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But then the smile drops from my face when I walk in and Kendra is coming through the front door ahead of Seth, a look of anger—and betrayal—boiling in her face.
Sienna
Luke has been gone for longer than I expected. He seemed kind of excited when he jumped up on those sexy muscled legs of his and jogged his way through the sand to go get the beers.
I start to leave the beach to find out if he needs help with anything—though I’m sure he can carry two beers all by himself—but then I decide against it. I’ve already invaded Luke’s life and home. There is no reason that I shouldn’t give the guy a few minutes of solitude.
A few more minutes pass by and I’m lying on my back against the sand, watching the sky darken above me and the stars begin to come alive within it.
Finally I get to my feet and head toward the house.
I hear raised voices as I approach. Luke and what sounds like Kendra. The light is on the kitchen, pooling on the ground outside the back window next to the lanai. I walk closer but find my steps slowing down and my ears beginning to burn.
And then I stop cold in my tracks before I take the first wooden step, and I can go no farther.
Luke
“Do you actually think,” Kendra shouts at me in a rage, “that when she finds out about us she’ll really make some kind of effort to get mixed up with you? No! She’ll have the excuse she needs to put you behind her when she has to go back to wherever the fuck she lives! This is stupid! You’re being stupid!” Her hands are clenched into fists at her sides. She’s wearing a white flowered bikini top and a pair of cutoff jean shorts over the bottoms. There’s redness in her face, caused by being in the sun all day and probably from her blood pressure shooting through the top of her skull.
Gritting my teeth, I point my finger right in her face. “This has gotta stop, Kendra! I’ve tried to be calm about this, always overlooking the obsessive attitude you have toward me—”
“Obsessive?!” The word hisses through her clenched teeth, her chin rears back and her brown eyes pop wide open in her angry face. “I’m just looking out for you! I love you, Luke! I’ll always fucking love you! And I know bitches!” She points at Seth and then looks back at me. “Seth’s the only one of you who’s got it right! Fuck ’em and leave ’em so you don’t have to go through the dramatic bullshit of losing them! Whether they leave or they die; there’s no difference if you don’t care!”
I throw my arms up above me and then lean toward her, roaring in her face, “But it’s not. Your. Life! It’s mine! You’re fucking insane, Kendra!” She flinches at my words, not afraid of me, but hurt by them and the ones she knows are soon to follow. Moisture begins to form in the corners of her eyes. “YOU NEED HELP!” I bellow, because it’s long overdue. “Stop using me as your goddamned crutch and get some professional help!” And then I go in for the kill. “If Landon could only see you now—”
A white-hot flash crosses my vision as her hand falls hard across the side of my face. A hot stinging sensation moves outward across my skin when she pulls her hand away. Before I can even find the words to apologize, the front screen door is slamming against the side of the house and Kendra’s headlights are shining in on Seth and me.
Seconds later she fishtails out of my driveway, her brake lights glowing red through the darkness until her car disappears around the bend.
The dark silence left in the house is long and filled with even darker thoughts. I never wanted to treat Kendra that way and I feel like shit about it, but things needed to be said—maybe not that last part, but definitely the rest of it. Running my hand through the top of my hair, I take a deep breath and just watch out the front door for a moment, thinking that Kendra will turn around any second now and come back for another round because it’s expected of her.
She doesn’t come back.
“I followed her over here,” Seth says from somewhere behind me. “I knew she’d be pissed that you weren’t going with us on Saturday, but honest to God, man, I didn’t expect that. I tried to calm her down.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I say distantly with my back to him. Then I turn around. “Look, I don’t want to deal with this right now.” I walk into the kitchen just a shot away to get two beers from the fridge. “Sienna’s waiting for me out on the beach and I’ve left her out there long enough.”
“All right, I’m gone,” Seth says. “Just give me a call when it’s OK that I crash in my bed again.”
“I will. Thanks, Seth.”
Seth nods and leaves.
I use this brief moment alone to gather my composure. I don’t want to go back out there with the girl of my dreams, oozing leftover chaos and bullshit.
Letting the back screen door close behind me, I start to descend the steps of the lanai, but my heart stops and the air sticks in my lungs when I see Sienna sitting at the bottom of them.
She heard.
For a few long seconds that feel much longer, I can’t get any words out. Finally I make my way down the steps and start to sit beside her, but she gets up.
“Sienna, I—”
“You don’t have to explain anything,” she says kindly, with not an ounce of bitterness or anger or anything that might make this easier—just a lot of hidden pain that only makes it harder. “I-I really would rather if you didn’t explain, anyway, OK?”
Disbelief and confusion take over.
I set the beers on the lanai railing and step toward her.
