by Sami Lee
She was losing Brand.
Eventually, Brand spoke. His voice was devoid of all emotion. “I’ll take a shower and be ready in five.”
Emily didn’t even care to ask why he planned to come with her to Penny’s party. He was only doing it for her, and it seemed glaringly obvious now he couldn’t give a stuff if she was happy or not. She was as silent as he was when he left the room. Then, with shaking fingers, she gathered her clothes together.
It wouldn’t be so easy to reassemble the pieces of her broken dreams.
Chapter Twenty
Jet took the scenic route to Leyton’s Headland, and had to cool his heels outside Briscoe’s for a good twenty minutes before Brand’s truck pulled into the parking lot. He leaned on his bike and watched Emily alight from the passenger side of the vehicle.
He was royally ticked off that he’d been practically ejected from the house so she and Brand could do… Hell. He could guess what they’d done. It shouldn’t have bothered him. Emily and Brand were a couple, weren’t they? Yet the thought that he’d had to leave so they could fuck really stuck in his craw.
No, it was more than that. The truth was it hurt. He’d let himself fall in love with Emily. Then when he’d impulsively blurted his feelings she’d kicked him out the door less than five minutes later.
And now here she was, arriving with Brand as though the two of them were the couple and he was on the outer. Oh yeah, it hurt. It hurt like a bitch.
A sarcastic comment was on the tip of Jet’s tongue, but as Emily drew nearer to where he stood leaning against the Harley, he detected something tense in her posture. The nastiness died on his tongue.
She carried a brightly wrapped box in her hands, and she was watching the ground as she walked, not looking at him. Had she even seen him?
Jet spoke, making her look up. “Em.”
In the illumination from a nearby streetlight, Jet identified sadness in her expression. Her smile was forced. “Hi. Thanks for waiting.”
“It’s okay,” he said, although for the past ten minutes he’d been seriously considering leaving. What was he even doing here? “Let me have that.”
He reached out for Penny’s present, and Emily let him take it. It was moderately heavy, and Jet wondered what the fuck was up with Brand that he wouldn’t have carried it for her.
Brand’s in a mood, that’s what’s up. The man in question walked up behind Emily, and Jet felt the hostility coming off him in waves. “Ready to go in?”
“I’ve been ready for twenty minutes,” Jet pointed out. “Been waiting for you.”
Brand’s top lip lifted in a sneer that let Jet know he wasn’t going to apologize for being late. Or for waylaying Emily in the way he had. Tension filled the brisk night air with heat that fairly crackled.
“Let’s go in. We’re late.”
Emily walked off, not waiting for either of them to walk with her. Brand gave Jet an insolent look and then followed. The last thing Jet felt like doing now was going to a party with Brand, but for some reason the idea of leaving Emily to deal with Brand on her own didn’t sit right with him.
They went inside more or less together. Emily was swooped on right away by an older couple Jet assumed were her parents. The woman with ash-blonde hair reached out to hug Emily. “We were getting worried about you, honey.”
“Sorry, Mum.” Emily gave no explanation for their tardiness. She stepped back to include Jet in their small circle. “Jet, these are my parents, Alicia and Walt. Mum, Dad, this is Jet Durante. He’s a friend of Brand’s who’s been staying with us.”
Despite what Emily had said at the house about telling everyone the truth, Jet had never thought she would. They hadn’t even discussed amongst themselves how a triad relationship would work in practical terms, or gotten Brand to agree to it. She could hardly blurt out the details of their sex life to her parents the second she walked in the door. It wasn’t the friend explanation that stung, but the flatness with which she’d delivered the information. There was no hesitation, no apologetic glance his way or smile to soften the effects.
He was a friend of Brand’s. Nothing more.
Smiling over his disappointment, Jet shook Walt’s hand and kissed Alicia politely on the cheek. A second later a slender woman with straight pale-blonde hair and Emily’s bone structure approached and took the brightly wrapped gift. Obviously Emily’s sister, Penny.
The next few minutes were taken up with the introductions. Brand said a brief hello to a couple of people then took off to the bar. If anyone noticed his antisocial behavior, they didn’t comment on it. Jet was surprised one of the people Emily introduced him to was Ty Butler, a household name in professional surfing circles.
“I’ve never met a world champion before,” Jet remarked as he shook the other man’s hand.
“I’ve never met anyone who gets up close and personal with tigers for a living either. I guess we’re even.”
Ty’s jovial grin was contagious, and Jet felt himself returning it. When Ty introduced Jet to his girlfriend Summer Campbell, Jet kept his smile broad for the petite beauty with dark eyes and shiny black hair.
“So you travel around the world with him?” Jet asked.
“I have been.” Summer shared a look with Ty that held some secret meaning. “I think the next tournament might have to be my last though.”
“Is that true?” Penny Irving asked. “Are you moving back to work at Summer’s Retreat again?”
Summer nodded. Then smiled ruefully. “I don’t want to travel too far away from my doctor in the second trimester.”
There was a moment of stunned silence before Penny let out an excited squeal. “Oh my God, you’re pregnant? That’s terrific. And you’re coming back to the business.” Penny enveloped Summer in a warm hug. “Thank you, boss!”
Summer laughed and hugged Penny back. Emily offered her own congratulations to Ty, who beamed with obvious pride. As soon as Penny released Summer, Ty gathered her close to his side, as though he’d loathed the moments when he wasn’t touching her.
The few inches between Jet and Emily felt like a chasm. Needing to breach the distance, Jet reached over and put his hand on Emily’s back. “Can I get you a drink?” he asked, just to have an excuse to say something to her.
She turned to look at him, and with a close-up view, he saw what he hadn’t seen outside. The subtle tinge of red that imbued the whites of her eyes with color and the absolute devastation in her green irises.
“My God, Em,” Jet husked. “What the hell did he do to you?”
Emily blanched and turned away so he couldn’t scrutinize her face anymore. She tried to leave his side but Jet pressed his hand into her hip, keeping her where she was. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
She said it with a note of irony that made Jet want to follow up. Before he could, a woman with short blonde hair approached her. “Sis, glad you could finally make it.”
“I was only half an hour late,” Emily responded tautly to her sister’s sarcasm.
“Thirty-five minutes to be precise. It was your job to take delivery of the cake, but I had to do it. So…there might be a minor crisis with it because I didn’t check in the box before the guy left.”
“What crisis?”
“Em.” Jet flexed his hand on her hip to get her attention, fearing she was going to use the interruption to evade his questions.
“I’m sorry, where are my manners? Jet, this is my sister, Hope. Hope, Jet is a friend of Brand’s.”
Jet was forced to go through the motions of acknowledging Emily’s sister. He put on his best smile for Emily’s sake. “Nice to meet you.”
She gave him a crooked smile and a very thorough once-over. “Likewise. A friend of Brand’s you say?”
“That’s right. We go way back.”
Already Jet could tell pretending he and Brand had never been lovers was going to be as difficult as resisting the urge to put his arm around Emily’s shoulders and squire her around the party like she was his girlfriend. He shouldn’t have come tonight, but it was too late to change it now.
“About that crisis, Hope?”
Emily gave her sister a not-so-subtle nudge so she was forced to stop eye-fucking Jet. Hope wrinkled her nose at her sister in annoyance. “The cake says Happy Birthday Phoebe.”
“Oh, crap.” Emily sent Jet the briefest glance. Her eyes didn’t quite meet his. “I have to deal with this. Will you be okay?”
“Sure.” Jet saw no way to keep her with him without it appearing odd.
“I’ll be back.”
An instant later she was gone. Jet had a feeling she’d do everything she could to avoid him all night.
“You look like a Heineken man.”
Jet turned toward the voice and saw a good-looking guy in a suit proffering a bottle of the Dutch beer. Jet accepted the bottle and took a long pull. “Thanks.” He put out his hand. “Jet Durante.”
“Aaron Sanderson.” The two men shook. “If you want me to keep ’em coming, I’ll arrange it. I’m sleeping with the manager.”
A woman walking by with a tray of drinks said, “I heard that.”
Aaron grinned. “You were meant to.”
The woman bumped Aaron’s hip with hers and sent him a wink. “Cheeky.” She turned to acknowledge Jet. “I’m Jasmine. I’m running the show here tonight, so if you see anything that needs doing you let me know.”
“Will do.”
Jasmine moved on, and Jet fell into conversation with Aaron, who was a local realtor and Ty Butler’s best friend. The guy had great eyes and a confident aura Jet appreciated. In another time, another place, and if Aaron wasn’t so obviously straight and wrapped up in the bar manager, Jet might have flirted with him. Now his gaze kept wandering through the crowd, hoping to land on Emily. Or straying to the bar to watch with wary eyes as Brand stood alone staring into a glass of neat scotch.
Scotch. The last time Jet had seen Brand touch hard liquor was in Sydney. He’d had the same dark cloud over his head then that he seemed to have now.
Jet had a bad feeling this night was not going to end well.
“So what’s the story with Jet?”
Emily tensed at Penny’s question. She’d been running around all night overseeing the service of the finger food and drinks, arranging to have the stuff-up with the cake fixed and mingling with as many people as possible. The flurry of activity required to make sure the party ran smoothly was a welcome distraction from her concern that Brand was spending more time glaring into a glass of scotch than socializing. It also helped her avoid questions about Jet.
“I think it’s about time the cake came out, don’t you?”
Emily shot out of her chair but a hand on her shoulder swiftly pushed her back into it. “Not so fast.” It was Hope. “I’d like to hear Jet’s story too. And you’ve been avoiding telling it all night.”
“I have not,” Emily lied. “I told you he’s a wildlife photographer who came here to take some pictures of the landscape. He looked Brand up, and I suggested he stay with us instead of paying for a hotel.”
All of which was true. But her sisters weren’t satisfied.
Penny asked, “Is he single?”
Emily avoided answering directly. “What do you care? I thought it was back on with Bryan.”
“It’s not.” Penny sobered. “It’s definitely off. Well and truly.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” Emily rested her hand on Penny’s. “I know you liked him.”
“Liked past tense. Turns out Bryan wasn’t anything like I first thought.” Penny waved a hand. “But it’s my birthday, damn it. I don’t want to talk about my depressing love life.”
“We could talk about mine,” Hope offered dryly.
“What? I figured you must be back together with Dylan,” Penny said. “He owns this place, right?”
“He let me have it because he feels guilty. The truth is, we’re not seeing each other anymore, and I think this time it’s going to stick. Do you know he actually gave me the let’s-be-friends speech?”
“Oh, no,” Penny said. “I hate that one.”
“I know, right?” Hope put her half-empty vodka and lime on ice down on the table. “After all the hot and heavy, he pulls the friends shit on me? No way. We’re not going to be friends. That didn’t stop me using his venue for your party, P. I’m not stupid.”
“And thank you for it.” Penny raised her pina colada. “Thanks to both of you for organizing this. It was just what I needed.”
Emily added her white wine to the mix, and the three women touched glasses. “Happy twenty-fifth birthday, Penny.”
They each took a drink. Emily was just congratulating herself on managing to steer the conversation away from her when Hope said, “If I’m going to get over Dylan, I need to get laid. By Jet Durante, preferably.”
Emily’s stomach plummeted. It sank even further when Penny protested. “Hey, I saw him first.”
“Perhaps we could agree on shared custody?” Hope suggested.
Penny screwed up her nose. “Gawd, Hope. That’s gross.”
“Just trying to help you out. I’m not rolling over and giving him to you.”
“Who says you have a shot? I saw you try to talk to him. He didn’t look interested.”
“He wouldn’t be,” Emily blurted. “He’s gay.”
Emily couldn’t think of a better way to divert her sister than using the excuse Jet himself had suggested earlier today. But Hope merely laughed. “No he’s not.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know. He’s giving off too many hetero vibes.”
“Oh hetero vibes.” Emily arched a brow and took a sip of wine. “You have the scientific research to back up the existence of hetero vibes, do you?”
“I have anecdotal evidence. I’ve seen him checking out at least one woman here in a way that did not suggest he was wondering if her heels were genuine Jimmy Choos.”
Emily’s heart slammed into her throat. Jet had been checking some woman out? “Who was it?” she demanded, more stridently than she meant to.
Hope turned to look at her, her blue-green eyes watchful. “You.”
Emily swallowed, but her heart did not dislodge from its new place in her esophagus. “I’m sure you were mistaken.”
“I wasn’t,” Hope said in her familiar, stubborn way. “The man likes women. Or at least he likes you.”
“Hope.” Emily sent her a warning look. “He’s Brand’s friend.”
“His best friend?”
“I suppose. Why?”
“Because if they’re not close friends, and Jet is shaky on the edicts of the bro code, I’d suggest you watch your back, big sister.”
“You honestly think Jet is interested in Emily?” Penny rested her elbows on the table and put her chin in her hands in a gesture of defeat. “That doesn’t seem fair. She’s already got a man.”
“Do I?”
The words were out before Emily could bite them back. She regretted her slip immediately when two sets of eyes zeroed in on her.
Hope started. “What’s that mean?”
“Nothing.”
Penny went next. “Did you and Brand have a fight?”
“Not exactly.”
“Holy shit.” Hope’s eyes widened. “Did you two have a fight about Jet? Did Brand catch you two together or something? Jesus, sis. You’re a dark horse.”
“It’s not like that. It’s…it’s…”
Emily rubbed her hands on her dark pants. Now was her chance to be honest, to tell them what was happening in her life. She could practice the announcement on her sisters before approac
hing the more difficult task of opening up to her parents, which she’d have to do later. Much later. If she could pull the fractured pieces of her relationship together.
She looked at Hope, then at Penny. She remembered Penny saying that’s gross when Hope had jokingly suggested sharing Jet. Did she think it was gross because Hope was her sister or did she think the very suggestion of having a relationship with more than one person was wrong? What if she told them, and they thought she was disgusting?
What was the point in telling them when she wasn’t even sure her fledgling three-way relationship was going to survive?
“Please.” She beseeched both of them. “Just promise me you won’t make a play for Jet.”
Hope stared at her. “You’re in love with him.”
Penny grasped Emily’s hand. “Oh, Em. Are you and Brand breaking up?”
Emily squeezed Penny’s fingers, but she kept her gaze locked with Hope’s. She saw that Hope had figured it out, or at least was starting to. Being the more sexually liberated of her sisters, Hope would be the one most likely to understand. Before Emily could contemplate, again, telling her, Jasmine Campbell approached the table.
“You wanted the cake done about nine, Emily?”
Emily tore her gaze away from Hope and looked up at the bar manager. She smiled tremulously. “Now is a perfect time for the cake. Thanks.”
She stood and followed Jasmine into the kitchen, glad of the reprieve. Although from the way she felt Hope’s gaze following her across the bar, Emily doubted it would last long.
Brand felt like a hole was burning in his gut. He hadn’t been interested in food all night, and pouring straight scotch into an empty stomach was probably not the best idea.
Or maybe it was the guilt that was eating at him like acid. He couldn’t get the image of Emily’s face out of his mind. He’d hurt her. What he’d done to her hadn’t even been sex. Brand didn’t know what to call it, but he knew he was deeply ashamed of how he’d behaved.
He’d gotten back from his ride determined to show them both, her and Jet, how wrong they were. How stupid they were to love him. They only saw what they wanted to see, and he had to alter their viewpoint. Emily’s first because her opinion of him had always been the rosiest. She thought he was some kind of hero, for Christ’s sake.
