Sweet Cheeks(58)

I shake the thought from my head. Tell myself to focus on the heated sand beneath my bare feet, the breeze on my face, and the sun on my skin. To forget ideas of making up time or the notion that we’re catching up so we can move forward.

Because neither of us have addressed that. We haven’t had time to because we’ve been too busy enjoying each other instead. And that makes me smile thinking of his comment before: Ships, I’m a whole helluva lot of satisfied. Is it wrong to feel just a little smug at that?

“Are you going to tell me . . .?” My voice fades as I see a local man on the beach about twenty feet in front of us wave to Hayes. There’s a blanket beside him where snorkeling gear is all laid out. A catamaran moored out in the water beyond.

Hayes turns to look at me, grin huge. “You said you wanted to swim with turtles, and so . . .” he shrugs, “we’re swimming with turtles.”

“Are you kidding me?” Excitement pulses through my veins. Surprise and appreciation do too, but those are directed squarely to Hayes.

“Nope.”

“How did you . . . how is it even possible?” I ask, trying to think if there was any time whatsoever this morning where we were apart and he could set this up.

“What can I say?” He mock bows. “I am The Captain.”

“Lord help us.” I laugh but love it all the same. My arms wrap around his neck and when my lips meet his again, I murmur, “Thank you, Captain.”




The lull of the boat rocking is more than enough to put me to sleep. Add to it the sun on my skin, the two hours of snorkeling in the beautiful waters of Smith’s reef, and two glasses of wine, and I should be snoring. But I’m not. There’s no way I could close my eyes.

I don’t want to waste a moment of the time we have left here together.

And so I prop my head up on my elbow and watch Hayes from behind the mirrored lenses of my sunglasses. He’s lying on the net, or trampoline as he referred to it, beside me. His eyes are closed, face shaded by the mainsail above us, and his hands are behind his head. I take the opportunity to look at him and memorize the line of his profile even though I already know it by heart.

“Are you staring at me again?” he asks, voice sleepy, smile spreading on his lips.

“Always.”

“You used to do that all the time. We’d sit in that tree house with the fireflies around us and the stars above us and you’d always look at me instead of the sky.”

I warm at the memory and how annoyed he used to get by it. “I was just preparing you for your future career.”

“Funny,” he mutters and turns his head to face me.

“I have my moments.” He reaches out and swats at my leg and I scramble away.

“Be careful, Ships, or else I’ll dangle you over the edge of the boat so your toes are in the water.”

“No!” I giggle, my face a mask of mock horror. “I still can’t believe that!” I shiver remembering that first nibble on my brightly painted toes from the tiny fish while snorkeling. We can only assume they must have thought they were food. It didn’t hurt, but it sure as hell scared the shit out of me. And of course I surfaced with a yelp while Hayes treaded water laughing so hard he sunk below the waterline.

“See? I saved you from getting your fingers nibbled on too. Good thing I kidnapped you today and prevented you from endless hours of torture at the salon.”

“My hero,” I swoon with a roll of my eyes he can’t see but know he knows I’m doing.

“Bet your ass I am. Haven’t you seen me in tights?”

“Oh God. Please. The ego.” I fall back on my elbows laughing and loving the sound of his laughter melding with mine. It’s comforting. It’s us.

The smile on his lips fades. “I didn’t know, you know.” His voice is suddenly serious.

“Didn’t know what?” He’s lost me.

“When I left, I didn’t know I wasn’t coming back.”

I’m not sure how he expects me to react from his unexpected confession, but I can’t deny that my breath catches. “It’s in the past,” I murmur, wanting to stick with the promise I made myself when I came here about forgiving him, and not wanting to waste the time we have left on things that can’t be changed.

“I know it’s in the past, Say, but it’s important for you to understand. I left for a weekend trip to Hollywood, a cocky kid with stars in his eyes who sure as shit wasn’t going to land a once-in-a-lifetime-dream role on his first audition.”

“But you did,” I whisper, remembering where I was the first time I noticed the hushed whispers of my friends who were averting their eyes every time I looked their way. How I finally confronted Ryder and found out Hayes had landed a huge role and wasn’t coming home anytime soon. I screamed and yelled and begged to know why Ryder hadn’t told me the truth. He admitted that I’d lost so much weight and was finally starting to smile again that he couldn’t bear to tell me. He was too afraid it would renew the heartache and start the cycle all over again.

“I did.” He nods subtly and even though his eyes are behind tinted lenses, I swear I can feel him searching mine to make sure I’m okay with the memories this conversation is evoking. “I walked in to the casting audition nervous as hell, wanting to say I tried my hardest and the dream wasn’t for me, but walked out shell-shocked when I’d been cast in the part.”