Girl Crush(53)

Beck met me at the door, bouncing on the balls of her feet when she let me in. When she wrapped me in a tight hug, I fought against the tears that threatened to surface. I didn’t come here to wallow in everything Collier, and I refused to do it. Instead, I chose to laugh at her silliness and the way she acted ten years younger than she actually was.

The sun was bright and naturally lightened my mood. The two of us had jumped into the water several times but ended up in lawn chairs relaxing and chatting about nothing. I kept checking the time because the sun gave no indication of just how late it was. Summer in the South allowed the light to linger well after eight at night, and I didn’t want to risk running into him.

The last time I’d glanced at my phone, it was just after seven. I still had plenty of time to chill out with Beck before I needed to head home to miss Collier. Or so I thought until I heard the Porsche pull into the driveway. Even from behind the house, the sound was as distinct as a Harley or a Mustang.

“Fuck. Beck, West is home. How the hell do I get out of here?”

She jolted up from her supine position on her towel to meet my rigid stare. The situation really didn’t call for the panic that had set in my stomach. I was an adult, I should handle this like an adult—meet it head-on—have a conversation. But instead of a mature response, I rushed to grab my stuff. Throwing my towel and clothes into my bag, I jumped up to bolt.

“Giselle, where are you going?”

“Home! Before he sees me here, Beck. Come on, how do I get out?”

I searched for an exit. Going through the house wasn’t a possibility, it was too likely I’d run into him inside. If I tried to make it to the gate on the opposite end of the pool, he’d see me from the kitchen before I made my getaway. My heart raced when I stared at the privacy fence surrounding the yard. Collier couldn’t have a nice wrought iron decorative barrier like normal rich people—he had to have a six-foot, solid-wood screen.

I dragged an outdoor end table up to the fence.

“What are you doing, Giselle?”

“What does it look like?” I shrieked the words in horror and an octave higher than normal. “I’m going over the fence.” In my mind, it was rational, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

“You can’t scale the fence to avoid my brother. Just go out the side.”

“He might see me,” I wailed and climbed up on the glass tabletop.

“Your car is in the driveway, Giselle. He knows you’re here.”

I put my hands on the ledge of the fence and jumped up, extending my elbows so the top of the wood now scraped against my bare stomach. The pain didn’t register as I swung my foot up and then clumsily climbed over the enclosure with bare feet and in nothing but a string bikini…just as Collier came out the French doors onto the patio.

He called my name as I dropped down onto the other side and took off running. I could hear him shouting for me to wait and knew he’d go back through the house to meet me out front. I searched for my keys as I made my way through the grass, cursing as I stepped on rocks in my haste, and I didn’t even want to think about what had squished between my toes just before I hit the driveway. The Camaro beeped, indicating it was unlocked. I used the remote start button to save myself time and jumped in as fast as I could. The front door swung open right as I put the car in gear and pulled away from Collier’s house, but I didn’t wait to see who it was. I didn’t have to see his chiseled jaw, his broad shoulders, or stunning, green eyes to know it was him.

When my erratic breathing returned to normal, and I’d stopped speeding like a bat out of hell, I found my cell in my bag and called Beck to apologize for bailing on her. My irrational behavior had left splinters in my hands and likely on my stomach where I’d scraped the crap out of it climbing over the wood. As the phone rang on the other end, I glanced down at my belly to the angry, red marks running from side to side and groaned.

She answered on the third ring. “Did you seriously just scale my fence like a ninja?”

I huffed. “I wouldn’t say ninja. I wasn’t nearly that suave. My stomach and hands are a mess.”

“He isn’t going to bite you. What happened Friday night that you’re avoiding him?”

“He didn’t tell you?” I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was. They were twins but didn’t seem to share all that much with each other. Collier closed himself off to most people, which was why this was all that much more difficult. He’d let me in, and I’d failed him as a friend.

“No. He refuses to talk about it until he’s talked to you. So spill it.”

“What the hell was he doing there? I thought he had a meeting in Green Grove.”

“Apparently, it got canceled. I made the mistake of asking that same question. He reminded me it was his house, and he didn’t answer to me when I asked why he was home so early. So, yeah. Are you going to tell me?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Beck. I screwed up, but I’ll figure out how to fix it. I promise.”

“You know he knows you were here, right?”

“Sadly, yes.” It would have been hard to miss the banana boat parked in his spot in his driveway in front of his house. I couldn’t say with a hundred percent certainty, but I was almost positive Beck didn’t have another friend with a bright-yellow Camaro.