Page 41 of Lowering His Guard

Corbin shackles my wrist to stop me. “Not worth it.”

I glare at him. “Really? It’s not worth it? Will it be worth it when he makes fun of you and your landlady?”

Nolan clears his throat. “Now’s your chance.” He nods to where May is sneaking down a hallway.

I don’t hesitate. I chase after her. She ducks into a room marked ‘office’. I’m not allowing her to hide from me. I slam the door behind me and she startles before spinning around. Her eyes narrow as she crosses her arms over her chest.

“What do you want?”

“I want to know what crawled up your ass.”

She hisses. “What crawled up my ass?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “Why are you mad at me? You were laughing and joking last night when we had ice cream.”

“When we had ice cream.”

Why is she repeating everything I say? She was there. “Yes. When we had ice cream.”

“Do you often have ice cream with Jace’s teachers?”

My brow wrinkles. “Why are you answering my questions with questions? Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

What am I doing? I don’t need this chaos in my life. I need control. I march toward the door. “I don’t need this shit. I had enough of speaking in circles from my ex.”

“You asshole!” she yells. “It’s bad enough you claimed we’re not friends, but now you’re comparing me to your ex. Just leave. I want nothing to do with you.”

“What? I never claimed we’re not friends.”

“Oh, sorry.” She doesn’t appear sorry. “What were the words you used?” She taps her chin. “Oh, now I remember. We aren’t anything. I’m your son’s surfing teacher. End of story.”

Fucking hell. She overheard what I said in the locker room.

“Why were you in the locker room?”

She rears back. “That’s your response? Why was I in the locker room? Let me answer. Since I want this conversation over with yesterday. Your son asked me to bring you some protein bars. He was worried you’d forgotten them. He thought you’d be starving after the weigh-in. And me, being the complete idiot I am, jumped into Mer-Mini and drove off the island to deliver your protein bars.”

I’m the idiot. Not her. I never should have said what I did. I never should have lumped her in the same category as Serenity. Serenity never cared if I was hungry. Never worried about my privacy. Never worried if I made weight. May isn’t her.

“Can I explain?”

She lifts an eyebrow. “Go ahead. I want to hear you wrap yourself up into a pretzel to excuse an inexcusable action.”

“My teammates are assholes. Yes, they’re my family and I love them, but they’re also assholes. If they think there’s something happening between us, they’ll tease me and make comments about you. I don’t want anyone disrespecting you.”

The tension leaks out of her shoulders. “There’s nothing to tease you about. There’s nothing happening between us. We’re merely friends.”

My gaze dips to her lips. The lips I’m dying to taste. “Right,” I mutter. “Just friends.”

She licks her lips and I bite back a moan. I shouldn’t be fantasizing about tasting her lips. We literally just established there’s nothing happening between us. Why, then, can’t I stop staring at her lips? Why can’t I walk away?

The door flies open and Patrick barges in. He glances between us. “Good you made up.”

I can spot a hole when I see one. I mumble meaningless words as I rush away.

Chapter 14

Outside Set – Sometimes the biggest wave is the one you never saw coming.