Page 96 of Beautiful Defiance

32

LEIGH

The sun is bright, and the sand is soft beneath my bare feet.

Maddox brought me to St. Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands, on his private jet. We arrived early Thursday morning, was picked up at the airport and taken to his house that sits a few feet from the beach.

I drape my towel over the back of the lounge chair, sit, and stretching out my legs, I tug the wide-brim straw hat down over my eyes. A large figure looms over me.

“Get in the water, Leigh.”

“It’s too early.”

“It’s noon.”

“I’m tired.”

“You’re in need of cheering up.” Maddox knocks the hat off my head, ditches the sunglasses that take up half my face, and picking me up under my arms, he slings me over his shoulder.

“Put me down.”

“No. You have a dark cloud of sadness over your pretty head, and I intend on dunking the doom and gloom off you.”

“I don’t need cheering up. I like the doom and gloom. Put me down.” I pound on his back.

He laughs.

“Jesus, M, you can be such a jerk.”

“Am I, Leigh? Who jetted you off to paradise?” He marches farther out into the water with ease. The ocean should be resisting his body. His body is built of solid muscles.

“Answer the questions, Leigh.”

“No, you’re not a jerk. You’re my friend.”

“You’re damn right I’m your friend. Never forget that.”

He dumps me in the water. I land with a loudplunk. Closing my eyes, I take in the warm water on my face and the tendrils of my hair floating around me. The sun high in the sky is a change from the cold and the rain back in Cambridge.

Smiling at how good the heat feels, I come up for air and run my palm over my face. Thick fingers tuck my hair behind my ears. I open my eyes. Blink. Look up into the most gorgeous blue-green eyes. He smiles at me. I smile back, and pushing off the sand, I throw my arms around Maddox’s neck.

“You’re a good friend. Thank you, M, for bringing me here.”

His arms wrap around my waist, and he tugs me close. “If you want to cry, I won’t judge, Leigh.”

“I miss him.”

“It gets better. The feelings will fade.”

“I’ll see him at school for the next eight months. He lives next door. I’ll see him driving by in his truck. The truck he let me stay in during his practices to keep me from freezing my ass off.”

“I understand, kiddo. You don’t want to forget. You want to remember how he made you feel wanted and special.”

“Is that bad?” I bury my face in the curve of his neck.

“It’s never bad to be wanted. Or to feel like you’re important to someone, a part of their life.”

“It hurts. Him. My parents. In my eyes, they were the perfect couple. The princess and her bad boy, the one who would do anything to make her life easier. They were each other’s best friends too.”

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