Page 23 of South Beach Bodyguards

“It’s still weird.” I glanced up the stairs. “But yes, she’s hot.”

“God, you must have had great family vacations.” He held his hands out in front of his chest to indicate large tits.

“You’re disgusting.” I sounded belligerent, and how much of that stemmed from guilt? I had already decided I was going to have sex with Isabel. I still wasn’t sure morally speaking if I was in hazy territory or not. “Mickey and Kim were married for about a minute and we were never one big happy family.”

He crossed his leg over his knee. “Dude, you are so crushing on her. It’s hilarious. I don’t blame you.”

“I don’t crush on girls,” I scoffed. “I’m just doing her a favor.”

“Is that what you’re doing?” Isabel asked from the top of the stairs. “How generous of you.”

Shit. I was getting really good at putting my foot in my mouth.

“Isabel, that’s not what…”

She stormed past me, backpack on her shoulder. “It was nice to meet you,” she said to Alejandro as she headed towards the front door. She opened it and left, slamming it shut behind her.

“Seriously, you need to go to charm school,” Alejandro said. “Chapter one- don’t talk about a woman when she’s in the next room.”

I couldn’t even protest or argue with him. He was right. “Fuck. So what do I do now?”

“Grovel. Make her laugh. Kiss her.”

“One and two are out. I suck at those things.”

“Then I guess you’re screwed, because I seriously doubt any woman wants your lips on hers, you ugly motherfucker.” Alejandro gave me a grin. “Enjoy the silence, brother.”

I rubbed my jaw, wishing he wasn’t right. “This ugly motherfucker is twice your size and can beat your ass, you know.”

Walking out the front door of my childhood house to the sound of Alejandro’s laughter, I went out to the car, fully expecting to see Isabel sitting in the passenger seat fuming.

Instead, I found nothing.

She wasn’t in my car.

seven

Why was it that everyone thought that if you were quiet or shy or introverted that you were somehow pathetic? What, I didn’t have feelings? Ryan thought it was okay to talk about me like he was popping my cherry for charity? It made me wonder if I was wrong about him altogether. I didn’t mean to leave. I just started out of the house and went right on past his car, not wanting to be in a confined space with him right now.

Because I still wanted him so bad it hurt. I ached for him, in every way. I was playing with fire telling him I just wanted him to be my first, because even though I did, I wanted more than that. I wasn’t going to able to keep this casual on my part and I was annoyed with myself for that. So for that reason and because he was such a reluctant lover, doing it out of duty because he didn’t want me hooking up with a stranger in a club, I needed to reverse my position and not go forward with this crazy plan.

I needed to walk off all the excess energy I was feeling. I lived in a safe neighborhood, full of beautiful homes and quiet streets. It was frankly impossible to believe anything bad could happen to me here at nine in the morning on a Wednesday. I knew that Ryan didn’t get along with his father and I could understand why. Mickey was a big personality, who steamrolled people and used charm to get his way. I also knew, via my mother, that Mickey had left Ryan alone quite a bit as a kid, and had relied on him to raise himself. But personally, I had no issues getting along with Mickey. He’d been good to my mother and he was always nice to me. The house was a gift that he hadn’t been obligated to give my mother and never once had thrown in her face as something she owed him for, and I appreciated that.

It didn’t make sense to me why they had divorced, and I was actually disappointed when they split up. My mother was a serial dater and it had been nice to see her happy with Mickey. And I guess, if I were honest, I had craved the sense of family. Not just me and Mom, but a larger family.

Which probably made my crush on Ryan even weirder. I was walking toward campus, digging in my pocket for my phone, so I could call my mother. I figured she could come pick me up. Though on second thought, Brandy would be better. Then I wouldn’t have to explain anything to my mother about Ryan.

I wasn’t surprised when he pulled up beside me, rolling his window down. “Isabel, what are you doing?”

“I need to get to class. I can’t afford to miss any because my vet school application is due January first.” That was all true. When I had first woken up, reality hasn’t seemed urgent, but now my head was starting to pound again and I remembered what really mattered in my life- my education, my future. Not my stupid fantasies about Ryan.

“So you’re going to walk to school?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t admit that I had been planning to call my best friend. “It’s not that far.” That was an exaggeration. It was a solid forty-minute walk, crossing a major road, with Miami drivers who wouldn’t stop for a nun crossing. But I wasn’t going to admit that to Ryan because he already knew it. He knew I was being stubborn, and maybe he even knew why, I wasn’t sure.

“Get in the car. I’m not having you walk to class. You’ll be late, and if I have to remind you, we don’t know what happened to you yesterday. You can’t be wandering around by yourself.”

A shiver of fear rolled up my spine. “I’m fine.” That was pure bullshit bravado.

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