I HAD BEEN SITTING ON the beach for the last hour just staring out at the black ocean. I tipped the bottle back and drank the last of my beer.
“Well hell. Looks like I have to go back,” I said as I got up and brushed the sand off my pants. I turned and looked back at the house. My brother, Lark and his new wife, Azurdee had left two hours ago for their honeymoon and I couldn’t take watching Ryn another second.
I sucked in a deep breath of salty air and slowly let it out. My phone went off and I pulled it out of my pocket. I let out a deep breath when I saw it was Liberty.
Liberty: Just letting you know I’m thinking about you. If you want me to join you I’ll come down. Just text me back and I’ll be there.
Me: I think I just need some time to think, Liberty. We need this time apart.
Liberty: I didn’t mean to push you. I’m always pushing you, I know. I just really wanted to see your parents and would have loved to have seen the wedding but I understand you have your reasons for going alone. Things haven’t been so great with us lately. I’ll work on that. Promise.
Me: We’ll talk when I get back to Austin.
Liberty: Okay. I love you, Tristan.
Drawing in a breath and releasing it, I shook my head. I’ve never told Liberty I loved her. I wasn’t sure anymore how I felt about her. We had been on again and off again so many times I was beginning to lose count. Currently, we were off. All she had been doing was pushing an engagement ever since she found out Lark and Azurdee were getting married. When I thought of my future, I didn’t see Liberty. I only saw . . . Ryn. And that scared the piss out of me.
I turned my phone to silent and shoved it in my pocket. I started heading back to the house and began putting on my game face. The one I’d been wearing for the last ten months. The one where everyone thought I was happy, but deep down inside I was the unhappiest I’d ever been in my life.
I walked up the stairs to the deck and the first person I saw was Ryn. She was leaning against the railing with her head back and her eyes closed. There was no one else out here.
She looked tired. I smiled when I thought about what I had overheard earlier when Mom and Azurdee’s best friend, Jessie, were talking. Ryn had taken a two-week vacation and was renting a house on the beach just two houses down from here. I already began planning ways to ‘run into her’ while we were both here.
She hadn’t talked to me in over ten months. No matter how many times I called and left her messages begging her to call me, she never would.
Her cell phone rang and she quickly answered it. I walked around to the other side of the deck and sat down to where she couldn’t see me.
“Hey, Dodge. Are you on your way? Yes. I thought I could, but I can’t. I need you.”
Dodge? Who the fuck is Dodge?
Laughing at something he must have said, Ryn continued to speak. “Well, considering I still need my RFB, I’d say yes . . . it’s been a sucky last three days.”
I peeked around the corner and saw her smiling. She reached her hand up and began playing with her nipple.
What the fuck?
“That sounds like heaven. Yes. I’m going to need it a lot. I don’t know, you’d think after all this time you’d have been able to fuck him out of my head and heart. Maybe you’re not as good as you think you are?”
My mouth dropped open and I quickly turned back and stared out in the night sky.
She laughed again and said, “I’m still at the wedding. Yes. It was hard to see him. I don’t know. Maybe, I’ve thought about that. Yes. I realize I only use you for sex to forget about Tristan, but maybe I’m falling for you and just want your company. You ever think of that?”
My heart started beating faster and I wanted to pound this asshole’s head in.
Taking in a deep breath as if she was savoring the moment, she slowly blew it out. “Okay. I’ll see you then. Oh trust me. I’ll be waiting and I will most certainly be ready for you. Yes naked. Hey, Dodge? Hurry please. I need to be fucked in a bad way. Bye.”
After Ryn said goodbye, there was a minute of silence before I swore I heard her crying. I slowly stood. She was looking out toward the ocean. Her shoulders were moving up and down and when I saw her wipe away her tears, my knees about buckled out from underneath me.
I started making my way toward her. I didn’t want to walk up on her crying, so I cleared my throat and asked, “May I join you?”
She quickly wiped her tears away and looked the other way. “It’s your house,” she whispered. “How have you been, Ryn?” She turned and looked at me. If looks could kill, I’d be laying on the floor right now. “You’ve ignored me for three days and now you ask how I’ve been?”