Page 44 of Sunset

“What?” They both say, so I tell them about finding the beautiful blonde in the lobby, and her asking for her boyfriend, Jasper. Ending with, Jasper’s reaction, and finally, breaking free to come here.

Lin and Kade look at each other. I don’t even know what to say about all this. They seem to have a silent conversation. Married barely a week, and they have already mastered that.

“So, first off, you know as well as we do that girl isn’t his girlfriend. She sounds just like the girls who tried to use me for their fifteen minutes of fame, or the gold diggers that were always around.” Kade says.

“How would Jasper give her fifteen minutes of fame? And he doesn’t have any money worthy of a gold digger.” I tell him.

“No, but his family has a decent net worth, and she could have looked into him and saw an opportunity. The net worth of those restaurants has skyrocketed, since his dad opened them. With their location right on the water, I bet the property alone is worth a million each, easily.” Lin points out.

I just shake my head, trying to sort it all out. I know she’s right. Hell, the net worth on these Inns is pretty large, but that doesn’t mean we have the cash to back it up. I guess, it wouldn’t stop people from wanting their share. Add that to the reasons why it’s so hard to date.

“Did she leave?” Lin asks.

“I don’t know. I left them to talk the moment I could break from Jasper’s hold. I couldn’t take sitting there, watching the lovers’ fight going on.”

Kade is on his phone and looks angry. Part of me is hoping he’s giving Jasper a piece of his mind.

“You opened up, huh?” Lin says, watching me.

“Yeah, he took care of me last night. He didn’t leave my side, and I saw my Jasper. The one who always took care of me and put me first. I told him about why the storms upset me, and even talked about that day.” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat. “I thought it meant something, but stupid me.”

“It did mean something. It meant everything.” Jasper says.

I look up and find him standing on the beach on the other side of the porch rail.

“That woman is a master manipulator. I quickly found out that almost everyone in my inner circle was. They all want to rise to the top through any means necessary, and they don’t care who they hurt along the way. I hated that life.” He says, making his way up the porch and sitting down beside me.

“Can I talk to her?” Jasper asks Lin and Kade.

“No,” I tell him and try to stand, but he uses this to pull me into his lap.

Lin and Kade exchange another look. “Yes, but I expect a full report.” Lin says to me, as they stand up.

“Traitors,” I say, but they just smile.

Kade wraps an arm around Lin’s waist and guides her back inside.

“I tried to date in New York. I thought I could just move on, and everything would be fine. Only I couldn’t. Every date reminded me of you. She would dress like you, order the same thing off the menu you would, or she’d say something you would, and instantly, I wanted you there. Then, the rest of the date I was comparing them to you. You would have done this, and you wouldn’t have done that.”

He stops and seems to stare off into the distance, and then, his arms tighten around me.

“Not one girl made me feel the way you did.” His eyes shoot to mine, and he reaches up, tucking some hair behind my ear. “Like you still do.”

His hand lightly traces down my cheek to my chin, and he runs his thumb over my bottom lip.

He sighs and drops his hand, as he wraps it back around me.

“Then, I just wanted to find a way to dull the pain of losing you. I wanted to forget; not that I could. So, that’s when Sherri entered the picture. It was just sex, and she knew that from the start.”

My whole body stiffens, and suddenly, I’m too close to Jasper. He was with that girl. She’s so much prettier than me, and she’s everything I’m not.

“Brynn, don’t let your mind run off. I shut down and became this emotionless jerk. I didn’t care about her, her needs, or anything. We didn’t talk; it was just sex and go. But every time? Every time in my head, I was with you. My favorite memory was prom night, and a close second was the weekend we spent in Wilmington right before I left. Those memories are what got me by. Then, Dad died, and I stopped it all. I haven’t been with her, since before he died. I shut everyone out.”

My head is telling me to be pissed and run, but in my heart, I’m reaching for him, because all these years, I was always with him, too. In my darkest hours, I’d reach for my favorite memories of us, and it would pull me through. I get it. Not that I will admit that to him, even now.

“Then, my mom called. She said needed me here, and the businesses needed me. But I realized, that I needed you. Even if you kept me at arm’s length, just being able to see and talk to you, is what I needed. The day you threw the kiwi at me was one of the best days of my life, Firefly.”

I try not to smile, but the memory of the first time he called me that, fills my head. It was the summer I was fourteen, and we had just gotten out of school. Lin, Jasper, Travis, and I were hanging out at The Sunrise, and we had heard of the rare synchronous fireflies up in Tennessee. We talked about them for weeks, and finally, mine and Lin’s parents packed the four of us up one night, and they took us to see them.

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