Vacation (7 page)

The fact that I couldn't shake Viv from my
mind during the entire tour was a bit unnerving. I stood in stony silence at
the entrance to the master bedroom and let my imagination go wild. The bed was
large enough for a family of five to spread out comfortably, but how exquisite
it would be to have the pretty girl in her panties and bra, laid out before me?
Her hair spayed wildly along the silk sheets and that sultry look in her eyes
that said she was more than ready for a long night of staining each other with
our lust.

My body hardened, and I groaned, sliding
my hand over my erection as it pressed against my slacks. Why was I having a
hard time not thinking about a woman I just fucking met? It made no sense, and
yet there she was...already in the middle of my fantasies. It had to be because
of my family's belief in fate. They felt that there were no coincidences. I'd
run into Vivian in the airport because we were meant to meet. She was my
seatmate because she was meant to be in my life.

She was checking into the same hotel as me
because she would most certainly be in my bed.

I chuckled at my faulty reasoning and
pulled out my phone, glancing down at her number once more and letting out a
long sigh. If we were meant to be anything other than a casual oddity, then we
would be.

I started to press the delete button, but
didn't. Instead, I dropped onto the bed face first, wanting a nap before I had
to begin the arduous task of analyzing everything around me.

Chapter
7

Vivian

"I feel ridiculous in this." I
held my towel in front of me as we walked down the beach.

Casey reached over and tugged it away,
grimacing at me. "You look fucking hot. Stop hiding yourself, silly. You
have the best body of anyone I know."

"You don't get out much, do
ya
?" I smirked and pulled the towel away. "It's
all those years of playing volleyball and swimming, though I think guys
actually prefer a little more meat on a girl’s bones. I want to be curvy like
you."

"Yeah, we call this fat in my
house." She winked at me and pointed ahead of us. "Enough about us.
Let's talk about them."

A group of guys stood around a margarita
hut that was situated in the middle of the sand, just a hundred feet from the
crashing waves. They were laughing loudly and trying to talk over each other.

"No thanks. Grab me a drink while
you're over there. I'll go get us a seat on this crowded beach." I smiled,
pulling my sunglasses down and doing an about-face. I wasn't shy around guys,
but grabbing the attention of a gaggle of them was out completely.

Casey was a ham and wanted everyone’s
attention, which I was good with. She'd always been out in front in our
relationship, and I was rather comfortable with my supporting role to the
princess.

A laugh left me as I laid out my towel and
dropped down onto the cold sand. The sun pulsed above me in the cloudless sky,
but its warmth was thwarted by the cool breeze coming off of the ocean.

Closing my eyes, I let my head drop back
and let out a slow breath. Nothing could disturb the peace that wrapped around
me. My life back in New York could stay there for the week. Casey was right. I
needed the vacation more than I could have imagined.

"You missed out." She dropped
down in the sand next to me and pressed something cold to my bare shoulder.

I yelped and sat up, turning to threaten
her as a good-looking guy dropped down in the sand next to her and lifted his
beer to me.

"Hey." He smiled and nodded to
Casey. "Your friend here says you guys are from New York. I've always
wanted to visit."

"Me too," a deep voice resounded
on my other side, and I jerked around to see a muscled guy leaning toward me.

"Here's your beer." Casey wagged
the sweaty bottle in front of me, and I yanked it from her grasp and gave her a
look.

"You bring the party with you every
time, don't you?" I pressed the bottle to my lips and turned from Casey to
the guy beside me. "I'm Vivian. Nice to meet you."

"Chase. Pleasure’s all mine, good
looking." He winked and pressed his shoulder against mine. "You guys
wanna
come out for drinks and dancing tonight?"

"Sure," Casey responded a little
too quickly.

"Maybe. We just got in, so I think we
were hoping to scope out the place a little before making any plans." I
took another drink of my beer and sighed internally as some of the guys behind
us called for their friends to rejoin them.

"Casey, you got my digits,
right?" The meathead beside my friend asked as he watched me with
interest.

"Sure did." Casey pushed at his
shoulder playfully as I dropped back down into the sand and ignored the
behemoth next to me. "They were cute, right?"

I turned my head so that I could see her
better. "Is that a joke?"

She laughed and stretched out beside me.
"Well, they're no
hottie
with a thick wallet
from the plane, but they were pretty to look at."

"Speaking of the guy from the
plane..." I bit my lip, wondering how much to divulge to my bestie. It was
more than obvious that she was interested in Easton too, but the question was
whether I was or not. "Do you believe in fate?"

"Fate?
Naw
,
I mean, not really." She brushed my hair from my face as she propped her
head up on her hand. "Why? You think that was fate that had you running
into him more than once?"

"I don't know. I don't think
so." I shrugged as best I could while lying down. "I need to let it
go, but something about it is nagging me."

"So then let's do this...if you see
him again while we're here, let's call it fate. If you don't, then it was just
an odd by-chance
sorta
thing." She sat up and
pulled her knees up to her chest as she looked out toward the water.

"That sounds fair." I ran my
fingers through my hair rhythmically until my eyes grew heavy. "We should
get up and do something. I'm going to pass out if we just lay here."

"You slept on the flight. What's up
with you? You coming down with something?" A concerned look slid across
her features.

I sat up and picked up my beer, taking a
long drink of it before responding. "No, just haven't been sleeping well
at night. I know it's stupid, but having Jackson cheat on me really did a
number on my mental state."

"How so?" She turned her
attention to me, her expression a bit tight.

"I just feel like maybe I deserved it
somehow. I know it's stupid, but if I was prettier or sexier or–”

"Shut that shit up. That's the
dumbest thing you've said since we were kids and you thought a quarterback was
a refund." She pressed her arm to mine and pushed against me a little as I
chuckled.

"I know it is, I just can't figure
out why, Casey. Ten years of being together and now it's all over because he
slept around on me. Why would he do that? What was missing that he was looking
for?" I fought back tears. "I want to forgive him, but we're not
talking about a onetime mistake, but a series of times that he slept with other
girls. This has been happening for years. How are we supposed to get past
that?"

"You're not supposed to get over
that. You're supposed to take time to heal, and then let things happen as they
may. The right guy will show up. I promise." She reached over and brushed
sand off my shoulder as I ignored the pity in her gaze.

"I don't need a man. I'm fine just
like I am. If I decide I need sex, then I'll just have it." I shrugged and
got to my feet. "I'm going to walk the beach, and then you and I are going
to find one of those bicycle vendors. I've always wanted to ride on one of
those two-seaters. It's your lucky day. You're the extra rider."

"No freaking way. Do you know how
ridiculous we'd look?" She chuckled before leaning back and stretching
back out. "Not happening."

"Yeah it is. I don't care what you
say. I'm not trying to impress anyone, including you." I gave her a cheeky
grin and walked down to the edge of the water. It was a little depressing that
Easton hadn't called, but most likely a good thing. I needed time to find
myself again, and that was impossible to do under the attention of a handsome
man. And he was incredibly handsome. Visions of him brushed by my mind's eye as
I let the sun, the sand and the sound of the waves ushered in rest to my soul.

*****

          
"That was a freaking blast!" I turned around and smiled at
Casey as we pulled the two-seater bike back up to the rental place. "I
love it. We need to get one for New York."

The look on her pretty face had me
cracking up. She didn't say a word, but didn't have to. We'd been friends so
long that I was well aware of what the tight line of her mouth meant. She would
never, ever be found on another two-seater bike with me. It was a shame.

"You need a man to do this with, and
last I checked, that
ain't
me." She got off and
almost fell due to the height of the seat and her short stature.

"Then I'll make sure to take one of
my future boyfriends on a bike-riding date."

"Good luck with that." She
glanced up at the sky. "You ready to head back to the hotel? I think I got
a little burnt. I don't want to add insult to injury."

"Yeah, besides, I'm starving."
My tummy rumbled as if to validate my words.

"Me too. There was a taco shop a
block from the hotel. I read up on some of the restaurants before we left, and
that one is supposed to be the best in the city." She shrugged and turned
toward the beach as I returned the bike and rejoined her.

"I love tacos, and the best in the
city sounds like my kind of place." I slid my arm into hers, locking us
together at the elbow as we walked back to the hotel. "Did I get burnt? It
feels like it."

She glanced toward me and nodded.
"Yeah, but somehow it looks good on you. I swear, I have no idea how you
don't have guys crawling all over you. You have to be one of the prettiest
girls I know."

I brushed the comment off and changed the
subject like I always did. Casey was as jealous of my looks as I was of hers.
"Can you believe graduation is coming up in two months?"

"No. I'm actually not looking forward
to it at all." She ran her fingers through her hair with her free hand.
"You know I went to visit my mom and them over Christmas. They were...
ugh."

"Yeah. You left me to fend against my
family alone. It was less than pleasant." I awarded her a look that
expressed my feelings perfectly.

"Was your dad there?" She nodded
toward the small building beside the hotel across the street. "There's the
taco shop."

"Cool." I looked both ways
before jogging across the street and pulling her a little with me. "He was
there, but I think it would have been better if he wasn't."

"What happened with them? They used
to be so into each other. Did you ever find out what went wrong?" Casey
stopped at the door and seemed to be scanning it. "Good. We can wear our
bikinis."

I pulled away from her and lifted my bag
from my shoulder. "I have our t-shirts. You don't think we need
them?"

Three girls walked out of the door in
front of us wearing bathing suits that made ours look like full-coverage
jumpsuits.

"I'd say no." She opened the
door and walked in with me at her heels. The smell of tortilla chips and
roasted tomatoes filled my senses, and I growled softly. I loved food more than
almost anything.

"Let's order, and I'll tell you about
my folks. You owe me the rest of your conversation with your mother
anyway." I moved up to the counter and let my eyes scan the menu that
rested above the cashier’s head. "I'll take the Taco Madness
Platter."

"Damn, Viv. That's five tacos. You
just want to share it?" Casey moved up beside me as I worked to get my
wallet from my bag.

"Sure, but I want a bite of each of
them." I turned back to the cashier. "And two cokes please?"

We moved to the side and filled up our
drinks as I caught Casey chuckling over something that had to be running
through her head.

"What? You know I'm going to be a
food critic eventually. I always look for the meal that lets me try as much as
possible." I poked her side.

"I know. I'm just laughing at the
fact that you eat like a linebacker and look like a runway model. It's
disturbing on so many levels."

"Hush." I popped her outer thigh
and moved to get our taco platter. "Even if I wasn't going to make food a
part of my career, I would still eat like this. I'm a foodie. The gym and I
have become close friends over the last few years, and you know how much I hate
working out. It's somehow worth it."

She grabbed some napkins and walked with
me to the only available booth in the place. Several guys turned to watch us,
but I assumed they were looking at Casey. She was the curvy, cheerleader type
that guys seemed to like. I was tall, thin, and a ginger. Funny how having red
hair seemed to matter more than it should.

I dropped down onto my side of the booth
and pulled out a small notepad before unwrapping the tacos one at a time.
"Tell me about your visit with your mom while I test these tacos
out."

Casey leaned back and nursed her coke, her
eyes moving along our meal as she spoke. "She's not happy about my
decision to leave the cheerleading team at NYU."

"You did that over a year ago."
I glanced up.

"I know, but I just told her about
it. You know how she is about wanting me to do everything she did, and be what
she is, and marry a man like she did." Casey's face contorted as if she'd
eaten a lemon.

"She hates your dad."

"Right?" My best friend let out
a long sigh. "I don't know. She's pissed about me changing my major a few
years back. I want to help people, and counseling in the schools seemed the
best plan of action. She wants me to be an accountant or lawyer or
doctor."

I picked up the mango chicken taco and
examined it. "That's not you at all, unless you were doing pro-bono
work."

"Which would get old after a while.
I'd be the only broke lawyer in the state." She gave me a cheeky grin.

A handsome, dark-skinned guy moved up to
the table and pressed his hands to the top of it as he glanced between us. The
smooth curves of his chest and stomach muscles were on complete display as he
looked like he'd just come in from the beach as well.