Chapter Eight
Dominic
I took a deep breath of the salty ocean air and felt it down to my toes. Brooke had always said she felt most alive when she was walking barefoot on the beach. I shook my head. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Brooke right now. My girlfriend was further down on the beach with Riley. Talia looked perfect with the wind blowing through her blonde hair.
“You okay?” Josh asked.
Was I okay? I honestly didn’t know.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Finals really took it out of me. I’m happy to finally be here.”
“I know what you mean. We’ve been planning this trip for so long it never felt like it was actually going to happen. I’ll be honest with you though; I didn’t expect this group of people.”
I scrunched up my face. “What are you talking about?”
“You and Talia? You haven’t dated anyone in years, and all of a sudden she’s coming with us on a vacation. It just seemed sudden. Not to mention Brooke and Austin. She’s always had a thing for him, but damn. I never expected them to actually start dating.”
I forced a laugh. “Yeah, you’re right. It is a little crazy.”
He gave me a funny look. “Are you and Brooke okay? Or will you be okay? I’ve been worried about both of you, but every time I ask I’m terrified I’m going to get my head bitten off. Neither of you have exactly been pleasant to be around lately.” He met my eyes. “Or forthcoming about what the hell is going on between you two.”
He knew. Or at least he suspected.
I huffed out a breath. I was proud of him though, he’d made it three days on our month long vacation before asking. I was surprised he hadn’t cornered me on the first day.
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to let it ruin this amazing trip. Did you know this is the first time I’ve been to the beach?” He seemed surprised, although he knew almost everything about me, so he shouldn’t be. I continued. “I’m not going to waste my time thinking about drama.”
This conversation needed to end before I said something that I couldn’t take back. I left Josh standing behind me as I ran to tackle Talia. Over the past month and a half, I’d gotten to know her better. She was funny and smart and everything I should want in a woman. It wasn’t that I was forcing myself to like her—she was amazing—but I couldn’t help but compare her to Brooke. Old habits were hard to break.
Talia screeched as I tossed her over my shoulder and ran into the water. She giggled as I tugged her down into the waves with me. I pulled her out further and she wrapped her long legs around my waist. Her soft lips ran along my neck. I growled when she nipped me softly.
“You’re going to make it impossible for me to get out of the water if you aren’t careful, woman.”
She grinned cheekily. “Maybe that’s what I want?”
I loved this playful side of Talia. It reminded me of…Brooke. Damn it. I tried to mentally shake off the comparison.
“We could spend time out here all by ourselves,” she continued. “Your friends are great, but it would be nice to have some alone time.”
“Maybe we can sneak out to a club by ourselves tonight.”
Her eyes lit up. “Go dancing?”
I squeezed her hip. “If that’s what you want.”
She pushed her body in closer to mine and her eyes flashed with unbridled lust. I groaned. The little brat knew what she was doing as she untied my board shorts. We were going to be in the water forever. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any interruptions by my friends.
***
I wanted to sneak in and out of the house quickly before anyone could realize we were going out without them, but I should’ve realized my luck wasn’t that good. As I was going upstairs to shower, Josh came out of his room and cornered me in the hall. The look on his face should’ve cued me in that what he was about to say was a horrible, horrible thing.
“We’re going on a double date,” he paused. “Triple date? Or whatever the fuck it is when three couples go out to have dinner together.”
My hands tightened around my beach towel. “What are you talking about?”
“Riley,” he said in explanation.
I groaned. “Doesn’t she realize—” I cut myself off. If I said what I wanted to, Josh would realize just how bad things were between me, Austin and Brooke. Like everyone didn’t pick up on the tension anyway.
“I tried to get you out of it, but the girls decided before I could talk them out of their crazy plans. We’re going for seafood if it makes it any better.”
I flipped him off and shoved past to go shower. No, seafood didn’t make this shit show better. If I had to put up with Austin and Brooke all night, I wanted to have a drink before we left. One of the best things we did when we got to the coast was buy every type of liquor they sold at the store down the street. When I walked into the kitchen Austin was taking a shot. Apparently the bastard had the same idea I did, or he was getting plastered so he could start shit tonight and blame it on the alcohol.
“Ready for this shit tonight?” he asked when he saw me.
I took the bottle of Jack sitting on the counter and poured a shot. “Nope, but I guess we’re stuck together now.”
“I bet you could convince Talia to stay in.” He shot me a disgusting grin. “You two are fucking loud. What the hell are you doing when she screa—”
My eye twitched. It took everything in me not to shove him against the cabinets. “I think you need to shut your fucking mouth.”
He poured another shot. “I was trying to give you a complement, asshole.”
“What, by telling me that I know how to fuck?” I took the shot. “No thanks.”
“Are you two through with your pissing contest?” I turned to see Brooke standing in the doorway with her hands crossed over her chest, looking at us like she wanted to find a kitchen knife to use. I didn’t know which one of us she would’ve chosen to use it on first. “We would like to leave for dinner when you guys finish up.”
It had been two weeks since Brooke had spoken to me directly. Neither of us knew what to say to each other. I was still pissed, and I had no idea where her head was, but it didn’t matter since I wasn’t exactly ready to forgive and forget anyway.
“Your asshole boyfriend started it,” I said as I brushed past her. “Maybe if he spent more time on your needs instead of focusing on how my girlfriend sounds you’d be less cranky.”
“You are such a fucking dick.”
A flush was creeping up her cheeks, turning her tomato red. Her eyes were narrowed, and although her arms were still crossed over her chest, it looked more defensive than pissed off.
“Look, I don’t want to be around you any more than you want to be around me, but it would crush Riley if we didn’t go. She’s latched onto this idea and, for some odd reason, won’t let it go. Can we just call a cease fire for the next few hours? You can go back to hating me when the nights over.”
Austin crossed the room and wrapped an arm around her waist. “What’s your problem anyway, Torres? You two won’t say what your little disagreement is about and everyone is sick of walking on eggshells around you.”
I looked at Brooke, making sure she met my eyes. “It’s no one’s business why we can’t stand each other right now.”
I didn’t want to notice the tears welling up in her eyes. I really fucking didn’t. But of course I did. Her emerald eyes flashed in pain. She straightened her expression quickly; her eyes closing off so no one could tell what she was feeling or thinking. It was odd to have that directed at me.
“Don’t worry about it, Austin. Surely Dom and I can be civil at dinner for an hour.”
“Are you guys ready?” Josh asked, sticking his head into the kitchen. He looked between the three of us in concern. “Is everything—”
“It’s fine. We’re coming, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Brooke said quickly. “I just wanted to take a shot first.”
Josh looked at her questioningly. “Okay,” he drawled.
We all watched her as she walked over to the island and poured a double shot of tequila. God, it burned just watching her down it. Not to mention she didn’t have a chaser. She slammed the shot glass down and turned around to face us.
“Let’s go get this night over with.”
***
Dinner was as bad as I thought it would be. Austin made pointed comments all night, Brooke sucked down drink after drink, and Riley tried hard to pretend everything was normal. Josh and Talia looked confused as we tried to keep some semblance of normalcy while we sat there eating. The tension in the group was tangible and other diners looked in our direction frequently. It would be embarrassing how awkward we all were if I actually cared.
“Is Brooke okay?” Talia whispered in my ear. Instead of answering, I shrugged. “You two were friends; maybe you should talk to her.”
I ran a hand over the back of my neck. “Not right now. If I say anything, it’ll only make things worse.”
She pulled back and studied me for a second. Relief hit me when she finally agreed. I took a long sip on my drink. There’s nothing quite like having your current girlfriend asking you to talk to the girl you’ve had feelings for for years. My head wasn’t in the right place for this. At this rate I was going to need a vacation from my vacation. I’d been looking forward to this trip for months, and now I felt guilty that I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I should be.
I was stuck in the awful place where I was conflicted about having fun. Brooke and I were miserable, but we couldn’t let anyone else know, yet I wanted Talia to enjoy herself. It killed me to see Brooke hanging all over Austin though. I really did like Talia, but I couldn’t just turn off my feelings for Brooke no matter how hard I tried. Who the hell knew what was going on in Brooke’s head? She was the one dating Austin.
The asshole had everyone fooled except me.
It was like I was waiting for something bad to happen between them. He would either cheat on her or decide he didn’t want to actually be in a relationship and hurt her when he broke things off. But when that happened, it wouldn’t be my responsibility to help pick up the pieces. Caroline could try to fix that shit.
I knew that wouldn’t happen though. Yes, I was mad, but she was still my best friend. I was pissed that she’d thrown my feelings back in my face, but I didn’t want to see her torn apart because of some stupid asshole. Austin was her Brooke. Meaning she wanted him as much as I wanted her. Probably not for as long, in fact I knew it wasn’t, but still the connection was there. The alcohol was really starting to get to me if I connected those dots.
“Dom, what do you think?” Riley asked.
I stared at her blankly. “Huh?”
“Did you really not hear anything I just said?”
I gave her a guilty grin. “Sorry. I guess I’m wiped out from being in the water all day.”
She groaned. “I asked if you guys wanted to go dancing. There’s a club we can get into for free until ten. We can probably make it if we leave now.”
I looked over at Talia. She raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. I’d promised her we would go dancing, but I had also said we’d go alone.
“I think we’re going to bow out tonight.”
Brooke huffed a laugh. “Of course you are,” she mumbled. “Can you guys keep it down tonight? Some of us don’t want the house to be a porno movie.”
“Brooke,” I snapped.
Talia started blushing. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize,” she stammered.
“Oh bless your heart honey, you didn’t realize you scream like a banshee?” Brooke said in that syrupy sweet voice. The drunker she was, the stronger her accent got. “Normally it would be fine, I’m used to walking in on these two all the time.” She motioned at Riley and Josh with her glass, wine sloshing over the edge. “But I didn’t bring earplugs, so if you’d be a peach and try screaming into the pillow, that would be swell.”
I glared at her. How dare she.
“Can’t you shut her up?” I asked Josh.
He shrugged. “It’s never worked before, so I don’t know why you think tonight’s any different. You’re normally better at it than I am anyway.”
I rolled my eyes heavenwards. God give me strength not to strangle this woman. “Brooke, I think you need to be done for the night.”
She cocked her head to the side and gave another of her distinctly southern fuck off glares. “You aren’t my keeper, Dominic, so I’m pretty sure I’m not done. There’s plenty of wine back at the condo though. Austin, let’s go.”
We watched her down the rest of her drink, tuck her purse under her arm and stand gracefully. By how much wine she’d drank, she should’ve been on her ass. Austin shrugged and stood up beside her. “We’ll get an Uber home.”
Josh looked concerned as he watched his sister leave. “What the fuck is going on between you two?”
I shook my head and stared down at the tumbler in my hand.
“I wish I knew.”