With no response to give, I swallowed down my shame.
“Kinda hard on him, though, man, when we’re around Bails and Rhea all the time, trying to get into their beds,” Jace chimed in. “Three of them, three of us. Ya know?”
It shocked the shit out of me to hear Jace say anything at all, let alone in my defence, but I somehow kept my face straight while Andy kept his attention on me, always studying.
“That’s the thing about forgiveness, isn’t it?,” Andy said coolly. “It’s not meant to be easy to achieve. It takes a lot of hard work to show a person you mean what you say after you’ve broken their trust already.”
Without another word, he drained the rest of his beer, stood up, and walked away, heading straight over to the sun loungers of the girls as if to add further torture to his parting words.
I followed his movements as he sat beside Bailey and threw his arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him with little effort, and I focused on my brother and all the shit we still had to sort out together. He had my attention…
Until a flash of blonde and turquoise climbing out of the pool caught my eye, pushing the loose strands of wet, blonde hair away from her face before she readjusted the edges of her bikini bottoms, forcing my eyes to trail down over her toned, silky-smooth legs and imagine my fingers being the ones to work the fabric of her bikini off her wet skin.
I was fucked, and I knew it.
So did Andy.
So did Jace.
The only one who had no idea about any of it now was Phoebe.
Chapter Nine
Phoebe
“Ihave news,” Bailey said, dropping down onto the end of my sun lounger. “Andy and I were just chatting over by the bar, you know, flirting around and all that, when he asked me what I thought about us spending a little one-on-one time together at some point during the next eleven days before he flies home.”
“A man who gets straight to the point, finally,” Rhea said dryly. “Why didn’t he just throw you over his shoulder, slap your arse, and march you back to his bedroom?”
I snorted out a laugh, lowering my book to see them both properly. “Maybe he’s trying to be a gentleman.”
“Those guys? Unlikely.” Rhea chuckled.
Bailey rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I would have minded if he had done those things, let’s be honest, but no. He wants to take me out for a meal before we head out with you guys one night. Just the two of us. Can you believe that?”
“I’m proud of you, Bails,” Rhea said.
“Proud?” She scowled.
“You’ve finally got a guy to realise you’re not as cheap as you pretend to be. Free food. Score.”
That’s all it took for the two of them to begin their bickering again, making me drop my head back on the lounger and groan until they stopped. Their tit for tat had always been something I either found hilarious or struggled to endure. Today, I found it a struggle, and I wasn’t entirely sure why. Rolling my head to the side, the vision of Henry sitting at the table, poolside, drinking a beer on his own seemed to answer that question for me.
He'd been on my mind, taking up space that didn’t allow for much else.
So much so, I’d read the same page of my book five times already, and none of the words seemed to make any sense. Not when a few others occupied my thoughts more.
I have to. The alternative carries far too many risks for both of us.
What the hell had he meant by that?
Were Rhea and Bailey right? Did Henry really like?—
No. I couldn’t go there.
It seemed easier to let him pretend to dislike me than consider the alternative. Every negative thing Rob had ever said slammed into my mind at once. It did that a lot, almost knocking the wind out of my chest and any trace of confidence I had away.
You’re so good all the time, Bee. Too good. Every man will pretend that he likes a well behaved little wifey at home, but deep down, we’re all craving that naughty girl. You couldn’t give me that.
