* * *
Olivia: I would love that. Is it okay if Mia comes?
* * *
Me: Absolutely. We can grab a pizza and sit out on the beach by my house if you’d like?
* * *
Olivia: I might be tearing up at the thought of your kindness. Is six okay?
* * *
Me: Six is perfect. No tears. We’ll have some wine and become friends.
* * *
Olivia: You’re amazing.
* * *
I’ve never done this before, basically asked someone if they wanted to go out on a girl-friend date, but it feels right. Plus, I could use a friend around here too.
My heart feels a little lighter as I make my way into the development, but as soon as I walk through the front door, my gut starts to burn like I’ve eaten too much spicy food. I forgot what I left behind. I tried to forget what I left behind.
Katarina, Kricket, and Krow are sitting around the kitchen table. I imagine they don’t know what went down on that table last night.
I’d love to tell them that just hours earlier there was a ten-inch purple dildo hanging from the lights.
They’re staring at each other, and I keep walking toward the stairs. I hate to wonder where Bradley is, but it’s only a matter of seconds before my wonderment is no more.
“Why are you in my room?” This conversation feels familiar. Bradley is and always has been a snoop. I had to lock everything in my bedroom with one of those locker pad-locks so he couldn’t reach my journal, notes between friends, and whatever else I had that I didn’t want him to see. I had a stack of locked crates in my closet for the sole purpose of keeping him out.
“What’s your password?” he asks, trying to log in to my computer.
“What? No, Bradley.”
“I need to see something.”
“Bradley, I have nothing to say to you right now other than … leave my room. Go be with your wife and your future psycho sister-in-laws.”
Bradley is ignoring me as I speak and finally guesses my password. It wasn’t exactly challenging, being the month and date of my birthday, but what the hell?
Bradley pulls up some weird code on a black screen and types the word “abort.”
“What are you doing? What is that?”
He twists in his seat and shakes his head at me. He then opens up my notepad and begins to type.
I’m in a real tight spot right now. I just took the internet tracker off of your computer. Ronald, Kat’s dad, is watching everything. It’s “all in the name of research.” He’s crazy, Ashley. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed. I promise you. It all happened so fast.
I grab the back of his shirt, forcing him to turn around. “Fix it,” I mouth.
“I will,” he whispers back. Bradley continues typing:
There’s another bonfire tonight. Just be yourself and know I’m taking care of things behind the scenes. Please, just go?
Everything in my body wants to pummel him, but I see the nervous glint in his eyes, and for once in my life, it’s nice to be on the side that didn’t screw up. He knows he messed up, and he’s going to have to pay the price now. I’m actually fine with going to the bonfire because it will give me a chance to check up on Noah, and make sure he’s okay.
“Leave,” I tell Bradley again. I may be agreeable to this situation, but I am not ready to forgive him for this.
Reluctantly, Bradley stands up from my desk and leaves me in my bedroom. I wonder how he’s planning to fix this, or if he was just saying that to get me off his back.
After I spend a few minutes calming down, I check my phone to see if Noah responded to my message. He hasn’t.
Tonight. Crap. I just made plans for tonight with Olivia. This isn’t going to turn out well. I have to find a way to avoid the bonfire.
I sit down at my computer and click off of the notepad Bradley opened, searching for the black screen he had open. I find it, along with a bunch of gibberish. Thankfully, I haven’t used my computer for anything significant, but it’s lovely to know it was being monitored.
If I ever meet this asshole who duped us all into being part of his research, I’ll knock him straight in the jaw. I wonder how much the rest of the men know if they missed some fine print too. I mean, in all seriousness, anyone who is given the offer at a chance for prize money like they are should definitely read all the fine print. I shouldn’t be one to talk, but I didn’t think Bradley would pull the rug out from beneath me like he has.
I sent Olivia my address with plans of keeping her from the circus in my house. I’ve been sitting on my front steps waiting for her to arrive, watching Theo tend to his garden like he does every night at the same time. Theo waves over at me, but he doesn’t stop to chat like has been. I wonder if he’s embarrassed after our last encounter.
A black Jeep Wrangler slowly pulls into the development. Since I haven’t seen that car around here before, I assume it’s Olivia. Taking the chance, I wave my arms, so she spots my empty driveway.
Theo raises his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. He looks confused when he must see a woman in the driver’s seat. No one new seems to pull into this place unless they live here.
The Jeep comes to a stop in the driveway behind the white stucco wall, and Olivia steps out. “I found a sitter,” she sings out. “And I have wine coolers.” Her hair is done tonight, versus the other night when it was up in a messy ponytail, one that screamed I need a shower and a break. She’s wearing a little make-up and is in a beachy white sundress. She looks younger than she did the other night, except for the puffy discolored bags beneath her eyes.
I wasn’t expecting the excitement to pour out of her, not after the way I saw her the other night. “Sorry, I have had no one to watch Mia in over three months. This is officially my night off.”
“Liv?” I hear. Theo’s shouting over as if he knows her, which he must if he’s calling her Liv. “Oh my God, Liv, what are you doing here?”
Olivia looks a little confused as she squints in Theo’s direction. “Theo?” Olivia moves away from her car, toward me, but still squinting off into the distance to figure out if she’s seeing Theo. “What are you doing here? You don’t live in Tybee anymore. You couldn’t stand this place any longer, if I remember correctly.” A soft laugh trickles from Olivia’s throat.
“Yeah, I’m actually living here for a bit. I thought you were up in Jacksonville with Dustin?”
Oh no.
Olivia takes in a deep breath, one I can see. She doesn’t say anything more and doesn’t walk any closer to Theo. “We were neighbors until we were eighteen,” Olivia fills me in.
“Wow, what a small world,” I tell them, still feeling the tension of what Olivia probably wants to tell Theo, but at the same time, probably doesn’t.
“Just a small town,” Theo says with a wink. “How have you been?” Another question Theo probably doesn’t want the answer to. Although, he continues making his way over. Olivia’s face is turning red, and Theo has no clue what he’s walking over toward. “Where’s Dustin?”
I step in front of Olivia and press my hands into Theo’s shoulders. I widen my eyes and nod my head. “Don’t—“
“What’s going on?” Theo gently nudges me to the side. “Where is he?”
Olivia’s face contorts into the sight of grief. “He’s gone,” she mutters before releasing a shuddering sob.
Theo doesn’t let the information sink in before tangling his arms around her small frame. “Liv, no.”
This is supposed to be a night off for Olivia . I feel like this is my fault.
Olivia pulls in a sharp breath and shakes Theo off of her. “I’m okay,” she says.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like that for you,” he says.
“Who’s to say what should or shouldn’t be, Theo?” Olivia responds.
Olivia gives Theo another strangling hug. “Ashley, would it be okay to invite Theo to join us tonight?”
; I can’t help but smile. “Theo has become one of my only friends around here, so I’d love that.”
“I—“ Theo says, stopping himself mid-sentence. Theo points to his house.
“Invite Jim,” I tell him.
Theo releases a quiet laugh. “Jim?” Olivia responds. “Really?” She smiles sweetly and reaches to sweep her hand across Theo’s cheek. “Is Jim—?”
Theo blushes in response. “Not yet, but maybe.”
“This is the best news I’ve heard in the longest time,” Olivia says. “I had hoped you found someone to make you smile.”
“He does,” Theo says, hesitating before each word, but beaming at the same time. “I’ll see if he’s up for it. Give me a minute.”
Theo runs off toward his house. “I’m glad he’s more open about himself now. We were seventeen, and he was having the worst time coming to terms with who he is. He said he’d figure out his way when the time was right.”
“Come on, let’s go out back. I can’t bring you through my house yet until I explain what may or may not be going on in there.”
“I’m not following,” Olivia says.
“Just wait,” I warn. Isn’t this how all good friendships start—one warning another that their roommate openly whips men on the kitchen table at odd times throughout the day.
Chapter 20
Olivia has been focused on avoiding the topic of Dustin, her deceased husband of six months. Instead, she’s infatuated with curiosity about my current living situation. She was quick to notice the gaggle of men swarming around the beach, and I held off my explanation as long as I possibly could.
“Have you noticed we’re the only women on this beach?”
“This is good pizza, right?” I say, jokingly trying to change the subject.
“Yeah, but the view …” she laughs.
“So … funny story,” I tell her. “My brother knew I was about to graduate from college, figured I hadn’t lined up a job yet, which I hadn’t, and offered me free rent to move down here and stay at the villa he was about to lease out.”
“That’s an amazing opportunity,” she says.
“I thought so too, but you know when you sign a lease, and there’s all that fine print no one wants to read?”
“I’ve learned the hard way,” she says. “The military life demands every word to be read.”
“Yeah, well, I learned the hard way too. I’m living in the middle of some social study with two whack-job roommates and ten single men in the other villas surrounding me.”
“Theo?” she asks.
I turn around to make sure he isn’t on his way over. Jim agreed to join us too, but they needed a few minutes to freshen up for the beach … I didn’t question that. “Yeah, there’s prize money at the end of the term they agreed to, so while most of them are in it for the prize money, the others either didn’t think they’d care about the part where they couldn’t date or have relations with a woman for a year, or underestimated their libido. Half of them are like hungry tigers, and I’m a raw piece of steak.”
That seems to have taken Olivia down a notch. “That’s insane. Tell them to enlist if they want to see how long they can practice celibacy.”
“Prize money,” I repeat. “It’s all about the money.”
“How far into the study are they?” she asks, staring out into the ocean.
“I don’t know, almost seven months, I think.”
“The guy you were with the other night? Don’t tell me he’s one of them. Such a sweetheart.”
“Yup, he is, but he has been upfront about his reason for being here. It’s the others that want it all.”
The more I say this crap out loud, the more confusing it sounds.
“So, are you their temptation?” she asks.
“I guess, but it isn’t something I agreed to.”
“Well, Ashley, so far, you have totally distracted me from my life and my pity party. So, thank you for that.”
“I’m glad I could be of help,” I tell her, taking a sip of my strawberry-peach wine cooler.
“Ladies!” The voice grows from behind us, and I recognize it as Theo’s voice. I turn, finding him and Jim shuffling through the fine sand.
“Hey,” we say in unison. They both take a seat on the beach mat we’ve laid out.
“The pizza is already here. Dig in! Oh, and did you know the Pizza Stone delivers onto the beach? This is the life, right?” I ask Theo.
“Hell yeah. I’ve ordered from this place a bunch. They’re awesome.”
“Did you—ah—warn Olivia about the bonfire?” Theo asks.
“Bonfire?” Olivia repeats. “Oh, no.”
“You don’t have to stay if you’re uncomfortable, but the bonfires are a part of the—“
Theo clears his throat. “It’s something we do around here. You should stay, Liv.”
“What does it entail?” she asks, sounding eager but also a little apprehensive.
“Ten men, tempted by women, and a big cash prize. Which will they choose?” I speak out in a manly, reality show host voice.
“Are there cameras?” Olivia asks. “Is this like a real reality show?”
I laugh, sardonically. “I actually have no clue. I could be showering in front of a camera for all I know, but hey, I agreed to it, because I didn’t read the fine print.”
I try to laugh to make my outburst a little less insane, but she’s laughing for real. “This is seriously the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Welcome to the weird,” I tell her.
“Yeah, I’m sticking around to see this thing out. I need entertainment, like no one else.”
“Oh, you’ll get entertainment,” Jim says. He’s quiet, but the humor of the conversation seems to have brightened him up a little.
“How are you two getting away with all this?” Olivia asks them. I wasn’t going to ask. It’s none of my business, but I’m curious to know if the rules apply.
“We’re just friends,” Jim replies quicker than I anticipated.
“Yeah, friends,” Theo says.
I squint at them both. “Hmm.”
Theo swallows hard and, I get the hint and change the subject. “Well, all I can say is, if you choose to mingle tonight, stay away from Max if he shows up. He’s insane.”
“Max was given the ax,” Theo says. He says it as if I should have known he was sent packing.
“He’s gone?”
“He crossed the line and ignored the fine print, so yeah, he’s gone.”
It’s that easy to get booted. Interesting.
“Are they all in suits at a bonfire?” Olivia whispers as we watch them throw firewood into the licking flames.
“Yup, yes they are.”
“Interesting,” she continues.
I spot Noah walking slowly down the path, his hands in his pockets, wearing a blue sports coat and light-gray slacks. He looks like a steel teddy bear. My heart flutters at the sight of him.
I’ve decided to let him come to me, so I don’t push. He never responded to my text message when I was checking on him after work, so I don’t know what frame of mind he’s currently in.
I wonder if he’s required to be here tonight.
I stay focused on my wine cooler. “I’m going to go grab another drink from the cooler on your porch. Do you want another one?” Olivia asks.
“Oh, yeah, that’d be great.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just avoiding eye contact with them,” I tell her, trying to seem unaffected by my thoughts, all of which are revolving around Noah.
“I don’t blame you. Your eyes might start to burn after staring at so much hotness for so long.”
She has a good sense of humor. I’ll give her that.
“Was that Olivia from the carnival?” Noah’s voice pulls my focus from my empty bottle.
“Hey,” I say, trying to force a smile. “Yeah, I messaged her earlier and invited her over for a few drinks. She wanted to stay for the bonfire to
see what the craziness was all about.”
“That was sweet of you to reach out to her,” Noah says.
“I felt kind of helpless after you got that call earlier, and it seemed like something I should do.”
Noah smiles genuinely, but his lips only pull to one corner. “My buddy is going to be okay. He might lose his leg, but he’s going to live. I spent hours on the phone today, trying to reach people to find out more information.”
I don’t stop myself from lunging at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. The relief that his friend is alive is overwhelming after the torment I’ve been indulging in these past few hours.
“Sorry I didn’t return your message. I just got this news a half hour ago and wasn’t up to talking before that.”
“You don’t have to explain,” I spit out, wishing I hadn’t texted. He needed his space.
“Thank you for being supportive,” he says.
I hear a female’s laughter in the distance, and I glance past Noah, spotting Olivia having a conversation with one of the men. I think it’s Alexander. We haven’t chatted much.
Noah turns around to spot what I’m looking at. “Ah, Alex, the pediatric surgeon. He’s a good guy. Works a lot, but one of the good ones.”
“Hey, guys.” I turn around, finding Colin standing casually with a beer in his hand.
“Hey, Colin,” I repeat in a mirror tone.
“Can I borrow you for a minute?” he asks.
Noah looks fairly irritated, but steps back and waves his hand toward me, gesturing to Colin. “Have at it. I’ll catch you in a few,” Noah says, leaving me with a quick wink.
My heart deflates when he walks away, and my stomach churns while I remain here to have a fake conversation with Colin.
“So, I was wondering if you’d be interested in going out to dinner with me tomorrow night?” Another forward one. A pre-planner for when his six months of celibacy are up.
The Bachelor Beach: The Love Connection Series - Villa One Page 15
