The Best Year - 55. Chapter 55 - Epic-Log Part Two

Luke didn’t come back to life until the first ‘Welcome’ to a new state popped up. Everyone got excited and he smiled and scooted up in the seat. Music was blaring, shitty music that no one liked, because Heather’s playlist sucked. No one overruled it, mostly because Toby had been riding shot-gun and had more control. Derek drove longer than he wanted to, only handing it off to Toby and by the time he got tired we were within a few miles of the beach house, I had fallen asleep only waking up when Luke nudged me. I knew the two of them decided to exclude me from the driving because of Cindy and what happened back home. I knew them better, and would have expected whining well before now.

“The girls say we’re about there,” he whispered, leaning forward in the seat to look around.

“Nice,” I said, stretching out my legs as far as I could. Being taller and in the very back had been nice at first, but no amount of space allowed for me to truly get comfortable. I was also surprised we hadn’t been stopping for someone to pee every couple miles, since the girls had insisted on snacks at our first couple of stops.

“Finally,” Toby groaned as his phone told him to take the next left. The beach house was in a row of other houses. Frowning at the closer neighbors than what I would have preferred, I couldn’t exactly see the ocean either. The rows of houses blocked it, but as soon as we parked out front, Ally pressed the button and the van’s door slid back. The first thing that hit me was the humid air, and after the girls shuffled out, I followed with Luke sliding out last. I watched him stretch out his back as he looked around, a small smile playing on his lips. When he saw me watching him he smirked and rolled his eyes.

“Let’s get this shit inside,” Derek announced as he pressed the button to release the trunk space of the van. “Church, here's your purse.”

“Shut up,” Luke hissed as Derek handed him his smaller traveling bag first. Since we were the last ones at Heather’s our junk was on top of everyone else’s.

“If there’s even a crumb of cheetos in your bag, Jackson, I’m going to be so pissed,” Ally said after I grabbed both of my bags. “Luke said you didn’t have any, you were asleep.”

“Good man,” I said, glancing over at him. “I do have a bag of cheetos.”

“I knew you would,” Ally countered, also turning to look at Luke. “I’ll remember that, Luke.”

After everyone had their things, we all fell in line behind Heather, who assured us she had the keys. She searched all of her pockets, and then her bag, only finding it at the front door. There was also a code that her Dad gave her in a text, one we all would have to remember. It was the alarm system, and when she punched it in, it beeped and she opened the door.

It had been cleaned before we arrived, and when I followed Luke inside, the first thing I noticed was everything was so open. The living room flowed into the kitchen, only a breakfast bar separated the two spaces. It was bright, a lot of light coming from the windows without any of us flipping a switch. The walls were painted white, the floors were a soft looking, light colored wood flooring.

“Fuck me,” I whistled when my eyes landed on the large television in the living room, surrounded by a sectional couch and a coffee table. There was a feature wall behind it, brick. Most of the decorations were boat related, netting, or seashells.

“Mom had the fridge stocked,” Heather said, smiling at us. “Not with anything we’d want it stocked with.”

“Speaking of,” Derek said as he turned to Toby. “We got that last bag to get.”

“Make Jackson do it, I nearly got a hernia lifting that fucker,” Toby said as he dropped his bags and made his way to the back french doors. When he unlocked them and pulled them open, I could just see the back deck with the pool. Beyond that was the ocean and I wanted nothing more than to walk out to go see it.

“What’s in it?” I asked as I followed Derek back out the front door.

“Our liquor, we didn’t think anyone down here would be dumb enough to sell it to us,” Derek answered as he walked across the wooden porch, and bounded down the three stairs. I followed him to the back of the van. When he slammed his hand down onto the bag, I heard the rattling of glass bottles. It was obvious what it was with the sharp edges from boxes of beer jutting out of the thin black fabric of the bag. It was a longer bag that took up two-thirds of the bottom of the storage area.

“Alright then,” I said as he grabbed one side and I grabbed the other. Gritting my teeth we pulled it out of the back and started shuffling our feet across the paved driveway. When we got to the stairs, I started up them with Derek going up the other side. It wasn’t as heavy as Toby made it out to be and when he had it inside, everyone else had disappeared except for Luke, he was leaning against the back door. Hearing us he turned and I saw him roll his eyes, hearing the clinking of the glass bottles inside.

“Where’s everyone else?” Derek asked as we walked the bulky bag around the breakfast island and onto the rock tiled kitchen floor.

“Fighting over bedrooms,” Luke answered and after setting the bag down I stretched out my fingers.

“Why aren’t you up there claiming one for us?” I asked and when his eyes widened, he shook his head. Every time I thought about sharing a room with Luke for the week, my stomach would flutter and my cheeks would get warm.

“Gross, man,” Derek groaned, kneeling to unzip the bag. When he pulled back the flap, I saw a couple cases of beer tucked into the right side. The rest of it was bottles of fruity drinks we all liked to drink, but us guys never admitted to liking them.

Heather and Toby were the first two to come back down stairs talking as Derek started making room for the beer. I watched him move bags of chopped lettuce off to the side, squishing them against a couple of gallons of milk. He was only able to slide one of the twenty-four packs in.

“We’re going to have to eat some of this shit before we get anything else in,” I said as I knelt beside him. There was stuff to make sandwiches in one crisper. Not having anything much to eat all trip, my stomach growled. I knew once we were all settled in, this food wasn’t going to last us very long.

“There’s some hamburger there,” Derek said and I grabbed it. It was enough to make room for a few of the six packs of hard lemonade.

“I’ll get the grill going,” Toby said as he and Heather ducked out onto the back deck.

“His ass better not burn this fucker down,” Derek hissed and I smiled thinking he sounded a lot like Rick, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t feel like being wrestled to the ground until I tapped out.

“Do you want to go look for our room?” I asked after I stood and saw Luke sitting at the bar. He had been quiet, with everyone else talking around him.

“Sure,” he answered and slid off the stool. I watched him walk around the bar before glancing down at Derek, who cocked an eyebrow, shrugging his shoulders.

Following Luke around the bar, I grabbed both of my bags, while Luke grabbed his overstuffed one. I ended up with his smaller traveling bag on top of one of mine and I followed him slowly up the hardwood stairs.

After we hit the second floor, the hallway was wide with rooms on either side. The first door we came too, was open and Ally was in there talking on the phone. I could tell by her tone that she was talking to one of her parents, probably Welker. It reminded me that I still had to text Mom about our arrival. I doubted any of us had done so yet. Just like the first floor, this one was painted a bright white. The open door across from Ally was a bathroom, with the same tiles from the kitchen. The hardwood from downstairs also continued up here, with studio lights sunken into the ceiling. They were actually on, giving off a softer light. The walls were bare for the most part, except at the end of the hallway was a large framed painting of a seashell resting on the beach. It took up most of the upper half of the wall. There was a table under it, with a small collection of shells and dried starfish on it in decorative bowls.

“The master bedroom is downstairs,” Luke said, glancing over his shoulder. “None of them wanted it, because they didn’t want to sleep where Heather’s parents have vacation sex.”

“Fuck that,” I grimaced as he smiled and turned back around.

“That might be what we get stuck with,” he offered as we came to a stop at the end of the hallway to find that Heather and Toby had picked this one. The only other bedroom up here was in the middle, and Lily had claimed that for her and Derek. The door was closed, but I could hear her unpacking. She was the most organized of the group. Heather and Toby hadn’t bothered to unpack anything, I doubted Heather could keep Toby’s messy ass in line either. I felt sorry for the cleaners that would be hired to come along behind us after we left.

“Looks like we have to,” I said turning back around, I led the way back down the hallway. We met Ally coming out, wearing a bikini top and a pair of shorts. Seeing her in bright pink, slightly tan already, despite it being late spring back home. She offered me a small smile before bounding down the stairs.

“Hurry your asses up, we need to get to the beach,” she yelled as her flipflops clapped all the way down them and onto the hardwood floor below.

Back down stairs, we walked around the sectional couch to the narrow hallway off the entrance opposite of the kitchen. There was a small bathroom on the left. The windows were large along the wall letting in all the light, with the curtains drawn and loosely tied back with floral looking ribbons. There was another small table identical to the one up stairs, this one had a fake tropical plant on it. Its leaves too shiny to be real, and on the other side was the master bedroom. The door was still closed, so I put one of my bags down and gently turned the knob and let the door glide open. Picking up my bag again, I walked inside and looked around. It was the largest room by far, with its own exit out onto the back deck. The doors had ceiling to floor blinds covering the glass. When Luke entered behind me, I heard him take in a breath. There was a ceiling fan gently running above us, putting out a gentle breeze.

“We fucking lucked out,” I said as I placed my bags off to the side. The bed was a king, and when I walked around it, I opened a sliding barn-style door that led to the master bathroom. There was a large soaker tub with jets that dominated the space. Smiling, I waited for Luke to join me, but when he didn’t I turned around to see him pulling back the blinds and looking out. He wasn’t smiling, his eyes focused on something in the distance. I knew he was still back home, that it would take a lot of me to get him back here. Reaching down, I felt the box in my pocket, it was still there and safe. Looking down, I could see the outline of it, so it wasn’t exactly hidden. Luckily I had put it in the pocket farthest from him, he had rested his hand on my thigh most of the way here. The touch had sent my mind racing and dried my mouth. The only thing that kept me from losing it was knowing he wasn’t exactly in the car with me either, even if he made the effort along the way.

“Let's go help Toby, he looks like he’s struggling,” Luke said as he let the blind go. He looked at me, a small glint to his eye as his smirk faded.

“Alright,” I said swallowing as he walked around the bed towards the door, not even glancing at the fucking epic bathroom. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Okay,” he offered as he left the room.

I waited until his footfalls faded and I heard Derek acknowledge him in the kitchen before I pulled out the necklace. It had survived the trip, the secret of it fully intact. I walked over and unzipped my bag after gently sitting Luke’s small travel bag aside. I slid the box down the side of my clothes, away from the top of the bag where it could be seen when I opened it again. Zipping it mostly back up, I stood and walked out of the door and back down the hallway.

There I saw Luke helping Derek gather condiments, Luke was holding the mayonnaise and a bottle of ketchup. Derek had opened one of the bags of lettuce and had poured it into a bowl. Walking over, I grabbed the mustard, and Ranch knowing that Ally liked ranch on everything. I followed them out to Toby swearing at the grill while the the girls laughed. There was a platter of patted out hamburgers waiting on the picnic table.

“He’s a mess,” Lily said when she heard us enter. She was holding a bottle of hard lemonade, already half of it gone. Like Ally, she was in a bikini top and a pair of shorts. Her hair was loose and blowing in the breeze. Turning to Toby, he was trying to secure the aluminum foil on top of the grill not wanting to make a mess. The wind kept blowing it up, and after a third time, he got pissed and balled it up. Heather laughed and knocked him out of the way as Luke placed everything he was carrying on the picnic table before sitting down beside me.

“It’s fucking hot out here,” Toby hissed as he watched Heather effortlessly get the foil to stay. Derek joined her with the platter of hamburgers her picked up on his way over and she moved aside and let him place them on top of it.

“Go get us a beer, you can be the bitch cook,” Derek said as he glanced over his shoulder.

“Fuck you,” Toby groaned, but disappeared back inside as I looked out across the beach. There weren’t that many people out, a few were walking along the beach. It was early in the season, schools down here may not even be dismissed for the year yet. We had a private walkway all the way down, it twisted alongside the other walkways from our neighbors. The wood was dark, stained at one time, but the wind and sand battered it, and the sun baked it. Hurricanes hit this coast, but the houses showed no signs of damage from past ones.

“What do you guys want to do while we’re down here?” Ally asked as soon as she popped through the open french doors.

“Where have you been?” Lily asked as she brought the bottle up to her lips. Turning to look at Ally, she had braided her hair and draped it over her shoulder. She had let it grow longer than it was back at the beginning of the year when we dated.

“I was on the phone, letting Dad know that we made it,” she answered smiling as we all groaned and reached into our pockets. I watched as Luke pulled his phone out, when he frowned I looked at my own screen.

“I even fucking remembered in our room,” I hissed as I sent a quick text to Mom knowing she would forward it to Dad, who was probably already back at work.

“Could you tell her to let Dad know?” Luke asked, his voice barely a whisper. I looked down to see him sliding his phone back into his pocket.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head as I sent another text. As soon as it was sent, I got the quick, “Have fun, but behave, I love you,” text Mom always responded with whenever I was away from home and she actually knew where I was. I half expected her to bombard me with questions at the first sign of us settling in down here and no longer being on the road.

“Thanks,” he said and I wanted to ask him why he didn’t want to send a text to Henry, but didn’t want to in front of everyone. He was already looking past me and back towards the ocean, his face flushing all over again as he clenched and relaxed his jaw muscles.

“We have to do a bonfire sometime this week,” Derek said as he started flipping the burgers for the first time since putting them on. We had to all have faith with our cooking, having to do it all by ourselves.

“Fuck yeah we do,” Toby said and I looked over to see him holding up his bottle of beer for Derek to clank his. When Derek got finished, he shook his head and half heartedly raised his up and knocked it against it.

“I think we should play some games,” Lily said and I grimaced, glancing at Luke. The last game we played was a drinking version of Truth or Dare, and he got shit-faced. When he looked down at his hands, I wondered if he remembered that night. It was the night I lost all chances of ever gaining Cindy’s favor, if I ever really had a chance.

“Something tells me they already plotted against us,” I whispered, leaning in to knock my shoulder against Luke.

“I wouldn’t expect anything different from them,” he answered, smiling briefly.

“I want to meet at least one hot guy,” Ally said as she plopped down across the table from Lily who sat on the other side of Luke.

“You’re already looking at the three hottest fucks here, sorry Jackson,” Toby countered smiling at me.

“Fuck off,” I said shaking my head when everyone laughed.
“Isn’t Bailey vacationing on the Florida side of the gulf?” Lily asked as she finished off her hard lemonade. Being the only girl drinking surprised me, I hadn’t grabbed a drink wanting to be sober enough for Luke whenever he wanted to talk. When I glanced in his direction, he caught my eye and sighed.

“Yes,” Ally answered, rolling her eyes. “I guess he is.”

“You and him have a falling out?” Derek asked as he poked a burger with a spatula. It was the first sign from Derek that he might not know what the fuck he was doing. When he closed the top of the grill, he turned towards the picnic table.

“No,” Ally answered smiling. “He was never a long term thing.”

“Ouch,” I whispered not feeling a bit sorry for Bailey fucking Ashton.

“Does Bailey know that?” Heather asked as she smiled and poked Toby’s side as she came to sit with us. Trusting Derek not to burn down her parent’s back deck.

“Let's stop talking about him,” Ally answered, rolling her eyes. “We can go see him, or invite him here if you want.”

“Nah,” Toby said, shaking his head. “This trip is about us.”

“Back to the games though,” Heather said as she swatted at a bug that flew too close to her face. Ally had to dodge her hand, if it were any bigger, I knew Heather would jump up, but she hadn’t yet.

“You all already know what you’re going to force our asses to do, stop playing,” Derek said, frowning as he turned back to the burgers. Opening the grill, the sizzle of them returned and after he gave them a quick flip, he motioned for Toby to hand him the clean second plate. When Toby grabbed it off the picnic table, he handed it to him.

“Well, I do have twister,” Heather said smiling.

“Not fair, you’re all cheerleaders,” Toby argued as he stood next to Derek.

“Do you want to go down to the beach after we eat?” I asked, turning to Luke to see his reaction. He offered me a small half smile, that was the only answer I got from him though.

“We can,” Lily said, “I want to see how warm the water is already.”

“I’m supposed to meet Ruth Mezda,” Heather said, glancing back towards the house. “She’s part of the caretaking company that keeps all these vacation houses clean. Mom wanted her to check in on us.”
“Damn,” Toby hissed, “do you think she’ll be cool or nark?”

“How should I know?” Heather said, smiling. “If she does, I’m blaming everything on you.”

“I guess that’s fair, it probably will be mostly me,” Toby said and I laughed.

“It’s ready,” Derek announced as he turned all the knobs on the grill then closing the lid. The plate was stacked with more burgers than I thought we could eat. He walked over and placed it in the middle of the picnic table.

“I’ll go get drinks,” Luke said and I made to stand and help him, but he slid his hand over mine and shook his head. “Tell me what you want.”

“Beer,” Derek answered and I nodded my head wanting one as well. After the girls gave him the flavors of their hard lemonade he gave them all a smile and left the table. I watched him walk across the deck and disappear through the french doors before turning to look down at my hands.

“Fuck me,” I whispered as I stood feeling heat rush to my face.

“Let Church be,” Toby hissed, reaching for my elbow. He was sitting across from me, with Heather between him and Derek.

“Jackson,” Ally said as I jogged back inside the house. I didn’t see Luke where I thought he would be, which was struggling with seven drinks, wondering how the fuck he was going to carry them all. Instead I walked through the house and out the front door, but I didn’t see him there so I walked back inside and down the hallway to the master bedroom.

I heard his voice before I saw him, and I knew he heard me coming, but didn’t turn around. He was on his phone talking quietly with his back to me. All I could hear him say was getting money to come home before I started walking again, and when I reached him, I snatched the phone from his hand.

“Bye Henry,” I said just before I ended the call as he turned around.

“Why did you do that?” He asked as he reached for his phone, his eyes cold and distant. It was the only thing he shared with Cindy, and every time he turned that against me I felt it in my gut.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked as I held his phone away from him.

“I’m not going to be fun to be around,” he answered and I saw him blink away tears, only one fell down his cheek. I tossed his phone onto the bed and grabbed his shoulders.

“Don’t,” I whispered as he tried to shrug out of my grip. “Luke, just stay, please.”
“Just go back outside, I’ll be there in a minute,” he said as he ducked under my hands and I tried to grab his elbow. When I only caught his shirt sleeve, he pulled out of my grip again.

“Can’t we talk about this?” I asked knowing he was well on his way of closing down on me.

“No,” he answered as he leaned over the bed and scooped up his phone. “I’ll stay if you want me to, I just need to call Dad back and tell him.”

“I want you to stay,” I said, reaching for him again, but he took a step back and I sighed and let my hand fall back to my side.

“Okay then,” he added and I saw a second tear fall down his cheek. This one he reached up and wiped away before looking down at his phone. “Go get their drinks, they’ve been waiting.”

“They can fucking wait all night,” I hissed balling my hands into fists at my side. I wanted to crash into him, pull him onto the bed. I wanted him to talk to me, touch me again, as I didn’t see that happening any time soon either. I was fighting against a woman states away for his attention, but I knew I would lose. She was his mother at the end of it all, her love was something he needed right now, and he wasn’t sure he had it. I didn’t know what that felt like, even when I was an ass and didn’t really deserve either of my parent’s love. I never once doubted them, even as I laid on my bed staring at the ceiling after a lecture, I always knew. Luke didn’t know, she may have told him before he left that she loved him, but he didn’t really know. The one thing he always felt that he would lose was the love of his parents, and although Henry made sure Luke left knowing where he stood, Cindy sure as fuck didn’t.

“Dad, sorry about that,” Luke said as soon as Henry answered.

I waited, hoping the call would be short and that Henry would get the hint, but Henry wasn’t going to hang up on him. After a few minutes of staring at the back of his head, I walked around him and down the dimly lit hallway to the living room. I looked across it to the kitchen where I saw Lily and Derek getting the drinks and when they saw me, Lily smiled and Derek held up a bottle of beer.

“Is it bad?” Lily whispered and I shook my head, not wanting to discuss Luke with them, knowing it would only embarrass him later.

“We got the drinks, man,” Derek said after I started walking towards the kitchen.

“Alright,” I offered as I sidestepped the coffee table and walked around the maze of the sectional couch and out the french doors where the mood was a lot brighter. Toby had ketchup smeared on his face, I knew he hated ketchup so Heather was the blame for that. He was trying not to gag at the thought of it touching his skin. I smiled when Heather finally relented and wiped it off with her finger.

“You nasty ass woman,” he growled as he watched in horror as she sucked on her finger instead of grabbing a paper towel. “You’re not kissing me with those lips.”

“Come on,” Heather countered as she leaned into him. “I want to, really bad.”

“No,” he said as I sat back down at the table hoping none of them stopped what they were doing, but Ally was already feeling like the third wheel out here, and was staring at me. Ignoring her, I started fixing my burger, as Lily and Derek came out carrying our drinks. They passed them around and halfway through putting a pile of pickles on my burger, I reached for my beer and unscrewed the metal cap. Dropping it onto the table, I brought it up my lips and downed half of it before returning to my food.

“What do you want to do after we eat?” Ally asked as Lily and Derek sat down on the other side just as the breeze blew Heather’s hair across my neck.

“We’re still going to the beach,” I answered not really knowing if Luke would follow, or even come back outside to eat.

“What do you need us to do?” Lily asked, her voice falling to a whisper as Heather and Toby stopped wrestling with one another on the other side of me. I put the top bun on my burger after smearing it with mayo and adding a few slices of lettuce.

“Just be fucking normal,” I said offering her a smile before I brought the burger to my mouth and took a bite.

We ate quicker than what I wanted, but Derek’s burgers weren’t all that bad so it was easier, and we were all finished by the time Luke came back outside, carrying a glass of water. He smiled as he sat down across from me, on the other side of Lily. Without a word he started fixing his burger, the only sound was Toby groaning when Luke grabbed the ketchup bottle and squirted it onto his burger.

“You too?” Toby asked, shaking his head as Luke looked up.

“You’re the abnormal one, you dumbass,” Derek countered as he stood and stretched as he gathered up his two empty bottles of beer. “Who the fuck doesn’t like ketchup?”

“When I was a kid someone squirted half a bottle into my mouth and made me eat it,” Toby said as he leaned forward to look at me.

“You deserved it,” I said, shrugging.

“I puked and never ate it again, I could have drowned,” Toby said as he frowned and pointed to his chest. “Do you know how shitty that would be?”

“You shouldn’t have deleted my Madden careers on Xbox,” I said trying not to smile as Luke took a bite out of his burger.

“It was my fucking xbox and you never played it,” Toby hissed as he pointed at Derek. “And his big ass sat on me.”

“You deleted my shit too,” Derek shrugged and the girls laughed when Heather patted Toby on the back, not feeling a bit sorry for him. We had been eating french fries in his room. Troy was out mowing the lawn, it was back when he used me and Derek to keep Toby distracted from the fact that his mom had run off on them and wasn’t coming back. It took multiple carpet cleanings to get all the stains from the ketchup after the food fight we got into that summer afternoon.

“Let's go get changed,” Heather said as she stood, her hair brushing my cheek again. I watched as she pulled Toby up with her. Still being dressed in shorts and a shirt, Derek followed them and when I glanced at Luke, knowing I needed to change he was chewing his last bite of burger.

“I’ll wait for you,” I said as Lily stood and started clearing the picnic table.

“Go on ahead,” he said around a slightly full mouth. “I’ll help clean.”

“I can do that,” I said, frowning as I started grabbing up bottles of ketchup and mustard. Lily grabbed the jar of pickles and Ally took the tray of sliced tomatoes and lettuce. With her free hand she grabbed some of the empty drinks left behind by Toby and Heather, who were always forgetful when it came to that kind of thing. I was too, but since Luke was being stubborn, I made sure to grab mine.

After my hands were full I awkwardly fought the attached bench of the picnic table to stand without falling backwards on my ass. When I was free of it I followed the girls inside, around the back of the sectional couch, that I just noticed was a deep blue color, and looked soft. I tossed the empty bottles into the trash at the end of the bar and handed off the ketchup bottles to Lily who stood in my way. She slid everything inside and when everything was packed away, I looked out the window to see Luke gathering up his plate and empty glass.

“We’ll wait if you want to go get changed,” Ally said as she leaned against the bar.

“Go on, I’ll be down after I get changed,” I said as Toby, Derek, and Heather came back down stairs, the sound of all of them rumbled through the living room.

“We taking any drinks down?” Derek asked as he continued walking around the couch as Heather and Toby, both holding towels waited by the french doors. Luke stepped through it, dodging them as he followed Derek into the kitchen.

“Yeah, I want a few,” Toby answered as he took the towel off his arm and started unfolding it. When he started rolling it up, aiming it at Luke’s ass I shook my head. Heather grabbed his elbow just before he snapped it forward and it missed Luke by inches.

“There’s a small cooler under the bar, just look in one of the cabinets,” Heather said as she snatched the towel out of Toby’s hand and I smiled when she started rolling it up and he took off running.

“Meet your asses down there,” he yelled as she took off after him. A few yards out, just when their footfalls faded I heard him scream out in pain, then start cussing. Luke handed me his plate and glass as he tossed his paper towels in the trash. I walked over to the sink and rinsed them and put them into the dishwasher. After I closed it, we all heard a knock on the door and I glanced at Derek, before I started walking towards the front door. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Cindy wasn’t standing on the other side, but I hadn’t received a warning from anyone.

Opening the door though, I saw a short brown haired woman. She was wearing sunglasses and when she pulled them off, she smiled. She was dressed in a light blue polo and a pair of shorts.

“Oh, shit, Heather was supposed to meet you,” I offered as I held the door open for her.

“Hi to you, too,” she said as she stepped inside. She was tanned, obviously latin, and her polo was tight enough to show off her figure. Smiling at me, she had a clipboard in her hand and when she looked around at all of us, her smile faltered slightly. “The Rileys wanted me to check in, to make sure everything was in order.”

“We made it easily enough,” Derek said as Ruth glanced down the hallway leading to the master bedroom.

“There are no adults with you, correct?” She asked as she glanced down at her clipboard. “Please do not break anything, it will be more work for me.”

“We won’t,” Ally said as I fought a smile.

“No alcoholic beverages?” Ruth asked just as Derek zipped up the small traveling cooler. I turned just in time to see him tuck it behind his back. “Mrs. Riley wanted me to make sure.”

None of us knew how to answer her, Ruth looked like someone that would see right through our bullshit if we tried. Instead she offered us a smile that told us she wouldn’t believe anything we said anyway. She probably smelled the beer on my breath as it was and when I glanced at Luke, he wasn’t exactly hiding anything on his face either and I wondered how much he would suck at poker.

“Do you need me to go get Heather?” Lily asked and I let out a breath thankful she had enough wits to break the suddenly awkward silence.

“No,” Ruth answered waving the clipboard. “Look, just don’t break or burn anything and I won’t bother you for the week. If you clean up after yourselves, I won’t tell the Rileys about the alcohol I know I’ll find, either.”

“You have a deal,” I said, offering her a smile.

“Then sign this,” Ruth said as she handed me the clipboard. “It confirms that I made the visit that the Riley’s requested and I’ll be on my way.”

“Thanks for being cool about this,” I said, giving up on hiding anything from her.

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said smiling as she took the clipboard after I scribbled my signature on the form. “Just behave, kids.”

“We will,” Lily said as I grimaced at being called a kid, but when she turned and left the house, I closed the door behind her.

“I hope my balls drop again soon,” Derek said and I laughed as he brought the cooler back around his waist as he grabbed the strap. He was shirtless, his hairy stomach and chest on full display.

“I’m going to drown Heather when I get down there,” Ally said as she started walking towards the back door. Still needing to change I looked over at Luke and nodded my head for him to follow me. When he did, I turned and started walking as Lily and Derek came around the bar.

When we were back in the master bedroom, I noticed Luke’s phone on the bed. Glancing over my shoulder I saw him hovering at the entrance, still completely unreadable and closed off now that we were alone again. Sighing I turned back around and pulled my shirt off over my head, letting it fall to the floor. Sliding out of my flip flops, I jumped when I felt his fingertips slide against my side. Stiffening, I turned to see him standing in front of me, a crooked smile playing on his lips.

“Sorry,” he offered and hearing him speak, I rushed forward, grabbing hold of his sides. I half lifted, and half tackled him onto the bed. I heard him grunt as I leaned down and kissed him, thankful when his lips responded and he kissed me back. Crashing into him, our legs were tangled and as I started moving, I felt him smile as I reached down and started pulling up his shirt until I felt his hand find mine.

“Fucking hell, don’t stop me,” I groaned as he stopped my hand from pulling up his shirt. I looked down to see his tattoo just poking out of his shirt.

“You know they’ll come looking for us,” he said and I frowned, rolling off him to lay on the bed. He let go of my hand as I stared up at the ceiling fan as it slowly moved with a soft humming noise.

“I know and I’d have to kill their asses, because there’d be no living with them,” I hissed as my hard-on slowly subsided in my shorts.

“Let’s get changed,” Luke said and I watched him sit up and scoot to the edge of the bed. The set of his shoulders told me that he was still of two minds. One here and one states away, one wanting to be happy, and the other scared and struggling not to fall apart.

“Okay,” I offered as I followed him hoping I could get all of him back here with me. That’s the only way all I had planned was going to work. It wasn’t going to be easy, I knew that. I just hoped it was still possible, I would try either way.

“Ready?” He asked as he opened the doors, looking back at me still standing by the bed. Neither of us had cared enough to change our clothes. Smiling, I nodded and followed him out, and in the distance I could already see everyone running around on the beach in the haze of the sun.

“I’ll race you down,” I said as I nudged him with my shoulder as I started running down the wooden deck.

“Not fair!” I heard him yell and I glanced over my shoulder to see him already gaining on me and I smiled knowing I didn’t stand a chance.