Page 18 of Eye of the Hurricane (Weathering Doves Harbor #2)
Ares
I wake up being drowned in all things sunshine. Literally and metaphorically. Tents don’t offer much in the way of shielding you from the morning sun. I also happen to be laying in a pool of golden strands and creamy skin. I don’t mind it one bit—matter of fact, I can’t think of a better way to go.
I take a moment to admire her quietly. Every single freckle on her face perfectly accents the soft pink of her cheeks. Her bottom lip is fuller than her top one. You’d never notice unless she was a foot away from your face, but she has the faintest patch of freckles just above her top lip.
I feel like I could paint her entirely from memory, down to the tiny details. I brought canvases for exactly this. Just in case inspiration should strike while we’re out here in the woods.
I slip out from under Kat, careful not to wake her. I grab a blank canvas, my paints and brushes, and sneak out of the tent. Ravyn is already awake and sitting in one of the chairs. I take a small detour to talk to her .
“I heard you last night, nasty,” I tease. She scrunches up her nose.
“I heard you first, slut,” she tosses back. I gasp, pulling a hand to chest. A beat of silence passes before we give each other a high five followed by a mix of “nice” and “hell yeah”.
Ravyn and I have been best friends since elementary school.
Before Audra moved to Doves Harbor, it was just us.
Roman had Beck and he and I were in the awkward stage where we didn’t like each other much.
Ravyn was the first best friend I ever had that wasn’t my older brother.
The greatest thing that ever happened to me was finding out Ravyn is a lesbian.
Alright, maybe that’s a little dramatic.
But finding out we could talk about girls?
That was definitely the cherry on top of an already great friendship.
We wrap up our small talk and I make a stop by my car to grab an easel before making my way to the water. At first, the plan was to head to the lake. But when I realized how not private that would be, I decided to head for the pond—the one we skinny dipped in last night.
I set up my work station by the shoreline and fill my cup with water from the pond. For the first time in forever, I don’t feel at a loss for inspiration when I sit down in front of the canvas.
At some point, the gentle morning sun turned into aggressive afternoon sun. Maybe a better person would realize the passage of time and go back. Me? I figure if that much time passed, I might as well finish working in the details of my portrait of Little Miss Sunshine.
I get too swept away in freckles and lace details to hear someone approaching.
“Thought I might find you here,” Katherine calls out from behind me. I know it’s her by the Louisiana accent I’ve come to adore. “Is that me?” she asks, stepping closer. I turn to face her.
She’s better than any art I could ever make. Hell, she’s better than any art I’ve ever seen.
She’s got on a yellow strapless sundress and of course, matching yellow heels to go with it. Her hair isn’t down and done like usual. It’s up in a messy bun tied behind her head.
“Did you walk all the way over here in heels?” I ask, stuck on the way the thin post is sinking into the ground as we speak.
“Is that me?” she asks again, ignoring my question and taking another few steps. She’s standing right behind me now, staring at the canvas.
“Is it okay that I painted you? Are you mad?” I hold my breath without even realizing as I wait for a response.
“You know girls dream of being painted, right? We don’t have any problems as long as you keep painting me looking that good. If you start painting my bad angles, we might have a problem,” she says, narrowing her eyes and jabbing a finger in my direction.
“You don’t have bad angles,” I tell her. She waves me off with a flick of her wrist.
“Everyone was looking for you. When they couldn’t find you at the lake, I said I thought I might know where you were.”
“We can go back, I’m about done anyway.”
I stand and brush off my pants before grabbing my canvas. I pack up the brushes, paints, easel, and my water cup. It all squeezes into the little bag I brought down with me.
“Can you carry this?” I ask Katherine, holding the bag out to her. She narrows her eyes in confusion but takes the bag. I lean down, scooping her off the ground and she lets out a squeal.
“Put me down!” She laughs, attempting to wiggle herself loose. “What are you doing?”
“You’re not walking that whole way in heels, you’re going to hurt yourself.” She lets out a defeated huff and stops wiggling.
“I got down here just fine,” she argues.
I don’t even entertain it with a response.
The idea of her getting hurt, especially on my watch, is nauseating.
I don’t give the reason behind that feeling much thought.
The implications of it all leaves a sinking feeling in my chest that I’m choosing to ignore.
As soon as we’re back to the campsite, all eyes are on us. Probably because after however long spent looking for me, I showed back up with a gorgeous blonde slung over my shoulder.
Ignoring everyone, I lower Kat to her feet. She slides her palms down her sides, straightening her dress out.
“Audi, do you have an extra pair of sandals?” I ask. She turns her attention to me then to Katherine.
“Yeah, do you need a pair?” she asks. Kat shakes her head and opens her mouth to say she doesn’t, but I stop her before she can refuse.
“Katherine insists on wearing high heels out here. She’s going to fall and break an ankle.”
“I’ll grab a pair, hang on,” Audra calls out, climbing into her and Roman’s tent. A few seconds later, she comes back with a black pair of flip flops in hand. She holds them out to Katherine.
“Are you sure this is alright?” Katherine asks.
“Yes, definitely. Honestly, keep them. They were probably like two dollars,” Audra assures her.
Katherine pops her heel up to unbuckle the strap. Instinctively, I hold my hand out for her to use to stable herself. Small, manicured fingers wrap around my forearm. Once again, all eyes are on us.
I thought for sure Luna and Ravyn would save us from having the spotlight on us. Instead they’re back to acting like normal, as if nothing happened. Everyone else is acting like nothing happened too, which has me wondering if we’re the only ones who knew about what those two got up to last night.
“So, what’s the plan for today?” I ask, cutting the silence.
“Drinking!” Luna yells from inside of her tent.
“Day drinking and the lake,” Sebastian confirms, holding his beer up.
“Kat, you wanna drink?” I ask her.
“I don’t drink beer,” she states, scrunching up her nose.
“She only drinks rich girl cocktails,” Luna calls out, poking her head out of the tent.
“Good thing I brought the stuff for martinis,” I tell Kat, giving her arm a nudge. It earns me one of her brighter-than-the-sun smiles.
“You always bring martini ingredients with you to camp?” she asks, arching a single brow at me.
“Nope.” I pop the ‘P’.
Sunset casts an orange hue on everything as far as the eye can see. Gold glitters along the small ripples in the lake water. At some point in the day, we unintentionally split the group into the men and woman.
The women are sipping their drinks while sitting in ankle deep water.
The guys and I are currently taking a break from a vigorous game of volleyball.
I’m struggling to suck in enough air to calm my breathing.
I drink about half of my water before dumping the rest over my head and shaking the excess out of my hair.
“Jesus, remind me not to party with athletes…” I huff. Sebastian plays defense in the NHL and both my brother and Beck used to surf competitively.
All three of them start laughing. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all out of breath and sweating, too, but I’ve definitely got it worse than any of them.
“I think you kept up better than most would,” Beck says.
“I agree. I think there’s guys on my team who would have tapped out,” Sebastian adds.
One of the girls lets out a loud squeak and all of our heads turn to face them. We look for some indication that everyone is okay and soon enough, they all break into laughter, letting us know they’re fine.
“How’s Audi been?” I ask Roman. It’s not like I’ve had any shortage of conversations with her, we talk nearly everyday. But I know her and I know that ever since things with her ex went to hell, she doesn’t share much about what’s going on. Not like she used to, anyways.
“Really good. I think it definitely helps that certain people don’t know where she moved to,” he says. Certain people being her ex, Tyler.
“I’m glad she’s doing good,” I nod. We both turn our attention to the girls. Audra is currently shotgunning a beer. I half expect there to be irritation in Roman’s demeanor about it, instead he’s looking at her with adoration in his eyes.
Ravyn is asleep on a chair and I can’t for the life of me figure out how she manages to sleep in the loudest of situations. Luna is sitting in the shallow water and Katherine is standing above her talking very animatedly. She’s talking with every single part of her body, it’s adorable.
“I remember seeing this same look in your brother’s eyes a handful of months ago, watching Audra at a party.” Beck elbows my side gently as he finishes, causing me to jump. I look to my brother and realize he walked away at some point. And I’d been so lost in Kat that I hadn’t noticed.
“It’s not like that,” I tell him. I leave out the part where I wish desperately that it was.
“Then what is it like?”
“Complicated,” I grumble. A laugh rips out of him, one much louder and harder than the situation calls for.