by Lexy Timms
“Time to go on the honeymoon,” Kallie said. “It’s already paid for.”
She took a seat at the table and opened the box with “tikka masala” written in a messy scrawl across the top. The scent of curry drifted up from it and her stomach growled out again.
“Are you sure that’s the wisest choice?” her mother asked.
She could hear the gentle concern in her mother’s voice and it was appreciated. Especially after the way she had watched her mother lay into Magda.
Eris set a glass of wine in front of her, and Kallie took a sip. She set it aside again before she spoke, taking the time to draw from her thoughts.
“I need a break. From work. From Boston. From all this. I don’t want to have to worry that James is going to show up at my apartment three days from now, begging for forgiveness.”
“It’ll put you far away from family,” her mother said. “During a time when you might need us the most.”
“I can always come home early,” she said.
“I don’t know about you,” Eris said, scooping up vegetables and sauce with a piece of naan. “But I think a luxury resort-villa thing in St. Barts is just what a jilted bride needs. Daily massage. Delicious food. Plenty of hot potential rebound guys running around in next to nothing. And all of it on that cheating asshole’s dime.”
Kallie shook her head. That most certainly wasn’t happening.
“No rebound guys. I’m not going out there to find a new relationship. Especially not with the kind of men that frequent the playgrounds of the rich and famous. I’ve had enough of that sort. No more for me.”
“I’m not saying you need to start signing prenups,” Eris said as she paused to pop a piece of chicken in her mouth. “Just pointing out that there will probably be plenty of opportunities to blow off a little steam, should the whim take you. Think about it: some guy, golden from the sun, water dripping down his washboard abs...”
“Earth to planet Eris,” Kallie said as she leaned over the table. She was waving a hand in front of her best friend’s face to drag her attention back from whatever fantasy she’d drifted off into.
“In front of my mom? Really?”
“Oh, like your mom is going to be shocked,” Eris said.
And Kallie’s mother, true to form, was laughing.
“Both of you are terrible people. I hope you know that,” she said.
“And yet you still keep me around,” Eris said as she leaned smugly back in her chair.
She crossed one leg over the other and shoveled another load of vegetable-topped naan into her mouth.
“Someone’s got to be the comedic relief,” Kallie said.
“That’s just mean. I’m hurt. I provide more than raunchy humor to laugh at,” Eris said.
“Don’t be mean to Eris,” Kallie’s mother cut in before she could retort. Her lips pulled into a smile even as she attempted to keep a straight face. Kallie shook her head and Eris’s laughter grew, and soon everyone in the kitchen was laughing. Harder and louder than anyone should’ve been during a time like the one they had all been presented with.
It was a well-worn routine. Kallie’s mother would favor Eris in some obvious and obviously teasing manner. Kallie would protest that Eris couldn’t be her mother’s favorite child, seeing as she wasn’t her mother’s child at all. Eris would counter by sticking her tongue out. Or, when they got older, with a raised middle finger behind her mother’s back. It rarely failed to make her laugh.
But, abruptly, Kallie wasn’t feeling the joke.
She shouldn’t have been sitting in her own kitchen, eating takeout from the place down the street. She should’ve been indulging in a quickie during the limo ride that her ex-fiancé had teased her with all morning. She should’ve been walking into the reception as Mrs. James Rathbone and tossing her bouquet for Eris to catch. She should’ve been tangled in the sheets with her makeup running down her face and her hair disheveled from James gripping it too tightly as they panted “I love you” into their rented hotel room for the night.
The laughter soon stopped pouring from Kallie’s lips and it silenced the kitchen. The humor faded from Eris’s expression, and her mother reached over to rest a hand on Kallie’s shoulder. She breathed out a sigh, relegating herself to the harsh reality of her existence.
“I thought I had it all together,” she said, when the silence between all of them had stretched nearly to the breaking point. “A career. A decent apartment. A fiancé I could be just a little smug about. And now...?”
She laughed a little, without any mirth.
“So much for that,” Kallie said.
“You’ve still got the career and the apartment,” her mother pointed out.
“Which is exactly why you don’t actually need the fiancé,” Eris said.
She stabbed her fork through a piece of chicken and then pointed the whole thing at Kallie, her expression stern.
“What was he doing for you that you can’t do for yourself?”
Honestly? Marrying him would have made sure she never had to worry about money again. But that had never been Kallie’s sole reason for choosing James, and she wasn’t going to make it one now. She did just fine on her own salary and had worked hard for the career she had chosen for her life.
But outside of that?
“Nothing,” she agreed finally.
Kallie took a deep breath and let it out again slowly. There were worse places she could be. Her family and her best friend were standing by her. Her other two bridesmaids were fielding questions and phone calls and keeping to the background so they didn’t overwhelm her. She had her life. Her apartment. A safe place to call home. James had been just a piece of the puzzle. And not a very important one. Her need to step back and reassess wasn’t failure. It was opportunity for something better.
Kallie picked up the wineglass sitting in front of her and lifted it.
“Here’s to new doors opening when the old ones close,” she said.
“To car accidents and mimes that embarrass the hell out of shitheads,” Eris said.
“To men who are deserving of women like my daughter,” her mother said.
“And to bridesmaids who are quickly working behind the scenes on stuff I’ll take care of later,” Kallie said a little too loudly.
She stunned her other two wonderful friends into the present and they scrambled to put away their phones. They picked up their sodas and raised them high in the air, then Kallie let out another sigh.
Only this time, it was one of relief.
Glass clinked against glass, and they all drank. To the future. To the trip. To a life that hadn’t panned out the way anyone had planned but could still shine as brightly as the sun. They ate the rest of their Indian food as everyone talked around her, but Kallie’s mind was elsewhere.
Her mind was already drenched in sun and her toes were already buried in the sand.
She was going to St. Barts.
And when she came back, she promised she would be a different person.
Chapter 3
Kallie
The flight from New York to St. Barts was long and grueling, with a terrible layover of almost three hours. Kallie couldn’t nap because the seats in the airport were uncomfortable and she was once again too sick to her stomach to eat. Eris’s idea of taking the honeymoon by herself was proving to be an idiotic idea. All Kallie did was look over at the seat next to her and think about how someone should be there with her. About how her cheating fiancé should’ve been there at her side to enjoy everything with her.
Kallie felt humiliated all over again.
At least, until she flew over the blue water and white sand beaches of the island.
She looked out the airplane window and was struck by its beauty. The crashing of the waves and the joyousness of the people walking and riding about on their bikes. A small spark of excitement settled in the pit of her stomach as the plane began its descent. It was beautiful, and Kallie could already smell the sea breeze filte
ring through the cabin air. Her heart was still broken and her soul was still angry, but she gave her best friend a bit of credit as the plane touched down onto the runway. Maybe a change of scenery was what she needed to help her out of the slump James had tossed her into.
Or at least keep it at bay for a couple of weeks.
Kallie switched her phone off of airplane mode and a flood of text messages came through. Messages from Eris asking her how things were going and poking fun at her for needing to find an island boy to cure her woes with. She had several voice messages from people at the wedding, probably wanting to say they were sorry and to tell her to keep the wedding gifts, she figured.
But she didn’t want to keep any of them. She would’ve rather burned them.
There were messages, however, from James. Voice messages that rolled through and forced his name to the screen of her phone. Kallie scoffed and ignored all of them. She couldn’t handle something like that at the moment. All she wanted to focus on was the decadent vacation before her that she knew James couldn’t cancel.
She had double-checked on that before she left.
The entire resort was luxurious, though set up a little differently. There were stretches of private beach with bungalows and villas set against the white sands. But they were all in a row and they were all divvied up by random patches of greenery that somehow grew on the beach. She couldn’t see her neighbors unless she was standing on the balcony or swimming around in the infinity pool.
Kallie was going to enjoy the privacy.
She dropped her things into the room closest to the beach and headed out onto the terrace. It overlooked the beach and housed the private hot tub that was already steaming and bubbling away. The crystal-clear waters were beautiful, and the glowing bodies of people enjoying the sun and surf in the distance was as well. She could hear people laughing and talking. Clinking glasses and starting bonfires. She leaned against the railing and drew in a deep breath of sea air, allowing it to cascade through her bones.
Kallie didn’t know whether to hide out for two weeks or explore the island, but a call from Eris fixed that.
“Did you land?”
“Yes,” Kallie said. “I dropped my stuff in my room five minutes ago.”
“And you weren’t already on the phone with me? How dare you,” she said mockingly.
“It’s beautiful out here.”
“And not a bit of it can be canceled. I know that must miff James’s crotch.”
“Can we not talk about my cheating ex-fiancé’s crotch while I’m alone on my honeymoon?”
“May it be doused in honey and released to the bears,” she said.
Kallie shook her head as her eyes watched the waves crash against the shoreline.
“What do I do now?” she asked.
“The hell kind of question is that? You strap on a bikini, get someone to bring you a drink, and get into that hot tub. Or that pool. Or take a dip in the ocean. What the hell do you mean what do you do now?”
“I kind of want to sleep,” Kallie said.
“Hell no. You’re going to take a dip in the ocean. Drink or no drink, you have to promise me you’ll put on that little stringed bikini Rachel bought you and get in the water. Or sunbathe. Or walk around town attracting those tan, lean, muscular—”
“Eris? Are you for real?” she asked.
“Sorry. Anyway. Promise me you will.”
“I promise,” she said.
“Right now.”
“Eventually.”
“Nope. Now.”
“Eris—”
“Now! Now! Now! Now!”
Kallie hung up the phone on her best friend and a text message quickly came through. It housed one word. Now.
So, that was what she did.
Kallie walked into what will be her bedroom for the next two weeks, stripped down, and put her green-and-yellow stringed bikini on. It left almost nothing to the imagination, and she debated on whether or not to remove it. But the beaches were private, and she figured no one would be looking anyway. She grabbed a towel from the stack and headed down to the surf, her toes digging into the soft white sand.
The feeling of the water against her ankles made her melt into the ocean floor.
She tossed her towel on the beach before splashing into the water. She dove underwater, allowing the crystal-clear fluid to wash away her sins. Although the disappointment at the collapse of her relationship was still with her, Kallie began to feel a little more like herself. Each wave that crashed against her body and each time she surfaced from the water, she felt a little more baptized. A little more accepting of what had happened.
Kallie was almost willing to embrace the adventure of her next two weeks before something caught her eye.
Up in the balcony of the bungalow-villa next to her was an elderly couple. They were swimming around in their infinity pool that actually jutted out over the edge of the ocean. The woman’s arms were wrapped around her husband’s neck and the two of them were smiling. Kissing. Linking their fingers together and languidly gazing out into the endless horizon.
It made her feel sick inside.
Kallie abandoned the water, swimming to the shoreline as fast as she could. She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her, suddenly feeling idiotic for being in the damned bikini. She raced inside as tears brewed behind her eyes, then she marched to her bedroom and picked up the phone on her nightstand.
She dialed the number for the front desk of the building that managed the villas she was in.
“Yes. Hello. I was informed that my drinks were included in the cost of the package I’d purchased? Mhm. Where do I go to get them? Oh, there’s a bar I can go to? Great. Where is that?”
Kallie jotted down the directions the front desk attendant gave her before she hung up the phone. Besides the personal chef that would come in and prepare lunch and dinner for her, there were a couple of bars scattered throughout the island she could drink at for free. All she needed was the red wristband that was sitting in her nightstand drawer. She pulled it out and threaded it around her wrist, then found a dress to pull over her bikini top.
There was a beachside bar located two villas down on its own patch of private beach.
And that was where Kallie was headed for her all-inclusive alcohol.
Chapter 4
Ash
Ash tossed the protein powder and some milk into the blender as Johnny tended to the bar. The two had been friends for quite some time. Ever since Ash took up permanent residence on the island to surf his troubles away. When he wasn’t out on the water, he was annoying the hell out of his best friend and teasing him for hitting on all the women who came into his beachfront cabana. Johnny kept trying to get Ash to come work with him at the bar. Johnny could run the place once the owner finally croaked and Ash could bartend and bring in all the ladies with his smooth accent and his dashing good looks.
But that wasn’t something the surfer wanted.
“What’s the flavor today?” Johnny asked as he slung a margarita into a glass.
“Are you talking about Sherry or my protein powder?” Ash asked.
“Either?”
“The protein today is chocolate, but Sherry’s anything but. Sweet smooth skin, with a pearly glow to her when the moonlight hits her just right. A bit sunburned right now, though.”
“A good fuck on the beach?” Johnny asked. “Or burned from falling asleep on the porch?”
“Neither,” Ash said. “She sat in a window too long.”
“I’m not gonna even ask.”
“Don’t worry. There’s a reason her flavor was only good for a day.”
That was the habit Ash had fallen into. A laid-back life of surfing and performing odd jobs to get him by. No contact with his stuffy family, nothing to do with the family business, and no lectures about how he was somehow descended from royalty.
Who the fuck cared if he was descended from royalty? His family lived in the damn States anyway.
“And a margarita for the lovely lady,” Johnny said.
Ash watched as he slid a drink to a very familiar face sitting at the corner of the bar. A few wrinkles around her eyes. Deep-red hair. Dark-brown eyes. A bit older, but money for days. It was one of the socialites Ash had been chatting up all week. The woman who would replace his next craving for something a little more tender. A little rawer. The younger women who came to the island, they liked it rough. A bit of hair-pulling. A bit of biting. Maybe a nice fuck against a window. But Ash was looking for something a little more tender, and older women gave him that. They had money and weren’t stuffy when it came to throwing it around. And in exchange, all they wanted was a few little licks and a nice, lazy fuck to help them fall asleep.
The thought was a nice change for Ash, but Johnny was clearly slipping in on his game.
Blond hair. Blue eyes. Thick American accent. Women fell over themselves getting their drinks from Johnny. He was outgoing, played a bit of blues guitar, and had no issues busting out the damn instrument right there at the fucking bar. Ash knew the moment that thing came out the woman he had been hitting on the day before would be of no use to him. Johnny would have her as putty in his hands, and Ash would be back to prowling.
So when his eyes looked up and saw a gorgeous woman coming into the bar, he wasted no time in putting on his best smile.
“Welcome to Bart’s Beachside Cabana. My name’s Ash, and I’ll be your bartender today,” Ash said with a broad smile.
He made sure to flash his best one in order to catch the eye of this beautiful dove that had floated into the bar. Johnny was already digging around for his guitar, not even remotely paying attention to the new customer that had traipsed in. Copper hair that fell past her shoulders, sitting right above a pair of perky breasts. Bright-green eyes that sat atop a cute button nose. Her skin was pale but glowed with a healthy tan that soaked up the sun instead of burned.
