Page 10 of One Last Memory

Zak burst out laughing, “Catfight!”

Dad stepped into the foyer, ruffling up my hair a bit, “None of that. I’m glad you’re safe, Lee. Next time, please take your phone. Malia, stop riling her up.”

Malia dismissed him and just smiled – fuckingsmiledat me. “Yes. Glad you’re back. You can babysit while I go back out.”

For a fact, I knew she’d be on the prowl for a one-night stand, preferably Mason or Benji. But it wouldn’t matter which hunk she picked up in the end, just as long as he was hot and didn’t ask too many questions. Unfortunately for her, of the men I had spoken with – sure, it was only two – they weren’t interested in shallow women.

My gaze drifted to the devil spawn and then back to my sister. Everyone was waiting for the inevitable breakdown or panic that always seemed to consume me in these moments. The inability to make a decision. The way I always caved into Malia’s demands. Words sifted through my head, and then I made my decision. No more walking over me. “I’m yoursister.Not your babysitter. You take care ofyourkids. Hire someone. I don’t care.”

“No one wants to take care of them.” She made it sound like the only reason I had been invited was to babysit. Well, fuck that.

“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Like maybe you should work on being a better mother before trying to stick every dick you can find in your pussy.” I refused to shrivel inside of myself and hide behind my fear of what Malia would think of me. Her mistakes weren’t my fault. I’m not sure where this confidence was coming from but I both loved it and was terrified of it.

“Bailee!” She screamed at me.

I would not bite my tongue any longer. “It’s fucking true and you know it. Your kids only look like each other because they’re twins.” A momentary glance in my parents’ direction revealed their hurt expressions. I should have felt like a dickhead, exposing the truth like that, but I didn’t. It was time Malia learned some responsibility – one that didn’t include blaming her family for mistakes. “I’m going to my room. Don’t bother me.”

Today was another first for me.

For the first time in my life, I had stood up to Maliain front ofmy parents.

AndI didn’t feel the need to scratch life’s happenings into my journal to bury later. I wanted to remember these moments. I wanted to remember the moments with Mason and those with Benji. Maybe, justmaybethis vacation wouldn’t be so bad after all.

MASON

Watchingoneoftheguys pop in, a giddy expression on his face, I rested further into my seat at our round top table, unable to get my mind off of Bailee. The guys and I hadn’t been instant friends when we first met, but throw in a couple of bonfires, parties, and a whole lot of booze – we were thick as thieves. Benji saddled up on the other side of me, that stupid grin widening as he knocked on the wooden table to get Angelo’s attention.

I signaled for another round of drinks as I focused on Angelo, our resident DJ. “What’s the deal for tonight?” I threw an arm over the seat behind him, fingers grazing the back of his neck. Angelo let out a little noise, leaning back into my touch as if it was a lifeline that he needed.

He didn’t answer for a few moments and then shrugged, fingers scrolling through his phone. He lived his entire life on that thing unless he was DJing, but it was his lifeline. I still remembered the one time someone had cracked Angelo’s phone, and I thought the guy was going to have an aneurysm. “Something simple in the back. Too tired for anything else. These tourists can fucking party one night without me.” He sounded tired, too. Unlike Benji and I, Angelo had an actual, full-time job entertaining the locals. I couldn’t imagine being stuck around the squeals, yelling, and boozed-up kids all day and all night.

“Fucker’s still got all that dough coming in without even doing anything,” Benji mused.

“Yeah, that’s always great,” Angelo smirked but lost the smile and continued scrolling. The fucker had bought one of the bars at the end of the pier, dressed it up, and then promoted it as a one-stop shop with cheap ass booze and sleazy beach themes. For the more lax, mature crowd, Angelo had outfitted the back rooms into a lounge that were strictly crazy people-free.

Angelo settled back even farther, leaning into my side, his body going lax. He really needed to take a few days off, breathe, maybe even not leave our bed for several hours until all the stress left his shoulders. A soft kiss to his temple had him making another one of those soft sounds that had me trying not to groan at the way my cock thickened between my thighs.

Benji snorted at our embrace, but I caught a hint of mischievousness lingering in his eyes. “What the fuck is up your ass, Benji?”

He smiled, which was an extremely uncomfortable and abnormal sight. The Russian rarely ever smiled, and when he was happy, he’d merely grunt or laugh, but even that was a bit creepy.

Angelo glanced up from his phone, “What’s with the smile? It’s creepy.”

“No way a girl’s got you smiling like that.” I offered, unsure of how Benji would respond.

“Maybe.” He paused, a rare flush of red coloring his cheeks. “Found a girl who can surf, talk,andshe’s hot.”

“The trifecta? No fucking way.” Angelo whistled and I snorted, wondering how the fuck we hadbothfound our trifecta in a matter of days.

Angelo and Benji’s eyes were immediately on me as I mouthed a ‘what’ but I couldn’t keep a straight face. The DJ huffed, setting his phone down for a rare moment before gripping my chin to meet his eyes. His lips quirked up in a devilish smile, one that I had fallen in love with over the last several months. “Hell, you found your trifecta too, didn’t you?”

I nodded.Wounded. Timid. Silently fierce.Angelo was my trifecta as well, a hidden gem that I had only noticed recently and then kicked myself for not paying attention to sooner. He thrived from the attention I gave him and I thrived in giving him everything he needed.

Angelo released my chin after placing a quick kiss to my lips and grabbed his phone again. “Damn, seems I got to work a bit harder.”

I managed a shrug, jabbing a playful elbow into his side. Benji outright laughed, a foreign sound. “She’s just visiting on vacation. One of those rich families up there in those big houses. Doesn’t look like she fits at all.”

I froze because I knew all those families. I had moved in almost every single one of them and did repairs for the rest, which meant there were all of two possibilities that fit that description. “What does she look like?” Benji’s description of her sucked ass, but I got the gist by the way he described her. “Fuck. Lee?”

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