Page 24 of The One

“Yeah, man, I promise.” He turned his head to the side, smiling at me the whole time. “Why are you guys leaving?”

“We’re just not feeling the beach today.”

He chuckled. “Oh shit, I’m sure that’s the reason.”

He gave me a wave and took off, passing Lainey on his way to the water as she was coming back to me, the view of her completely different from before.

Hell, she was beautiful. A petite body with lean legs and a slight hint of a curve that led to her flat stomach, decorated with a silver loop that pierced her belly button. A bikini top with a set of hard nipples poking into it. The sun catching the golden highlights in her hair, the ends of her strands bouncing over her tits.

I was one lucky dude.

When she returned, she leaned down and grabbed her bag from the towel I was on. “I’m ready.” She slung the strap over her shoulder and smiled.

As I got up, I wrapped the towel around my waist and shoved my feet into my slides. I didn’t bother to take the cooler I’d brought. I wanted to leave the beer for the guys, knowing someone from the team would bring it home for me. “Good. Let’s go.”

As we headed for my car, Lainey slipped a dress on over her head, and once her hands were free, she linked her fingers with mine. “If you wanted to stay, I hope you’d tell me.”

“I just want to be with you, whatever that looks like. I don’t care if we’re at the beach or sitting in my front seat in a parking lot—it’s all the same to me.” I pulled her hand up to my mouth, smelling the suntan oil she’d lathered on her body.

She patted her chest, teeth stabbing her bottom lip. “Rhett, the sweetness—stop. You’re spoiling me.”

“You just make it so easy.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, holding my lips against the side of her head. “Thank God you’re back.”

Since Alyssa’s party, I randomly found myself repeating that statement. I’d missed her the whole time she was gone, but having her here made me realize just how hard and how much.

She’d taken a piece of me with her, and now, I felt like I had it back.

“And I’m never going anywhere again,” she said softly.

I hit the button to unlock the doors, and we climbed into the front seat, where I blasted the air-conditioning as soon as the engine was on.

I lowered the radio and asked, “Where do you want to go?”

“Well … my mom’s at my house.” She rubbed her lips together. “Is anyone home at your house?”

Ridge and Rowan were both at work—where I would have been if I hadn’t taken the day off.

“There shouldn’t be.”

“That’s where I want to go, then.” She looked tiny in the big leather seat of my SUV.

“You sure you don’t want to grab some of that ice cream you were talking about on the way to the beach? You were bragging about that chocolate sauce like you needed it.”

She laughed. “How about we stop there later when you take me home?”

“I can do that.” I drove us out of the parking lot toward my place. Because I knew her and because I knew she rarely left Penelope in settings like this, I said, “Timothy assured me he’d take care of your sister. I don’t know if you were thinking about it, but I wanted you to know.”

“I’m always thinking about her.” She glanced out the passenger window.

“In what way?”

She took a deep breath. “In every way.”

I stopped at the light and looked at her.

Lainey wasn’t straightedge; she just didn’t get wasted. In fact, I’d never seen her have more than two drinks before she cut herself off, and she wasn’t into weed at all. Penelope was the opposite. She’d been hammered at each of the parties we went to, wrecked when it was time to go home, driven by either me or one of my friends. Lainey would have to help her inside the house since Penelope was usually too fucked up to even walk.

“Do you want me to go back?” I asked. “We can take her home—if she’ll even go—and then we can go to my house.”