Meant to Be (10 page)

“
No, Rad is not like me at
all.” Reese glared at Wynn for interrupting and continued. “He’s
more like the kind of guy who sets low personal standards, and then
fails to achieve them.”

That made every man there roar with
laughter. Lauren wasn’t sure if their amusement was caused by the
fact that it obviously wasn’t true, or because Reese didn’t have
the nerve to say it when Rad was present.

She stood silently observing the men
until Wynn spoke. “Word has it Rad is pretty serious about
you.”

Lauren was in the middle of taking a
sip of beer and almost choked. “Really? Why do you say
that?”

“’
Cause he wouldn’t have
introduced you to us if he wasn’t.”

She laughed, thinking now he was
joking. “Oh, I see. So he needs your approval.”

Wynn looked at her sheepishly. “Well,
yeah. Sort of.”

“
Then I hope I passed your
test.”

Reese draped one arm over her shoulder
and raised his cup in the other for emphasis. “Put it this way, if
he lets you go, I’m available.”

“
Hey! What’s going on?”
Rad strolled down the beach with a thirty-pack in each hand. “Good
grief, I leave you alone with my girl a few minutes and you make a
move. Great friend you are.”

All the men laughed, but Lauren
noticed Jackie and Jasmine weren’t sharing in the laughter. Rad had
the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, and both their
gazes seemed locked on his tan, well-muscled forearms.
Simultaneously, their attention shifted to Lauren, and the
expression on their faces changed from smiling approval to glaring
condemnation.

Lauren ignored them and helped Heather
and Rad dump beers into the coolers.

“
Hurry up, bro.” Wynn
slapped Rad on the back. “We’re getting a volleyball game
going.”

Rad, who was leaning over a cooler,
looked up at Lauren. “You in?”

“
No way, but go
ahead.”

Rad hurriedly dried his hands on his
shirt and took off after Wynn.

“
Grab a chair, or here’s a
towel, if you want to sit closer.” Heather pointed to a stack of
towels under one of the tables.

“
Wow, you girls have
thought of everything.”

“
We’re not really wives
and girlfriends—we’re mothers,” Annie said. “As you can see, they
are just a bunch of kids.”

Lauren walked to the volleyball court
with a towel and plopped down on the beach to watch. She knew how
competitive Rad was and soon found out that every guy playing was
equally as driven. They spiked, they cursed, they dove for balls,
and bruised the other team with their power serves. The only
problem was, there were two women on each team as well—none of whom
seemed to care whether they won or lost.

Jackie and Jasmine, who had stripped
down to bikinis, were on one team, and seemed more intent on trying
to collide with the guys than actually recover a ball. The two
pick-ups on the other team made an effort but had apparently never
played before.

The sun, hanging low on the horizon,
caught Lauren’s eye, and her attention drifted from the game to the
edge of the beach where dark waves laced with white foam lapped the
sand.

“
Sorry men, but I gotta
take a leak.” Everyone on the team, including Rad, groaned when
Wynn made the announcement and ran off toward the Boardwalk. The
two girls on the same team also decided to call it
quits.

“
Lauren, get in here and
help us out.” Rad waved at her. “We’re down one point, and it’s
soon going to be too dark to see.”

Lauren shook her head, but he came
over and grabbed her by the arm. “Come on, we just lost three
people. You can help us out.”

“
Me?” She looked around.
“But what do I do?”

“
Just stand here and if
the ball comes your way hit it over.”

Lauren walked reluctantly to the net
and stood where Rad placed her. “So I just hit it when it comes to
me?”

At that moment, one of the guys on the
other team served a nice high ball over the net, right to her,
expecting it to drop into the sand.

“
Hit it, Lauren,” they
yelled, taunting her. “Just hit it.”

Lauren jumped up and spiked the ball
straight down between the front two players on the other side, too
close to the net to be recoverable even if they had been
ready.

“
You mean like that?” She
put her hands on her hips and blinked innocently.

“
No fair! No fair!” Tork
and a few of the other guys protested as they ran up to the
net.

“
No fair? You told me to
hit it, right?” She turned and held her hand up as Rad walked by
and slapped it with a loud high-five.

“
We’ll keep playing even
though we’re two-men down.” He rubbed his hands together excitedly.
“Our serve.”

But Jackie and Jasmine had lost
interest. “No, now you’re even,” Jackie said as they strolled away
from the game, leaving the two teams with the same number of
players.

“
Even better.” Rad smiled
at Lauren. “Wanna serve?”

As he handed her the ball, he
whispered, “Hit it to Tork. He’s weak on serves.”

Lauren didn’t respond, other than with
a slight nod of her head. When she got to the serving line, she
held the ball as if she was going to bop it from underneath like a
girl, but then she hesitated, shifting her weight back and forth
for a minute. She hadn’t played volleyball in years and wasn’t sure
she could hit it the way she used to. By this time, those who had
their hands up in the air on the other side had started to lower
them.

After another moment of deliberation,
Lauren decided to go for the overhand power shot and hit the ball
so hard, it slammed Tork in the chest before he even had time to
lift his hands again.

“
Tie game!” Rad ran over
and gave Lauren another high-five just as Tork said, “What the
hell?”

Lauren ran up to the net. “Sorry,
Tork. I was afraid it wouldn’t make it over, so I might have
overcompensated.”

“
Game on, girl.” Tork’s
eyes flashed with competitive fire. “Don’t expect any special
treatment when we serve.”

When the ball came back for their team
to serve, Rad flipped it to Lauren. “No pressure, but it’s game
point, and they’re pissed.”

Lauren frowned. “Thanks for reminding
me, dude. Where do you want it to go?”

“
Just hit it like the last
one.”

Nodding again as she lined up the
shot, Lauren sent the ball sailing over the net. This time Tork was
ready—at least enough to react. He put his hands up and made enough
contact with the ball to keep it in the air. Bipp lunged in with a
fist and sent it sailing back over the net.

Rad stepped up, and instead of hitting
it back over, set it up for Lauren. She ran forward from the back
row and spiked it over the heads of the front row who were trying
to block the shot. It landed in the sand behind them without being
touched.

Rad threw his hands in the air. “Game
point!”

“
We demand a
re-match!”

Bipp and the rest of the team ran up
to Rad, yelling and flailing their arms, acting like they had just
lost the Super Bowl rather than an informal game of beach
volleyball.

“
You can’t make
substitutions in the middle of a game.” Bipp planted himself in
front of Rad with his arms crossed. “That’s the rules.”

“
Funny, you didn’t mention
that rule when we were down three people and putting a girl in.”
Rad laughed. “Anyway, it’s getting too dark to see.” He took
Lauren’s hand. “And I need a drink.”

Lauren waited until they were out of
hearing range, and then leaned into him and said in a low, serious
tone. “In case you’re keeping score, I just saved your
ass.”

Rad’s laughter broke out so loudly,
everyone within hearing distance paused and looked over at the two
of them.

Lauren didn’t notice the disturbance
the outburst had caused. Her attention, and her gaze, were locked
on Rad and his captivating, magnetic eyes.

Chapter 8

A full moon replaced the
sun over the water so swiftly Lauren wondered if the day always
melted away with so little notice. She had witnessed thousands of
sunrises, but never paid much attention to the approach of night.
It seemed like it had taken only moments for the last remnants of
light to be pulled from the sky and the dark cloak of night to
surround them. The rising moon took away some of the heavy
darkness, making it light enough to see the frothy water licking
the shore.

At some point after the volleyball
game, wood had been gathered, and there was now a small bonfire on
the beach. Some of the guys stood around it chatting quietly, while
a number of women wrapped in blankets sat on lawn chairs near the
blaze.

Lauren stood talking to Pops when his
attention suddenly drifted to somewhere over her shoulder. She saw
him nod, acknowledging some sort of message, but before she could
turn around to see who was there, she felt a familiar arm wrap
around her waist. “Hey, baby,” Rad said in her ear. “The guys are
getting together for a meeting further down the beach. You okay
here?”

She nodded. “Sure. I’ll talk to
Heather.”

“
Good deal. I won’t be
long.” He pulled off his shirt and put it over her shoulders.
“Here, in case you’re cold.”

Lauren stood in the dark a moment with
her eyes closed as she listened to him move away. His courtesy and
consideration left her speechless, breathless. She put her arms
into his oversized shirt and walked over to Heather who was sitting
alone on a lawn chair beside the canopy.

“
Mind if I sit?” Lauren
nodded toward a blanket as she rolled up the sleeves of the shirt
that completely covered her hands.

“
No, not at all. You can
grab the chair if you want. Annie ran back to the room to check on
something.”

Lauren sat down cross-legged on the
blanket. “No, this is fine.”

“
It’s nice to see him so
happy,” Heather said as if to herself.

Lauren followed Heather’s gaze to Rad
and watched as he tapped Tork on the shoulder at the campfire
before melting away into the darkness.

“
Is there some reason he
shouldn’t be?” She looked up curiously.

Heather appeared startled that she had
spoken out loud. “Oh, no. Not really. I mean, he’s had some tough
times. He’s over them now.”

“
Oh.” Lauren continued to
stare into the darkness as the sound of voices slowly faded
away.

“
I’ve probably made you
curious now.” Heather got up and grabbed a soda from the cooler. “I
always talk too much.”

“
Kind of.” Lauren
shrugged. “I mean, I don’t want to pry, but if he’s a
manic-depressive psychopath, I’d like to know.”

Heather laughed as she sat back down.
“Yep. I definitely said too much if you think that.” She pulled the
tab on her drink, took a sip, then leaned forward and talked in a
soft voice. “Wynn said you two go way back, but I take it you don’t
know him that well.”

Lauren smiled at Heather’s female
intuition but wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to lie, yet
she didn’t want to completely destroy Rad’s story. “I guess you
could say we haven’t seen each other for quite a while.”

Heather sat back in her chair and took
a deep breath. “Well, the short story is he was engaged to be
married to a girl named Angie.” She nodded toward the two girls who
were still guzzling beer as they stood by the fire. “That girl on
the left, Jackie, is Angie’s cousin. Anyway, he came home from
traveling about a month before the wedding to an empty apartment
and a note.”

“
Oh.” Lauren closed her
eyes.

Heather looked down at her. “Yeah, he
took it pretty hard. I think more because of the way it was done
than who it was done by.”

Lauren could tell from the tone of
Heather’s voice that her resentment for Angie was intense and
personal. “Sounds like you didn’t like her much.”

“
That’s putting it
mildly.” Heather leaned back and stared out at the darkness.
“Nobody did.”

“
Except Rad.”

“
Well, he was young and
they had been together a pretty long time, so I guess it seemed
like a logical step. Plus, she’s manipulative and conniving, and he
just got sucked up in it.” She took a sip of her soda. “He knows
now what a big mistake it was.”

“
How long ago was
this?”

“
Almost three
years.”

“
And he hasn’t been seeing
anyone?”

“
No.” Heather was quiet a
moment as if thinking about it. “I’m sure it had more to do with
where he was in his career than just swearing off women all
together. I mean, really the only women these guys meet are hanging
out in bars.” Her attention turned toward Jackie and her friend.
“Or the ones that invite themselves to parties at the
beach.”

Lauren noticed Heather’s hostile
expression and followed her gaze. She got the feeling Heather
didn’t care too much for Angie’s cousin or her friend either. She
took a sip from the mini-bottle of water she had pulled out of the
cooler. “So I take it Angie was cheating and left him for another
guy.”