“She is, too bad I’ll probably never see her again.” The happiness I’d felt reliving the past week to my parents suddenly fell away at the realization that she was so far away.
“I’m sorry, son.” My dad’s gruff voice snapped me out of my pity party.
My mom reached back and took my hand. “Maybe you will. You never know; you never know.”
She was absolutely right. I’d told Easton the same thing back at the airport, and I’d meant it.
I needed to see her again no matter what. “I guess there’s always summer vacation.”
“There’s the spirit.” She rubbed my hand and then sat back in her seat.
When we arrived back at my parents’ house, I went straight for my bedroom to listen to Easton’s voicemail; I didn’t even sit down.
The sound of her voice immediately brightened my mood.
“Hey, I’m still sitting here in the airport, and you’ve been gone for over an hour. I feel like I need to say goodbye again before I leave here and turn my back for good. I’ve never felt the way I do about you, and it’s scary to think that’s all gone now, left the moment you walked away. I already miss you like crazy, and it’s just going to get worse. I wish you all the best, Tanner, and I hope that someday, you’ll find someone that makes you feel the way you made me feel this week.”
She took a deep breath, and a sob broke free. She took a minute before she continued, “I need to end this chapter before I leave this airport, and that means that I need to say goodbye for good. I don’t think we should have any contact so we don’t string each other along, knowing it can’t go anywhere. You’ll always have a special place in my heart, Tanner. I wish things could be different, but they aren’t. So goodbye.” I heard her start to cry before the message ended.
My knees gave out beneath me as my world crumbled.
Thirteen
Awesome Day My Ass
Two years later
Easton
I woke to the sound of my phone, and I rolled over to grab it quickly. “Hello?” My voice was barely a crusty whisper. I yawned loudly and heard a chuckle on the other end of the line.
“Sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep, princess, but you need to get your board. It’s bombin’ out there right now.”
I ripped the blankets off and jumped out of bed quickly, and in my haste, I stubbed my toe. “Motherfucker!” I looked up when I saw movement coming from the other side of the bed. Who the fuck?
“Come back to bed, Easton.” A deep voice grumbled from under the covers as a hand snaked out and tried to grab at my leg.
I recognized the tattoo on his forearm.
He was the guy from the bar last night. “Easton, is everything all right?” Spencer sounded concerned on the phone.
“Yeah, Spence, sorry; it’s fine.” I walked out into the hallway and headed toward Sadie’s room first. “Some guy is in my bed, and honestly, I can’t even remember his name. I didn’t even drink that much last night.”
Spencer snorted into the phone. “I always said you were just one of the guys.”
He was right on that front. I may look all girl on the outside, but I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I acted more like one of the guys.
“See you soon, Spence. I’m going to wake the others.” I hung up as I opened Rhian’s bedroom door and walked over to her bed to shake her arm slightly. “You coming to watch us rip up the waves?”
She rolled over and covered her head with the blanket.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
She grunted in response. Seeing as Rhian wasn’t a surfer, I couldn’t blame her for staying in bed.
Next, I moved on to Sadie’s room. I switched on her light and jumped on top of her. “Bitch, get up. Spence just called and said it’s gun time. Let’s go.”
She pushed me off of her, and I flopped to the ground.
“You whore. What the fuck was that for?”
She yawned loudly. “Nothing. Why are you still in your panties and bra? Why aren’t you ready?”
I looked down and realized she was right. “Shit, I’m going. I’ve got to get that dude out of my bed, too.” I got up and started to walk out of the room.
“You mean Blaine? The guy from last night? Seriously, Easton, you don’t even remember his name? You need to stop bringing home strays. One could be an ax murderer.”
I walked out of the room, ignoring her last comment. I rarely brought a guy home that one of the five of us didn’t know.
Blaine was sitting up in bed when I walked in. He was hotter than I remembered. “Hey beautiful, why are you up this early? Come back to bed.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, dude, but you’ve got to go. I’m heading out.” I grabbed one of my suits that were hanging off my chair and started to change.
“Go? It’s five in the morning.”
I struggled with my tangled bathing suit. Fuck, I hated mornings. “It’s the perfect time for surfing.”
He dropped back onto the mattress and covered his head with the pillow. “I can’t believe you get up this early to surf. You must be crazy.”
I snatched a rash guard off the floor to put on. “You can’t stay here, and the guys are on their way. You don’t have to go home, but you need to get the fuck out.” I grabbed the pillow and smacked him in the head. “You’re welcome to come with us, but either way, your ass needs to get up.”
He reached up and grabbed me, swinging me onto the bed and underneath him, and leaned in for a kiss, but I dodged him.
“Listen, last night was great, but I don’t do this whole thing. I usually don’t bring guys back to my place just for this reason. I’m just not that girl.”
He pulled back slightly, looking into my eyes and scrunched up his face for a second. “It’s cool. I honestly wasn’t looking for anything more, just thought it was customary. You know, something girls wanted.” He shrugged. “But this is even better. Perfect. Whatever.”
I rolled my eyes. I could tell by his tone, he was not cool with what just went down, but I didn’t have time for this. I always said the same thing: no more guys back to the bungalow. It was just too awkward and gave them the wrong impression.
I smiled an utterly fake smile and clapped my hands together. “Great, now that we have that out of the way, can you let me up? I need to get my surf on.” I pushed on his chest lightly for him to snap out of whatever was whirling around in that pretty head of his.
He finally pushed up, got out of bed, and started quickly searching for his clothes. “I’m just going to take a leak if you don’t mind, then I’ll be out of your hair.”
Aw crap, now I felt a little twinge of guilt, but shit, I was positive I gave him the typical speech. This was exactly what I’d said: This is not the start of a relationship. I may want another round, but I don’t want anything more than just sex. Can you handle that? Because if you can’t, walk away now. I’d never had a guy walk away before. They all think with their dicks, so that wasn’t a surprise.
Five minutes later and Blaine was peeling out of the drive, clearly pissed, but I couldn’t give two shits about him. Sadie and I grabbed our boards off the makeshift rack on the side of the porch and took off down the path to the beach. We heard Spencer and Carson shout out after us, but there was no stopping the two of us until our feet hit the surf. Man, I loved the feeling of my toes squishing in the sand.