summer. Hell, if it were up to me, I’d be spending my summer shadowing Dad, not lounging at some lake a few hours away. Dad would’ve welcomed it. Mom? Not so much. The second she heard what my plans were, she put the kibosh on them. Nixed them.