Chapter 8
Alex
Alex returned from his morning run late. Instead of the usual single loop, he’d pounded through two. If running couldn’t give him peace of mind, the least it could do was wear him out.
As he rounded the last curve of the trail to home, he heard splashing in the pool. It was rare these days for anyone to make use of the Olympic-size pristine water. As children, he, Caleb, and Lee would spend summers racing through the water, but that was long ago.
He saw Faith finish a lap at the deep end. She hoisted herself out of the water with hair that looked even darker and longer than usual. Jesus Christ, no woman should be shaped like that. She had legs for miles, taut and toned in the high-cut bikini bottom. Amazing tits, too, he thought. The red two-piece showed off every curve, and the halter top emphasized her perfect hourglass shape.
Faith looked in his direction and caught his stare as she wrapped a white towel around her tiny waist. He looked down quickly and walked faster toward the house. This was way too much of a distraction.
He’d never realized before just how small the inn could be. His entire life, it had seemed huge. But now? With Faith there, it was like he couldn’t avoid bumping into her. All morning and into the afternoon he busied himself with tasks around the house.
“Since when do you cut the firewood?” Caleb called to him. Alex winced. It had taken him ten minutes to get into the meditative, repetitive motion of chopping wood. “Besides, it’s summer. How many fires do you think there will be?”
“There’re always bonfires,” Alex said to himself. After a few minutes, he felt Caleb’s presence disappear. Half an hour later, he caught sight of a bright-yellow figure on one of the trails. Matt and Faith walked side by side while his cousin pointed out the wildlife.
But Faith seemed to be looking directly at him. Is that right? It was too far away to tell for certain.
By the time Alex had moved on to mowing the manicured front lawn, even at his mama’s insistence that the gardeners would be there in two days, all doubts were erased. Faith sat on the front porch sipping sweet tea. The heat of the day had forced her to draw her long dress up over her knees while her feet were perched on the railing. He felt her eyes on him the entire time.
It’s not like it’s the worst thing for my ego to be looked at by a woman, he told himself. Especially someone that looks like her. Alex paused and pulled his shirt over his head. As he wrapped the T-shirt around the handlebars of the old push mower, he was well aware of the show he put on. Thank God for a diligent workout regimen.
Alex stole a look at her through his sunglasses. Her own aviators partially hid her gaze, but he could feel her stare like a heat probe.
She could be a model. Or an actress, he thought. But a lawyer? In some ways, that made her even hotter. In others, it reminded him that she was a world away from him.
By the time he’d finished with the lawn, Faith had gone back inside, and the sun was starting to set. He was soaked in sweat, but the manual labor of the day gave him a type of energy he hadn’t felt in years.
The foyer and sitting rooms were clear, though he heard clangs in the kitchen. Alex took the stairs two at a time and hit the shower. Already, he could feel a minor sunburn had soaked into his shoulders and chest. While he lathered up, he refused to think of Faith. Not now. Even a fantasy could get him into trouble.
Downstairs, he heard laughter and hushed tones. Mama and Faith were huddled in the kitchen at the breakfast table while Gwen and Jessie hunched over the stove. “What are y’all doin’?” he asked.
“Oh, just looking at some old family photos,” Mama said.
“What—what family photos?” he asked. He recognized some of the old, thick photo albums Mama had laid out on the table. A couple were historic photos of the inn and Saint Rose from circa 1900. Other albums weren’t as familiar.
Faith was totally absorbed in the books and didn’t even look up when he walked in. “Who’s this?” she asked Mama.
“That’s my great-aunt. She swore the secret to a long life was two gin and tonics plus half a pack of cigarettes every day. Of course, she died at sixty-three.”
Alex rolled his eyes and peeked over Gwen’s shoulder. “Collard greens?” he asked.
“Yeah, wit’ pork, baby,” she said. “Now, you know how I feel about having noncooks in my kitchen. Get. Y’all Gonna eat real soon.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. There was nowhere to go but the table.
Mama had pulled out yet another album, and this one was newer. Alex still didn’t recognize it, but Mama was always archiving family photos. She refused to switch to digital, though he and Caleb had been trying for years. “And what am I supposed to do when the computer crashes again?” she’d asked.
“Mama, if that happens, the pictures will be safe in the cloud.”
“In the what now?”
He shook his head at the thought. Some things never changed.
“Now see, here’s the whole family ʼbout seven years ago,” Mama said. She pointed to a posed shot of the extended family from Alex and Rebecca’s rehearsal dinner. “Flew in from all over the world! Alex ʼn Caleb’s aunts and cousins from Luxembourg, right here. And this—”
Alex’s heart quickened. He knew what Faith’s next question was going to be. He remembered the shot well, with him and Rebecca right in the center. It couldn’t be another page or two before it became obvious that it was his wedding album.
“Hey, Mama, think dinner’s ready yet?” he interrupted. It was a stupid question, but it was the first thing he could think of.
“Hey? Hay is for horses,” Mama scolded him. “And didn’t I just hear you bothering Gwen about it anyway? Why are you asking me?”
“I just thought—”
“Dinner’s ready,” Gwen said as she turned off the gas.
Mama sighed. “Saved by the bell, you are,” she told Alex. She snapped the album shut. “Go get your brothers. I’ll help Gwen serve.”
“I’ll set the table,” Faith said and jumped up.
“Well, bless your heart, that’s real sweet of you,” Mama said. “You could learn a thing or two from her,” Mama said to Alex. “Real helpful. What you been doing all day, anyway?”
Alex opened his mouth to tick off the list of nonstop chores but then snapped it back shut. What was the point?
He ran back upstairs and called out to Caleb, Matt, and Lee. It didn’t take much to get them to rush downstairs for Gwen’s collard greens. She wouldn’t even give the recipe up to Mama. It was the one dish she cooked completely by herself.
As they settled down in the formal dining room, Mama and Gwen glided into the room with arms full of steaming home cooking. Dishes of blackened catfish with Cajun spices, jalapeño-infused cornbread, slices of tomatoes from the garden with salt and pepper, and pimiento cheese were spread out across the table.
“This looks amazing,” Faith said. All four men remained standing until both Mama and Faith sat.
“Gwen’s amazing,” Mama said. “I swear, she and I are nearly the same age, but I learned more about cooking from her than I ever did my own mama.”
“Thank you much, ma’am,” Gwen said as she delivered the last dish to the table, baked mac ’n’ cheese with bread crumb topping.
“I heard Alex took you for some barbeque in Savannah,” Caleb said to Faith.
“Yes! My first time. It was fantastic. I’d never had hushpuppies before. Or, you know, real southern food.”
“You never had hushpuppies?” Lee asked. “What they servin’ out in California?”
“Oh, you know,” Faith said as she speared the greens. “Kale was huge for a while, kale everything. But that’s not really trending anymore. I still love a good quinoa bowl for lunch. Local sashimi is great. And I guess avocado toast is having a moment, but I just can’t bring myself to order that at brunch when I could make it for two dollars at home.”
“All right. I understood about half of that,” Lee said with a laugh.
Faith followed suit. “I guess it does sound pretty pretentious,” she said. She closed her eyes and let the flavors of Gwen’s greens take over. “But trust me, even the best sushi in California can’t compete with this.”
“Next time you go to the mainland, I’ll take you,” Matt said. “I know this great little New Orleans Creole-style restaurant. It’s got just the right amount of French influence.”
Alex rolled his eyes. Of course Matt would try to impress her at one of the most expensive restaurants in town.
“That sounds great,” Faith said with a smile.
Alex surveyed the table. He could tell all three of them were into her. The flirtations were passed around like hors d’oeuvres.
“Mama?” he asked suddenly. Alex didn’t care if he interrupted the game between Faith and the rest of them. “I was thinking, I’m going to move back into the cabin.”
“What on earth for?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I just need a little more space. Plus, I can get up for my morning runs and make breakfast in the morning without worrying about waking anyone.”
“Alex, I just don’t see the point,” Mama said as she cut off a piece of catfish. “The room upstairs is perfectly fine.”
“So is the cabin,” he pointed out. “Besides, it’s not being used, and Jessie cleans it every weekend for no reason. It’s just on the other side of the property.”
Mama sighed. “Fine. Get as far away from the family as you can. But if we get any booking requests for it, you best bet you’ll be outta there quicker than a fox out a henhouse.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. No guests had requested the cabin in three summers. Most came to Saint Rose looking for the full plantation experience. A log cabin that looked like it belonged more in North Carolina than a Georgia island wasn’t exactly what anyone had in mind.
“Where’s the cabin?” Faith asked. She looked around the table, but it seemed like her eyes lingered on his.
“Oh, just at the end of the trail that heads toward Alex’s plane. Remember how it forked, and one trail was bark chips while the other was pavement? You just follow the bark chips,” Mama said.
“And it’s usually just empty?”
“Well, didn’t used to be,” Mama said. “Their daddy built it as a caretaker home when we thought we’d be retiring elsewhere. But here we are,” she said with a smile.
Alex finished up the last of his greens. While he sopped up the juices with the last of his cornbread, he watched Faith toss her head back and laugh at something Caleb said.
“May I be excused?” he asked the table but stood up before anyone could argue.
“Think you done made up your mind ʼbout that, already,” Mama said pointedly as she sipped her tea.
Alex shoved the contents of his dresser into a tote bag and jogged to the cabin. I just can’t be in that house with her anymore. Something about Faith just got to him. There was no way he could sleep two doors down from her. He’d be up all night.
In the cabin, the lights bathed the rooms in warmth. Jessie had kept the cabin flawless for years, dutifully cleaning, dusting, and changing the bedding every weekend without fail.
He fell into the cushy bedding and waited for sleep that never came. Instead, images of Faith in that red bikini flooded his mind. The way she’d looked at him as she emerged from the water, her nipples stiff from the morning breeze below the wet material. Before she’d wrapped that towel around herself, he’d seen how her round ass had swallowed half the bottoms. From the looks of it, the suit clung to her with just a few bows and knots. All it would take was a few pulls in the right places.
Alex groaned and rolled onto his side, but it didn’t get rid of the image. Instead, he just started to replay the image of Faith getting out of the pool. How the water had dripped down her curves, and how her hips had flared out just right.
Alex felt himself get hard, but he refused to touch himself. If he gave in, there was no telling what he might do the next time he saw her. All day long, it had seemed like she’d watched him like she couldn’t get enough. Then at dinner, she’d been open to flirtations from Caleb, Matt, Lee, all of them.
He grabbed the phone and texted Erica on a whim. Busy this weekend? he asked.
Immediately, he saw the ellipses start. Sorry, babe. Last-minute trip to Seattle for work, I’ll be here all summer.
He growled and tossed down the phone.
Shit. His only outlet was gone. What’s wrong with me? Why does one woman affect me so much?