Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
I regard the ladies at the table as they laugh and eat the decadent food. Which one of them could it be? Surely not Misty. Or Heather or June. He hasn’t spent time with any of them. Not me, either.
Fuck. “No. You’re kidding.”
She sighs. “I wish I were.”
“He did choose her the first night,” I say. “And Ariel is a gem. But she’s head over heels for Alex, and—”
Sienna interrupts me as she bursts into laughter…but not humorous laughter. More like mad laughter.
“Sienna?”
She’s still laughing, and now it’s loud and crazy enough that Misty is eyeing us from the table.
I lead Sienna a few steps farther away. “What the bloody hell is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” She gasps between laughs. “Only everything. Again I’ve fallen for a man who doesn’t seem to know his own heart.”
“What’s so funny about that?”
“What’s funny is that you assumed I was talking about Ariel.”
“Well, it can’t possibly be any of the others,” I say.
“It’s not,” she says, panting. She waits a moment, finally gets her bearing. “It’s Jake.”
“Jake?” I say way too loudly.
“Shhh,” she hisses, grabbing my wrist. “Keep your voice down.”
I blink. “Jake?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Brett is in love with Jake.”
My mind blanks for a moment, trying to absorb what I’ve just heard. I glance back toward the table.
“I— But are you sure?”
Sienna crosses her arms, her body still trembling slightly from the fit of laughter. “He admitted it to me. That Jake was his first love, but they never acted on it. They were just kids, you know. I could accept that…except…”
“Except what?” I ask, my voice barely above the sound of the waves. “Does Jake know?”
Sienna doesn’t answer right away.
She just looks out at the ocean, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“Oh, yes,” she finally says. “He knows.”
My brows shoot up. “How can you be sure?”
She swallows hard. “Because I saw them.” Her voice cracks. “I saw them kissing.”
My mouth falls open. I blink once, twice. “What?”
“Earlier today, here on the beach. I saw them. Brett and Jake. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was full of history.”
“Oh my God, Sienna…”
“They saw me. Brett called to me but I walked away. When we talked later, Brett said he had these feelings back then. But then Jake died, or so they thought.”
“What about you, though?” I ask, trying to be gentle.
She huffs. “Apparently he loves me too.”
My brain tries to keep up, but she’s not done.
“And that’s not even the worst part,” she adds with a bitter laugh. “I kissed Jake.”
I blink. “You what?”
“I don’t even know how it happened. We were talking—about Brett, about everything—and then we were suddenly too close. And it happened.”
“Sienna.” I breathe. “This is… I don’t even have a word for what this is.”
Her eyes are glassy. “Don’t you get all judgmental.”
“God, no.” I shake my head. “I’m just trying to make sense of it.”
“Same.”
“And Brett? What does he want?”
“He says he loves both of us.” She laughs again, but it’s hollow. “Says Jake returning opened something up in him he thought he had sealed off.”
“That’s not fair,” I whisper. “That’s not fair to any of you.”
“I know. But tell me this, Emily. If someone could love you that deeply, even if it meant sharing them…could you do it?”
I don’t answer. I can’t. Because I don’t know.
She sighs. “Now you understand.”
Then, just like that, she straightens her shoulders and pastes on that practiced smile again. “Come on. We’ve been gone too long. Let’s not give them anything else to whisper about.”
She walks back toward the table, calm and composed, like she hasn’t just handed me one of the most explosive secrets on the island.
But my mind is reeling.
Brett.
Jake.
Sienna.
A kiss.
A triangle.
What a mess.
Is it wrong to be thrilled that River and I are good?
I follow Sienna to join the others, just as Ariel queries, “Hey you guys, where’s Jazz?”
EPISODE 241
JAZZ HANDS
Brett
This may be the first time I’ve laid eyes on Ariel’s best friend, Jazz. Did she arrive yesterday or today?
Doesn’t matter. Between Jake’s reappearance, my anger at River, and my rift with Sienna, I haven’t noticed much else.
But she’s fucking hot. Blond, blue-eyed, and built like a fucking brick house, she’s exactly the type I’d normally go for when I’m drowning in bourbon.
Instead, I’m pining for a brown-eyed beauty and a blue-eyed stud.
What the hell has happened to me?
Jazz is dressed in some kind of red lingerie. Is it a nightie or a teddy? I’m sure we’ll soon find out. It’s all silk and lace and hot woman.
She gyrates over to Alex and jiggles her big tits in his face.
Alex, ever the gentleman, blushes bright enough to rival her lingerie. Sebastian is hooting and hollering, and Riv and Jake join in, but the jovial atmosphere does nothing to lighten my mood.
Jazz doesn’t waste a second. She throws one leg over Alex’s lap and straddles him, dancing to the soft rock playing from the outdoor speakers. The sight is seductive enough to awaken desire in a saint.