Yacht Girl

by Alison Claire Grey

  Dee shook her head. “I don’t. But thank you, that’s really nice of you to say, even if I don’t agree.”

  Josh looked at Rooster, his mouth agape. Rooster just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Is this girl for real?” Josh replied. “Rooster. My man. You’ve gotta let me represent her. She’s the most untouched, unaffected chick I’ve ever seen. I actually believe her when she says she doesn’t think she’s as hot as Ava Gardner. Holy moly, she’s got it.”

  Dee had no idea what any of this meant. She looked over at Rooster and he just shook his head, laughing.

  “Why do you think I brought her?” he replied, wrapping his arm around her. “I knew from the second I saw her. My girl is a star.”

  He kissed her then, in front of everyone, and she shut her eyes again, tight, feeling the world swallowing them whole, never wanting this most perfect moment to ever end.

  Twenty-Nine

  “When were you going to tell me you were dating Alistair McCoy III?”

  Rachel was standing in front of her that morning as Dee ate a bowl of Lucky Charms. Rooster had gone to New York for business and would be gone for three days, something that had thrown Dee into a deep depression after their magnificent night at the gala the weekend before. They’d never been apart this long, and she felt deflated without him. He was coming back later that night and she couldn’t wait to see him.

  “What are you talking about?” Dee asked. “How did you even hear about it?”

  Rachel handed her a folded back magazine. It was the local weekly entertainment section and there was a photo of her and Rooster getting out of the limo before the gala. Underneath it the caption read: Alistair McCoy III and his newest love interest, Delilah Beckett, arrive at the 15th Annual Donna McCoy Gala at the Los Angeles Yacht Club.

  “I didn’t realize I needed to tell you about my personal life,” Dee responded as she fished around for the last marshmallow in her cereal bowl. “I pay rent, I don’t make a fuss. I thought that was all I owed you.”

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” Rachel remarked. “You just didn’t want me to know, so you wouldn’t have to help me!”

  “Help you with what?”

  “Don’t play stupid. The McCoys own the BDE Network! Like, they decide who gets to be the anchors and correspondents on all their news shows, including Celebrity Tonight. You know that’s my dream job!”

  Dee was completely confused.

  “What does that have to do with me?” Dee said. “How could I help you get on a show? That’s not what our relationship is about.”

  “Get real,” Rachel huffed. “Like, I’m sure you’re not dating him so you can get ahead? Screw off with that.”

  “Excuse me?” Dee couldn’t believe this. “What are you implying?”

  “This is LA. Sleeping your way to the top is the oldest tactic in the book,” Rachel sat back, smug. “And you play up this whole innocent southern girl act. Bravo, Dee.”

  Dee stood up, her cereal bowl in hand. “That’s not why I’m with Rooster. I didn’t even know who he was when I first met him. Believe it or not, it’s possible to be with someone without having ulterior motives.”

  Dee walked past Rachel and put her bowl in the sink. “I really resent what you just said, Rachel. It’s not okay.”

  “Well, I resent you not telling me the truth about a lot of things,” Rachel retorted. “Like the fact your family doesn’t own a resort. They’re just redneck white trash from the panhandle that run a crappy motel that caters to other trashy people.”

  Dee couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “Why are you doing this?” Dee asked. “And I never told you they owned a resort. You just filled that in because you’re a shallow person, Rachel. You’re angry that nothing has happened for you in the year you’ve lived here and you’re taking it out on me.”

  Rachel guffawed. “I’m shallow? At least I don’t sleep with people to get ahead. Where I’m from we call that being a prostitute. And that’s what you are, Dee. You’re just a hooker. Hell, look at you getting on a yacht! You’re just what everyone talks about— you’re a yacht girl. A whore. An escort.”

  Dee didn’t even know what a yacht girl was. All she knew was that she’d never been so disgusted by someone in her life. Dee had put up with so much in the last nine months of living with Rachel Delaney. She’d done everything she was asked to do, even when it almost cost her everything.

  “I don’t think I can live with you anymore,” Dee said. “I just really don’t feel comfortable living with someone who could say such ugly things to me.”

  “Good!” Rachel yelled. “You don’t have a lease with me. I let you stay because I felt sorry for you. You fooled me really good, didn’t you? I want you out of here! Tonight!”

  Dee looked at her, tears in her eyes. “I don’t deserve this. I’d never do this to you, Rachel.”

  “Only because I did it first,” she said, and then walked back to her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

  Thirty

  Dee cried buckets as she drove the LeBaron to LAX to pick up Rooster from his three o’clock flight. She’d packed all her stuff in the trunk of her car, not wanting to come back to Rachel’s for a single thing once she was gone. She’d left behind the bed she’d overpaid for and other furniture she’d collected from Goodwill and the local consignment shops she’d discovered since moving to LA. A lot of her stuff was at Rooster’s condo, which was good since she didn’t think she could have shoved even one more item into her car once all was said and done.

  What would she tell him? This was humiliating.

  She could start over again somewhere else. Thanks to her job, she had accrued some savings, she’d just need to find a roommate who wasn’t a monstrous jerk like Rachel ended up being. Dee wasn’t sure that was possible in LA, but she didn’t know what else to hope for.

  She parked in the garage and headed into the terminal after checking her face in the mirror. She didn’t want Rooster to be able to tell she’d been crying. She never wanted to make her problems his. Otherwise, he might change his mind about her.

  She was early to his carousel, but she was so impatient to see him, he couldn’t be there soon enough.

  As she waited, she thought about how much she’d missed him. She’d spent the time he’d been gone staying distracted with work. She’d called home and had a long conversation with Meg, since she’d been terrible about keeping in touch since meeting Rooster. Meg missed her so much and of course Dee missed her sister too. But she was finally building her own life now. One that didn’t revolve around her family back home.

  Of course, her sister thought she was moving too fast with Rooster. But it was because Meg had never been in love before. She didn’t know what it was like.

  As Dee stared ahead at the arrivals board, a young man sidled up next to her. She didn’t notice him until he’d pushed his way into her space. He wanted to make it very obvious to Dee that he existed.

  “Excuse me,” he said, smiling. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

  Dee had never seen this man in her entire life.

  “I don’t think so,” she said politely, looking back at the board. It looked like Rooster’s plane had landed, making her heart skip. She couldn’t wait to see his face.

  “You have to be an actress, right?” the guy asked. He was attractive, but she didn’t like his energy. It was the energy of someone who was a little too confident with himself. And he was clearly pushy. Dee didn’t like those type of people who felt entitled to time and space.

  “No.” Her voice was flat, hoping he’d get the hint to stop talking to her.

  “Well, you should be. You’re gorgeous.”

  She gave him a thin smile and a nod but said nothing. She really wished he’d move on.

  But he continued to talk to her, and she continued to give him one word replies and sometimes no reply at all. She was staring at her cell phone, trying to drown him out, when she realized R
ooster had found her at the carousel.

  “Hey,” he said, and she looked up so grateful to see him.

  “Baby!” she cried and threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her back, but it wasn’t like his usual embrace and when she went to kiss him, he pulled away, his eyes on the guy who had been talking to her.

  “Who is this?” Rooster asked, his voice cold. She’d never heard him talk like that before.

  “I have no idea, he’s been talking to me this whole time and I’ve been trying to ignore him,” she replied, putting her hand behind his neck, rubbing it affectionately. “I missed you so much.”

  But Rooster’s eyes wouldn’t stop staring at the guy who was now looking for his suitcase on the whirling carousel, ignoring Dee now that it was clear her boyfriend was here.

  “I’m going to ask you again. Who is that?” Rooster said between gritted teeth. Dee was completely puzzled.

  “I have no idea,” she repeated. “Who cares? You’re back! Tell me about your trip!”

  But Rooster had gone to another place, she could sense it. His eyes were cold and lifeless, and fury radiated off him. It was like nothing she’d ever seen.

  They didn’t speak while they waited for the one suitcase he had checked. Of course, it had to be one of the last ones to come down the carousel.

  Dee’s heart pounded in her chest. He’d never been cold to her like this. Had she done something wrong? Her mind started spinning, thinking about what it could possibly be.

  Could this day get any worse?

  They walked together in silence to the parking garage. The man that had talked to her had walked in a completely different direction. He was out of their lives and Dee had hoped this would calm Rooster down.

  When they got to the car Dee realized she couldn’t pop her trunk for Rooster to put his suitcase in, since it was filled with her stuff. She didn’t think it was the right time to explain the fight with Rachel.

  She unlocked the backdoor and pushed the passenger seat forward so there was room to throw his bag in the back. As soon as she stood up to make room for him, he shoved her against the side of the car, his right hand grabbing her throat making her yelp in surprise.

  He squeezed his hand tight around her. His eyes regarded her with a rage that was unrecognizable to Dee. It was like she was seeing a completely different person; one she didn’t know.

  One that clearly wanted to hurt her.

  “Stop!” she managed to choke out before he gripped her tighter. Her hands flew to her neck to try to push him off, but of course it was pointless, he was much stronger than she was. He grunted and snarled, grasping her tighter as she pleaded with her eyes for him to stop.

  “The one thing I can’t put up with is a liar,” he spoke now, his hold on her never loosening. “Or a cheater.”

  She felt her vision narrow, everything on the edges was turning black. She couldn’t breathe or think.

  “Did you screw around while I was gone?” he barked. “Huh? Did you? Better tell me the truth now, because I’ll find out.”

  Dee couldn’t answer, but tears slid down her cheeks. She’d never been this confused or scared. What was happening? She motioned at his hands and he loosened his grip enough so she could speak.

  “No.” She gasped for air, unable to say anything else. The shock of the violence and his cutting words overwhelmed her, and she immediately started to sob into her hands, unable to catch her breath. She squatted down in front of him between her car and the one parked next to hers, desperate to get away from him, but also exhausted. She so badly wanted to get away from everything she’d dealt with today.

  He watched her for a couple of minutes, and she prayed he’d leave her and not kill her. He wanted to, she felt it.

  She’d never been so afraid of someone in her entire life.

  When she finally caught her breath and noticed he was still there, she began to shake.

  She looked up and saw that he was crying too. His eyes were back to normal.

  “Beckett.”

  He lifted her up now and held her to him, her body shaking beneath his arms. She pushed away from him and walked to the driver’s side of her car, unable to be near him, her neck still aching from the grasp he’d had on it; the skin already raw and red.

  “Don’t come near me ever again,” she spat out, finally, opening her door. “Ever.”

  But he had opened the passenger side, which she hadn’t thought to lock. He slid into the seat, reached across and pulled her in.

  She howled, he had her now, this was it.

  But when her eyes met his this time, there was no rage, no cruel and twisting grip on her throat. She’d never seen him cry before, just like she’d never seen the cold fury she’d witnessed against the car.

  He hushed her as she wept, sobs finally able to escape her after going through so many emotions at once.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said into her hair, his arms around her. “I’m so sorry. I love you. Please. Forgive me. Forgive me.”

  “Why?” Was all she was able to say. “Why?”

  Thirty-One

  After that they’d driven to his condo in complete silence. Later she would wonder why she hadn’t left him right then, just driven away and back to her old life. It would have saved her so much in the end.

  But that would never be how Dee Beckett learned her lessons. She would always have to learn them the hardest way.

  And she loved him. Even after he’d shown his darkest side to her, she’d only wanted the old him back, wanted it so badly that she was able to forgive him. It wasn’t the man she knew that had done that to her, it was someone else.

  And they’d never been apart that long. It was difficult to know where you stood with someone until you had to be away from them.

  So, she’d stayed in the car and driven him to his condo. He’d held her thigh the entire time, kneading it gently.

  When they parked in the underground garage below a high rise that was home to a dozen celebrities, Dee started to cry again, the events of the afternoon hitting her at once.

  “Let’s go inside, baby,” he begged her. “Let’s talk about it.”

  They went inside, but he hadn’t wanted to talk. He simply wanted her to forget. Her heart wanted that too, even though the logical part of her brain was screaming at her to run, to get away from him.

  They needed to pretend it hadn’t happened, so they could move on. What was she without him, after all?

  As soon as they were inside the condo, he lifted her up, his hands beneath her ass, their mouths meeting, hungry for the other’s soft touch.

  He undressed her, despite her half pleading that they shouldn’t, both of them knowing she didn’t mean it, both of them just needing to go back to the gentle place they’d been so many times before, the place where their bodies only knew how to please and love each other, a place they’d felt so lucky to find.

  A place they could never really go back to ever again.

  The next morning he’d made her breakfast in bed, a first.

  They rose with the sun, watching its rays glimmer across the Pacific in the distance, their bodies tangled up in each other, his high thread count sheets the only thing separating them.

  She was bruised. She glimpsed the evidence on her throat when she went to the bathroom that morning, a reminder of what he was capable of. Between makeup and a strategically-placed necklace or scarf, she could conceal the damage.

  Her father would have killed him, if he knew. Meg too.

  Rooster had woken her up several times throughout the night, begging for forgiveness, whispering that it would never happen again, that he loved her more than anything, that he couldn’t breathe without her, that his overwhelming passion for her was why he’d been so angry; even the thought of her being with someone else drove him to the brink of madness.

  Dee hadn’t said anything because she didn’t need to. She was here wasn’t she?

  She watched him saunter naked across his bedroom into th
e hallway that led to his kitchen, listened to him pulling out pots and pans. She thought about what life would look like without him— the first time she’d ever dared to consider such a nightmare.

  All she saw was flatness, a world without color.

  Of course, she forgave him. It wouldn’t happen again.

  She could forgive him this one time. Everybody made mistakes.

  Thirty-Two

  “I really don’t want to go to work today,” she groaned later that morning. They were dressed now and sitting in his living room, watching the traffic move across the 405, thirty stories below them.

  “Then don’t,” he responded as he flopped down on the sectional next to her, laying down to place his head in her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair. “Call in.”

  “I wish,” she sighed. “Now that I’m homeless, I need to work more than ever. I really don’t want another roommate. I need to save up for an apartment.”

  “Or you could just move in with me.”

  They were both silent for a long beat.

  It wasn’t something she had been opposed to before yesterday. But considering the events of the last twenty-four hours, she wasn’t sure this was the best timing.

  Although she forgave Rooster for his dark tantrum, it had reminded her there was still so much they didn’t know about each other.

  But on the other hand, it was easy. And the thought of starting and ending every day with him thrilled her. It also meant he’d never have to be jealous again. It showed her commitment.

  “Are you really sure?” she asked, looking down at him.

  “Positive,” he said, sitting up. He pulled her toward him and kissed her, long and hard. “I want you with me all the time, Beckett. I’m clearly a wreck without you. Look what happened to me when I was away for only three days.”