Page 112 of Beach Vibes

She started to laugh, then immediately began to sob. Dex pulled her close as her body shook.

“I t-thought he cared about me. I t-thought he was a good guy. I thought Beth was my friend. Why didn’t I know they were lying?”

He kept his arms around her. “Because you’re not a deceitful person. You lead with your heart, and that’s a good thing. Don’t change, Jana. You’re perfect just the way you are.”

She sniffed and raised her head. “I’m so stupid about men. I can’t be trusted in the dating world. I need to stay single forever.”

“Hey.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “We talked about this. Not the time to make life-altering decisions.”

She wiped her cheeks. “It’s gonna hurt a whole lot more tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.”

* * *

“I can’t believe it,” Agatha said for the third time. She pressed a hand to her chest. “I can’t. Oh, sweetie, this is horrible. I don’t know what to say.”

“There isn’t anything.”

Beth’s tone was flat. She’d already cried, had screamed into a pillow and was now settling into a low-grade pain that wasn’t going anywhere. She’d known there was a possibility for disaster. No, not a possibility, she amended. A likelihood. She just hadn’t thought it would happen so fast. One minute everything had been perfect, and the next, her hopes and dreams had crumbled to dust.

“I hurt so many people,” she whispered. “Not just Teddy and Jana, but the kids. I won’t ever see them again. I wasn’t sure about having children in my life, but now I know I like them a lot.” She stared at her aunt. “He’s going to have to tell them something. Teddy won’t make me a monster, but he won’t lie, either. We were just getting started, and now it’s over.”

“You don’t know that. Right now the pain is fresh, but in a few days…” Her voice trailed off.

While Beth wanted that to be true, she had her doubts. “Would you forgive me?”

“Of course.”

Despite everything, she managed a faint smile. “You’re saying that as my aunt who loves me.”

“It’s how I view the world.”

“You see it more clearly than me.” Beth threw herself back against the sofa and closed her eyes. “You tried to warn me about Rick. You said he wasn’t who I thought.”

When her aunt didn’t respond, Beth opened her eyes and looked at her. “What?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking it. How did you figure out he’d changed?”

“He hasn’t changed, my dear. This is who he’s been for a long time.”

The gentle words were like a blow to the heart. “No. He’s not like that. He’s sweet and needy and uncomfortable in the world.I refuse to believe he’s a lying, manipulative bastard who only cares about himself.”

“You love him and you’ve always taken care of him. But in doing that, you’ve somehow convinced yourself he’s not capable.” Agatha’s tone was gentle. “Maybe that was true when he was eleven, but it hasn’t been true for a long time.”

Beth wanted to say her aunt was wrong, only she had proof. “I can’t believe he set out to hurt me.”

“I don’t think he did. I don’t think he was considering you at all. Everything was about what he wanted. I’m not sure how much of his relationships is about him caring and how much is about him seeing what he can get away with.”

Again she wanted to protest, but couldn’t. “Rick knew he was cheating when he brought Jana over to meet me. He’d already been dating Galaxy for a few months. He thought it was funny that he figured out Jana and I knew each other. He was entertained that I was upset.”

She spoke her thoughts out loud—maybe in an effort to make them more real. It was as if after all this time, he’d become a stranger to her. The man she thought she knew wasn’t who she’d thought he was at all. Honestly she couldn’t reconcile his actions with the sweet boy who had come crying to her when one of the big kids threatened to beat him up.

“I can’t wrap my mind around it,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to believe. Does he not know what he’s doing is wrong, or doesn’t he care?”

She ached everywhere. Not just because she was starting to see she’d never known Rick at all, but because of what that revelation was going to cost her.

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