Also she needed to stay away from Dylan. For her own sanity and safety.
She checked the time on her computer. It was nearly noon and she was meeting Fraya at a little place near the Pier for lunch. Somewhere away from the craziness that was happening at Breaker Beach. She grabbed her purse.
Fraya was already there, sitting in a booth next to a window in the diner-style restaurant. Brooke’s heels clicked across the black-and-white tiled floor as she made her way to the booth.
“Hi Fray.” She slid onto the purple vinyl seat in front of the hot pink and chrome table.
“Hey, you’re here.” Fraya looked up from the menu with a smile. “Tell me not to order the chili fries.”
“I think we should get a double order. And onion rings. And milkshakes.”
Fraya lowered her chin and gave Brooke a look. “Oy. Hungry today?”
“No. I’m pissed. And…well, pissed.”
“What’s wrong?” Fraya set down the menu, concern shadowing her eyes.
“Oh man. Long story. They don’t serve booze here, do they?”
Fraya’s lips quirked. “No. But we can go somewhere else if you want.”
Brooke sighed. “That’s okay. I have to go back to work.”
“Me too. Client meeting at one thirty. But hey, milkshakes!”
A reluctant smile tugged at Brooke’s lips. “Okay.”
They ordered chili fries, onion rings and milkshakes. Fraya talked her out of adding a basket of sweet potato fries to the order.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Fraya demanded when milkshakes topped with whipped cream sat in front of them.
Brooke dipped her straw in and out of her milkshake. “Okay. You met Dylan when he came for dinner that night.”
Fraya’s eyebrows shot up. “Oooh. This has to do with Dylan Schell?”
“Yes.” She stared hard at her whipped cream. “When I went to Tahiti…my boss sent me there to get him.” She looked up at Fraya. “This is just between us, right?”
Fraya bit her lip. “Can’t I tell Kevin?”
“No.”
“Huh. Okay. Go on.”
“Okay. Jackson Cole was getting upset about the things Dylan was doing. They didn’t think it was in line with the company image, and they wanted me to go bring him home and help clean up his behavior. So I went all the way to Tahiti to get him.”
“Even though you’re afraid of flying,” Fraya murmured.
Brooke waved a hand. “I can do it. I just…anyway. I got there and I convinced him to come back with me, basically threatening him that he’d lose his sponsorship from Jackson Cole if he didn’t clean up his act. He wasn’t very happy, but he agreed.” She hesitated, not sure how much she should share with Fraya, so she skipped ahead. “So we come back, and he’s been actually pretty cooperative, getting involved with a couple of charities and staying out of trouble.”
Fraya nodded.
“So.” Brooke dropped her eyes to her milkshake again. “We’ve been seeing a lot of each other since we got back.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“I was doing my job,” Brooke said defensively. “And it was working. Everything was going great until last night. We went to the party at Aura, and damn him, he took me home at midnight and then went back to the party. Apparently he stayed all night and it turned into a drunken, debauched orgy or something. There are pictures all over the Internet and everyone’s talking about it.”
“Oh.” Fraya pursed her lips around her straw.
Brooke cleared her throat. Her voice had gotten a little unsteady there, with all the emotion rising up inside her at telling the story. “My boss called me into his office this morning, all pissed off because I’d fallen down on the job, basically. This wasn’t the first time, but he pretty much told me he expected me to sleep with Dylan if I had to, to keep him out of trouble.”
“Whaaaat!” Fraya choked on her milkshake. “Are you serious?”
Brooke’s mouth twisted. “Yeah. Serious as Tropical Storm Joyce.”
“They can’t expect you to do that. That’s just…good God, what kind of place is it you work for?”
“It’s not the place. It’s Barrett.” She scowled. She’d complained about Barrett before to Fraya.
“Asshole.”
“Yeah. That about sums it up.”
“We’re gonna sue his ass for sexual harassment. He can’t talk to you like that! That’s just outrageous.”
Brooke held up a hand. “I don’t want to sue anyone. At least, I don’t think I do. I handled it, although I may have said a few things that’ll come back to bite me. I told him he sounded like a pimp.”
Fraya covered her smile with her hand. “Good for you.” She shook her head. “I’ve said it before, Brooke. You don’t have to stay there. You’re smart and talented and educated. There are lots of places you can get another job.”
Brooke sighed and sat back against the purple vinyl. “Yeah, you say that, but realistically there aren’t many big companies like Jackson Cole that close to home. I do like the company. But man, he makes it hard. I really don’t want to give up this job though.”
Fraya’s mouth drooped as she studied her. “You don’t have to put up with that. You
shouldn’t
put up with that.”
“Well. There’s a good chance I’ll be fired. He took me off the project because of what happened last night and said we’d re-evaluate everything after the competition. I made him promise not to yank Dylan’s sponsorship right now, when he’s trying to win this competition.”
Fraya tipped her head to one side. “You stuck up for him? After what he did?”
Brooke frowned and played with her straw again. “Well. Yeah.”
“He knew your job was on the line. Right?”
“Well. No. I never really told him that.”
“Oh. Okay. So throwing you under the bus was just an accident then.”
Brooke’s stomach tightened. Just then the waitress appeared with all their food, lifting it from her big tray to the table. Brooke gazed at it, her desire to eat having vanished. “Why’d we order all this?” she asked, reaching for a napkin.
“He did throw you under a bus,” Fraya insisted. “He should have known that doing something like that was going to reflect on you.”
“This isn’t about me.”
“Like hell it isn’t! You’re my sister. I don’t care about Dylan Schell. I mean, I do, but…you know what I mean.”
“I know. And thank you.” Her heart softened and she smiled at her big sister. “Yeah, he was acting stupid and selfish. He does tend to be a bit self-involved. But as he once pointed out to me, that’s how he got where he is.” An ache settled behind her breastbone. “But he’s done a lot of good things since we’ve been back. He really charmed people at the charities we got him working with. The kids love him, and he’s genuinely interested in the oceans and doing what he can to help protect them now. He works so hard at his sport, he really does, and he deserves to win.”
“Oh no. Oh no no no.”
“What?”
“You
were
sleeping with him!” Fraya leaned across the table to whisper the words. “Weren’t you? Are you falling for him?”
“Don’t be silly!” She tried a laugh, but her face was tight and it came out sounding like a choked sob.
“Oh no! Brooke! What happened?”
Brooke dropped her head into her hand, ignoring the food. “Okay, yes. We slept together. It started in Tahiti. We were trapped in the hotel during that storm, and there wasn’t much else to do.”
Fraya burst out laughing and Brooke looked up and caught her eye. Amusement tugged her lips too.
“That sounded kind of lame, didn’t it?”
Fraya nodded, eyes dancing.
“He’s really hot,” Brooke said softly. “And actually really, really nice. And we were hot for each other. And it happened. And then…we came back here, and he wanted me to be a date at his friends’ wedding—which is a whole other long and crazy story—and so I did because I’d said I’d do anything to make it easier for him to come back to San Amaro. He didn’t want to come,” she added. “I forgot that part.”
Fraya shook her head slowly. “Whoa.”
“So I met his friends and went to the wedding and we slept together again and it was really…amazing.” She swallowed, her throat tight. “But it turns out he’s actually still hung up on this friend…” Okay there were some things she wasn’t going to share with Fraya. Not that she didn’t trust her, but private things about Corey and Matt and Dylan were…private. “And he just wanted me there so she’d think he’s over her. Which is when I realized what a mistake it had been to sleep with him, and then my boss said he
wanted
me to sleep with him, and I felt like he was pimping me out or something, and then there was
no way
I was going to sleep with him again, and Dylan and I kind of argued and I was flirting with Josh and Dylan was jealous and…that’s what happened last night.”
“Oh holy shitballs,” Fraya breathed, sitting back and gazing at her wide-eyed.
“I know, I know. I’m an idiot. I knew what he’s like—a charming playboy who travels the world surfing big waves, partying and drinking and sexing girls.” She paused and added a touch bitterly, “Sometimes more than one at a time.”
Fraya made another choking sound.
“I have no idea why I thought I could sleep with him and come out of it unscathed. I know I was all kinds of crazy for doing that.” She caught Fraya’s eye again and held up a hand. “Don’t judge me.”
“I’m not,” Fraya murmured.
But then memories flooded back like waves onto the shore—the warm admiration in Dylan’s eyes when he looked at her, when he touched her, when he told her she was beautiful. When he’d made her face herself in the mirror as they made love so she could see herself, and how sexy and beautiful she’d felt after that.
And not just sexy memories taunted her, but also memories of him laughing and teasing the kids from Daytrippers, so generous with them of his time and experience. Him sitting there seriously discussing the perils of the oceans with people. Him at the wedding, flirting with old ladies and making them blush, him at her parents’ place talking to her dad and brother and nephews about the physics of surfing and jumping into the pool with all his clothes on.
And then last night, when she’d made those awful comments to him about not being over Corey, and the flash of hurt she’d seen in his beautiful eyes. Pain shafted through her thinking of that. Because she’d hurt him. And also because—she was so afraid it was true.
Frack. Her head thunked down onto the diner table. She wasn’t just falling in love with him. She was already there.
Chapter Twenty-One
The phone woke him. Dylan reached out a hand and slapped it around, found his cell phone and closed his fingers around it.
He peered at it in the dim hotel room, found the talk button and punched it. “Yeah.”
“Dylan. It’s Holden.”
He grunted and rubbed his eyes. “What?”
“Where are you?”
“In bed.”
“Are you alone?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“Not sadly, jerkoff. What the fuck were you doing last night?”
“Last night?” Dylan closed his eyes. “Went to Aura.”
“Yeah. So I heard. So the whole world heard.”
“What? What’s wrong with that?”
“You stayed out all fucking night, the party turned into a fucking orgy and your pictures are all over the Internet with two naked chicks.”
Dylan processed that. “Oh.” Oh yeah.
“I’ve already had a call from Jackson Cole. They want a meeting.”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “Of course they do.” Brooke. Pissed as usual. Well, good. Because he was pissed at her. “But shit, man, I’m really busy. This is a crazy time.”
“They’re your sponsor,” Holden bit out. “Make time.”
“Okay, okay. Let me think.” He closed his eyes and envisioned his day and all that he had to do. “If we can meet at the beach, how’s three o’clock?”
“Fine. They’ll make it work. See you then.” He ended the call.
Shit. Holden sounded really pissed. This wasn’t that big a deal, was it?
He knew it was.
Whatever.
He stretched in the bed, the sheets working their way down his naked body. Once more he lifted the phone in front of his face to check the time. Holy crap! It was almost one o’clock!
Not a big surprise since he’d been out until after five. But he’d had a good solid five hours of sleep and he was ready to go. He threw back the covers and bounded out of bed. Sunlight poured in when he tossed back the curtains. He checked the sky then the palm trees nearby to judge how windy it was. The trees swayed then tossed more. Awesome. Could be some good waves.
He needed to shower and then get down to Elroy’s place. He and Brett were meeting there to watch video from the heats the day before. Then he had some yoga and visualization exercises to do. And then he had to surf. Yeah.
But before that, he’d see Brooke.
He cranked on the shower and after letting it warm he stepped inside.
Fuck, she’d pissed him off last night. Yeah, he knew her job was to keep him out of trouble but Christ, he wanted to think that she was there with him last night because she wanted to be, not because she
had
to be. When she’d said the only reason she was there was because of her job and then also because she thought he was still using her as a cover since he was still in love with Corey…well shit. That wasn’t true.
Okay, it had been true at first. Not the part about him being in love with Corey. Coming back and seeing her after all this time had proved to him he was over her. In fact, he was pretty sure there’d been nothing to get over. He’d been messed up last year and thought he had feelings for her that now seemed…huh. But it was true that he’d used Brooke to make sure Corey and Matt knew he’d moved on. At first.
He turned his face into the shower stream. It made him so goddamn happy that he could do that without panicking like he had for months after the accident.
What were his feelings for Corey? He searched around inside himself for the answer. He felt affection for Corey. Friendship. Yeah, they’d had sex, but that had been a lifetime ago. He’d always have a soft spot for her in his heart, but he wasn’t in love with her and he never had been. He knew that now, because…
Fuck.
He swallowed and bent his head, hands flat on the shower wall as water streamed down his back.
He knew that now because now he knew what love really felt like. Because he was in love with Brooke.