Before You

by Lisa Cardiff

  “That’s it?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’m full of sand, and all I want to do is shower.”

  “Are we fine then?”

  Bre sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know. If I realized that I would be spending most of my time in LA alone, I would have come for a week or two, not an entire month. I get that you have a busy life and commitments that draw your attention away. I’m not asking for you to drop everything and devote every waking hour to me. I just hate playing the role of pathetic girlfriend with no life of her own, sitting around with bated breath for her boyfriend.”

  “I don’t think of you that way.”

  “Maybe not, but that’s how I feel, and it’s driving me crazy. Especially when I have so many other things I need to be working on right now. I need to find a job, help my grandmother, and find a place to live. Instead of doing any of those things, I put my life on hold to spend a month with you. I’m not asking you to put your life on hold for me, but I am asking you to respect me and my time, and that means calling me when you’re going to be late.”

  “I can do that.” Cam placed one of his hands over his chest. “I wanted to call last night, I really did, but I knew you’d be mad and you know how much I hate fighting with you.” Cam looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then returned his gaze to her. “Another bartender called in sick so I had to stay late at the restaurant, and I couldn’t refuse. I need the money if I want to stay in LA and make this work.”

  “It’s not just about calling when you’re late. It also means making time for me while I’m here. I’m not some toy that you play with when it’s convenient and toss me aside when you find something better.”

  “Come on, Bre. Don’t question my commitment to you, to us. If it were possible, I would spend every minute with you, but this is my life, the life I’m building for us so we can be together. I have a music career and a job bartending. One is my future and the other pays my bills. Unfortunately, I can’t blow off either for the next few weeks so we can play house.”

  Fury stained Bre’s cheeks. “Oh, I get it. You don’t have time to put your life on hold to play house, but I do. That’s right,” she mocked. “I can’t think of anything better to do with my life than sit around playing little old boring housewife—cooking, knitting, and watching reality T.V.—while my big important boyfriend is trying to succeed at his big important career and bartend on the side.” Bre swung her arm in front of her to emphasize her frustration. “Why did ask me to come here? Can you explain? Because right now I don’t get it.”

  “Jesus, Bre! I didn’t mean it that way,” Cam said, running his hands through his hair. “Where the hell did that nonsense come from? I’m not dumb. I get that you sacrificed a lot to visit me for a month. Cut me some slack. I’m new to this, too. I haven’t had a girlfriend in my life every day since I moved to LA.” Cam sighed. “Bre, come here.”

  “Why?” she asked, raising her eyebrows suspiciously.

  “Stop thinking so much. Just come over here.”

  Bre walked to the edge of the sofa, her knees brushing up against his. “Yes?”

  Without warning, he pulled her down on top of him and then rolled, pinning her beneath him on the couch and kissed her hard on the lips. “This fight is ridiculous.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “No talking.” He interrupted her response with another kiss.

  When he released her mouth, she tried to talk again. “Don’t try to distract me. This is im—”

  Cam pinned her arms above her head with one hand and started tickling her.

  Between gasps for air, Bre screamed, “You’re not playing fair!”

  “I never said I would.”

  Chapter Six

  Two days later, Bre nervously waited at the front door of Jax’s family beach house with Cam. According to Cam, Jax had a Labor Day party every year at his family’s beach house, and he had invited a few friends, including them, to stay the night. She didn’t know how to act around Jax after the day they spent sailing together. She didn’t want to experience the friction or tension from the bar, but at the same time she wanted their time together to remain private. Cam mentioned that there would be fifty to a hundred people at the party, so with any luck, she and Jax wouldn’t do more than exchange a few pleasantries and her nervousness would be moot.

  Besides the small discussion after her sailing trip with Jax, both she and Cam acted as if their fight never happened. Admittedly, the lingering tension between them hadn’t disappeared, but she had no intention of letting it seep into their weekend plans. She hoped that spending two full days at the beach with Cam would erase any remaining bad feelings and things would be back to normal between them.

  Hearing laughter near the front door, she took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. When the front door opened, Katie greeted her with a sickly sweet fake smile, and she immediately tensed. For all of Jax’s protestations that he wasn’t interested in her, Katie sure seemed to be around him all the time. She shouldn’t care. Jax wasn’t hers, but that didn’t stop something resembling jealousy from twisting in her gut.

  “Cam…” Katie leaned in toward him and kissed him on both cheeks. “Come in. Jax is by the pool talking to the caterers. I’m playing hostess today,” she said, looping her arm through his while offering Cam an overly bright smile.

  It didn’t escape Bre’s attention that Katie acted as though she weren’t there and Cam evidently forgot her presence as well. Bre cleared her throat and Cam turned around.

  “Bre, are you coming? Wait until you see the pool. It’s insane.”

  “What about our bags?”

  “Just leave them in the entry. We can get them later when we know what room we’re sleeping in tonight.”

  Giggling, Katie put her hand around the back of Cam’s neck and whispered something in his ear. He smiled down at her as if she were the greatest thing he had seen in recent history.

  If she didn’t know Katie had a thing for Jax, she would be tempted to throw the bags at her head, but right now flinging them at Cam would definitely be more satisfying. Instead, she dropped the two small overnight bags on the cream stone floor to the right of the door, enjoying the destructive sound they made.

  Bre’s frustration disappeared when she stepped into the house and saw the wall of windows overlooking a rectangular infinity pool that seemed to merge into the deep blue of Pacific Ocean. Several drunkenly animated people danced to music near the pool. She paused, letting Cam and Katie go outside without her so she could take in her surroundings. She desperately wished Cam had introduced her to more people over the last few weeks. It was going to be a long night. Exhaling loudly, she stepped outside. Standing by the edge of the pool alone, watching everyone talk animatedly, she felt like an outsider.

  A few minutes later, Cam handed her a glass of white wine and she took a long sip. It was dry and crisp on her tongue.

  Cam took a drink of his beer and looked at Bre. “I didn’t think you liked beer. Does the wine taste okay?”

  Bre took a small sip. “Actually, it’s really good. Is Jax’s family here?”

  “No. The family rotates weeks throughout the year, and Jax always gets Labor Day weekend.”

  “Does he have any brothers or sisters?”

  “Nope.”

  “So Jax gets some weeks and his parents get the others?” Bre asked, confused by the strange scheduling.

  “No. Time at the beach house is split between his dad, mom, and him. Even though they’re still married, his mom and dad don’t really talk much, and the family situation is awkward, so no one comes here at the same time.” Cam took another sip of his beer. “Well, that’s not entirely true. Sometimes Jax and his mom are here at the same time, but his dad kind of lives his own life.”

  “What’s the deal with that?”

  Cam shrugged. “I don’t know. Jax never talks about it more than to say neither he nor his mom talk to his dad much.”

  “Do h
is parents live together?”

  “Yes, but their house is big enough that they don’t have to see each other if they don’t want to.”

  Bre cautiously glanced around, watching all the beautiful California people play in the sun. She was tempted to take a few pictures and send them to Sara. She would laugh at the stereotypical scene. It was straight out of a movie.

  Turning her head to the side, she saw Jax. He stood at the far side of the pool, his head bent to the side, listening to something Katie whispered in his ear. Bre’s heart made a small jump in her chest as she soaked up his handsome face; the sophisticated ease with which he subtly commanded everyone’s attention; the casual way he swirled his drink in his hand. Even though she hated herself for it, she noticed every little thing about him.

  When his gray eyes connected with hers, her breath hitched and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. His gaze drifted from her face, down her short strapless lilac dress, and back up to her face again. Burning with embarrassment, she jerked her eyes away, and turned to face Cam.

  “Alec and Marc are at the bar. I want you to meet them,” Cam said, softly rubbing her lower back.

  Bre immediately located Alec and Marc. She remembered them from their performance. As they walked toward the bar, several people stopped Cam to pat him on the shoulder or to talk about the band. Bre wished Cam would introduce her to some of the people, so she didn’t feel as if she were Cam’s arm accessory rather than his girlfriend.

  “Alec, Marc, this is Bre,” Cam said, tugging her in front of him.

  Marc gave Bre an open if not overly friendly smile, followed by a hug. Alec merely nodded in her direction, not even bothering to smile. She found it amusing that Marc and Alec’s personalities matched their looks.

  Marc was the complete opposite of Alec, physically and mentally. He had a loud, crude sense of humor that grated on her nerves most of the time. His light brown hair always looked mussed from the wind or other more intimate encounters.

  Alec, on the hand, rarely spoke. He was dark in looks and personality, with his black hair and eyes and black tribal tattoos starting at his fingers and lacing up his arms to his neck. His quietness didn’t seem to bother women. They flocked to his dark brooding looks probably hoping they would be the one to melt his cold reserve.

  Within a few minutes, Cam became absorbed in a conversation about band business with Alec and Marc, so Bre drifted down the stairs of the deck to explore the beach. On the beach, she was soon surrounded by a group of men discussing the pro and cons of surfing different beaches in Southern California. She joined the conversation, asking questions about surfing techniques, and after an hour and a half she had accepted an invitation to take an early morning surf lesson from a guy named Reed who was staying at Jax’s house, too.

  Realizing that Cam was probably wondering where she was, she excused herself, saying she needed a drink. Walking around the side of the house and up the steep stepping stones toward the front of the house, she discovered a door propped open on the side of the house. She slipped into the room, pausing at the entrance to let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting.

  “What are you doing in here?” Jax said, announcing his presence.

  Bre looked up and saw Jax in his swim trunks, sitting in a chair in the corner of the bedroom with a guitar in his lap, his long legs stretched out in from of him. “I should ask you the same thing. What is the host of the party doing hiding out in a bedroom alone?” Bre said, walking toward him.

  “Who says I’m alone?” Jax’s lazy voice mocked.

  Embarrassed, Bre froze in place, then started walking backwards toward the door. Trying to avoid acting like a naïve dimwit, she shrugged her shoulders to give the impression that she was blithely unfazed by his comment. Of course, Jax wasn’t alone. Internally cringing, she glanced at the bed, fearing she would find Katie there, but she noticed it wasn’t disturbed. Her eyes flew back toward him, only to see his face filled with humor. She tried to think of something mundane to say. “You have a beautiful home,” she commented, and then cleared her throat. “Well, I better find Cam.”

  “Yep, you probably aren’t going to find him in my bedroom, or at least I hope not.” Jax shivered in mock horror.

  Bre smiled. “That would be awkward.”

  Jax put his guitar on the ground and walked over to the wall next to the door, leaning against it as he studied her for a few moments in silence. “So,” he smiled. “How are things with Cam?”

  “I don’t know—better, I guess.”

  “Did you ask him why he was late that night?”

  “No. Not exactly,” she replied, twisting her interlaced hands. “He mentioned that he had to cover for another bartender at the restaurant, but I don’t know what to believe. Even if he had to work late, that doesn’t explain why he didn’t call or text me.”

  He raised his eyes as if he were amused by her comment. “So you accepted his answer and decided to pretend as if nothing happened.”

  “Pretty much,” Bre said sheepishly, staring down at the floor, not wanting to meet his gaze.

  Jax pushed his body away from the wall and walked toward her. “Are you enjoying the party?”

  “I don’t really know anyone here, but I met some guys who promised to teach me to surf in the morning.”

  Jax laughed, and she smiled at him. She loved his laugh.

  “How did they talk you into that?”

  “They claimed it would be just like snowboarding so there wouldn’t be a steep learning curve.”

  “You snowboard?” he asked, arching one eyebrow.

  “Of course, I grew up in Colorado, near Aspen no less.”

  “Right, sometimes I forget you and Cam grew up together. So where’s Cam? Isn’t he supposed to be introducing you to people?”

  “I left him at the bar the with Marc and Alec and went for a walk. They were a little absorbed arguing about the best way to do a sound test. When I came back from the beach, I didn’t see him by the pool.”

  “So you decided to wander around my house and snoop through the rooms?”

  “No, hardly,” she said, twirling the bracelet on her wrist. “I needed some space, and the door was open.” She paused, remembering that Jax said he wasn’t alone. She looked toward a door that appeared to lead to an adjoined bathroom and nodded in that direction. “I should probably go before your company comes back.”

  “What company?”

  Bre nervously pushed her hair behind her ears. “Remember? You said you weren’t alone.”

  A lopsided grin crossed his face. “I’m not. You’re with me.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you want me to introduce you to some people?”

  “Honestly, I wanted a break from the party. It’s kind of overwhelming.”

  “Good, so do I. Do you want to play a game?”

  “What do you have in mind?” Bre said, touching a hand carved wooden box on his dresser. She noticed her fingers were noticeably trembling.

  “Top Card. Have you ever played that?”

  “Is that the game where you use your cards to equal the card flipped from the deck and if you can’t, you have to drink?”

  “Yep. Do you want to play?”

  The impish gleam in his eyes compelled her to agree. “Okay, but I don’t want to drink so much that I end up passed out in your room.”

  “As intriguing as that sounds, I prefer you awake, so we’ll take it slow.”

  Jax grabbed the bottle of bourbon and a glass next to his guitar, and placed them in the middle of the floor. Sitting down, he dealt each of them a stack of cards and spread out the remaining cards in a circle around the glass. Jax patted the floor across from him, signaling for her to sit. Plopping down on the floor directly across from him, she picked up her stack of cards.

  Jax flipped a card over, revealing a seven of diamonds. “Do you want to play a few practice rounds or do you think you know the rules?”

  “I think I’ll be fine,” Bre said, droppi
ng a five and a two on top of the seven, leaving the two on the top.

  “Good thing I have a two. What about you, do you have another?”

  Bre groaned lifting the glass to her mouth and drinking it in one large gulp. She drew two additional cards from the stack. “I’m not off to a good start.” Bre picked up the bottle of bourbon and refilled the glass. “You have another two in your pile of cards or maybe two aces?”

  “No, but I have a king.”

  “I forgot that a king is wild.”

  “So, how long have you and Cam been together?”

  “About seven years, but we’ve been friends for much longer.” Bre tossed a few cards on the pile. “What about you and Katie?”

  Jax sighed. “Katie and I aren’t together.”

  Bre released a sudden bark of laughter. “You’ve told me that before, but every time I see you, she’s around.”

  “Katie and I have known each other for a long time—since we were kids. Our families are really close. We have a shared history. I can’t just kick her out of my life because I’m not interested in her as more than a friend.”

  “And as an occasional closet buddy,” Bre added, throwing another card on the pile.

  “I think I should be offended that you keep bringing that up,” he replied gravely, throwing a card on the pile with a ghost of a smile dancing in the corners of his mouth.

  Unable to keep a straight face, Bre picked of the glass of bourbon and drank it. “I don’t have anything that adds up to nine.”

  “I think you’re trying to change the subject,” he said smoothly, grabbing her hand as she reached for two more cards. “And I’m out of cards. You lose.”

  Her cheeks heated when she felt the warmth of his hand on top of hers. Strange, it was such a simple touch, but one that made her insides flutter. “You cheated. I don’t think you took more than one or two shots!” she blurted out, trying to ignore the confusing feelings swirling inside of her.

  “I had a winning strategy. You followed my lead instead of coming up with your own game plan,” he said softly, his eyes trained on her parted lips.