All That Jazz (Butler Cove #1)
Natasha Boyd
For Stephen
Pa -
It happened. Finally! I found my best friend. She don’t know it yet, but she will soon. And I can’t wait for you to meet her. When are you coming back? She just moved here. Thank the baby Jesus. Was beginning to think fifth grade a bust. I miss you so so so so so SO so so soooooo SO much.
I miss you like a crab misses its claw. <~ Beat that one.
Love from your Jazzy Bear
P.S. She has a brother, but he’s annoying.
“OUCH,” I HISS as I lie down gingerly on the scratchy motel sheets in Florida for our senior year “after finals break.” The skin of my back is on fire and only getting worse.
The male body passed out next to me grunts and rolls over in his sleep, revealing his tousled brown hair and smooth, lean body.
“Sorry,” I grouch at him. “Am I disturbing your beauty sleep?” There’s no answer. So much for asking him to put some cooling lotion on my back. I’ll have to sleep on my front.
Grabbing my phone to check the time, my stomach drops, and my skin goes ice cold despite the burn. I see seven missed calls and a bunch of “call me urgently” texts from my best friend, Keri Ann.
Oh shit.
Joey.
Her brother is my first thought.
It isn’t the first time I’ve gotten a frantic middle of the night call like that from Keri Ann. First when their parents died. Then when their Nana died.
Me: Sorry, phone was in room charging. Everything ok?
My phone dings immediately.
KA: No. Nothing is ok. Can you talk?
As the blood drains from me, my hand trembles. I dial. I feel like I might vomit. Please let Joey be all right. Why else would his sister call me like this?
“Thanks for calling,” Keri Ann greets me without even a hello.
My stomach crunches in on itself. “What’s the matter? You okay?” I swallow. “Is Joey—?”
“Fine. He’s fine,” she says hurriedly.
My breath explodes out of me in relief. Followed by irritation at myself for being so dramatic.
“Sorry to freak you out. I’m fine, I just … Oh, God, Jazz. Jack is back in Butler Cove.”
I’m completely taken aback. Jack Eversea (yes, the movie star, and yes, he’s also an *) is back in Butler Cove?
“I saw him today.”
“Oh my God. Seriously?” Over the past seven months, I’ve watched my best friend hit rock bottom with a shattered heart from the way Jack left her and then haul her own way out of the carnage by sheer force of will. I’m so surprised by the news that Jack Eversea showed up after all this time that it gives me a reprieve from having to over examine my reaction to thinking the news was about her brother.
Keri Ann and I have been best friends since fifth grade. I can’t imagine my life without her in it. The problem is “she” comes with a “he.” In the form of a brother I’ve had a crush on for about as long as I’ve known her and who broke my heart at the tender age of eighteen.
I’ve finally given up on my childish dreams of Joey, and I’m dating like a grown up. Hence the lump of man-flesh next to me sharing a motel room.
Brandon.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t a grown up relationship. He’s very pretty, but it’s a wonder he’s getting through college because there doesn’t seem to be much between his ears.
On the phone Keri Ann tells me how Jack showed up out of the blue while she was changing a tire on the truck. She was with Colt, her brother’s best friend, who apparently bestowed upon Jack a long overdue punch in the face.
By the time she’s done telling me about changing the tire, the punch thrown, and her rain-soaked t-shirt that left both guys gawking at her chest and speechless on the side of the highway, I’m giggling madly.
Beside me Brandon groans again, but this time his hand snakes over to my lap and slips between my legs. I push it away. “Shh,” I whisper at him, rolling my eyes. He’s pretty and a horn dog. “Go back to sleep.”
“Is that Brandon?” Keri Ann asks. “Sorry to make you call me in the middle of the night.”
“It’s fine. I would have called you back earlier if I’d had my phone.” And avoided giving myself a heart attack. “Yeah, big choco-eyes over here has been hitting the sauce since the pool this afternoon. He is baked and done.” Hence why he left me sleeping in the sun this afternoon with no sunscreen on.
We chat a little longer, but I’m tired. I can tell from Keri Ann’s voice that Jack being back is going to put her through the wringer. I feel the need to get back home and be close by in case of fall out. It probably wouldn’t hurt if Joey knew either. If it ended badly again between Keri Ann and Jack, she’d need all the support she could get.
I glance over at Brandon’s sleeping form, his long dark eyelashes resting against his cheekbones, and feel nothing but annoyance and irritation. What am I even doing here? I know I said I wanted casual, fun relationships, and it has been. After finals break in Florida with about twenty friends. Beach, pool, dancing, drinking. Repeat.
Fun.
And just a little empty.
But now I know I need to move on. We’re graduating soon anyway. At least I am. I did it in three years. It was a stretch financially and mentally. If Brandon continues skipping classes like he has been, he’ll be at college another year.