Page 8 of One Week in Paradise
‘Nothing happened.’
‘Bailey, come on,’ he says. ‘You broke up with Ethan. You’re back home. Something happened.’
‘You never liked Ethan anyway,’ I say, hoping to steer the subject away from me. ‘So you should be happy.’
‘True. I hated the guy. He’s such a snob. But, if he made you happy, then…’ Dane shrugs. ‘Tell me what happened, Bailey.’
There’s something earnest in his expression that begins to chip at the carefully constructed walls I’ve put up.
‘He was cheating on me,’ I mumble. I avoid eye contact, blinking away tears. ‘Was cheating the whole time.’
‘Jesus, fuck.’
Dane scooches a little closer to me on the sofa and wraps an arm around my shoulders. I instinctively lean into him as the tears begin to fall.
‘What a dickhead,’ he mutters.
Despite everything, I can’t help but laugh at that. ‘Exactly.’
‘But why’re you back home?’ he asks after letting me cry quietly for a minute or two.
I stiffen slightly and pull away. I’m not ready to talk about The Video and aftermath of it all just yet.
Dane seems to sense my hesitation, and he holds his hands up defensively in front of him. ‘All right. I get it. Whenever you’re ready to talk, I’m here.’
‘You sound just like Mum.’
‘Good.’ Dane flashes me an easy smile. ‘She’s a wise woman.’
He dips into his pocket and pulls out his phone. On the lock screen, I can see notifications of unread messages from at least three different women. I roll my eyes.
‘When are you going to stop being such a player?’
‘Hm?’ He looks genuinely confused. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
Before I can probe any further, he opens up our chat history and fires off a quick message. My phone vibrates. He’s sent me Cash’s contact details.
‘So you can message each other about the trip,’ he says, and that sly smirk from the dinner table is back.
‘I can’t believe he agreed to it,’ I say as I save Cash’s number into my phone.
‘Why wouldn’t he?’ Dane asks. ‘Free trip to Jamaica. I wish I was going.’
‘But he’ll have to pretend to be my boyfriend,’ I say, and I can feel my cheeks warming with each passing second. ‘And even if you’ve never noticed it before, IknowCash doesn’t like me.’
‘You know nothing, Bailey Clarke,’ Dane laughs. We recently went through a phase where we were both obsessed withGame of Thrones. ‘Stop overthinking things. Go to Jamaica, get a tan, take some nice pictures, and bring me back a shell. And some rum.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ I laugh.
Chapter Four
Dane and Cash have been best friends since they were eleven years old. That’s about eighteen years now, and I think I could count the minutes I’ve spent alone with Cash on one hand.
We fly out on Saturday – Penelope wasn’t lying when she said we need to move fast – and Cash and I have agreed to meet in a café today to discuss plans and ground rules. I’m already a nervous wreck, and it doesn’t help that I’m running late. I got distracted by a call with Amber venting about a nightmare client she’s currently dealing with.
I fire off a quick and apologetic message to Cash as I run up the high street. He responds in seconds with nothing but a thumbs-up emoji.
Oh God. He’s pissed.
