I’m in trouble with this one.
“Look at you two,” Karina says as we approach her.
Peyton tries to pull her hand away, but I hold strong. “Are we all set, ladies?” I ask them.
“Yep.” Karina grins.
“Peyton? Do you have everything you need?” I look her in the eyes, making sure she knows she has my full attention. I don’t know why, but it’s important to me that she understands that it’s her, not her family, and not her last name. Just her.
“Yes. My suit is on underneath this. Oh, I guess we should go get some towels from our rooms.”
“No need. My mom has a million beach towels at our place. Sunscreen too.”
“Well then, we’re all set,” Karina chimes in.
“I told Ollie to fire up the grill at noon. He’s a master on the grill, at least he thinks he is. We pretend to go along with it.” I laugh. “Anyway, he’s going to throw on some burgers, and it should be ready or almost ready by the time we get there.”
“Are your parents going to be there?” Peyton asks.
“They’re out today. They’re going out on the boat with some friends of theirs.”
“Oh, you have a boat?” Karina asks.
“Yeah, my dad loves to fish.”
“Do you? Love to fish, I mean?” Peyton asks.
“Yeah, it’s something I grew up doing. Do you fish?”
“We live in Tennessee,” Karina replies.
I toss my head back in laughter. “Just because you live in Tennessee doesn’t mean you fish.”
“Fair point,” Karina agrees. “Yes, we both fish.”
“Come on, we better head out before Ollie sends a search party.”
“Aw, is he worried about you?” Karina asks.
“Nah, he’s probably more worried about the two of you than me.”
“Uh, not really convincing if you’re wanting us to get into this Jeep with you, bud,” Peyton says.
“That came out wrong. He’s probably worried. I’m begging you all to come with me before I screw this up somehow.”
“Why would you screw it up?” Peyton asks. She tilts her head to the side, exposing the long slender column of her neck, and I want to kiss her there.
“Because he knows me. I don’t do this.” I wave a hand between Peyton and me. “Sure, I’ve invited a group of girls over to hang with us, but it’s them showing up. I don’t even offer to pick them up.”
“Yeah, but we’re from out of town.”
“So are some of the girls we go to school with.”
“What your boy here is trying to say is that you’re different.”
“That.” I point at Karina and nod.
“It’s been a day.” Peyton raises her eyebrows in challenge.
“A little over twenty-four hours if my calculations are correct,” I counter.
“Come on, you two, let’s get this show on the road. We’re wasting this beautiful Florida sunshine.” Karina opens the door and climbs into the back seat of my Jeep.
I stand by and wait for Peyton to settle in the passenger seat before closing her door and rushing around to the driver's side. “Ready?” I ask, glancing over at Peyton.
“Let’s do it.” Her tone is light, but I can still see the heaviness of the morning in her eyes. Today, I’m going to make it my mission to have that smile she’s giving me turn into a genuine one, and I want it to reach her eyes. I want my Peyton from yesterday. I’ll show her that it doesn’t matter to me who her family is. They’re not the people in my head, taking up every thought.
I only have her for three days. Two and a half technically, and I don’t want to waste a single second of it.
CHAPTER 5
Peyton
“What’s going on with you?” Karina asks in a hushed voice.
We’re on lounge chairs beside Griffin’s pool. “Nothing.” As soon as we arrived, Griffin led us to the backyard, and I hightailed it to the lounge chair, and this is where we’ve been ever since. I managed to pull off an entire twenty minutes or so of being lost in my head before Karina’s question.
“Bullshit.”
I should have known she wasn’t going to let me get away with that reply. I don’t even know why I tried. “Griffin wanted to come to the room to pick me up. He said he wanted it to be a proper date.”
“And?”
“And I didn’t want him to, but Parker overheard our conversation and said to let him come up… that she wanted to meet him.”
“Did she hate him or something? Was he an ass to her?”
“No, nothing like that.” I heave out a heavy sigh and go on to tell her about my morning.
“Damn, so he met Cameron and Holden?” she asks, even though I just told her that they did.
“Yep.”
“And you’re freaking out?”
“No. I mean, not really. I just wanted him for me, Karina. He didn’t know who I was yesterday. I was just Peyton. Some random girl he met on spring break, and now I’m Peyton Monroe, daughter to Easton Monroe. Sister-in-law to Cameron Taylor. Soon-to-be sister-in-law to Holden Bailey. I just wanted to be me.”
“Okay,” Karina says, sitting up and moving to sit sideways on the lounge chair. “There is a lot I need to dissect with that little rant. However, let’s start with Parker and Holden got engaged, and you didn’t tell me?”
This makes me laugh. “No. They’re not engaged, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. Hell, even Holden said so himself earlier.”
“Good for them.” She nods, a happy smile pulling at her lips. “Now, back to you. You have always been Peyton Monroe. You were you yesterday, and you’re you today.” I start to argue, and she holds up her hand to stop me. “Now, before you go arguing the fact, I want you to think about something.” She pauses and waits for me to nod my acceptance. “Yesterday, Griffin didn’t know who you were, and he was still into you.” I try to talk again, but she gives me a warning look, so I stay quiet. “Today, he’s still into you.”
“But,” I interject, and this time she lets me, “what if he knew who I was yesterday?” I know I’m being irrational, but it’s a real concern for me. Hell, it was a concern for my sisters too. Guys like them… like us for our connection to our dad, or Uncle Drew, and now even Cameron, and I guess Holden for me.
“Do you really think that, Peyton? Do you feel as though you’ve been played?”
I take a minute to think about her question. “No. I don’t feel like I’ve been played, but what if I was?”
“What if you miss out on a great guy because you’re paranoid?”
“It’s not like anything could come of this,” I remind her. “We live too far away. Long-distance relationships never work.”
“Don’t they? Look at your parents and your sisters. Sure, their relationships are not in the true sense of the word long-distance, but they fit the bill pretty closely. Your dad was gone all the time, and so are Cameron and Holden, but they all manage to make it work.”