Rage (29 page)
love you. Unless you don’t feel the same.” He snapped and
Steph folded her arms. She looked tired.
“You promised not to rush me, Chris.”
“It’s really pretty simple, Steph. Do you or do you not love
me?”
“I love Phillip.” She blurted. Cheyenne’s gasp was echoed
by the ominous sound of thunder rumbling. Christopher’s eyes
flew wide, and he stepped toward Steph. He was breathing rapid-
ly. Steph slapped a hand over her own mouth, obviously stunned
at her admission. Cheyenne felt Liam let go of her hand.
“Pip!” Liam cried and ran at Phillip who stood only five
feet away, his unblinking eyes locked on Stephanie. Liam had
almost reached him when he tripped, but Phillip scooped him up
with one arm. Cheyenne rushed to Phillip. His eyes darted back
and forth as he turned to her in shock.
“Did she just say what I think she just said?” he whispered.
“Mmmmhmmm.” Cheyenne replied quietly, pulling Liam
close in anticipation of some unfortunate repercussions. When
she turned back to the arguing couple, she saw Christopher grab
Steph by her upper arms.
“Have you gone mad?”
“No. I’m being honest,” Steph replied with the dazed voice
of a person who’d just made a shocking discovery.
“How can you say that? After he abandoned you? He pub-
licly ridiculed you!” He shook her once-hard. The force of this
rocked Steph’s head back on her shoulders, and Liam launched
into a tantrum.
“Te te!”
“Hey!” Cheyenne shouted her eyes narrowing at Christo-
pher, but Phillip brushed past her before she had a chance to inhale for a second comment.
“Back off, mate.” Phillip said reasonably. He seemed sur-
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prisingly level, considering Cheyenne might have jumped on
Christopher if Liam hadn’t been present. Phillip was inches from the couple, and upon closer inspection, Cheyenne could see he
was ready to pounce, but fighting hard to maintain a cool facade.
Steph’s eyes stayed on Christopher’s, but she blushed profusely.
“Oh, piss off, Kersey. You’re no mate of mine.” Christo-
pher snapped dismissively, without taking his eyes or hands off
Steph. Cheyenne watched as Steph’s eyes shot to Phillip and
then back to Christopher.
“Chris…” Steph’s tone was cautious. “Calm down. Let’s
take a walk. We can talk about this privately.”
Christopher scoffed as another thunderclap sounded around
them. The rising wind whipped the palm tree canopy above them
and ruffled his fair hair. When he spoke, his voice dripped with sarcasm and hurt. “Why not just talk about it here? You know,
with Mr. Kersey. It seems this involves him, as usual.”
The louder Christopher got, the more upset Liam became.
Cheyenne clung to him and rocked him, trying to settle him
down. She knew she should take him away from the escalating
scene, but she thought maybe their presence would help defuse
the situation. She felt sprinkling drops of rain pelt down on her in random intervals. In the distance, she heard Nathan shout a
request for help moving the piano under cover. Steph seemed
sheepish and embarrassed as she yanked away from Christopher.
She acted as if she were about to speak, but clamped her mouth
shut and turned to retreat onto the trail away from the party.
“Don’t walk away from me, Steph.” He reached out for her,
but Phillip stepped in front of him. He effectively blocked Christopher’s path as Stephanie briskly vanished from sight.
“You need to calm down.” Phillip’s face looked serene.
Cheyenne knew he was anything but.
“That’s priceless advice, coming from you.” Christopher
shot back at him, poking a finger in his chest to emphasize the
word ‘you’. Phillip took a deep breath as it began to rain steadi-187
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
ly.
“No matter what she said, it’s over. She was clear about
that. She told me she was with you.”
Christopher seemed to read Phillip’s face for a long moment
and then turned to Cheyenne. He looked defeated, and his shoul-
ders slumped like a wounded soldier’s after a long and fruitless battle. It was hard for Cheyenne to see, and she busied herself
covering Liam with her wrap. Christopher took what seemed like
three deep cleansing breaths and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
He looked at the ground. “It’s pretty obvious that’s not the case.”
“No matter what either of you say or do to each other, it
won’t change anything. Steph’s going to do what she’s going to
do.” Cheyenne murmured. Liam was sucking his thumb and
cuddling into her. Distressed, Christopher looked off in the di-
rection to which Steph had retreated and then turned and left in the opposite direction.
Phillip heaved what looked like a sigh of relief and turned
to Cheyenne. He frowned as if seeing Liam for the first time.
“Let’s get the boy out of the rain.
Cheyenne tilted her head to the side condescendingly. “I
can take care of Liam, Phillip. Just go get her.” As the gentle rain turned to an outright downpour, he did just that.
188
Stephanie stumbled along a path in the darkness gasping to
catch her breath. She came to a halt and leaned against a palm
tree, removing her heels. They were expensive, impractical, and
blue. Coincidently, so was she.
The rain picked up and she quickly debated about which di-
rection to turn. She needed shelter, but her room wasn’t an op-
tion. Christopher would be there. And she’d just torpedoed her
life with Christopher. Stellar. Talley up one more person hurt by her actions or inactions.
Quite the growing legacy, Red.
Her inner chastisement
came to her in Pace Turner’s deep voice.
She wandered further down the rocky path, gingerly ma-
neuvering her bare feet over the slick ground. Her direction
seemed purposeful, though consciously, she was wandering.
Phillip. There was no denying the truth. She loved him. She
was
in
love with him. Worse, she had been all along.
She made a choking sound as she tried to suppress an angry
sob. It filled her with sorrow that it had taken so long for her to finally admit it to herself. And like a complete jackass, she’d
done so in front of
him
. She wanted to scream and claw her face, but she was far too tired. She’d wasted so much time and energy
lying to herself. She passed an amber bungalow and saw Saffron
lounging on the porch, smoking under the overhang.
“Hello!” Saffron called. “Need a place to dry off?”
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TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
“Thanks, I won’t melt.” Steph replied, but a second later she
was walking. She turned and approached the waif, who pushed
away from her chair and placed her cigarette to her bright red
lips. Steph paused at the bottom of the steps. She was a foot from shelter, but didn’t feel like she deserved it.
When she finally spoke, Steph lifted her chin defiantly.
“Which bungalow is Phillip’s?”
Saffron smiled as she exhaled a long cloud of smoke. This
wasn’t Saffron’s usual double entendre dirty joke smile, though.
This smile seemed to come from a place of genuine pleasure,
like a kid opening presents on Christmas morning. “His is the
second on down.”
“Thanks, Saffron.” Steph went back out into the rain and
didn’t turn back when Saffron called out after her.
“Just once I wish someone would write a song
like that
for me. Snog him once for me!”
Phillip’s clothes were soaking wet once again. He’d been on
a mission to find Steph, frantic to see where she was with things, to see what her admission meant for them. If it meant anything at all.
He’d searched all of the public areas of the resort for her,
but to no avail. He got an unfortunately eyeful of Yara’s mom
stuffing money into the pants of an oily male stripper as he wandered through the restaurant. Due to the rain, the dining area had been commandeered for the bachelorettes. As he watched the
strippers grind on the tables, he reminded himself to eat off-site for the rest of his stay. Yara cheered her mom on and danced
with Kara on a nearby table. David’s blushing bride wore a pair
of glow in the dark sunglasses with a penis jutting out where her nose should be. Phillip paused to watch the bridesmaids do a
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RAGE
body shot off a second stripper.
Girls Gone Wild, Noronha.
That’s when he noticed that every female in the wedding
entourage was present and accounted for except for Cheyenne
and Steph. Figuring Steph might have doubled back to Chey-
enne’s, he went back out into the storm. As the door closed be-
hind him, he heard Saffron call his name over the thumping mu-
sic, but ignored her. He was a man on a mission and besides,
he’d forgotten to pack a g-string.
He checked Scot and Cheyenne’s bungalow, but Chey-
enne—who’d been tucking Liam under the covers—said she
hadn’t seen her anywhere. When he speculated that maybe he
should check her room, Cheyenne cautioned against it, arguing
that Christopher had moved in that morning. She said she doubt-
ed very much that Steph had gone back there. Phillip hoped she
was right. Stephanie was predictably unpredictable.
Defeated, he figured he should at least make an appearance
at the bachelor party, which was being held in Nathan’s bunga-
low. When he arrived, he saw the other band members sitting
around a card table playing poker and smoking cigars. There
were three blow up dolls tossed around as some sort of half-
assed décor, and a giant Love Swing hung in the center of the
room. Phillip strongly suspected that the final item wasn’t for the bachelor party.
“Wow.” Nathan removed his Cuban from his lips and took
in Phillip’s appearance with outright amusement. “Do you own
any
clothes that are dry clean only?”
“Bugger off.” He sighed dispassionately as he took his
place at the table. “Deal me in.”
“Bout time you got here.” Bret handed him a cold beer.
Phillip popped it open and chugged it in an effort to catch up. A moment later, he crushed it and stood to grab another one.
“A bit thirsty tonight, Phil?” David stifled a laugh. Scot, his
cigar clamped between his teeth, cocked an eyebrow at Phillip as 191
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
he popped his second can open.
“Yep. What did I miss?” Phillip responded. He intended to
shove all thoughts of Steph out of his mind. He had no idea what to make of her declaration, but until he found her, it was pretty pointless to speculate.
“I just explained to David that if he needs it, I have a yacht
on standby. Storm or no storm, we can make a quick getaway if
he’s changed his mind.” Nathan’s retort was met with eye rolls
all around.
“Are you taking him up on that offer, D.J. Dave?” Phillip
tilted his head in David’s direction. David smiled and flicked the ashes off his cigar with a shake of his head.
“No. She’s my soul mate. Even though she’s been the engi-
neer of The Crazy Train this week, she’s my one and only.”
“Ahhhhh…” Nathan said, fanning himself sardonically,
“It’s all so sweet I just want to vomit.”
David smirked at him and flipped him a backward V.
“So,” David started, “Scot and Bret: as the experienced
husbands I know, any words of wisdom?”
Bret chortled. “I’m pretty sure I’m the last one here you