Chapter Ten
Jade
I sat with the girls. We wolf-whistled and fooled around. I didn’t care I was having so much fun. Derick had driven me to practice, but what he didn’t know is I’d arranged to stay at Cassie’s with all the other girls. We were having a girly night.
“Thank God my brother was shirts this week. I’m telling you I couldn’t be like this if he wasn’t. It is so wrong to wolf-whistle and blatantly glorifying the male specimens in front of you when your brother is half naked too.”
I laughed at Cassie and decided she needed some payback for the help she’d been with Stephan…not. “Your brother is pretty hot, Cassie. He’s super sweet too. I mean redheads are in and he definitely has the bod—”
Cassie stuck her fingers in her ears. “La, la, la. Stacy, nudge me when she stops traumatizing me. The bitch.”
We all cracked up laughing and Stacy nudged Cassie and stuck into her too. “Oh, Cassie, Jade’s right. I love coming over your house now.”
“Oh me too,” Renee said.
“Yeah, pool weekends are always the best,” Patricia piped in. She wiggled her eyebrows. “Tonight is gonna be fun.”
We all held our stomachs as our laughter deepened when Cassie turned bright red. “You guys are so cruel and here I thought you were all my friends.”
I was having so much fun I missed a new addition to the field. We all giggled and mucked about that it took me a while to see a new body joined the shirtless team. A body I knew very well because I’d slept on it for the last week. I smiled when I saw him and waved. Good, I was glad Stephan was here. He should have been here when it started twenty minutes ago. I didn’t want him to give up anything he loved for me and I knew without him telling me he loved rugby. I remembered him telling me he loved playing sports.
Cassie wrapped her arms around me and I did the same. “I’m glad he’s here. He needs to get out more and have fun with his friends. Just because we have each other now doesn’t mean he has to devote every second to me.”
“You need to tell him.” Cassie squeezed me and I squeezed her back.
“You’re right. When did you become so wise?”
“Oh when I started being friends with you.”
“Argh, bitch.” I pinched her and she did it back until we both were laughing so hard we couldn’t move.
*****
Stephan
It was hard concentrating on practice when my favorite thing in the world was going on…Jade laughing, giggling and smiling. I’d driven over to the oval furious Jade had left without telling me. What I came upon on the field made my anger disappear in an instant. Jade was on the seats with her girlfriends, they were cat-calling and basically being crude teenage girls. I chuckled when Jade yelled, “Tackle Brad again, and that was a pansy grab.”
I should be annoyed Jade was so blatantly checking out other guys, but she was laughing, giggling, and pushing and shoving her friends and having so much fun. Jade happy was my favorite thing to see.
“I think you all need cooling off,” Renee, one of Jade’s friends, yelled.
I went over to my coach who didn’t even comment about me being late and asked to be on the shirtless side, I figured if Jade was going to check out the guys she might as well look at me too. I was twenty minutes late but I got into the game right away. Enjoying myself, the forty minutes left of practice flew by.
“Can I expect you to be at the game tomorrow?”
I hadn’t been to a game in weeks. I had really been letting my team down. I looked up to see Jade sitting with her friends smiling and laughing. She needed to get out, we both did. My dad was right, we couldn’t stop our lives when we were attacked. We moved on—more cautious and alert—but we lived. “Yeah. I’ll be there tomorrow.” I gazed around at my teammates. “I’m sorry for letting you down, but family comes first. I’m ready to be back in the game if you’re still willing to have me.”
They guys patted me on the back. “All good, man,” one said.
“Yeah, family comes first, bro,” another said.
“Love to have you back.”
It went like this around the team. All of them welcoming me and forgiving me for letting them down.
The coach left and my brother came over to me. “So your woman is crafty. Even after you warned me I still got suckered in. She’s pure evil.”
I laughed because the serious look on Derick’s face as he gazed behind us at the seats was so convincing I didn’t think he was joking.
“Oh laugh it up. She’s probably up there with the giggling hyenas thinking up some diabolical plan to drive you crazy and bring all men to their knees.”
Rolling my eyes, I wrapped my arm around my brother’s shoulder. “She better not bring any other man besides me to my knees. How about I go stop her diabolical plan? You game to come with me?”
Derick shook me off. “Fuck you. Don’t come bitching to me when you have blue balls because she still won’t come near you.”
“I’ll have you know I don’t sleep alone anymore.” We walked toward the girls.
“Yeah, when did that happen?”
“The night of the shooting.”
Derick shrugged. “Don’t get too comfortable. Knowing you you’ll fuck it up somehow.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you.”
“Really, guys, there is a lot of fucking going on. What happened?” Cassie said and Jade snorted before she giggled.
“Oh my, Cassie, that was so not right.” The girls broke down into a fit of giggles.
Picking Jade off the seat, I kissed her, mashing her lips to mine. She pushed at me. “Stephan, let me go, you’re covered in sweat.”
“Didn’t you want me wet?”
“Argh, that wasn’t me and wet with water not sweat.” I smiled because she turned to face her friends and leaned back on me. Jade wasn’t bothered by my sweat.
“Are you guys doing anything tonight while we have a girls’ night?” Patricia asked.
Jade stiffened in my arms. This was the first I’d heard of a girls’ night. I may not have known about it but I knew Jade needed it. She’d have the guards with her and I had to let her have a life. “I’m sure we can find something to do without you girls.” Jade relaxed back against me.
“I say we have a game night. I haven’t kicked your brother’s arse in a while, Cassie.”
Derick wiggled his eyebrows and Cassie groaned.
“Hey, if I remember, it’s me who does the arse kicking,” Scott bantered back.
“Fine. I say games night for the boys so I can show you all who the king is.” Derick was on a roll. “My brother needs his masculinity back. Jade holds his balls in jar. Do you have permission to play tonight, bro?”
“Whoa burn,” Brad chuckled.
“Derick’s just pissed because Jade played him. She’s smarter than him and he’s sulking.”
The girls laughed and Derick turned red. Tightening my hold on Jade I breathed in her calming scent and listened as our friends talked.
*****
My phone rang at lunchtime and I jumped to answer it. I was trying to give Jade a tiny bit of space so I was waiting for her to call. “Hello.”
“Hi, I’m at West Creek beach? Do you want to come join us? Cassie said she’d drop me home, but I said I wanted you to pick me up so Cassie can join the fun.”
“Yep. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Thanks. Can you bring some extra towels when you come?”
“Sure.” I hung up, changed into board shorts, went and banged on Derick’s door before I typed the code in and entered. “I’m going to the beach. You coming?”
“When you leaving?”
“Now.” I left his room and went to the main closet grabbing clean towels and a bag, shoving in everything I could think of, including sunscreen and a small cooler. Going down to the kitchen I grabbed four bottles of water and put them in the cooler.
“Thanks for waiting for me.” Derick whacked me on the back. “What’s the rush?”
“No rush. I’m picking up Jade.”
“Ah, I’m surprised you lasted this long.”
“Ha, ha very funny. Come on. Move your arse.”
We took my car to the beach. I’d had fun last night, all the guys had come around and we’d played card games, video games, and pool until the early hours of the morning. I wasn’t too keen to go to bed anyway. I’d gotten used to having Jade plastered over me.
“Have you slept?”
“What?” I glanced over at Derick before gazing back at the road.
“You’re blinking lots and really focusing on the road. You’re full of energy like you’ve drank a bunch of Red Bull.”
Okay so I’d had…four, no five Red Bull’s since three this morning. “I’m good. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Watching and seeing how you are, is helping me to believe it’s a curse and not a gift as I first thought.”
“Fuck you.”
“No thanks. I think Jade does it enough to you. Poor bugger.”
Slowing down, I drove down the beach lane. Going to the mass of cars, I parked and got out grabbing the bag. When I heard the passenger door shut I pressed the keyless lock and put the keys into the bag.
Walking down the wooden planks to the beach I searched for the girls. The beach was dived into three groups: families, couples, and groups of singles. Jade and her friends weren’t hard to miss when you knew what to look for. Going to them, my heart soared when I saw Jade look up and smile. Then she stood and I took a deep calming breath to stop from going nuts at the skimpy bikini she wore. That was it, we were going shopping, she needed new swimwear or at least something that covered her breasts properly.
Jade met me not far from their group. I was surprised when she did something very un-Jade-like, she jumped on me wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. “I missed you.” Her lips took mine and I tasted her. What the hell? She was drinking?
Cupping her arse, I went to the group and dropped the bag on the sand. Kissing her I let her have her way for a while before I eased away from her mouth. Jade buried her face in my neck and I groaned as she sucked on my skin. Damn, this was torture. “Little bit, how much have you had?”
Cassie giggled. “Your girlfriend is a lightweight.”
I knew that from the last time she’d gotten drunk, but it didn’t answer my question. “Yep she is. How much did she have?”
Renee looked into a cooler. “Six…no…er seven vodka cruisers. She likes the raspberry ones. I like the passion fruit ones.”
Groaning, I looked at Cassie. “Who the hell drove here?”
“I did. I’ve only just started drinking since Scott said he was on his way. Brad was giving him a lift.”
Sighing, I glanced behind me to see Derick laughing at me. “A curse, brother,” he whispered.
“Shut it and set the towels up for me, please.”
Derick grinned but did as I asked and I closed my eyes and prayed for patience.
Tilting Jade’s head back, I gazed at her. “You haven’t got your cast wet?”
Her brows furrowed and she nibbled on her bottom lip. “Nope all dry, see.” She shoved her cast arm in my face.
“Little bit, have you eaten anything yet?”
“Err, an apple. No,” she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I had a piece of bacon and hash brown too. It was nume, nume, yummy.”
Derick was cracking up and the girls were giggling. Carefully kneeling on the sand, I moved her so I could sit. Reaching the bag I got out a bottle of water and undid the lid before holding it out to her. “Drink some of this?”
Jade took the water and sipped it.
I looked around at the girls. “What time did you start drinking?”
“We came here after breakfast. We didn’t start drinking until ten thirtyish.”
“Oh only ten thirtyish.” I shook my head but couldn’t help my grin. “You guys are a bad influence on my girl.”
“Hey,” Stacy protested. “She was the one who thought to play the drinking game.”
“What drinking game, little bit?”
Her eyes brown eyes sparkled with mischief. “Have you ever.”
“Who was winning?” I asked.
“Jade was.” The girls all chorused.
“What? How? I thought you said she’d had seven?”
“She has,” Patricia added.
“Shit, how many have you girls had?”
Five girls looked into the cooler bumping heads. “Ouch, hey,” they squealed.
“I’ve had eight,” Racheal said with a huge grin. “I’m coming in second.” She winked at me.
“I’ve had nine,” Cassie said with a burp.
“How the hell, Cassie, you said you just started?”
“Isa just have, but I had to skull to catch up.”
“For fuck sake.”
Derick chuckled.
“How many drinks did you bring?”
“Argh, two coolers full. Twelve vodka cruisers each. And two bottles of wine,” Patricia giggled out.
“Holy shit, what would you have done if we didn’t come to look after you and drive you home?”
The girls thought it was hilarious, even Jade was snorting with laughter.
“Wes made a bet,” Renee piped in.
“Yeah, yous a quick response,” Patricia giggled.
“They think you don’t know how to say no to me,” Jade whispered. “I don’t care what they think. Thanks for coming. I’m tired. I couldn’t sleep. I was cold without you.” She shivered against me and I rubbed her back as she snuggled against me.
I didn’t care what her friends thought I cared what Jade felt. Kissing her forehead, I hugged her to me and gazed over at my brother to see Derick smiling. It wasn’t a curse.